Geforce 4 problems

[WAJ]

I recently purchased an A-Bit Geforce4 Siluro 64mb Ti4200

1. During install of Windows 2000 (I wanted a clean install for my Geforce4) i noticed that the OS would not start the installation if my Geforce4 was sitting in the AGP slot. The startup procedures run (installing the drivers etc from the cdrom (or floppy)) but the actual installation wont take place. The screen turns black, and the system locks up. This has forced me to install the OS using my older Geforce2 MX card, and then revert to the Geforce4, once the OS is properly installed.

2. Whilst playing games with the Geforce4 installed, the system is prone to, what seem like random crashes. The screen freezes, the sound loops and I am again forced to restart the machine.

I have tried a number of games, including Unreal Tournament and Blood Omen 2, and the problem still persists. I have the latest 29.42 detonators from Nvidia installed, and the latest chipset drivers for the mainboard. I had also heard that the Soundblaster drivers can cause a lot of problems with incompatibility with certain pieces of hardware, and so, have updated those drivers also. As a last resort, I borrowed a friends copy of Windows XP and installed that, and but I am still getting these lock-ups, which leads me to believe that the problem is hardware related.

The only thing i can think of that COULD resolve the issue is maybe a Bios update for the mainboard, but I'm a little hesitant at the proposition of such a task, as it is about the only thing I have never done before...

Any advice in the area would be much appreciated.

My system specs are:

CPU AMD Athlon TB 1ghz
Mainboard: MSI - K7T pro 2 (MS-6330)
RAM: 512mb PC133 SDram
GFX: A-Bit Siluro 64mb Geforce4
Sound: Soundblaster Live! 1024
CD-R: Plextor 16x40x10 (IDE)
CD-rom: Plextor 32x (SCSI)
NIC: SMC EZ Card 10/100 (SMC1255TX)
OS: Windows 2000

Thanks

 

[Mavrick007]

How about trying the video card in your friend's computer? If it works there then it is something to do with the setup or your hardware in your machine, if not then it could be that you have a bad video card and you might have to RMA it.

 

[Actaeon]

You SHOULD have been able to take out the MX, and put the GF4 in its place, without any problems. Thanks to Nvidias Unified Drivers.

You said you did a reinstall of your OS, Perhaps you should try a reformat?

But like Mavrick007 said, Test your card in another computer, if it doesn't work there, you might have to take it back.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, and welcome to Anandtech Forums.

 

[Ziraku]

I've experienced a similar problem to the one you described first. XP setup wouldn't load with the GF4, but would with my old v3.

As for the second part, have you tried leaving the geforce 2 in the slot and just trying to play with it? At least that way you could determine if it's the GF4 that's causing the crashing...

The best way to find out what's causing the problem is isolation i find...keep taking things like the sound card out so you can tell if they're causing the problem...

 

[clstrfbc]

Definately sounds like the vid card is the problem.
Have you thouroghly inspected the card? I read about a batch of TI4400's that had sheared off memory chips that were causing all kinds of strange problems.
Aside from that, I would only ask what PowerSupply you have.

 

[WAJ]

Thanks for the response guys.

As far as i can remember, i never had these problems with my GF2MX card, but im willing to test all possibilties, and i'm gonna try it out in my machine right now.

As for my power supply, its a 300WATT ATX PSU, which should be enough afaik.

Thanks again

WAJ

 

[jjlsevil]

EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM I"M HAVING!!!!! I hope we can find a solution. In the meantime i'll keep checking here for a response. This problem happened to me with 2 different mobos and 2 different os's 2k and xp.

 

[bobdobolina]

I too have had the same problem and found a remedy that worked for me. (thanks to Asus tech support) I had the GF2MX and put in a ti4200, both were ASUS cards. Anyway, it turned out that because the 4200 used WAY more power than the MX, my PS was haveing problems suppying it with "clean"power and it would act in virtually the exact same manner yours does.Mine even only let 3d mark do it's testing if I constantly move the mouse. Otherwise it would crash. In my system I had 2 hd's 2cd's and all my pci slots full. I thinned out my system of unneeded stuff and voila! Maybe check the PS and see if it's 250 and consider a 300 or 350 if it is or ditch some stuff and try it as a bare bones set up to see if the card responds.. Hope this might help a bit and save an RMA.

