Aah! Games lock up my PC!

[Spike007]

Gah. Okay. Whenever I start ANY game (Giants, Fallout: Tactics, recent stuff).. it seems to lock my entire PC up just at the point where the game is meant to switch windows between Win98 and the game itself, like there was problems switching resolutions or to full screen mode. Stuff that runs in a window only is generally fine, but anything that requires full screen mode is causing lockups.

For whatever reason, this doesn't affect older games like Warcraft II. I have a nice Geforce 2 with the latest drivers from the Nvidia folk, plus Direct X 8.0a. Everything LOOKS fine, it's just locking up when it comes to starting up games.


Argh. This is my gaming rig, too. -groan- It'd have to be the one that goes screwy...

 

[datalink7]

What kind of motherboard do you have? Processor?

 

[bearauto]

Hey dude, I used to have that prob. Just update your motherboard drivers.

 

[datalink7]

<< Hey dude, I used to have that prob. Just update your motherboard drivers. >>



that is what I was going to say too. And if you have an AMD processor, get the miniagp driver for it.

 

[Spike007]

Hrm. I have an ASUS CUV4X motherboard with a questionable 800Mhz PIII processor. The mobo update I'm currently on is.. 1006. Trouble is, I can't figure out Asus' site. ACK. Help me find the latest upgrade!

 

[Spike007]

Well, I found asus' site and all their mobo' upgrades... unfortunately, there's about 4 different CUV4X's. -sigh-


I'm fairly sure I need to install the plain CUV4X revision 1007, since I have 1006 at the moment.. but I'm still not entirely sure why my mobo would stop games opening up in full screen mode?

 

[Spagina]

If everything else outside of 3d games works, it may a bad install of video card drivers or else the MB like the others have said may be fouling it up. Make sure you have the latest Via 4-in-1's installed, update your bios if possible, and try the official video card drivers or different beta drivers to see if they help fix crashing in the games. Other than that, these are my best suggestions.

 

[baldy]

Look on motherboard PCB, a sticker with the model number will be in plain view somewhere along an edge or by the PCI/ISA or AGP slot. Get the number, reference it to the ones on the ASUS website, then.....................

You need to do is some checking yourself, then get the right bios and flash on. As far as a bios update correcting your video problems, doubtful it will help, more than likely it is your ram, vid card or their respective drivers. The sequence of the original installation can be the culprit too.

baldy

 

[Mem]

You could try some bios tweaks like disable all video shadowing,also disable video bios cacheable,try running in 2x mode AGP from bios,next try going here to Geforce FAQ .

Also try the latest monitor drivers for your monitor.

 

[Spike007]

Okay.. I now have all the latest drivers for my motherboard.. if it was any more up to date it would be growing legs and wandering away... I'm using the Detonator drivers 6.50 for my Geforce2 card.. though I can switch back to the previous version if necessary (I forget which. 6.2 something.).. and finally DirectX 8.0a.

I've tweaked and modified and otherwise stopped short of major surgery on most parts of my system (you can tell I like gaming.) AND... Warcraft II is still the only one that works.

But instead of just locking up the system, games now attempt to open up in a maximised window.. not the entire screen, just a maximised black empty window with the name of the game in the title bar (GIANTS, etc.).. where it just hangs. I can give it the three-fingered salute to close it.. so I guess it's a good start.

I dunno. Perhaps DirectX 8 is the problem. I only really installed it because Fallout Tactics wouldn't install without it (goddamnit.). Fallout Tactics worked fine and I eventually finished it. Then I installed the 6.50 Detonator drivers and... that's when no games would work. I've sinced flipped back and forth between graphics cards and DirectX version 7.0 etc. etc. But it's been the same ever since.

 

[GregANDTCH]

Does it pass the video software acceleration &amp; hardware
acceleration tests in DirectX Diagnostics?
Just a thought.

 

[Spike007]

DirectX Diagnostics? -sigh- Okay. I give. I can't find it anywhere. Gimme a link or an explanation so I can look suitably embarrassed.

 

[ArnoldLLerch]

Direct X diagnostic is in the Direct X folder in your program files. You might try the OpenGL drivers also. But, check your direct X first.

 

[Spike007]

Okay.. now we're getting somewhere. Opening up DxDiag does... absolutely nothing except briefly burdening my mouse pointer with an hourglass. I'm still on 8.0a.. thinking about bouncing back to 7.0 to see if that works.

Jeez. Considering I built my pc from the ground up, this is kinda embarrassing.

 

[ugh]

<< Okay.. now we're getting somewhere. Opening up DxDiag does... absolutely nothing except briefly burdening my mouse pointer with an hourglass. I'm still on 8.0a.. thinking about bouncing back to 7.0 to see if that works.

Jeez. Considering I built my pc from the ground up, this is kinda embarrassing. >>



I'm facing the same darn thing too. BUT with one consolation, all Quake 3 engine games work perfectly. Only those that use D3D dies all the time. I've tried setting the AGP speed back to 1x and it worked for a while until I installed the Intel BX drivers (I'm using MSI BXMaster with GF2MX). Like you, I'll see how it goes when I reinstall windows and drop back to 7.0...

Uhh... Actually the games don't hang immediately like yours, I can still play around with it for like 10-20 mins, then it hangs.

 

[Spike007]

Okay, this sucks. I'm almost certain something's wrong with DirectX now. Problem is, directXdiag locks up whenever ANY version of Direct X is installed. I've tried 7.0 and 8.0a so far. The only time DirectXdiag works is when there's NO DirectX installed at all, and then it tells me 'NO VERSION OF DIRECTX DETECTED.'.

Well, no sh--. Thanks, DirectXDiag!

-sigh-

Is there a website somewhere where I can find certified non faulty versions of Direct X? Maybe the files I have are screwed somehow.:Q

 

[GregANDTCH]

Here are some links to different &quot;DirectX Uninstaller&quot; programs.
I haven't used any of them,
but I think they're the only way
to revert back to an older DirectX.
I think MS had one to remove Dx8 when it was still &quot;beta&quot;.

Link1

Link2

Link3

Read them carefully!

 

[Spike007]

Hrm. Tried three different uninstallers already (including the first linked one). DirectX uninstalls FINE, it just doesn't seem to install itself properly again, no matter what the version.


Everything worked fine until I installed the 6.50 drivers for my geforce. -thinks- But I'm back to earlier versions now. -growls-:|

 

[Spike007]

Okay, screw this stupid thing. I'm going to reformat. Thanks for your help, one and all.