Frequent Game Lockups, AGP bus speed too high??

[BlueWeasel]

I have this system:

Abit BE6-II mb (BX board)
P3 700@933 (1.80v with a PEP66)
Leadtek GTS 32mb
256mb PC133 RAM (222)

I have just recently upgraded from a Celeron running on a 100FSB to this P3 running on a 133FSB. However, since my AGP divider is only 1/1 or 2/3 my GTS is currently running on a 89mhz bus speed. The card seems to run at this speed fine, and an article last summer from AT confirms that this exact GTS card can handle this 89mhz AGP speed fine.

The problem I am having is the computer will lock up after 20 mins or more of playing certain games or benchmarking (B&W, UT, 3Dmark are the ones I have noticed so far). I think my CPU is stable at this speed and voltage, because last night I ran Prime95, SETI, and had Winamp playing mp3s all night and the system did not lock up at all. I have also been able to run Prime95 for 24 hours with no erros. The only time the computer locks up is during games or graphic benchmarks. My GTS is currently not overclocked and I still get the lockups.

Is my GTS not stable at this AGP speed of 89mhz or do certain games and apps just have a problem with high AGP speeds?

The computer does not seem to lockup in Quake engine games, Q3 in particular. I am able to run a continuous looped timedemo in Q3 with no lockups.

Is this problem that can possibly be solved or is this just one of the downfalls with running a 133 FSB on a BX motherboard? I have tried different BIOS settings with not much luck.

The only thing else that I can see is to increase my core voltage to 1.85v and run the games and see if I get lockups. I just don't think that the CPU is the problem.

Any suggestions or ideas??

 

[AndyHui]

You might want to try reinstalling DirectX 8a, and upgrading your drivers to the 11.01 version. Give that a try.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Because of the lockup in graphic related programs (games and benchmarks), I just have to think that it is a problem with the GTS on the high bus speed.

But, I have talked to many who say the GTS cards, and this Leadtek in particular, should handle the 89mhz just fine.

Are there any possible AGP-related BIOS settings (Apeture size, etc.) that I need to look at??

 

[MTDEW]

Ive seen the exact same problem with the Gladiac on a friends pc.

We solved it by downloading a program called NVMAX & changed settings to AGP1X.

Didnt really see a performance hit at all & it stablized hiz pc.(rock stable)

Give it a try.

Sorry for not having an NVMAX link, I'll try to hunt it down & post it.

 

[MTDEW]

We used NVMZX 1.4 on his BH6, I'm mostly seeing NVMAX 1.5 beta, but since we used version 1.4, I'll post a link to that file.

NVMAX 1.4

 

[frelsarinn]

I had the same problem with B&W
I start the game, when he is loading up
everything goes wrong and it crashes.

Is you problem just in B&W?

frelsarinn

 

[frelsarinn]

Ok UT and benchmarking too, well sorry

Why is the problem related to the AGP?

frelsarinn

 

[Mixxen]

Get the current version of NVMax here...

http://www.nvmax.com/

Make sure you don't have Side Band Addressing enabled becasue SBA is very sensitive to an OC'ed AGP.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I set AGP to 1X and I had a lockup in 3DMark after about an 1-2 hours. This is with the most conservative settings in the BIOS.

One thing that I did notice is Sandra reports my PC133 256mb RAM as being "CL2 up to 100mhz, CL3 up to 133mhz". However, the sticker on the chip has it labeled as CL2 with no speed listed.

So, the next step is to set the RAM to CL3 and see how that goes. I originally had a stick of 128 PC100 Infineon RAM with the 256 PC133 stick, and I would get lockups in Prime95 when I had the RAM set to 2-2-2. I removed the stick of PC100 because I figured that it could not handle 133mhz at CL2.

Anyway, any more ideas?. . . .

 

[BlueWeasel]

I give up. . . I don't know what else to try.

I have tried setting my RAM to CL3, using the most conservative BIOS settings, setting AGP to 1X, and I still get the hangups in 3DMark. SBA is disabled and my GTS is not overclocked. Sometimes it will hang after 10-15 minutes, while other times it will run for 2 hours or more before hanging up.

Surely some more people have had this problem because I know alot of you are running P3s on a 133 FSB with a BX motherboard and a GTS video card. . . .What did you do to fix it?

 

[noninterleaved]

cpu overheat? I see you are cooling it down but maybe... what temp is your cpu at? How about if you do some non-graphics but cpu intensive tasks?

 

[Duvie]

I dont know...he said he has ran prime 95 for 24 hours if there was heat issues he would have found them there...

I have usually found freezes to be hardware conflicts...How do your hangups look? Can you hit the reset immediately?

Have you done a complete reformat with just vid card and test it?

What are all your voltage readings?

 

[Duvie]

I had same issues when I placed my radeon (that I had rma'd) back into system without doing a clean reformat and reinstall and that turned out to fix it...I chalked it up as driver issues...


Ati's are picky in order of driver placement in regards to direct x 8.0 and other drivers, maybe that is an issue...

I see you dont have problems with quake which I believe may use opengl drivers instead of d3d drivers...this may be a driver issue of either the gts or direct x 8.0...

Definitely try it, it can't hurt...

 

[MTDEW]

Its a guess but you can try enabling CPU L2 CACHE ECC CHECKING in the bios & see if it helps.
Also going to cas3 settings with your ram does sound like a logical thing to try.

 

[Duvie]

try downclocking your chip and voltage back to defaults and see if you get the issues...just a thought!!!

I have heard of people who oc bumping I believ the vio voltage a bit to gain stability in this area...

 

[BlueWeasel]

OK, maybe I am getting somewhere here. . .

First:

My idle CPU temp is 30 deg. C and my full load temp is 36 deg. C max with an Alpha PEP66, so I know it is not a CPU heat problem.

Duvie: The GTS was running rock stable before on a 100FSB on a Celeron 633@950, and I have not changed drivers (using the Leadtek 6.48s). So, I just don't think that a format and reinstall will help me here.

I can run any of the CPU-only benchmark programs, such as RC5, SETI, Prime95, Hot CPU Tester Pro, etc., without any lockups at all at a core voltage of 1.80v. Just 2 nights ago, I ran SETI, Prime95, and continuously playing all night (~7 hours) with no problems. So this made me think that the problem is not with the CPU at 1.80v, BUT read on. . . .

I just thought I would raise the CPU voltage 0.05v to 1.85. I then made sure that the AGP speed was set at 1X. I have been looping 3DMark for about an hour and then I just stopped the benchmark manually. I changed my RAM back to 2-2-2, and I don't have any problems so far. Knock on wood. . . .

Here is another funny thing: The system locks up at the same point during the 3Dmark benchmark nearly everytime. It is always when the helicopter tests are running. It may run for a few minutes or a hour, but it always locks up during the helicopter tests. Wierd.

Anyway, it looks as though I needed a voltage bump and lowering my AGP to 1X for it to work. I have not done any thorough benchmarking, so it still may not work right.

Any more ideas or suggestions? Keep them coming!!