HELP! Bad lag with Radeon 9500 pro

[ACWingit]

Have had nothing but frustration since purchasing a Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro video card.
I have:

AMD Athlon 1.1 ghz processor
Shuttle AK31 v3.1 mobo with LT266A chipset
512 mb DDR RAM
Radeon 9500 pro 128 mb

Am currently running DirectX 9.0B
Win 98 SE

The problem occurs while attempting to play games.
The video will freeze up frequently and then resume playing.
In other words, all movement/graphics will stop for 10-30 seconds. Then play will resume again as if everything is normal. Needless to say, this is not usable for gaming.
I did not have these problems when I had a Geforce2 MX 32mb card.

The only other thing which might be related is that the CPU is running very hot since I installed this card. Typically between 65-70 degrees C. I have been runnining Motherboard monitor and all voltages and fans appear to be operating normally.

I have updated the video drivers to the latest found on the ATI site.

I'm getting desperate for new ideas and gladly welcome any suggestions.

 

[GusBot]

You hearing any sound stutters at the same time? I used to get stutters often on my old SBlive value card - it just didnt get along with my Via chipset motherboard.
Try turning the sound off in your game see if the stutters go away.

~GusBot

 

[ACWingit]

One of the games we run is ALWAYS run with the sound off.
And also, I'm using the onboard sound on the motherboard. I don't have a separate sound card.

 

[modedepe]

I might guess psu..How big and what brand is yours?

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: ACWingit
Have had nothing but frustration since purchasing a Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro video card.
I have:

AMD Athlon 1.1 ghz processor
Shuttle AK31 v3.1 mobo with LT266A chipset
512 mb DDR RAM
Radeon 9500 pro 128 mb

Am currently running DirectX 9.0B
Win 98 SE

The problem occurs while attempting to play games.
The video will freeze up frequently and then resume playing.
In other words, all movement/graphics will stop for 10-30 seconds. Then play will resume again as if everything is normal. Needless to say, this is not usable for gaming.
I did not have these problems when I had a Geforce2 MX 32mb card.

The only other thing which might be related is that the CPU is running very hot since I installed this card. Typically between 65-70 degrees C. I have been runnining Motherboard monitor and all voltages and fans appear to be operating normally.

I have updated the video drivers to the latest found on the ATI site.

I'm getting desperate for new ideas and gladly welcome any suggestions.

Try turning off fastwrites and make sure there are no background applications running. It might be a good idea to switch to Windows XP as well. Also, I'd suggest you visit Rage3D and take a look at their technical help forum. You may find the answer you're looking for there.

 

[FearoftheNight]

switch to agp 4x

 

[Viper96720]

Originally posted by: FearoftheNight
switch to agp 4x

That board is a 4x agp board. I don't think the problem is the video card. Since the slow downs are severe. Unless your trying to push the card too hard.

 

[Mem]

I did not have these problems when I had a Geforce2 MX 32mb card.

Did you do a clean install of OS?If not I recommend you use Driver Cleaner 1.9 from
here ,also won`t do no harm ruling out any temp problem so try it with case open or stick some case fans in there,clean out any dust on your CPU fan.

 

[ACWingit]

I'll try to address all the comments:

The PSU: unfortunately i can't find any markings on the psu without removing it from the case which I really would prefer not to do right now. So I can't answer that one.

Joker....FastWrites are already off. I will definitely check out the link you sent, thanks. As far as turning off background tasks is concerned, I believe we've experimented with that and it didn't help but I'll try it again.

Yes, the mobo is 4xagp and the settings for the radeon card reflect this.

Regarding the OS - no I didn't not reinstall the OS but I did use the driver cleaner software to remove the Geforce drivers before installing the ATI drivers.

And yes, I know I should switch to XP but not until I can figure out how to get it cheap. Seems ridiculous to me to spend another $100 on a machine that isn't worth much more than that.

any more ideas? At one point in the past there were known driver issues with the Radeon card which caused this problem however those were supposed to be fixed in the June driver update. Has anyone heard more about that? Could this still be driver related?

Many thanks!

 

[Mem]

Try reinstalling the VIA AGP driver,also does this happen with any game,is it Opengl or D3D as well? A good PSU is important.

 

[cobra77]

I also have a Shuttle AK31 rev3.1 (kt266a chipset)
I am also running onboard AC97 sound and Windows 98SE.
I was having crashes/lockups with my Radeon 8500 board in Morrowind
and a couple of other games.

#1) make sure you have updated to the latest bios for your motherboard
currently AK31s2ei which can be found at the Shuttle websight.

#2) Make sure you are running Via 4in1 drivers no higher then version 4.38
Windows 98 does not play well with the newer versions, they state this on their website
and also many references are made to this in thier forums. I recomend version 4.35v which
can be found in the tweakers section of the ViaArena websight drivers page. This seems to
be the most stable version for Windows 98 and is the one I run on both my Systems with
Via chips and Win98.

#3) If these 2 changes do not fix your problem then also make sure you are using updated
Via comboAudio drivers for you AC97 onboard sound. The ones on the Shuttle websight
are old versions from 2001 and newer drivers from the via websight may work better.
Also set your sound acceleration to basic, This can be done from the System Info/DirectX diagnostic
screen. (sound can often be the cause of freezes in games especially in Direct X).

Hope this helps. I know how frustrating it is to have regular Game freezes/crashes and these changes
fixed mine.

PS: 65c-70c is kind of toasty you may want to get some arctic silver thermal greese and reinstall
your heatsink using it (this lowerd the temp of my Athlon 1600XP by 8 degrees). most heatsinks
are installed using thermal pads which are not very good. Instructions for use are on the
Arctic silver websight.

 

[MemberSince97]

Originally posted by: cobra77
I also have a Shuttle AK31 rev3.1 (kt266a chipset)
I am also running onboard AC97 sound and Windows 98SE.
I was having crashes/lockups with my Radeon 8500 board in Morrowind
and a couple of other games.

#1) make sure you have updated to the latest bios for your motherboard
currently AK31s2ei which can be found at the Shuttle websight.

#2) Make sure you are running Via 4in1 drivers no higher then version 4.38
Windows 98 does not play well with the newer versions, they state this on their website
and also many references are made to this in thier forums. I recomend version 4.35v which
can be found in the tweakers section of the ViaArena websight drivers page. This seems to
be the most stable version for Windows 98 and is the one I run on both my Systems with
Via chips and Win98.

#3) If these 2 changes do not fix your problem then also make sure you are using updated
Via comboAudio drivers for you AC97 onboard sound. The ones on the Shuttle websight
are old versions from 2001 and newer drivers from the via websight may work better.
Also set your sound acceleration to basic, This can be done from the System Info/DirectX diagnostic
screen. (sound can often be the cause of freezes in games especially in Direct X).

Hope this helps. I know how frustrating it is to have regular Game freezes/crashes and these changes
fixed mine.

PS: 65c-70c is kind of toasty you may want to get some arctic silver thermal greese and reinstall
your heatsink using it (this lowerd the temp of my Athlon 1600XP by 8 degrees). most heatsinks
are installed using thermal pads which are not very good. Instructions for use are on the
Arctic silver websight.

Good Info....