FIXED-Weird Gaming Problems in Win2k!!

[Spagina]

I recently installed Windows 2000 Pro on my new machine about 2 weeks ago. Everything installed fine, all hardware found, new drivers, etc. Everything seemed great, was stable, was fast, it was what I expected. So I then decided to start loading my games onto my Windows 2000 machine, first being Half-Life. I run it, boom, it crashes, hard freeze about 20 minutes into the game. It was real weird too, I had a momentary freeze for about 5 seconds, then the game ran fine for about 20 seconds, then it finally hard crashed with sound-looping. If I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, my mouse cursor pops up, but the game screen still stays up frozen. I eventually have to hit reset. I thought no big deal, I'll re-install Half-Life, same thing again. Then I install Tribes 2, same thing with this one. Every time, get about 20 minutes into the game, then it will do a momentary freeze, regain composure, then hard crash no less than 30 seconds later with sound looping.

The weird part comes in here, if I reset my machine, and don't run any applications before playing a game, I could play the game for hours and hours on end. But if I do some web surfing, some photoshop work, and listen to CD's, after about 20 minutes in game, it crashes. If I restart the computer before I play the game, I can play forever until I get bored. I'm kind of baffled at this point at what I can do. I re-installed the video drivers, and installed different versions of them, even the WHQL versions to see if beta video drivers cause it. Still crashes. Re-installed the software, re-installed basically every driver. All my hardware drivers are up-to-date, but I don't know what the problem could be. If I do general photoshop, flash, html, web surfing, etc. work on my machine, it's as solid as a rock. But the moment, I game without restarting, it explodes. If anyone has any idea what might be causing the problem, maybe it has something to do with the memory, or sound, or video, or all of them.

Here are my specs...
MSI K7t-Pro2a w/ the latest bios, 2.7.
AMD T-Bird 1000 Mhz, not overclocked.
40 Gig WD HD
512 Megs RAM
Geforce 2 GTS 64 MB w/ 12.60 Video drivers
Current Via MB drivers installed.
Hercules GTXP w/ driver v.2.01
Windows 2000 Pro SP2

Also, I'm doing all my gaming and general work through a power-user account.

If anyone has a solution, please post and let me know, thanks for your time.

 

[SeraphV]

I would check the temp on your CPU, mobo, and Video card. Things will run fine until you put a full load on your CPU and b00m! What kind of fan and thermal paste have you strapped onto your processor? There are a lot of really great HSF out there. Good cooling is always worth the extra $$$$

 

[Spagina]

As soon as it crashes and I have to reset the machine, it's usually running around 43 C. I don't know if it's really a heat issue though, Win98 installation on this machine before Win2000 allowed me to play games non-stop all day if I felt like it, and didn't hickup once. The Fan I'm using is a Globalwin Fop32-1 with the thermal pad. It should be sufficient, especially since I'm not overclocking. I don't know, this is baffling me, I'm going to juggle the drivers a few more times and if it still doesn't work, I'm going to re-install this puppy.

 

[lilnnjaboy]

If it isn't the hardware overheating. Did you download the Win2k Compatability Update? That is the update that allows games to run ok under Win2k. Make sure you do the updates to your windows. Becareful of Service Pack 2. That have some effects. If you check the OS forum, they have threads on that. I personally haven't had any problems with Service Pack 2. Well hope that works for you. If you need Service Pack 1...I'm sure someone will have it. Good luck.

 

[GnaisH]

I have just started expieriencing the same problems but i dont think as bad. I have Half LIfe installed and just play counterstrike but, recently in the middle of the game my whole comp just freezes. I re-installed service pack 2 and i havent expierecned and problems but then i havent really played since then.

I know it isn't the CPU overheating and im pretty much lost as you.

Then i think it might be because i overclocked my comp without enough voltage for it. But what is wierd is that it just started happining after about 2 months of being just FINE. AISH! anywayz good luck with your comp. if worse come to worse, just REFORMAT! hahaha

 

[Spagina]

Yeah, I loaded the compatability updates, in fact I even tried out the Whistler Compatability update file that someone posted in the Operating Systems forum. I finally just said screw it and re-installed Windows 2000, but I still haven't played Half-life yet. I'm going to run random programs for acouple hours and then see if it will crash when I play Half-Life. If it doesn't, then I know I nailed the problem. Thanks for the help though guys, I'll let you know if re-installing finally fixed it... hehe.

