On Jan 11, 6:26 pm, "Augustus" wrote:
I also found on a forum a suggestion the disabling Fast Write in the
BIOS has fixed the same problem I'm having! Unfortunately, that
option's not available in this BIOS. Is this something for just AGP
and not PCIx slots?

Fast Write not relevant here. Did your friend install his OS on this system
after booting up with overclocked hardware? And, did you switch out and try
the card in another system or try another in this one?

Yeah, Fast Write = AGP only. Darn; was hoping it'd be as easy as that.

No, we've done absolutely no over clocking. We used "optimized
settings" in the BIOS and haven't done anything with the ATI control
panel aside from trying to lower or turn off features.

Unfortunately, we don't have another PCIx machine (or video card) to
do any swapping of that kind.

I thought I finally got it working OK last night by turning off
everything unneeded in MSCONFIG. It'd run without locking up Explorer,
it ran a game for an hour without crashing when exiting.
But then he took the system home and suddenly it won't boot into
Windows (even safe mode), and when I try to use the Repair option in
the Windows boot CD (the install/repair, not the console repair),
repairing the existing OS isn't even an option! Just formatting and
installing. As if it's not even seeing an existing OS on the drive any
longer.

*sigh* This is suck a clusterf*k. I am SO getting rid of all
technology in my life after this (except indoor plumbing. And
refrigeration. And maybe my PS2....)