Geforce2 GTS stutter, Need Help (SOLVED!)

[chexi]

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be greatful.

I just installed my Elsa Gladiac Geforce2 GTS 32 DDR last night and I get a stutter in games. Mr 3dmark2000 scores seem fine, but every few seconds I get a pause in games now.

My system:

AMD T-bird 1ghz (not overclocked)
MSI K7T Pro 2-a
256 Mb generic PC-133 RAM at CAS3
Soundblaster Live X-Gamer
D-Link 350TX+ Nic
KDS 17" A7T Avitron Monitor (on a KVM shared with server)
All on WinME (I'll be reverting back to 98se eventually)

I've tried the drivers that came with the Gladiac. I've also tried the beta Nvidia drivers. I have my system BIOS set for AGP 4x and I have it set to DA (I've also tried auto). I've disabled fastwrites and video shadowing. I've assigned the card its own IRQ.

I have not yet flashed the card BIOS, as I usually consider this a last resort, but if people have had to do it to fix this problem, please advise. Any other suggestions would be most appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Chexi

P.S. Try out my dedicated MW4 server (Chexi's Game)

 

[Daaavo]

What do you have the AGP aperature size set to in the BIOS????

 

[lsd]

Turn off agp 4x.

 

[chexi]

I first had the AGP memory set to 64. Then I changed to 256, still had the problem. Then I changed to 128 and still have the problem.

If I change to 2x will I lose performance?

 

[yuckck]

i kinda have the same problem with an mx card, but only in one game, ultima ix. every 2, 3 second or so, there's a pause. no idea what's happening at all.

 

[fulopd]

same problem here with a 3D Prophet GTS Pro 64.

 

[Hanpan]

Are you running win2k by any chance? I had the same problem in Win2k. I found using the latest official drivers with dx7 solved the problem.

 

[chexi]

I'm running WinMe. To be honest, I've only checked one game so far (Mechwarrior 4). But the stuttering in that game is bad, which was non-exhistant with my Voodoo3. I had to install DirectX8 for MW4, so I'm running WinMe with Directx4

 

[bacillus]

<<If I change to 2x will I lose performance? >>
in most real world applications (as opposed to benchmarking),you are unlikely to see or notice any difference in performance.

 

[fulopd]

So, then what is the point of 4x?

 

[bacillus]

since you have a SBlive, try increasing the spindown time in disc detector under advanced!

 

[chexi]

Hmm. I have disabled disk detector. Might that be the problem?

 

[Daemonx]

Try disabling the sound card in Device Manager... I had this same problem with Quake 3 stuttering and upon disabling the sound card everything worked.. It might have something to do with sound card drivers or the motherboard.

 

[Pearman]

Or you could download the latest sound card drivers.

That wouldnt hurt either way.

 

[chexi]

I believe I have the latest soundblaster drivers, but I'll check to be sure.

 

[rhinox99]

My friend has the exact same problem with the same card in WinMe.

At the end, he just gave up and went back to 98se and the problem went away. I suspect it was a video driver bug of some sort. It happened when he played rogue spear or any 3d intensive game

 

[demenion]

This might help

Linky

 

[chexi]

I am unfamilar with Cachman. Is that a 3rd party program out there (in which case I'm not using it), or is it some default progam in windows or some other program I've likely installed?

 

[Daemonx]

I noticed the stuttering only in certain levels of Quake which was very odd. I could never pinpoint the problem but I knew it had something to do with the sound card and the motherboard. I bought an A7V to replace my MSI and never had any of those problems which tells me my problem may have been something not set right in the bios.

 

[DaBoogieman]

I get this sometimes when the game or benchmark accesses the HD. At all other times its fine. I thought this was normal, is it not?

Gladiac Geforce2GTS
Asus K7V
Athlon 800@900
Maxtor 40 gig
SBLive Xgamer 5.1

 

[igowerf]

What kind of stuttering is it? If you have vsync turned off, movement may seem a little choppy in 3D games.

 

[chexi]

The stuttering is really a pause about every 3 seconds. It seems almost like a disk access, but I never had it with my Voodoo3 card. The only new component is the Gladiac, so it must have something to do with it, or its interaction with other components (i.e., sound card or mobo). The pause is breif, but very annoying, and will get me killed in most online games. I have the onboard sound disabled in the BIOS (I've never had it on).

Unfortunately, I'm not home right now and won't be for a bit, so I can't test out these suggestions for a few hours. But I will post the success/failure as soon as I can.

 

[lsd]

Check if the video card is sharing an irq with another device. I have a similar system running win2k and I don't have the same problem.

 

[chexi]

The Irq sharing is an interesting point. I thought I checked and assigned the card IRQ 9 in the BIOS, but I only checked my soundcard and network card (only other cards in there). Is there anything else that could be using the IRQ?

I also was thinking about setting up a multi-boot for the machine with 2000 pro. If will do that also and see if the problem continues to exist. Of course, I want to go from ME back to 98se anyway, so I will have to do that first.

 

[borealiss]

i've has some stuttering problems with some games, including mw4, but not as bad as you. i have a sblive! live you and a geforce sdr. i'm on win2k, so i don't know if this feature is available in winME. i turned all directsound acceleration off, similar to turning down video acceleration with the slider bar. in win2k, it's under the &quot;sounds and multimedia&quot; section in control panel, so maybe winME has something similar. i also noticed that this only occurs after i installed directx 8.0. hope this helps.