I would reseat everything absolutely everything.

If that doesn't fix it, I would clean the CPU and RAM edge connectors. Electronics cleaner or a rubber eraser works fine.

I've also had to clean the CPU slot before. Folded up printer paper works fine for this as long as there is a bit of resistance so the paper can clean the oxidation off the contacts.

What brand / model of power supply and how old is it?

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-11-24, 22:54:

I would reseat everything absolutely everything. […]
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I would reseat everything absolutely everything.

If that doesn't fix it, I would clean the CPU and RAM edge connectors. Electronics cleaner or a rubber eraser works fine.

I've also had to clean the CPU slot before. Folded up printer paper works fine for this as long as there is a bit of resistance so the paper can clean the oxidation off the contacts.

What brand / model of power supply and how old is it?

Hmm. Okay. I have some isopropyl that's 99.9%. I should be fine using a soft toothbrush, right?

Yeah, or a paper towel. I'm not convinced that isopropyl will remove oxidation though. I generally always just use a rubber eraser.

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-11-24, 23:27:

Yeah, or a paper towel. I'm not convinced that isopropyl will remove oxidation though. I generally always just use a rubber eraser.

I'm not sure how much oxidation there is, if any. I don't recall seeing any and I'm sure I would have noticed. I think it'll mostly be dusty. The CPU, mobo, and RAM were owned by someone who's a retro PC enthusiast, so I imagine they took care of the components. 😀

Have you done a min spec install where only the hdd, gpu, 1x ram, cpu and audigy card installed? (minimum required to install the sound card). If it freezes then with the BIOS at defaults in every PCI slot, it's going to be a low level issue

Does the freezing when installing the Audigy drivers happen randomly or always? If yes, it could be a separate issue.

As suggested above, keep connected hardware to the bare minimum. Keep the HPT controller disabled and unplugged. Run your HDD at minimum speed (disable UDMA in BIOS). Remove the Audigy card and use your ISA card, you seem to have had less problems with that. Change RAM sticks to different ones. Make sure your board isn't overclocked (you ran it at 133 MHz FSB before), make sure your PCI clock is set correctly in the BIOS. Use another PSU if you have. With all that, run your system for a couple of days and see if the problems persist. If yes, the motherboard is likely faulty. The problems you're having (HDD/CD-ROM issues, system not waking from sleep, random freezes with zero load, problems with PCI cards) would all tend to happen with a faulty chipset.

I have a board that randomly freezes and locks up, the mouse pointer movement is choppy, the HDD sometimes does not respond (takes 30 seconds to open a folder in explorer), random bluescreens with PCI cards installed. I have the same board twice, but none of that happens with the second board, using the same HDD with the same Windows installation.

What could go wrong with a 440BX + 133MHz FSB combination?
Anything.
Start by testing the memory.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-11-25, 04:34:

Have you done a min spec install where only the hdd, gpu, 1x ram, cpu and audigy card installed? (minimum required to install the sound card). If it freezes then with the BIOS at defaults in every PCI slot, it's going to be a low level issue

No, but I can try that. The freezing only seems to happen after installing DirectX 9. However, I should point out, the DirectX version supplied with the modified audio drivers is DirectX 9.0a. I think on my previous build, I had 9.0c installed and never had any freezing issues. So I'm going to try that first and see if it freezes. Maybe there's an issue with 9.0a...?

Failing that, I'll try with just the bare minimum installed.

asdf53 wrote on 2025-11-25, 06:22:

Does the freezing when installing the Audigy drivers happen randomly or always? If yes, it could be a separate issue.

As suggested above, keep connected hardware to the bare minimum. Keep the HPT controller disabled and unplugged. Run your HDD at minimum speed (disable UDMA in BIOS). Remove the Audigy card and use your ISA card, you seem to have had less problems with that. Change RAM sticks to different ones. Make sure your board isn't overclocked (you ran it at 133 MHz FSB before), make sure your PCI clock is set correctly in the BIOS. Use another PSU if you have. With all that, run your system for a couple of days and see if the problems persist. If yes, the motherboard is likely faulty. The problems you're having (HDD/CD-ROM issues, system not waking from sleep, random freezes with zero load, problems with PCI cards) would all tend to happen with a faulty chipset.

I have a board that randomly freezes and locks up, the mouse pointer movement is choppy, the HDD sometimes does not respond (takes 30 seconds to open a folder in explorer), random bluescreens with PCI cards installed. I have the same board twice, but none of that happens with the second board, using the same HDD with the same Windows installation.

