To me it sounds like motherboard capacitors going bad. Do a visual inspection and see if any are bulging at the top. It's possible for a cap to go bad and not bulge, but at least if you see bulging you know for sure which need to be replaced.

This could be it since few months earlier I had a problem of PC not turning off properly. It would reset instead of shutdown and turn on randomly when it was plugged to power. It doesn't do that now since I turned off several wake options in BIOS, so not sure if it's actually this.

Checked capacitors and they all look fine to me. One capacitor near CPU seems a bit weird but I'm not sure if it's actually a bulge since when illuminated with a flashlight the reflection looks pretty flat 🤣. Any other possibilities?

EDIT: Capacitors are fine.

Check the PSU too. Also note that the exterior state of a capacitor doesn't guarantee you that it's fine

Any propositions how could I check the PSU on Windows 98se? I gather the apps we have now won't work here 🤣 and I don't really have a different PSU to check (apart from the broken one).

Oh, could RAM do that too, btw?

You have to check it physically (open it and look inside. Make sure it's discharged first) you can also check the voltages with a voltmeter.

Ram might do this as well, just run memtest and you'll see what it does ^^

Yeah, check the capacitors inside the power supply too.

What wattage is Your power supply? 230v only tells us You are not in the USA.

It is Codegen 200XA1 200 W Max

Check the Voltage/Ampere data at the psu description.
If there is maybe 15A at 5V rail, it is eventually the problem here.

The Duron1400 (Applebred core) has a TDP of 57 watt.
15A x 5V = 75 watt

Considerering the remaining parts in this pc, you should have 20A to 25A (at 5V) with a low end VGA. With a stronger VGA (and CPU), you shall go better with 30A and more...

Caesum wrote:

Okay, so I have this slight problem that I don't really know how to fix anymore. The thing is my old PC freezes in games, but no […]
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Okay, so I have this slight problem that I don't really know how to fix anymore. The thing is my old PC freezes in games, but not every game. I think it freezes in every game that needs directX or something like that. When PC freezes, there's no way to fix it, sound plays weird (constantly repeating) and only hard reset works. Tested it with several games and two different graphics cards and the results are all the same.

Tested with "New Adventures of the Time Machine" - the game freezes after a few seconds in the menu screen.
Tested with "The End of Twilight" - the game freezes either at the menu screen or during intro when clicked "New Game".
Tested with "Tomb Raider - the Last Revelation" in hardware mode - a very weird case here. The game works well unless there's a heavy load of polygons I think. Then it freezes.
Tested with "Redguard" in software mode - doesn't freeze at all so far even in the heaviest locations.
Tested with "Rpg Maker 2003" - lmao every game works flawlessly.

At first I thought it's because of the old graphics card, which is NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64, but then I switched onto Radeon 9200se and nothing changed. The only difference is now that Tomb Raider 4 is harder to freeze I think 🤣.

Then I thought it might be because of the two audio devices. I have a motherboard with integrated audio device as well as a custom one (nothing anything near Sound Blaster though). I have unplugged the second audio device but the problem still persists.

I have checked temperatures as well and my CPU is always at 40~something 'C even when stressed. My GPU has same temperature (checked using weird gun-like tool that has laser).

Then I thought maybe it's because of incompatible drivers or broken Windows 98se installation. I have reinstalled Windows 98se, added only necessary updates (eg. USB support) and installed drivers again (motherboard, GPU, DirectX 7). Nothing.

What's even more weird is that it didn't do that before. I have left it at home for several months and then when I came back it was broken 🤣. Before then I have pretty much completed "New Adventures of the Time Machine" without any problem. Anyway, I have changed power supply back then since it was faulty (PC would turn off after few seconds) and now it works well, but yeah, except games. Could it still be a faulty/weak power supply? It is 230V.

My PC is:
AMD Duron 1.4GHz
256MB RAM
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 / Radeon 9200se (tested both)
CMI8738/C3DX Audio Device (unplugged right now since motherboard has integrated audio device)
Gigabyte GA-7ZM.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

EDIT: Could it be the integrated audio device that's causing problems? I heard some old games not supporting this feature.

