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Game Lockup thorough details inside Please help me.

S

Snake2715

Junior Member
First I want to say I am new to this forum and have been out of the computer building loop for a while it used to be so much simpler. Whatever knowledge I have I will gladly share with others.

My system was built around 2 years ago but should still run some of the games I am having trouble with no problem.

First its a home built system I built in early 2002 I have been having this same problem on and off but now I am tired of it, and frankly want to actually use this thing.

Games I am having problems with are Serious Sam (I know this isn?t a good example as it is a temperamental game as it is) Unreal2, Undying, and Runaway sometimes as well as others. Those are the most recent, and are the quickest I can get to lock up.

The lockup will occur at different parts but near the first 15 minutes to 45 minutes Runaway being the exception because I have played it for 5 hours before a lockup. Most the time the sound is stuck on one note. BUT once in a while the sound will have a small loop. I have to do soft reset at the case, as the keyboard is not responsive.

Specs I will be as thorough as I can here:



300 watt Codegen Power supply
Win 98
SYK7V Soyo Dragon Plus VIA KT266 ATX Motherboard
AMD Thunderbird 1.4 NOT OC'd
256MB PC2100 DDR Ram Also swapped for 512 of Spectek 2700
Thermaltake Volcano 6 CU+
Sony 24/10/40 CDR Drive
Generic Floppy
Maxtor 60 GB 7200 RPM Drive
PNY Geforce4 MX440 8xAGP 64MBDDR
SB PCI 512 also swapped for SB16 PCI
US Robotics V.92 56K modem (No Broadband available in my area)
USB Keyboard and Mouse converted to PS2 plugs. Swapped these for generic PS2 mouse and keyboard with no help.

Directx 9.b



As it stated I have tried to swap the memory out and also the sound and video cards out all individually and have had the same results.

Yes I did use Drivecleaner from Driverheaven to remove old drives and check my task manager/autoexec.bat to make sure they were removed. I didn?t do regedit though as I don?t know 100% how.

In the past I have reformatted and again to no avail that?s why I don?t think REGedit will help as it?s been a clean install and had problems. Currently I removed Quicken as it was running QWDLLS in my task manager and again it didn?t help my problem. I have also removed all traces of the modem, as I was afraid of something using multiple IRQ's. And that still might be the problem.

I had updated the sound drivers and Video Drivers again same problem currently I am running the original drivers from the CD.

I have updated windows. I HAVE NOT yet updated BIOS nor have I updated the VIA 4 in 1 drivers. But will do this if someone thinks it?s my problem.

I did move the sound card away from my AGP slot and it did get rid of some crackling but again same problem with lock ups.

I also bought a GPU fan for the video card and I thought it helped but again problem is persistent.

I have also moved the sound acceleration to 1 click below full and it didn?t help.

I have searched pages upon pages on this forum and others looking for my fix but haven?t found it yet.

I can run this computer for days on the net as I have done so before I removed the modem. It can run all day long in windows no problem. I load up a pretty demanding game and its time to reset.

I have also downloaded Memtest and my memory tests fine. I bought the 512 MB thinking that maybe it was running out of memory and again same problem. Although the board doesn?t show support for 2700 and that?s what the 512 MB is. I have been told it will be compatible. Just in case I am currently running the 256Mb stick that is PC2100.

My thoughts are this. I know that when I enter Bios at startup and look in the IRQ event it shows IRQ10 as being "reserved" but when I load windows it shows my SoundBlaster card being in both IRQ 5 and IRQ 10. I thought that maybe IRQ 10 was the DOS drivers for the soundcard, and uninstalled everything and reinstalled only the windows drivers but my system listing still shows IRQ5 and 10 taken for the sound card. I am afraid that maybe my CD Rom is on 10 if that?s possible? And that it?s conflicting with the SoundBlaster?

I have also considered trying to let Windows install its own drivers for either of the SoundBlaster cards and seeing if that works.


Sorry for the long post but I have really been trying to get somewhere and am willing to try almost anything within reason that wont permanently change my system. I mean I can flash BIOS if you feel its necessary, as I believe I can reset the BIOS with a jumper if it doesn?t solve my problem.

