HELP! 3dmark2001 score dropped in Half

[PassatVR6]

I posted this to Madonion.com without much help, maybe you guys can figure this one out! Here are the msges I posted:

My 3dmark 2001 Scores used to be above 2100, now every time i get about 1100!!

Does anybody have any ideas? Here is my system:

Thunderbird 850 on EPOX 8KTA3 board
Hercules GF2 MX
512MB PC133 Ram
Netgear 311 100bit ethernet card
Phillips Acoustic Edge
IBM GXP75 30.7GB
Pioneer 8X DVD
Windows 2000 SP1

I have been running the VIA 4.29 drivers, the Detonator 10.80 , and DX8. I have tried reloading all of them but that doesnt help.

I have also been trying to mess with various NVidia Tweak programs but they have a very slim effect on the score. I still score ~1150 or so.

Here are 2 of my tests, the first one is one of my "good" scores from earlier: 2120
http://gamershq.madonion.com/products/orb/?3d2k1_details.shtml?&prid=518878


Here is my most recent test which is: 1167
http://gamershq.madonion.com/products/orb/?3d2k1_details.shtml?&prid=563464

Please, Please help me out. This happened to me before so I formatted and reloaded windows and my
scores were back to normal. But now They are back down to the 1100 range. ARGH!

WCPUId says this about my AGP settings:
Data Rate: 4X
Fast Writes: ENABLED
4GB Adressing: Not Supported | Disabled
Side band Adressing: Supported |DISABLED

I have tried enabling SBA with NVMax but it still says Disabled under WCPUId.

Any ideas or tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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yes i have Vsync and AntiAliasing Disabled.

I have an update with the prob:

I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers then it made me reboot my PC once i rebooted i reinstalled the Nvidia drivers and ran 3dmark 2001 and my score was back up to the 2100 range.

Once I reboot my computer again, the scores go back down to 1100 , this is Very annoying. Additionally, it sets my Monitor to Default Monitor and I cant change it.
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Okay guys I spent atleast 3 hours last night screwing around with this thing and Im about ready to give up. It is just frustrating the hell out of me.

I tried many times to uninstall / clean out all the drivers then reload them (both the Via 4.29's and the Detonator 10.80s -- also tried 6.50s) and the same thing happens. Once i reboot the system after loading the drivers and running the test, the score goes from ~2100 to ~1100.

I did notice something that is probably part of the problem:

When I first install the video card drivers, the GF2MX is loaded on IRQ 7 and it seems to get the good scores here.

Now, once i reboot , the GF2MX is loaded on IRQ 11 and it scores really low.

I noticed that IRQ 11 is also shared between 4 devices: the GF2MX, Netgear Ethernet, Phillips AE Sound card, and USB controller.

Could this be the reason the scores are dropping? ie: the resources for IRQ11 are all shared between the devices causing it to slow down?

The catch22 is, Windows2000 will not allow me to change the IRQ of the GF2MX Video card. How can i get it back over to IRQ 7?? When i goto device manager and goto GF2MX properties, Resources, There is no option to change the Resources, it is grayed out.

Any ideas? Sorry for the long post

 

[nippyjun]

Does anything else on your sytem run slower? When you play real games do they seem 50% slower? Have any of the 3dmarks setting been changed? Take out the network and sound card and see what happens when you run the benchmark.

 

[PassatVR6]

Yeah, the only game i have loaded is Serious Sam retail and it seems to run a lil choppy when 3dmark2k1 is running slowly. I guess I should find another benchmark program and see what kind of numbers i'm producing there and do more comparisons.

 

[PassatVR6]

well, does anybody know how to change the IRQ of the Video card in windows 2000? because it wouldnt let me thru the device manager, any other way to do it?

 

[PassatVR6]

well i tried taking out the network card and sound card then uninstalling the Via & Nvidia drivers then reloading them..,
still SUCKS
also disabled ACPI in my bios then windows wont even load up it just reboots when its about to go into windows..

this is so FRUSTRATING im about to rip this mother f'ing GF2MX out of the box, slam it against the wall, and go buy another video card