After I upgraded my desktop to XP it ran well for about 2 weeks; I then upgraded the memory from 128 to 768MB and changed the video card from a 8MB to 32MB card ......and the computer hasn't worked right since......really slow, locking up, numerous error messages;

After quite abit of detective work I have learned that:
1. I have computer with an AMD Athlon K7 processor that uses Slot A.
2. Everex the computer manufacturer no longer provides support for this unit.
3. It has AMIBIOS in the First International Computer SD11 motherboard but AMI will not give technical support because it is not their motherboard.
4. First International Computer, maker of my SD11 motherboard, says the motherboard will not support XP because of instability issues.
5. After downloading the diagnostic program at esupport.com(authorized bios upgrader for AMI) and sending them all the info on this antique will give me a BIOS upgrade for the small fee of $29.95 for my computer that has a motherboard that won't support XP. esupport.com says it all has something to do with the ACPI...........
6. I should have asked before I ever touched this computer:o


This has been a great little computer, not given us much trouble in almost 7 years of use....but it is time to let it go

Next stop.....Dell.com ..............for a nice little XPS unit

Downgrade the video card and the RAM to the original state.

Run the computer, make sure it works properly again after downgrade.

If it does, insert the video card again, see if that causes the problems again. If not, keep running it for a few days.

If still no problems, upgrade the RAM again - but, like....depending on what sticks you have, be careful about how you do this. It seems like maybe you have (2) 128MB sticks and (2) 256MB sticks to total 768MB? Mixing and matching RAM is often a VERY bad idea and should not typically be done. Try only putting in 2x128. If all is well, pull those two out and install the 2x256. If that works fine as well, put the 2x128 sticks in a safe place or put em on ebay.

I can hunt the internet for the BIOS upgrade for you. I think it's BS you'd hafta pay for it, and I think Everex can suck a fat one, they should be providing BIOS upgrades for systems they build regardless of how old it is - this should be a free software download for you.

Are they even sure a BIOS upgrade is going to fix your problem?

By the way - ACPI is not required to run XP. I just installed XP Home on a forum member's computer with ACPI turned off. The only difference with it was this : When you went to shut down, it would ask you to manually turn off the power, rather than turning itself off.

I tried that once before with no change in performance of the computer, but will try it again.
I'm pretty sure none of this is related to spyware or virus issues as Spybot and HijackThis are clean.
Just for the record some of error messages I get are "BAD POOL HEADER" OR "PFN LIST CORRUPT" which seem to indicate issues with the video card.
I was pretty disappointed with the non-help I got from Everex with this also.
With what i now know about this computer as far as the components go I'm pretty sure this unit will end up in the dumpster.
My wife has told me to quick fricking with it and just get a new one:)

If you toss it in the dumpster, don't forget to pull the hard drive out of it :) I always cannibalize my machines for PCI cards, video cards, drives and other crap.

the big thing is, you don't want someone to be able to go through your hard drive and pull any of your personal data off of it.

By the way: http://www.fic.com.tw/support/motherboard/motherboard.aspx?model_id=9

There is your BIOS download, driver download, manual download for the FIC SD11 ;) Took me a few minutes to search for it - busy with so many other things right now.

When you click to download the BIOS, notice the link to "update procedure". Print it out and follow it to the letter!

I just saw this...I trashed my old SD11 board also. Besides issues with XP (especially SP2), they were also known to be VERY picky over Video cards, especially certain brands of invida cards. It was a good board IMO, but for some reason once you get something bad into the lmx of XP, it never seems to recover.