gainward gf3 ti500 fall down go boom (figuratively), need help

[ZorbaTHut]

So I finally got my Gainward Geforce3 Ti500 Golden Sample (oy, what a mouthful) and am having a few interesting problems. It's currently got slightly older drivers installed - Nvidia's 21.83 - and whenever I close a Q3-engine game, it hardcrashes. Dunno yet whether this applies to any OpenGL software, but it isn't true for D3D, as UT and a dev project I'm working on both work fine. The obvious solution would be "update the drivers", yes? But when I do so, I get a bluescreen with the words . . .

NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error

usually seconds after booting up. If it takes longer, I can always make it happen quite easily by moving a window around rapidly. I haven't spent a lot of time figuring out how *long* I can make it run since I don't really care

System specs on things that might matter: Dual Athlon 1.53ghz, 1gb ECC RAM (no, it's not *that* RAM that's having a parity error - I know because if I turn off the ECC, I get the same problems), Philips Acoustic Edge soundcard, Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI.

Anyone got any ideas on this one? :/

 

[LuDaCriS66]

I don't know the exact cause of your problem here but did you remove all traces of older drivers from your previous video card? It's usually best to do a clean install of your OS when installing a new video card.

 

[ZorbaTHut]

grah. I did not, but I was thinking about it . . . will be annoying, but, bleh. I don't want to redo my settings *again*!

(then again, I've been dinking with hardware so much anyway . . .)

any ideas that *wouldn't* involve this? Just so I can test them first? :/

 

[LuDaCriS66]

Hmmm.. I don't know about that. Do you have a copy of Drive Image 5 or Ghost? Make an image of your hard drive and burn it to a CD (if you don't have another HD or partition to put it to).. then re-install your OS and then try installing your video card.. I know.. it still involves you going through all your settings again but if it doesn't work you can just re-image the drive and it'll be back the way it was before..

What video card were you using before? Was it an NVIDIA card? If so, go to a site like www.voodoofiles.com and download 'Detonator Destroyer".. use that to get rid of the older driver remnants

 

[ZorbaTHut]

I don't, but I can probably find a copy. Good idea. (will take shifting some stuff around to get enough space, but, hey.) As for video card, TNT2 Ultra, so, yeah, that might work. Except it's WinXP - I'm not *entirely* sure I'd trust it . . . image the drive *first*, then if it kills WinXP somehow, reinstall and try that, I guess (mmm, multibird kills)

 

[LuDaCriS66]

<< I don't, but I can probably find a copy. Good idea. (will take shifting some stuff around to get enough space, but, hey.) As for video card, TNT2 Ultra, so, yeah, that might work. Except it's WinXP - I'm not *entirely* sure I'd trust it . . . image the drive *first*, then if it kills WinXP somehow, reinstall and try that, I guess (mmm, multibird kills) >>



WinXp huh.. I have no idea. I'm guessing the creator of "Detonator Destroyer" would have created a WinXP version by now.

lol anyway, good luck.

 

[tazdevl]

First few ideas....

What kind of motherboard do you have? There are some known incompatibilities with the 21.83 and via chipsets.

***EDIT - if you have a Via based motherboard, downloading and installing the latest 4in1 driver should take care of your issues. If I remember correctly, the 21.83 drivers cause some memory timing issues which might produce results like you're seeing.

Sounds like you didn't install the card properly. Generally when you change video cards, the easy way is to change the adapter to the default standard VGA adapter under display properties, then reset the machine. Once it boots again, go into the device manager and remove your old display adapter. Shutdown, put in the card and reboot.

Honestly though, the best thing to do is a reformat and reinstall when you change cards. Especially if you change manuf. like from nVIDIA to ATI or vice versa. Det Destroyer doesn't get everything... always something floating around to cause a conflict.

Another option is to try taking one DIMM, if you have all 4 populated. You could have one bad DIMM. Given the fact that it's giving you a parity error with ECC memory.

Also... don't use expertool. That program is a piece of crap. Just use the coolbits reghack if you're going to overclock.

One other thing I just thought of... some XP's don't like to be in a multiprocessor setup. Plenty of posts on the issue. If the rig is new... could be part of the problem.

 

[olds]

<<
What video card were you using before? Was it an NVIDIA card? If so, go to a site like www.voodoofiles.com and download 'Detonator Destroyer".. use that to get rid of the older driver remnants >>



A search there didn't find that file.

 

[ZorbaTHut]

Tyan Tiger MP. Got the VIA 4-in-1 drivers installed though - one of the first things I tried. And their AGP drivers.

And bleah. I think I'm going to do an install of XP on a spare hard drive and use that to test. If I can't get it working on the stripped version, I'll have my full version to use without having to go through the hassle of Ghost. Whereas if it does work, I can just shred Windows on the primary and dump a new copy straight on.

For those who are curious, I managed to find a copy of the Detonator Destroyer at http://www.mediaxplosion.gamigo.de/downloads/tools/tuningtools-s1.htm . . . but it says nothing about XP compatibility. It is 2k-compatible, though, so it might be safe.

 

[ZorbaTHut]

A clean WinXP install doesn't do a thing. Same glitch, same cause, I didn't bother trying all the 4-in-1 drivers and AGP drivers since it seems pretty clear that those don't help (I mean, hey, they're on my main install, same problem). I also kinda feel like this rules out any sort of conflict with the old drivers, since, once again, totally fresh install, totally identical problem.

Next I'm gonna try a Win2k install - try to narrow it down to hardware or software :/