 

[furballz]

i have the same problem with counterstrike, but not sure if it's the same cause:
try changing the video setting (openGl Vs direct3d)

 

[Ben]

I think the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers will address this issue.

 

[nicowju]

Also did you turn off ACPI? Turning off ACPI might help, so that all teh cards won't share an IRQ like IRQ 9

 

[Spagina]

Yeah, I turned off ACPI and I have the Via 4.32 4-in-1 drivers installed.

Correction too, my last install didn't fix it, Half-Life is still hanging after awhile, but I think I noticed something interesting. For some reason, only the games running OpenGL seem to be crashing on me. I was playing WWIIOL for about 4 hours last night in Direct3d mode and it didn't bump out on me, but when the servers went down, I went to a game of TFC and the friggin thing crashed within 10 minutes. I hope I'm getting somewhere with this now, but it's still frustrating to try to find out where the problem is stemming from. I even made a slipstreamed SP2 Win2k CD to re-install with everything integrated, but it's still crapping out like a mother on me, so I think the actual Operating System now may not be an issue, but another piece of hardware. Hmmm, if anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to post them and let me know.

But thanks for all the input guys, hopefully I'll have this cleared up soon and keep posting suggestions if they come to mind.

 

[Joony]

well i had the same problem...until i fixed it

heres how...go to system properties and hardware stuff and go under system...and it syas ACPI pc something...change it to standard PC...the reason its looping and whatnot is because of IRQ conflicts...

 

[Spagina]

Standard PC is already listed and installed. I turned it off about 4 months ago... hehe. Hmm... this problem is driving me nuts, I can't quite figure it out. Anymore input would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[MattCo]

Mine was doing the exact same thing until I installed the 4.32(a) 4n1 drivers.

-MC

 

[Spagina]

Yeah, I said in an earlier post I already installed the VIA 4.32 4-in-1 drivers. But I also noticed the freezing mainly happens in OPENGL games, and when I look at the application and event logs on Win2k, it says there was an access violation at C0000005 or CX0000005, one of the two. All I know is it's an error I use to regularly get with Tribes 2 and now it's showing it for Half-Life in the Event and Applications log. But like I said, I noticed it only hangs in OPENGL mode. If I play games with Direct3d, they usually last for hours, but I hate Direct3d, it just looks worst to me. I'd rather play in Opengl but my comp, for some unknown reason, will not stay stable in Opengl.

 

[vash]

Install this:
http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/athlon-duron/amd_win2k_patch.html

This *may* help, but if you have Win2k, shouldn't be needed:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/recommended/q261606/default.asp

vash

 

[afropick]

This may sound strange, but try turning AGP 4X off in the BIOS. Set it to 2X or whatever and see if this fixes it. I've seen this help other machines. Let us know what happens.

 

[Spagina]

Thanks Vash, I've already have done those patches though and one is included with SP2. I haven't tried the AGP 4x down to 2x yet though, so I think I'll do that, thanks for the help guys and I'll let you know what happens.

 

[Spagina]

Ok, I tried changing my AGP to 2x and lowered the aperture size to try to increase compatability, but it is still locking. My only guess at this point may be the sound card. I've been reading some other boards and people are getting random lock-ups using the Hercules Game Theater XP, and some had resolved it by decreasing Sound Acceleration in Dxdiag. I'm going to try it and let anyone else know that is having these problems know what happens. If this does in fact solve it, I'll be serving my lip to Hercules for their crappy driver support. If not, I'll have to keep searching. I'll keep you all tuned in to what happens.

 

[Spagina]

Well, found out the problem, it was my Sound Card. The Hercules GTXP newest driver did not install correctly at all... even when I installed win2k over again about 5 times. I read some other newsgroups and forums and found out people had success by first installing the drivers off of the included driver CD, THEN installing the newest drivers on top of that. It pretty much cleared up my issue completely as I can finally play games without crashing. To those that responded and tried to help me out with this situation, I thank you much for your input and knowledge, that's one reason why I appreciate this board, lots of good helpful people on it.

Have a good day everyone.

 

[Ben]

That's cool that it was fixable through drivers and not a hardware issue.

Do you like that sound card? I was thinking of ditching my SBLive! for one of those.

 

[Spagina]

Sound card is awesome, much better than my SBLive, but Hercules drivers are still a bit immature, hence the problems I ran into. But if you do actually buy it and run into some problems with it, just refer to the solution where you install driver CD's then the new ones. It seemed to fix a lot of issues with people and the sound card. But like I said, other than the immature drivers, the sound card is great.