Actually, I've used an AXP system with onboard audio which displayed kinda similar lockups (could only hard-reset and sound kept looping etc). I can't remember what ended up fixing it for sure, but I did upgrade the cooling on that rig and added in a dedicated sound card (disabling the onboard sound in BIOS to totally eradicate it in software).

Codegen doesn't sound to me to be a top-ace PSU.
Looking at the specs given on this website (it's some Russian site selling this thing, in case link goes dead in a couple years or whatever) gives:
5V - 20A
3.3V - 12A
12V1 - 6A
12V2 - (cannot read)

Your PSU is totally insufficient for your build. I'd not even turn it on till you get a PSU with 25A on the 5V line at the very least (but personally I'd never use a PSU with less then 30A on anything that's sA). I'd highly recommend you first replace it and then see if any problems still persist 😀

Oh dear, that's a rather bad news with the PSU. I thought so it would be too weak (there was a really bad behavior at that time when companies would make great rigs with ABSOLUTELY awful PSU and SPU). Now I truly wonder where could I get a new PSU that would fit this old PC. I mean they don't really do them the way they did back then, do they? 🤣

Apparently that's quite easy.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_tr … supply&_sacat=0

Most athlons won't require an AT PSU at all (I don't know if they ever existed in that form factor). It needs an ATX PSU with lots of amps on the 5V rail rather than on the 12V

That one might interest you :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antec-Basiq-500-Watt- … PsAAOSwH1NZhguU

It's a 500W PSU with a 30A 5V rail ! I bought one of these mint in box at a garage sale for cheap. Mine is from 2011 and is rated as 80 plus. I'm pretty sure older revisions such as these are also "80 plus", but the rating didn't exist yet so they didn't get that certification ^^

I have a second PSU (300ATX) that has:
+3.3V = 22A
+5V = 30A
-5V = 0.3A
+12V = 14A
-12V = 0.8A
+5V SB = 0.8A

It's the one which made PC turn off after about 5 minutes. I have checked the inside of it and it looks fine, so I don't know why it would turn off (as if PC lost power or was too hot). Any ideas what could be the case with this one? Is there any point in trying to fix it?

How can this PSU be "300W" ? If you do the math, these specs are over 400W

Which brand is it ? it's probably one of thoses el cheapo chinese PSU that can't deliver the amount of power they say they can

Deksor wrote:

How can this PSU be "300W" ? If you do the math, these specs are over 400W

Which brand is it ? it's probably one of thoses el cheapo chinese PSU that can't deliver the amount of power they say they can

Those amps per rail don't usually tell how much wattage you really can draw from the PSU. My main PC has a 430 watt Antec (made by Seasonic) PSU, and if you just combine the max amps per rail, you would be getting 576 watts from 12V rails only on this thing 😁 (3 x 12V x 16A). The side of this psu says, that it is able to deliver 384 watts from 12V rails, so you can load any two of those rails fully, or load all of them moderately. Those amp ratings in this case don't lie per se, but simply they just cannot be added together at will.

I see.

However I'd still like to know which brand made this PSU ^^

Caesum wrote:

I have a second PSU (300ATX) that ...

If the model number is actually LC-300ATX, it is one of those notorious Deer PSUs that you should not consider using (or repairing). Your machine powering off suddenly despite nothing apparent being wrong is one of the hallmarks of these units.

Maybe an attachement would clear this up? I dunno, maybe I'm just reading it wrong. But if this PSU is also bad, then I guess I'll try to find a replacement. Since I'm in Poland ebay is a no-go for me tbh, since costs are higher than it's worth, but I'll check allegro.pl and see if there's something useful. Do you have any suggestions which brands should I consider and which not? Or not really?

Caesum wrote:

Maybe an attachement would clear this up? I dunno, maybe I'm just reading it wrong. But if this PSU is also bad, then I guess I'll try to find a replacement. Since I'm in Poland ebay is a no-go for me tbh, since costs are higher than it's worth, but I'll check allegro.pl and see if there's something useful. Do you have any suggestions which brands should I consider and which not? Or not really?

Please, kill that thing with fire before it kills itself, and your computer with it. I found a picture of the insides, although from the 250w model, and I have to say I have perhaps never seen a more pathetic looking PSU. 😢