9700 np not able to play games without freeze ups.

[Ike0069]

I 've been running 9700 np for several months without problems. I have played all my games at fairly high resolutions without any slow downs. I then bought a new WD 80 GB hard Drive. I reloaded all my software (XP, drivers, games, etc.) on the new HD. Now when I play some games at the same video settings as always, (Madden 04, Need 4 Speed, Max Payne), the video will stop periodically during play for 2-3 seconds. As you can guess, this is very annoying. I'm curious if there is something I'm missing here. As I said, it ran all my games great before, so I don't understand why it would give me problems now! ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Epox 8K7A
Athlon XP 2200+
Radeon 9700 np
Crucial 512 MB PC2100
Enermax 350W PS
WD 80 GB HD (8MB Cache)
Windows XP

 

[nick1985]

maybe try a different driver?

 

[BFG10K]

Did you remember to install your chipset drivers?

 

[Killrose]

Make sure DMA is enabled on your hard drive.

 

[Ike0069]

Not sure how to enable DMA.

 

[Killrose]

Sorry, not sure how to get there with XP, i'm a Win98se hold out. But for me: Right click on My Computer/ Properties/ Device Manager tab/Disk Drives and open the properties of your hardrive and see if the DMA check box is set to enabled.

 

[Megatomic]

To check/set the proper DMA settings in WindowsXP:

Open Control Panel.
Double click on System.
Click on the Hardware tab.
Click on the Device Manager button.
Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
Right click on Primary IDE Channel and select Properties.
Click on the Advanced Settings tab.
Set the proper DMA mode on this screen.
Do the same for the Secondary IDE Channel.

Reboot.

 

[Ike0069]

DMA was enabled (thanks Megatomic), but I downloaded the ATI driver from windows update and installed. Played need 4 speed on a track that always gives me problems, and it had no pauses. Time will tell, but this seem like the fix. Thanks all for the help!