To Anyone with Helpful Suggestions or Information Frequently the system boots to the Award Bios Setup Utility with an error: During the last boot-up your system hung for an improper CPU Speed Setting. Your system is now working in safe mode. To optimize teh system performance and reliability, make sure he CPU speed conforms to the specifications of your CPU. As far as I know these are the correct settings. The CPU is an intel Pentium III 1000MHZ CPU Speed = 1000MHZ CPU:System Frequency Multiple = 10.0x System/PCI Frequency(MHZ) [100.0/33.33] CPU VCore = 1.75V The Ausus CUV4X-E Manual doesn't state the default settings for these options. This problem seemed to start after a BIOS Update which was required to get a memory update from 256 to 512MB to work. Sometimes there are duplicate devices in device manager. How exactly do I fix duplicate drive controllers (that show only in safe mode). there are two copies of Primary and Secondary instead of just one. Other symptoms are frequent system lockups and crashes sometimes with different VXD errors. Also, Sound Card stuttering, Mouse and System freezes. The system becomes increasingly sluggish increasing with time. I have Emailed Asus repeatedly without even receiving the courtesy of a response! I would really appreciate any helpful suggestions Manuel Calcagno Things Tried: Tried using only a Cirque Drivers for both devices as suggested by their Tech support but it didn't help. Tried to find later drivers for the Sound Blaster Live for Windows 98 Flashed my Motherboard Bios from 1000x to 1004x(Asus CUV4X-E) Tried the Sound Card in 3 different PCI Slots Updated my VIA 4inOne drivers to the latest version Tried several different NVidia video drivers Upgraded my Memory from 256MB to 512MB (PC133 SDRAM) Downloaded and installed all the Windows Updates for Win 98 Installed the latest Gravis GamePad Pro Drivers Wrote to Creative and Music Match several times about this Made sure the IRQ for the sound card is not shared Wrote to Asus, Logitech, Cirque,Creative and Music Match tech support Tried different Mouse and Touch Pad drivers. Several Virus Scans, Defragmentations System Diagnostics show no problems Reinstalled Direct X 8.1 System: Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB PC133 SDRAM, Asus CUV4X-E MB, 80& 30 GB EIDE Harddrives, TDK 48x24x48 Burner, Liteon S166 16X/48X DVD-ROM, SoundBlaster Live 5.1+MP3, Leadtek Geforce 2 Ultra 64MB AOL 8/TimeWarner with Toshiba PCX 2200 Cable Modem connected via USB, Zoom internal 56K Modem Windows 98SE, IE 6.0

Have you tried removing 256 of youre ram. Just to see if the computer will work like it did before you upgraded.

just a thought but did you know your system can RUN atleast XP?