GF4 lockups - please help.

[Uppity]

Hi,

I'm having a few problems and I'll be really really really grateful to anyone who can help.

I'm upgrading. The new stuff is:

Gigabyte GA7VRXP Mobo
Aopen Aeolus GF4 Ti4200 128Mb
256Mb CL2 PC2100 Kingston Value Ram
Athlon 1900XP
Thermaltake Volcano7+
Enermax 350W PSU (the one with the little fan-speed dial on the back)

I have flashed the Bios of the Mobo to the latest version, installed the latest 4-in-1 drivers. Also the latest detonator drivers (they came with the installation CD)
Using Windows ME with DX8.1

The problem is that a few seconds into any 3d game, the system hangs. Nothing, no reboot - just the repeating sound which it happened to be playing at the time. I have tried a D3D game (Dungeon Siege) and an OGL game (Jedi Outcast) and the same thing happens.

I have also tried different AGP settings in the BIOS, e.g. disabling fastwrite, changing aperture size etc.

Nothing makes any difference - although from what little I've used it so far, it seems fairly stable in none-3d apps. So I'm assuming its something to do with the vid-card.

Any ideas?

 

[dude]

Try reinstalling DX8? And the video driver?

 

[Uppity]

Thanks for the quick response.

I already tried that though. Do you think its worth D/L ing new detonator drivers - just in case those on the CD were corrupt?

I'm currently thinking of re-formatting and starting from scratch with my old OS (Win-98), not that I think it will do any good - just because I'm out of ideas.

 

[Uppity]

Hmm, found this Here

Ge4ti4200 Problem
Dear Sirs,

In fact, I did have the same problem with Gigabyte 7VRXP. I was so frustrated that I called Gigabyte's tech support and, beleive it or not, the tech even admitted that there are major incompatibility issues with the gigabyte motherboards and all the latest Geforce 4 ti series. Not only that, according to the tech, some of Asus' motherboards have the same incompatibility issues.

So I asked him which motherboard doesn't have that issue with Geforce4 TIs, and the tech said the latest MSI's motherboards - like Kt3 ultra - haven't had any problem being reported with Geforce 4ti cards. Quite frankly, I couldn't believe that the tech even revealed the negative fact about his own company's motherboard, and further mentioned about the thrid party's positive point!

Thanks to his advise, I then returned the Gigabyte 7vrxp to newegg and now use MSI's KT3 ultra. Was the tech guy really right, there has been no problem whatsoever! Besides my normal cpu tempreture is around 42C to 46C with a full load - never reached 50's yet!

My specs are: Athlon 1900(agoga chip), MSI's G4ti4200(64mb), MSI's KT3, maxtor quite drive 40gig, samsung pc2700 256mb, Antec performance plus 440w, mitsumi cdrw, mitsumi floppy drive, toshiba dvd, volcano 7, and win xp - maybe this is a killer combination - I get 9500's in 3dmark 2001se, even w/o overclocking any hardware (but I did choose 'ultra' performance in bios setting)!

The bottom line is probably that the motherboard industires are not as yet catching up to the demand of the video card industries; the formar is a bit behind and that the latter seems too-up-to-date. As a result all the probmes are blamed at video cards while, I suspect, the REAL PROBLEM is the lack of development in the motherboard industires.

In any event, if there be a problem in the g4ti video card, I would change the motherboard (let's face it, MSI's KT3, for instance, only consts $77 while g4ti would be at least twice as much).
regards,

S.R.

Anyone else had any experience of this who can maybe back this up or dis-prove it?

 

[Sleater]

You added alot of new hardware.

Did you format your hard drive and re-install your operating system on your new mobo or did you simply transfer your old hard drive onto the new motherboard?

If you answer the latter I would highly recommend a fresh install of Windows.

 

[VicodiN]

Ive had problems with my Geforce when it was sharing IRQs with my SB Live soundcard... Once I changed them so they werent sharing, I havent had a problem since...

 

[FTemplar]

all i can say is that i have no problems with my GF4 / Asus MB combo. it's an A7V333-WA if you mind

 

[Uppity]

I looked around the web a bit more. There was someone who had the same problem, upped the vcore which stopped the crashes. He then contacted Gigabyte and recieved a replacement board from them. The new board he had actually had visually different power regulation chips - and he went on to describe them. It seemed that mine were the same as on his older version. Also someone else was recording the Vcore voltage dropping below the AMD threshold as he ran 3D apps.

So I got home, and upped the Vcore voltage. It was stable at +7.5%. But as a result my cpu was running a bit warm.

I then contacted Gigabyte this morning and they confirmed that there was an early batch of boards with this fault. It is only a problem with the GF4s - due to the power they draw.

So I think I'll be returning mine and asking for a new one.

Thanks for the advice anyway guys!