Opty 185 Freezing in games

[mrbonerman]

Hi all,
I just purchased an opty 185, slapped it in my mobo and fired it up on a fresh XP install (XP was installed using my old FX-53 CPU, did not format again after CPU swap). I am experiencing something very odd, and was wondering if you guys have an opinion on what it might be: when I run any 3D app (tried it on 3 games so far: Crysis, Witcher and Far Cry) I experience the same problem: the game momentarily lock up for a few seconds every minute or so. I have an EVGA 7800 gtx ko, which runs these games on med-high (except for crysis that is )... never had this issue with my FX-53...
Was wondering if it might have to do with the fact that I didn't format XP after having swapped the CPU... i really don't feel like formatting again, hope to find the solution to this annoying problem.
Opty running at stock for now, driver and hotfix applied.
Help me please!

My rig:
AMD Opteron 185
DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
OCZ GameXstream 600W
eGeforce 7800 GTX KO 256mb PCI- E
OCZ Gold GX XTC 2GB (2x1GB) PC4000 DDR
ThermalTake VB1000BWS Soprano mid-tower ATX Black

 

[myocardia]

You'll want to do a repair install of Windows. No need for a reformat, though. If you don't know how to do a repair install, just ask. Oh, welcome to anandtech.

 

[mrbonerman]

Thank you myocardia for your speedy reply!
You guessed what my next question was: I have never done a repair install... I know how to get there... i have already slipstreamed a SP2 XP setup CD, and will boot from it, then select repair instead of a new installation... anything in particular I should do/be aware of?

 

[myocardia]

Well, the only reason I brought it up was that ol Billy Gates was brilliant enough that there are two options for "Repair" in the Windows XP install. You'll want to completely ignore the first one, since it's utterly useless. Tell "Windows" that you want to install Windows again. Then, once you get to the screen where it asks you where you want to install it, select your C: drive, but don't hit Enter. Instead, (with the C: drive selected), hit "R", which is the Repair option.

Once it's through loading Windows, you'll reboot back to Windows looking just like you left it, except most of your options will be baack to their defaults, like Auto Update will be turned on, etc. Also, all of your software will still be installed and useable, and you won't even need to call M$ again. I would, however, backup things like your Favorites (websites, that is), your e-mails if you use Outlook\Outlook Express, your Adress Book, and anything you have in your My Documents folder.

edit: Are you giving your processor 1.35v, in the BIOS? If not, make that change first.

 

[mrbonerman]

I'm doing it as we speak! Hope this works... can't wait to OC this CPU... looks very promising!!!
Thanks again, will keep you posted on results.

 

[betasub]

If you installed with a single-core and then switched to a dual-core, you'll need to change the HAL to recognise this. In Device Manager/Computer, make sure you are running the ACPI Multiprocessor PC driver - if you still have the ACPI Uniprocessor PC driver, then update it to the Multiprocessor version.