I am having major problems with my system.
It was originally:
Windows 95
Biostar M7VKD
Duron 900
256 MB Crucial PC133 SDRAM
256 MB Kbyte PC133 SDRAM
PNY Geforce2 MX400
RealMagic Hollywood+
Sound Blaster Audigy X Gamer
TTGI 330Watt dual fan power supply
Western Digital 80Gig with 8 meg cache
This was rock solid until I tried to added a PCI Network Interface Card. I tried 3 or 4 cards, after installing the drivers, the OS would not load. The Microsoft MN-130 NIC finally worked. It took about 5 minutes to boot, and it became horribly unstable, but it at least sort of worked. This wasn't acceptable, so I tried to install Windows XP Home, hoping it would be more stable, but it would only boot after installing, and then the OS wouldn't ever load again.
So, I stripped the system down, to just the videocard, and it still wouldn't boot. So I took out the video card, and replaced it with a Venus Virge DGX4 (a really old PCI video card with 4 megs of ram). Then it successfully booted. I then added the NIC, and it still loaded. I was convinced it was an incompatibility between the video card and motherboard, but then I tried installing the sound card. It didn't boot.
At this point I'm pretty convinced I need to find a new motherboard. Does anyone have any other ideas? Also if this is the case I need to find a new (hopefully more stable) Socket A motherboard that takes SDRAM. I can't seem to find a good board on sale, most motherboards on sale now only take DDR RAM. Any suggestions on a specific motherboard?
It was originally:
Windows 95
Biostar M7VKD
Duron 900
256 MB Crucial PC133 SDRAM
256 MB Kbyte PC133 SDRAM
PNY Geforce2 MX400
RealMagic Hollywood+
Sound Blaster Audigy X Gamer
TTGI 330Watt dual fan power supply
Western Digital 80Gig with 8 meg cache
This was rock solid until I tried to added a PCI Network Interface Card. I tried 3 or 4 cards, after installing the drivers, the OS would not load. The Microsoft MN-130 NIC finally worked. It took about 5 minutes to boot, and it became horribly unstable, but it at least sort of worked. This wasn't acceptable, so I tried to install Windows XP Home, hoping it would be more stable, but it would only boot after installing, and then the OS wouldn't ever load again.
So, I stripped the system down, to just the videocard, and it still wouldn't boot. So I took out the video card, and replaced it with a Venus Virge DGX4 (a really old PCI video card with 4 megs of ram). Then it successfully booted. I then added the NIC, and it still loaded. I was convinced it was an incompatibility between the video card and motherboard, but then I tried installing the sound card. It didn't boot.
At this point I'm pretty convinced I need to find a new motherboard. Does anyone have any other ideas? Also if this is the case I need to find a new (hopefully more stable) Socket A motherboard that takes SDRAM. I can't seem to find a good board on sale, most motherboards on sale now only take DDR RAM. Any suggestions on a specific motherboard?