explorer.exe crashes (krnl.386)

[HOTRODk62]

I built my parents a computer using some of their old parts and a tx motherboard. I did a clean install of 98, along with a few apps they use. Fairly often, explorer crashes, and when details are given it lists krnl.386. What usually causes this? It seems to happen every time something is installed, or when certain programs are launched. It doesn't do it immediately, and once it has crashed and all the taskbar icons dissapear, it doesn't do it again. There are no exclamation marks under device manager, and all their old hardware worked together well on their old vx board. What could be causing this???

tx motherboard
cyrix m2 300
64mb edo ram
16 bit soundblaster soundcard
2mb diamond stealth video
28.8 motorola surfr modem
win98 1st edition

any advice would be appreciated.. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Susan]

Cyrix chips tend to run hot, so make sure you have a good sized heatsink/fan on the chip as well as a thin layer of thermal paste.

[HOTRODk62]

yes I did put thermal paste on the chip, as well as a large aavid heatsink and fan, and another note, this chip is not running overclocked, and is running on 66mhz bus speed, anybody???

[Richard_Cranium72]

You posted a Kernel message on the topic line,, do you get error messages ?? chk at www.ehelpfree.com/nathan (http://www.ehelpfree.com/nathan) DrVette

[john robbinson]

this might help i get a 386 message when ever i enable boot/os2 over 64mg ram in the bios. it only did it the first time it stop after i unchecked it. i think its some kind of memory manager and it disables win98 mem manager. i renabled it latter and it did'nt do it again i too have a cyrex2 333! i don't think that has anything to do with it. also in system configure utility click the system ini tab and make sure 386 enh is checked also if you click on it will open up and show you everything that is checked hope this helps?

[HOTRODk62]

That sounds like the most helpful tip yet!! I will look for things checked that do not belong. I noticed even on my machine there is 3 entries with netscape apps launching, and I don't even have netscape installed, some other proggie must have put them there..
dail.386, vntstimd.exe, and vtcprac.386 I don't know what those were...disabled them ehhe