Only after DirectX 9.0a is installed. I've been able to install them no problem before. I always skipped the install of DirectX 9 out as I don't really want it, but as it was suggested I follow the guide exactly, it locks the system up at random. But always during the setup.

Doing a quick check, I have briefly seen others mention to stay away from DirectX 9.0a and b as they're only revised versions. Some have also reported freezes. They suggested regular 9.0 and 9.0c. So I'm going to try the latter first and see what happens. 😀

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-25, 11:43:

Only after DirectX 9.0a is installed. I've been able to install them no problem before. I always skipped the install of DirectX 9 out as I don't really want it, but as it was suggested I follow the guide exactly, it locks the system up at random. But always during the setup.

Just to clarify, DirectX 9.0a shipped on the official Audigy 2 ZS installation CD. This is why I included it in my guide, as the drivers presumably require that version at a minimum.

But as mentioned in step 3.2 of the guide, it's fine to use a newer version instead (e.g. DirectX 9.0c). Just don't go below 9.0a.

Just tried DirectX 9.0c and the same thing happens. 🙁

EDIT: I've been reading mixed reports about DirectX 9 and Windows 98. Some saying they've had no issues, others saying the opposite. Personally, I'm inclined to give DirectX 9 a wide berth. Maybe some of my components are just too old to be supported by it...?

Plot twist. I suspected this was going to happen. ^^; So even after installing DirectX 8.2, the same issue happens. So maybe it isn't DirectX 9 that's to blame after all. So there is something else a miss.

Will try the bare minimum components next.

Results aren't promising so far. I've unplugged all extras. There's just the C drive connected to IDE 1, there's only one stick of RAM, CPU is connected, PSU connected, SB sound card, Geforce 4 Ti 4200, CD-ROM drive... No floppy drive, Gotec or USBs. I've reset the BIOS to defaults, though it asked for the 98 disc to reinstall the COM and printer port drivers. With that setup - it still froze. Tried again but with the HPT controller disabled and also reverted back to the first image I made, which was right after doing a clean install of Windows. Initially, it came up with this error:

Though after rebooting it was fine. Reinstalled DirectX 9 and ran through the installer again and it still locked up. 🙁

What happens when you try to install the drivers with the card removed? Or does it refuse to run then?

At this point, I'd connect all cards, PSU, and hard drive to another board and try again. If it doesn't happen there, it's the board.

Also, try moving the card to a different PCI slot if you haven't already in case it's a resource problem.

asdf53 wrote on 2025-11-25, 19:29:

What happens when you try to install the drivers with the card removed? Or does it refuse to run then?

At this point, I'd connect all cards, PSU, and hard drive to another board and try again. If it doesn't happen there, it's the board.

Also, try moving the card to a different PCI slot if you haven't already in case it's a resource problem.

I imagine it would refuse, but I can certainly try. I'll try another PCI slot after. I think, looking at the manual, it's currently in slot 2...? I'll try each of them and then failing that, I'll revert to the test build.

I really hope the motherboard isn't failing though. Thankfully I have seen another that's pretty cheap. I might have to get it as a backup, just in case.

Okay. Interesting. Progress. Took the sound card out, re-installed DirectX 9.0a, ran the driver setup, and it actually installed the drivers. 😮 No freezes or crashes. So, it could either be the sound card that's to blame or it could be the PCI slot.

I will try re-installing the sound card a bit later and try one of the other PCI slots. However, I want to make doubly sure I'm fine to put it in one of the others. Checking the manual for my mobo, it does say this about the slots:

It mentions slot 2, which the card was in, shares IRQ signals with slot 5. Could that be the cause of these freezes...?

Put the card back into PCI slot 2, reinstalled DirectX 9, ran the driver setup, it got to the end where it asks for you to restart - locked up again.

Will try putting it back to it's fresh install point and then try doing it again, but this time, skip the System Information utility. I remember the first time I installed that, it didn't work and kept giving me an Illegal Operation error until after the drivers were installed. Maybe that's causing it to bug-out.

After that, another PCI slot.

It looks like my hunch was right. It's the Creative Information Utility. Just installed DirectX 9, skipped installing the utility and then installed the drivers. No crash.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Got back to the desktop after restarting and it's locked up. Baffling.

EDIT 2: Frankly, I'm debating on selling this sound card and getting something a bit more period appropriate. This Sound Blaster has been nothing but a headache since I got it.