Any help at all would be very much appreciated as I am really out of ideas except to come to you guys/gals and ask for help.

 
Maybe a heat problem. You could try running with the case open and a fan blowing on it. Clean up your CPU fan/heatsink maybe? Reapply the heatsink compound?

You could also try removing the soundcard altogether and see if the problem disappears.
 
I do have the side of the case off and I have checked the heat right after a lockup and reboot and it seems to be in the 45-50 degree range.

I will go pickup some arctic compound and a better quality video GPU cooler and install them but I have had a fan blowing and it did this same thing. I feel everything and it seems fine. slightly warm but not hot.

 
"SYK7V Soyo Dragon Plus VIA KT266 ATX Motherboard"

WORST MOTHERBOARD EVER

Other than that, this is an odd one. Id say heat or power but you killed the heat idea and power would normally give you an issue out of the gate, not 15mins in.

Are you sure the video card isnt overheating? (make sure fan is spinning, HS is clean etc)

May I also suggest a fun format and reinstall? It helps everything 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Matthias99
300 watt Codegen Power supply
Click to expand...

Never even *heard* of this brand. Weird, persistent lockups can often be a symptom of a bad power supply; try replacing it with a brand-name one.
Click to expand...

I had a Codegen power supply that came with a case I purchased. After about 3 months it completely died. But I can't imagine that would be causing your system to lock up after 15 minutes of use. A power supply problem is usually more immediate.

So, while it is a crappy PSU, I'm not thinking that's the problem, and it does sound more like a heat issue to me.
 
while playing the game, before it locks up do you see any artifacting, pixelation, jagged edges etc. or does it just lock right up suddenly? those are usually signs of overheating in a graphics card. are you using the latest nvidia drivers also?
 
Thanks everyone for responding.

You know at the time I bought the Motherboard I really thought I was getting a better one. I have since heard mixed reviews either love or hate.

Anyway I replaced the power supply with an Antec last night and the same problem... Althought in BIOS the +12 voltage from the Antec was lower than my Codegen and it was only reading at 11.71,Codgen was at 12.41-12.48. I am thinking that is low and will once again replace the new power supply just to be sure.

I will have a new GPU cooler even though the one on there is an offbrand and is working. I have Arctic Silver compund and will make sure its not a cooling issue in the next few days.

As far as pixelation no I havent got that. It just flat locks up. The game plays smooth during the time its up and running. I really really thought it was the power supply after digging more info up yesterday.

Anyway I am doing a format resinstall with only the most current drivers, and I am also going to reinstall a new power supply that I plan on picking up today. Also installing all the cooling fans with a new layer of Arctic Silver, Blowing all the dust off the board and see where that gets me.

I am thinking that maybe the VIA chipset and Nvidea dont mix.

Any other help would be great. I will post back with my results.

 


I had a similar setup with an Nvidia GeForce 2 card, Epox VIA KT266 chipset and a TBird 1.33.
I must have gotten a bad CPU or a bad heatsink, because my TBird 1.33 Ghz would freeze at 42 - 45 C (according to MBM). There was also an article I read about how you can't trust the temperature anyway. I discovered it was heat related because when I underclocked my processor to 1 Ghz, it would stop freezing during gaming. Try underclocking and if it works, buy a new heatsink and if it doesn't work you didn't lose or buy anything.
 
yeah i think that's the right way to go for now but maybe before you go out and buy a new psu to replace your psu which is already new, try updating to the latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers. KB also made a good point about the temps. i just look at the temps as a gauge not as an exact parameter 'cause you can't really monitor your temps while playing a video game so you don't really know how hot your cpu or video card is getting. however, the cooler you pc is the better right? well good luck. hope it all works out. 🙂
 
Yeah I am not giving up yet i have a thermaltake and its very loud and always has been maybe I will look into that. I have heard of Speeze being good and cheap?


 
My advice is to upgrade to 2000 or XP, not what you are looking for but I believe that would solve your problems. I ran an 1800XP on that exact motherboard for at least 6 months with no problems at all.
 
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