I have use WIN2K since March 2000 on 4 different machine with no problem at all. PIII550 + P3BF + TNT2 Ultra, PIII667 + P3V4X + CL GeForce DDR, PIII866 + CUSL2 + CL GeForce DDR, TBird 1Gig + A7V + Abit siluro GeForce 2 GTS 64 Meg. So far never had a lock up except on installing 1 of the CL driver which crash my Win2K.
Try the following :
One thing for sure never put any PCI card in PCI slot that share with the AGP (On Most MB ie 1st PCI slot). Try put your NIC is 5th PCI slot and if u got a Sound Card put in slot 3. Slot 1 of A7V share with AGP , Slot 2 Share with Promise controller, Slot 3 share with onboard sound/AMR, Slot 4 share with Slot 5 and USB.
Take out all the PCI card except AGP card then put in other card 1 by 1 to see which card causes the problem. If the problem comes from those card then try the latest driver. If the problem still there then try rearrange your PCI Card, some card just dont like to share with 1 particular card. Some are Card's driver problem. Last resort take out the problematic card
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How's your case ventilation? Try open the case and use some fan to blow directly to the MB. TBird , GeForce and A7V are all hot stuff...
By the way i am using 7.17 + DX8 now and i have not encounter any crash or lockup so far. Even 3DMark2000 run faster, i got 1500 point xtra over 6.31+DX7. But i think Win2k need more Ram. I have read a post that by adding another 128 Meg Ram to 256 Meg ram, he got 900 points extra in 3DMark2000. Win2K like more ram, more ram he got faster he run.
My current system (100% stable, no crash and no lock up at all), Bios : APG 4X enabled, Fastwrite enabled, Memory Optimal, Bytemerge Disable, AGP Aperture 256 Meg, all power management disabled, USB disabled.
Win2K SP1, Via AGP patch, AMD registry patch, VIA 4In1 4.24A, DX8, AGP 4.03E, TBird 1Gig, A7V + GW FOB 38, 3 X 128 Meg VC Ram, Abit Siluro GTS 2 64Meg (Det 7.17), SB Live Player (Latest Liveware )(PCI 3), 3COM905B NIC (PCI 5), 2 X 20 Gig Seagate Baracuda ATAII (Promise Controller, Driver Version 160Build25, both as master), AOpen 52X CD-ROM (Onboard ATA66 Controller as primary master), ASUS DVD-ROM (Onboard ATA66 Controller as Secondary master), 300W PS.
Hope this help. Good Luck