Hello once again...I'm hoping that someone, anyone can help me out here. First, this is my computer set-up: ABIT K?-7 Motherboard (it's either a KG or KT) Athlon 1700+ processor 512MB, Non-ECC 2100 DDR SDRAM 300 Watt power supply ATI Radeon 7500 AGP Soundblaster Audigy Platinum eX sound card Ethernet card 2 Maxtor 30GB 7200RPM HDD TDK 24x10x40 CDRW Window 98Se operating system 2 cirrculation fans plus cooling fans on the AGP and CPU. Next, things I have checked: -My computer's running temperature is fine, it's averaging about 93-104 degree F. -I ran ten loops using Dr. Memory and found no problems with my RAM -I completely reformatted and reinstalled all of my software to clearout any problems with that. -I updated my VIA flash bios and updated my video card drivers. My problems: -I had to uninstall Civilization III because it went from running fine to locking up every time I was about to start a game...I have no idea. -When I try to run Limewire it works for a short period then sometimes locks up, it happens about 50% of the time that I use it. -When I try to burn CDs using my CDRW, the computer usually locks up between 35-74% completion...thus ruining the disk and irritating the heck out of me. -The computer sometimes locks up when I try to bring the computer out of sleep mode. -After my lockups, scandisk runs and it has recently found a "long filename string" or something close to that when it looks for errors. My Questions: -I've had some power outages as of late while my computer was running (I have a surge arrestor, but could this have burned something out on my motherboard that is now causing my glitches? -Could I have a problem with my CPU? How could I check this? -Does this sound more like a hardware problem than a software one? -What are anyone's reccommendations on what I should do? Thank you for all of your help. If any of you do solve my problem, you can take your pick of: my first born child (you have to wait a couple of years though), an autographed picture of a Sesame Street Muppet (That's a real offer, I freelance for Sesame), or a copy of my latest book; "Procrastination for Dummi...I'll finish it later". Thanks again for everyone's help...This forum is a lifesaver. John

No concrete answer, just food for thought about the surges. http://computer-help.community.everyone.net/community/scripts/thread.pl

I think that it is a software problem. Your statement “I updated my VIA flash bios” confuses me. I believe this MOBO comes with an AMI BIOS and a VIA chipset. If you updated the BIOS, you would use a flash utility and a BIOS supplied by ABIT. If you installed updated chipset drivers, you would have gotten them from VIA, ABIT, or from the CD that came with your MOBO. Maybe this is the key to your problem. Maybe it isn’t. If I were having these problems, I’d go through my CMOS settings line by line and make sure everything is tip top. Use your manual, it can be very helpful here. I’d also be sure that my VIA chipset drivers were up to date. Just out of curiosity, what is your CPU frequency? What is your FSB?

Check that Windows is in fact using the proper IDE controller drivers for your motherboard`s chipset, and not its default dual FIFO drivers.

BRIAN, My CPU's frequency is 1433 Mhz and my FSB I believe is 266 Mhz. I updated my flash bios, but not my VIA chipset drivers. Sorry for that mix-up, I was just trying to get it all typed in quickly.

Your CPU multiplier is locked by AMD at 10.5. If your CPU is running at 1433MHz, that means your bus speed is 133MHz. Most MOBOs allow you to set this in CMOS. Some ALSO allow you to set it by jumper on the MOBO. Make sure that both are the same. Check to see what you have running in background. Eliminate everything but Explorer and Systray and see if you can run your software and burn CDs without lockup. If so, add those programs you want running in background one by one to see if one of them is the culprit. What CD cooking software do you use? I’ve heard of problems with Roxio’s DIRECT CD.

Long file names can cause freezes but not usually to the extent u say. They usually only freeze up certain applications. There is a DOS program u can run to delete files with these long file names (they will be user created files so dont worry too much!). I cant remember what it is called but have a copy at work. Will mail this to you tommorrow. Run this and then see if you still get the problem. Could be this is the problem. Await my email!