Oh and to add, I installed 2k on these systems and it just works, no issues whats so ever, and I'd go 2k but I really want to use my Gravis Grip Pads with Multiport.

Socket A and 98 SE is rock solid for me.

Pushing it on the ram abit. Try 256mb or less.
But I never really been able to get 9x fully stable on a lot of older system ether, 9x just is not the most stable OS compared to NT4/5.
If you use 9x, install it and leave it alone, don't play around with the OS if you want a stable system. And go by the book with setting up the system. I find when you try to push the limits on a 9X system you end up braking things.

Have you tried without the network and sound cards? Just a barebones install. Do all you can to try to make it crash. If it doesn't, then add the sound card and try again. If not, then add the network card and try again.

Yes, one thing at a time. Single every part out until you find the problem, that is very good advice.

Is it problems when installing or is it once its booted in windows?

Whats the condition of the disc?

I would definitely suggest using HIMEMX to limit the RAM to 448 MB or less. (In theory HIMEMX may improve stability just on its own.)

As for System 2, I had the impression that AGP support on SS7 boards was kind of questionable.

indeed. Pop open Dxdiag and disable AGP texture acceleration immediately. VIAs suck 😀 🙁

Win9x can be very hit or miss with hardware, I've had WinME work beautifully on systems as new as Pentium M + Intel 855 chipset, or fail hard on Athlon-based systems. You'll have to do a process of elimination by excluding hardware until you get stability, then slowly add back devices until you narrow down what is causing stability issues.

One other thing worth trying for newer chipsets is enabling DMA for the HDD and CD drives. You can do this in Device Manager.

Jorpho wrote:

I would definitely suggest using HIMEMX to limit the RAM to 448 MB or less. (In theory HIMEMX may improve stability just on its own.)

As for System 2, I had the impression that AGP support on SS7 boards was kind of questionable.

That's why it runs a Banshee, it supports no AGP features at all, its a glorified PCI card 🤣.

The issues arise about 24 hours into using the systems, then it all goes to hell thats what's really starting to confuse me

Do you use any of those unofficial Windows Updates? If so, try without first.

I have the same stability issue with Windows 98 SE. I was finally able to track it down.

In my case, it was the video driver. I have a GeForce FX 5200 and using the newest Win 98 drivers would case some scrolling to lock up the system. I eventually found opening Device Manager can lock it up more consistently so I used that as a test.

Thanks to the people here, I fixed it with the latest 4x.xx series of drivers. I was using the latest 5x.xx series.

It's still not 100% stable but I can at least use it.

I was going to suggest PSU but it seems you've tried two different ones.

Any sign of bad caps? I just junked an ECS Socket A board for that reason.
5900XT and X800XT are going to have high power draw which will stress a marginal board.
Might be worth trying something basic or PCI based instead to rule out AGP issues.

bjt wrote:

I was going to suggest PSU but it seems you've tried two different ones. […]
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I was going to suggest PSU but it seems you've tried two different ones.

Any sign of bad caps? I just junked an ECS Socket A board for that reason.
5900XT and X800XT are going to have high power draw which will stress a marginal board.
Might be worth trying something basic or PCI based instead to rule out AGP issues.

I thought AGP issues as well, but I installed windows 2000 on these systems and ran 3dmark in a loop without any major hicups, they just work, so its not board level.

This may sound silly, but are you installing correct chipset drivers?

An other thing to try is to do a clean install of windows 9x and immediately afterwords (no drivers) run prime95 for a few hours, wait a day or two and try again, if it fails its something to do with hardware, if not it could be software or drivers.

When is the instability occurring?
What software and games are you installing in the first 24hours, securom and other copy protections can cause havoc?

Clean, with an eraser, the contacts of all plug-in cards and ram.
Also check power supplies internally to make sure no bad caps there, if so then replace them.

I'm not sure 24 hours straight with 98 or me before crashing constitutes a major issue. I have never left computers on all day and night. Maybe
there are power issues at your place due to something coming on at a certain time?

Even though they work on 2000, I would still try a basic PCI video card to rule that out.
I use the unofficial 98SE SP3 on both my Win98 machines and have only good things to say about it.