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Old system problems: Geforce DDR KT133

S

SXMP

Senior member
Searched everywhere, can't find any answers.

Trying to get an old computer running:
AMD Tbird 700Mhz
Epox 8kta2
Geforce DDR
SBLive Value (removed now)

Have reformatted 4 times. The last one was without the SBLive.
Have tried the lastest VIA 4in1s from Epox's website, lastest dets, service pack for Xp, and also tried all original drivers found by xp off a clean install.

No matter what, every time I try a game (NFS3, Dungeon Keeper 2, Half-Life) in either OpenGL or Direct3d, it freezes up hard after about 10 seconds.

Tried all sorts of BIOS settings. Help!

EDIT: the solution was to increave the motherboard voltage!
 
Run some Memtest86, and test your hard drive. Please also tell us more about bios settings: did you loosen ram timings, bump up voltage etc? And is this a new problem?
 
Sorry for the lack of info before:

Setting up Memtest86 right now, will let you know results.

Hard disk: Maxtor 7200rpm 13gb (has never given me a problem) also only games seem to be affected. Applications run fine.

This is a new problem. This computer used to be my main rig, about a year ago. I reformatted it yesterday before even trying it. It used to run fine.

Voltage is default as well as cpu and fsb settings.

Ram timings: 3-6-3 (obviously lowest)

Tried AGP 4x, 2x, 1x. I seem to remember in the past that I had read somewhere a problem similiar where someone changed the AGP driving control to manual, and then the value to "something8" can't remember though. Haven't tried as their are many options.

More in a few min.

EDIT: Should mention that the ram, 256mb is generic, but has always worked. We will see what MemTest86 says
 
Memtest86 v3.0
------
AMD Athlon 701.5Mhz
L1 Cache 128k 4303MB/s
L2 Cache 256k 1224MB/s
Memory 256M 201MB/s
Chipset vt8386

WallTime Cached RsvdMem MemMap Cache ECC Test Pass Errors ECC Errors
30:15 256M 76k e820-Std on off Std 1 0 0

And its 45% on its 2nd pass now. Memory seems fine.


 
Another thing: I had tried the first 2 clean installs with an old bios. The last 2 I've tried with the lastest from Epox's website.
 
I was having the same problem with my brother's system here.

There is a known conflict between the Sound Blaster Live! series and motherboards with the KT133 chipset, and that's why I switched to Turtle Beachs in both of my systems a while ago.

Essentially, all memory tests passed, but in games it would either lock up or crash. I took out either stick of memory and the freezing stops, and that's where I am now. All of these problems had really been brought back to life after installing the official Creative drivers for the sound card.

 
2 Things:

Doesn't even work WITHOUT the SBlive at all.

However,

games run in software mode, could it be my geforce ddr?
 
First, I tried the same stick in a different slot, took 30s more to hang than usual.

Next, tried an identical stick from a different system: took about 1 minute more than usual to hang. Arg.
 
Also take a look here and potentially here (alot of fixes there, many for the KT133 (Only for A7V, but that shouldn't matter, AFAIK this is a chipset problem), I ended up going 30+ pages back and I found some good stuff along the way involving this problem).
 
Originally posted by: NYHoustonman
Also take a look here and potentially here (alot of fixes there, many for the KT133 (Only for A7V, but that shouldn't matter, AFAIK this is a chipset problem), I ended up going 30+ pages back and I found some good stuff along the way involving this problem).
Click to expand...

Checked the first link yesterday night. Read it all, nothing of help. Might try searching the 2nd tonight.

Other news: tried it with 2 sticks of the ram, and not only did windows run faster, but the game crashed faster too! proof its the ram? not quite sure.

Do I dare throw my 9800 pro into the comp to rule out the vid card?

EDIT: just a reminder, everything I have done since the beginning of this post has been WITHOUT the sblive off a clean install.
 
The Geforce DDR sucked alot of juice, it could be that your board isnt providing it with enough power. I know this is a problem with some of the old slot athlon boards, not sure about the kt133 though.
 
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
The Geforce DDR sucked alot of juice, it could be that your board isnt providing it with enough power. I know this is a problem with some of the old slot athlon boards, not sure about the kt133 though.
Click to expand...

I would worry about that if only it hadnt run correctly for 4 years. Also this is a socket A board. But it could be that its messed up. I wish I had more older parts to swap around.

Also, an update, it appears games seem to work (indefinatley) under software mode. Even at high resolutions. So I really think this has to be a driver issue or a vid card issue.

Im thinking now about throwing my old hd and geforce into my new system http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=35882. Test the vid card with a known working mobo, ram, and processor. Any thoughts?
 
changed DRAM CLK to 100mhz from 133: lasted 3 minutes before hanging! I thought for sure I had finally figured it out! dang!
 
Originally posted by: NYHoustonman
Is there a way for you to up the motherboard voltage (the +3.3v thing), that helped me alot.
Click to expand...

THANK YOU! As someone who probably has spent numerous hours hunched frustrasted over a computer that doesnt work like it should, you probably understand how awesome I feel now that it does!

Upped the voltage of teh 3.3 rail to 3.45 and EVERYTHING WORKS GREAT!

Now time to push my luck and see if I can get the sblive to work too =)

Thanks a million!
 
Yep, no problem, glad to see it's fixed 🙂... I felt the same way, only more gradually, when I began figuring out wtf was wrong with my A7V.
 
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