win 98se lockup

[pj2001]

I just built my own pc and have installed win98se, I have however been plagued with lockups when running most games, at loading points many games suddenly stop responding and I have to manually reset as keyboard reset does not respond. I have also experienced random powerdowns, where the computer turns itself on and off rapidly. I really would like to sort out these problems, my hardware is listed below. Thanks alot in advance !

Gigabyte GA-7DXR
AMD Athlon 1.4
soundblaster live 5.1 with livedrive
plextor cd writer
pioneer dvd drive
ibm deskstar 75 Gig HD
Gainward Geforce3 Powerpack Golden Sample :confused:

[HKEd]

Hi pj2001...welcome to the board.

Nice system you got there. That Athlon is going to be running pretty hot. Are you sure there's sufficient cooling? Another suspect would be the power supply - either faulty or just not up to the job. Post back with cooling details, PS wattage and amount of RAM.

[Zeratul]

If the power downs happen during only those games it could be your videocard either needs a better driver, needs DirectX reinstalled, or is overheating. Are you overclocking it yet? If yest to both questions, get a small fan for the video cards heatsink. Try running with the side cover off the case and a table fan blowing at the open case. That would help show a heat problem for either a videocard or CPU heat problem. DX needs to be installed last after vid card drivers (most of the time).

If power downs other times (not gaming) then I agree with CPU heating and maybe the Power supply. PS shouldn't be bad on a new system unless you went cheap with that. Doubtful you would do that with those goodies. You did use some good paste on that CPU heatsink right? I prefer Arctic Silver. Radio Shack crap gets you by on store bought junkers.

[pj2001]

I have 2 x 256 meg SDRAM and a 300w power supply, I havn't overclocked anything yet ! the graphics card already has a fan connected to the main chip. Im afraid the PSU was a bit rubbish, trouble is I cant find anywhere in my area in london that sells good quality PSU's the same is true of the fan I used on the CPU. I also didnt use any paste. Blimey after writing all that it seems pretty obvious you must be right, think ill replace my PSU and fans, can you suggest any good fans for the cpu and (quite) good quality 300w power supply ? Thanks again for all your help, its appreciated.