LOCK-UPS

[Guest]

Hi, I have a computer that is running quite smoothly and nicely. However, whenever I play games such as NBA Inside Drive 2000 for PC or even flight simulator the computer freezes after about an hour or hour+half hour. I have an AMD Duron 954MHz, 128MB RAM, Geforce 2 GTS 32MB video card, and a Biostar M7VKD Mainboard. Please help! Thanks.

[wsieffert 0]

Since you probably have had the computer for awhile, considering the CPU speed, maybe its time to do a little inside the computer house cleaning. It could be that the fans are coated with dust and lint or are not performing at the speed they should due to age and a buildup of dust and lint.If you feel comfortable opening your computer case, then unplug it from the wall, open the case, look for the fans and gently remove the dust and lint buildup. Don't use high pressure air to blow the dust and lint. If you do use a vacumn, try not touching any electronic components or the fans themselves if mounted on the CPU or graphics adapter.After you are satisfied you have removed as much dust and lint, plug in your computer with the cover off. Observe that all the fans are fully functioning and yes, hopefully the rest of the computer boots/operate properly, as well. If any of the fans are slow or inoperative, they will need to be replaced. If all the fans are operating properly, turn off the computer, unplug it from the wall, and install the cover.Hopefully, this will cure your lockups. If not, then you need to review what drivers you are using for your controller chips, graphics adapter, sound, etc.Some other things to consider is the amount of RAM you have installed. Another 128MB minimum wouldn't hurt. Also, how much free space do you have on your hardrive for the SWAP file. If you are letting Windows adjust the SWAP file size and your hardrive is full, then it may be running out of SWAP file disk space.

[Guest]

Hi, yes the fan on top of the VIA chipset below the CPU on my M7VKD Biostar makes noise and also is a little disfunctional. However, it has been glued with a thin layer of Devcon High Strength glue. I am thinking of pulling it off, getting a new fan with clips, or pins, rather, because there are two holes next to the VIA chipset, made exclusively for the fan to hold tight. What's your opinion? Also, I get this message on an error log I found in the windows halp section:"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0xcfc), which lies in the 0xcf8 - 0xcff protected address range. This could lead to system instability. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance." What should I do? Thanks for your great help. Asad.

[wsieffert 0]

If you try and remove the fan for replacement, you better be careful since you may pull the top off of the chip itself.For the error, I would check Device Manager for any contentions, "!", "?", "x" on any of the peripherals. On a computer I have with Win98SE, the memory locations you mention are allocated to the PCI Bus. It could be you tried to install extra ports to your computer and try using these memory locations.You could also enter BIOS and disable your serial and parallel ports to see if the error goes away. You can also try deleting the ports in Device Manager, reboot your computer, and have Windows find the ports and reinstall them.

[Guest]

What if I just re-install windows, Windows XP?

[wsieffert 0]

Is that the OS you presently have on the computer? If not and you are updating to WinXP, you might cause the problem to just move to the new OS. If it is already WinXP, I don't know since the problem seems to be caused by something directing ACPI.I would look in the BIOS to see what is set and not set for ACPI. You also might visit http://www.biostar.com.tw/ for your MOBO.