Is My AGP Slot Going Bad? Or is Win XP Pro F'd Up?

[DealMonkey]

Okay, here's a short synopsis of my video probs thus far, perhaps you gurus could straighten me out ...

My current system is about 6 months old. Here's what I'm running:

Abit IC7 mainboard
Antec TruePower 430W PS
Intel P4 3.0 Northwood
1 GB DDR (2 sticks matched pair)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Maxtor 160GB 7.2K HDD
Lite-on 8x DVD burner

Over the course of the last few months, I've had difficulty cold booting. The system would boot up almost into Win XP Pro and then hang for a little and then reboot on its own. That would happen about 3 times (the magic number) before it would give me the login screen and then I could use Windows normally. Since I normally left my system running 24/7, it really didn't bother me too much...

Recently, it started getting worse and spontaneously rebooting while already in Windows. So I started paying attention to the error I was getting and it turns out it was the dreaded "DEVICE DRIVER is STUCK IN INFINITE LOOP" or VPU Recover errors in Windows XP

<insert dramatic music>

So, I proceeded to update to the latest Catalyst drivers. Updated the BIOS to the latest rev. Checked and retested all my DirectX stuff. Everything checked out OK. Only the problem was not going away. In fact, it got so bad, even the BIOS text on bootup was getting garbled. In windows, black boxes and colored lines were garbling the screen. Even in safe mode. It was almost impossible to see what was on the screen with all of the garbage.

I actually swapped in a new vid card today hoping to fix the problem. I dropped in a BFG 6800 AGP card, first clearing out all of the ATI drivers and software. Installed fresh nVidea drivers. Still did the same thing.

The only thing that made any difference was clearing my CMOS (which I actually forgot to do when I updated my BIOS), rebooting into windows and then wading thru the display corruption to turn "hardware acceleration" in WinXP all the way to none.

With hardware acceleration at "none," my system is actually stable. No video corruption, etc.

Of course, I NEED to use hardware acceleration to play games, etc. Anyone have any clue what could be going on with my system? Any help or suggestions would be MOST appreciated! 🙂

 

[mechBgon]

For a really quick thing to try, how about reinstalling your Intel chipset driver package? Also, when you go to bed, fire off Memtest86 and see how your memory checks out, if you didn't try that yet.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
For a really quick thing to try, how about reinstalling your Intel chipset driver package?

Between total system freezes (had to hit the reset button), I grabbed the Intel driver package, ran the executable, went thru the installation process and then rebooted. Is that the correct process? Intel's instructions are pretty confusing. Did that update all my INF files for my system or is there something further I need to do?

Also, just checked the actual error that's causing my lock-ups and spontaneous reboots:

Error caused by NVIDIA® Corporation: No specific solution found

Problem Description:

An unknown error occurred in the NVIDIA Graphics Driver created by NVIDIA® Corporation. If you were not using the product when it crashed, it is possible the application/driver is automatically started. The driver or application may cause problems even if you are not currently using NVIDIA Graphics Driver.

Not sure if that means anything to you... It's pretty vague...

Also, when you go to bed, fire off Memtest86 and see how your memory checks out, if you didn't try that yet.

I will try this next, thanks! I'll post back the details...

 

[imported_Phil]

If you're getting garbage on the screen during POST, then it's definitely not software. However, as you changed the card and the problem was the same, I have to admit that I'm at a bit of a loss.

The only two things I can think of are 1. PSU failing and 2. Northbridge overheating.

Bit of a shot in the dark, TBH 🙂

 

[daveybrat]

I hate to say it, but those symptoms sound like motherboard instability to me.

It's just my opinion, but i hate Abit motherboards. I've had nothing but problems with them in the past
when building them for customers. And a lot of video card issues.

I myself only use MSI or Gigabyte brands and have never experienced any issues as of yet.

Just my own personal experience, and as always, YMMV 😉

P.S. both of my systems at home and about a dozen computer i've built use this board:

Newegg

 

[DealMonkey]

Well, 11 hrs later, memtest is still running. NO errors thus far though, so I'm ready to rule out memory probs.

It is interesting that Dopefiend mentioned the NB overheating. When I first got my Abit IC7 the NB fan was sqealing up a storm and after reading a bunch about potentially replacing it vs. just running without the NB fan, I simply unplugged it. It still has a pretty chunky heatsink on it and it never seemed to get very hot anyway. The general consensus on the Abit forums, etc., was that the fan was superfluous.

I also was thinking that perhaps my Antec 430 truepower PSU wasn't sufficient or that I need to ensure that the power lead to the vid card isn't running other peripherals like drives, etc. I'm going to pop open the case in a few and try giving the vidcard its very own lead.

Other tidbits I gleaned off the Abit forums: Run memory @ 2.8V, get a 500W + PSU, bump AGP voltage up to 1.6V.

Does any of the above shed any light?

I'd hate to have to rebuild this system with a different MB -- it's a last resort ... but I'll do it if I have to...

 

[DealMonkey]

Also, to clarify, the video corruption during POST went away after I cleared my CMOS. It went away under windows when I slid hardware acceleration to none. Even though the display corruption was "fixed" the system would still lockup and/or spontaneously reboot from windows.

 

[DealMonkey]

OK, well I've confirmed it's not the PSU. I just swapped in an Antec Truecontrol 550W PSU and it's still giving me corrupted video. Next up, I'm swapping out the MB...

 

[DealMonkey]

OK, confirmed it was the mainboard. Swapped in a new Abit IS7 to replace the old Abit IC7 and everything works great. Remind me to never unplug a northbridge fan ever, ever, ever again. Even if it sounds like a leer jet taking off ...

😉

Not totally sure if that was it or not. I guess I'll RMA the board and see what Abit has to say about it.

Thanks for everyone's advice.