Bob

 

[Therapist928]

You should check out these posts. I had the exact same problem.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=797601&highlight_key=y

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=801261&highlight_key=y

http://forums.anandtech.com/message...533&highlight_key=y&keyword1=epox and geforce

Basically, all these problems were power related. Don't simply assume that a 300w PSU is enough, because my 400w PSU that was AMD approved couldn't even handle a geforce 4. But my 350w PSU from a quality brand can, without breaking a sweat. I'm willing to bet good money that your PSU is the culprit

Problem Solved.

 

[WAJ]

OK guys

I posted this over at guru3d too, and this SEEMS to have sorted the prob. 300WATTs is enough, but its down to how the mobo distributes the power..

For all of you having instablity problems with your Geforce 4's, try this, its very simple.

Apparently, because the geforce is such a power hog, when under full load, it can "crash" due to not recieving enough power. Typical symptoms are screen lockups and sound looping (which is what i had).

What I was told to try by a m8 of mine is to swap one of my memory DIMMS from slot 1 (my mobo has 3 slots) or 2 too slot 3. This helps keep the geforce upto power under full load, as slots 1 and 2 run off power from the same source as the gfx card (smthn like that), but apparently slot 3 has an independant supply.

Here's the techy bit...."the ram slots share the vdim line 1 an 2 share and 3 and 4 which is also the same line for agp, so by using 1 and 3 u are taking load off the shared 1 an 2 line which shud give the agp a little more voltge."

I know this solution sounds rediculously easy, but i just left my pc running warcraft 3 at 1024x768 in 32bit colour with ALL settings as high as they would go, for about 40 minutes, and everything was OK.

Of course this could be a complete fluke, and once i have my system setup back to the way it was, i'll do some more testing to see if it has really worked.

One more thing you can do to resolve this, if infact this is the problem, is to look in your bios for an adjustable vagp and vdimm voltage settings. By altering these settings, to allow for more power to the agp slot, this SHOULD solve this problem. Only newer boars seem to have this feature, unfortunately, so everyone else, go for the ram theory, this may mean taking out a ram DIMM if your bank is full.

NB: this is only a theory proposed to me by a very technical person, but seems to have worked so far.

Hope this helps

WAJ

 

[jjlsevil]

Update:

Since install would crash on initial setup of xp or 2k, i did this. Started install with 2k and as soon as first reboot happens, i went into bios and then shut down the system. Switched cards and install ran PERFECTLY. The reason i opted to switch cards at this step is due to the fact that when I initially swapped cards I was havin nothing but instabilities. This way setup installs for the card that is there

 

[macius]

yes! you are right waj, i only found this information through a lot of time, food, and beer. I eventually caught on the idea that the damn geforce was so big, must be power-hungry. I guess a lot more power=more fun in 3d.

 

[Ninaholic]

A PSU not supplying necessary power can cause just about every identifiable problem on every piece of hardware in your system.

Most cheapo OEM boxes have bad "HappyTronic SuperMonkey" 300W PSUs which can't even properly supply 250W.

RAM switching is a good band-aid but as soon as you want to add something else to your system you'll hit an even thicker brick wall. Best bet is to buy a new PSU, preferably Topower or Enermax. 300W - 350W (that's constant supply, not maximum supply as some of the cheapo PSUs like to quote) is a good size for your type of system, which will give you plenty of headroom, especially if you upgrade to a new K7 or K8 mobo/processor at some stage in the next year.

But, all of you might already know this and I'm just stating the obvious. You never can tell on forums

 

[uncouth]

Okay, I'm also facing many problems with my new computer that includes power hungry parts including a Geforce4.

Here's my specs:

Iwill XP333 Motherboard
Athlon 1800+
L&C PSU 350W (max) 190W (combined load)
80 gig 7200 Maxtor
some standard DVD drive
some elcheapo ram (which I probably shouldn't have skimped on)


I'm finding that when loading Windows2k I get constant bluescreens of death about random .sys files. Some that have appeared the most are "nv4_mini.sys" and "audstub.sys". Is what I'm facing here possibly power related? In my troubleshooting I took out the Geforce4 and threw in an old ATi Rage Pro, and that's when the errors switched from the nv4_mini.sys to other random errors for a while finally settling on the audstub.sys error. Anyways is this a problem with my power supply? Thanks for any info that can be brought to front... PM if you can help, please!