After more investigation i have found out that my cpu temperature, is about 66 deg c, is this too much. could this be causing the random lockups?

To get a really good feel for what's happening on your system regarding the way the BIOS looks at your IRQ ***ignments versus the way Windows 2000 handles them, you should go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base / Technet and do a search on such terms as "PCI IRQ Steering", "IRQ Sharing" and so on. You'll need to do quite a bit of reading, but it should convince you that there's nothing wrong with all of those devices sharing (apparently) one hardware interrupt. What's happening is that the devices are actually using virtual IRQs (above 15). If the device drivers for all of the devices are Windows 2000 compatible, IRQ sharing should be just fine, and is probably NOT responsible for any operational issues you're having.
 
Having said that, you can disable the function by disabling ACPI in your BIOS and installing the "Standard PC" Hardware Abstraction Layer of Windows 2000. I strongly recommend against this, however, unless you find good evidence of a PROVEN conflict between devices that are sharing the common IRQ on your system.
 
The hot processor sounds like a much more likely cause of your crashes.
 
Hope this is helpful.
 
Regards,
Jim
 
Edite: Added note -- "***ignments" -- It's hilarious how often the three letter archaic synonym for "donkey" shows up in altogether innocent words. That is to say, words which are innocent to everyone but the censoring software!
 
[ December 30, 2000: Message edited by: jaywallen ]

A friend of mine has the same processor as you, and had lockups at temperatures near 60 and higher. I would say this is the cause of your problems.

what kinda HSF u got on it? - i would suggest a GlobalWin FOP38 (keeps my duron 800 @ 1ghz under 40 degrees C ) or a hedgehog 238M (copper heatsink) if u can find one

Anton - did your friend have problems with corruption on his hard drives, i seem to be able to get win2k installed all progs installed, but when i restart it (maybe after a lockup or not) i would get a corrupt windows file and the repair process doesn't fix it. Do you think this would be related or another issue.

~Aragorn~ - I have a cooler master (el cheepo) DP5-6H51 link - <A HREF="http://www.coolermaster.com/products/cpucooler/fcpga/dp5-6h51.html'>http://www.coolermaster.com/products/cpucooler/fcpga/dp5-6h51.html Link" TARGET=_blank>http://www.coolermaster.com/products/cpucooler/fcpga/dp5-6h51.html Link</A> it says it is for a 1.2Ghz Athlon, the only prob is my PSU is directly above the CPU, do you recomend getting a new case? could this also cause corruption?

Have you tweaked your RAM-settinings in BIOS ?
 
If so, corrupted files often comes with running your memorysticks faster then they can handle. (Or maybe you got a bad one)...
 
 
// Toby

OK so i have move my system to another case which has alot more space, the temperature dropped to about 40 deg, under load it went up to 59 deg, one crash but i moved the second hard drive from the second channel of the highpoint controller to a slave of the first channel (i read this was a problem), this seems to have stopped any of those crashes, i installed seti at home, now my system temp is idle (well with set running all the time) of 62-64 deg (with case done up it was about 60 without the cover on), no crashes yet (cross fingers), is this temp OK. what else can i do to cool it (is my heat sink OK see above) i have a fan at the front blowing air into the case (there is no more room for other fans). Thanks for all your help so far.
 
Toby - i havn't touched any setting to do with the memory, i have some PC133 ram installed this is from my p3-450 system and i have had it running for about 6 months with no probs. Thanks for you input any other ideas.

If you have a proc that is overheating like that, I would count on HD corruption happening, seeing as it is handing off the info to the HD for access. The case swap was a great idea, though I would make sure that the air coming in is getting out as well. Also, does the HSF have a good thermal compound on it? I have seen 5-10*C drops just by changing from the lame "tape" that comes with most HSF units, to a good zinc-based paste.

Right i have kept the temp down and it is still locking up this time with the temp around 34 deg c. has anyone any other ideas of what it could be.