New System with AMD 761 Freezes

[Gaunt]

The relevant specs for my system are as follows:

AMD Athlon 1.4 (266 fsb)
MSI K7 Master (AMD 761/VIA 686B), bios rev 1.2
Nanya 256MB PC2100 @ CAS2
SB Live! 5.1
Asus v8200 Geforce3

For some reason the system keeps freezing when I try to start any games. Usually the freeze is during the intro animation for the game. I have tried Tribes 2, Unreal Tournament, and Mech Commander 2, all have the same problem. Sometimes I can get the game to function for a short period by using OpenGL instead of D3D.

This problem seems to only start after the AMD AGP drivers for the 761 northbridge are installed. Without them installed the AGP runs considerably slower than it should but the games don't freeze. I have tried different versions of the amd driver, none of them have worked. For reference, I have had this problem with and without the VIA 4 in 1 drivers installed for IDE only, and all other drivers are up to date. I have also tried a different video card (Asus v7200 Geforce2 MX) and gotten the same results.

The Operating System also doesn't seem to matter as I've tried Windows 2000 and Windows ME; both have the same problem. In all cases 3DMark 2001 runs perfectly, giving results on par with those available online if the AMD AGP driver is loaded, and considerably lower if it is not (ie: 5770 3DMarks when loaded, 2400 when not).

Someone mentioned that the problem may be the RAM, although I can't see why 3DMark 2001 would work properly and not games if it was the RAM.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[JayBone]

When you had Win2k on the system, was it updated to sp2?

I had similar problems with Deus Ex with sp1, but they dissappeared when I upgraded it to sp2.
If I could remember how, I'd tell you, but for Tribes 2, skip the intro. Alot of people have had problems with that, apparently because of not having, or having an incorrect version of the codec needed.

 

[Gaunt]

Yes, for Win2k I had service pack 2 installed, and for Windows ME I had system recovery disabled and all available critical updates installed. I'll see if I can manage to skip the intro for Tribes 2. The problem makes even less sense since I don't believe the intro for Unreal Tournament is video playback. I think it's rendered as it's shown, which means it shouldn't be affected if it is a codec or similar problem. Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion. I'm saving them all up for when I get home for work tonight.