Problem with my AMD system

Tiranee

Member
Oct 12, 2000
95
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1st off here are my specs.
1gb Pc133 Memory
Tyan K7A (I think that it or something close)
AMD 1.4 Tbird
Volcano 5 or 6 HSF (Cant remember)
15 and 80 gig hdd's
SB live value
Radeon 64MB SDR (Now called 7000?)
350w PSU from an Antec 830.

Anyway when I set this up and tried to install Win98 or ME it installs okay until I install the creative sb drivers (it won't autodetect, its a pci). Sound works okay. Then installing the Radeon drivers and rebooting it says SB midi won't work and is being disabled and locks up.

So basically I install XP to get past those problems. Now using the latest Radeon drivers the textures look bad on Baldur's Gate II and the game lock up after about 5 - 10 minutes, either by the screen going blank or the screen will stay on but the graphics are frozen but the sounds and battle are still going on. I have tried removing the drivers and using XP drivers and the graphics are SOOOOO much better, but the game CRAWLS...even at 640.

Now I never had this problem on my Intel P3 750. So is it Tyan, AMD,ATI, Creative or a combo thereof.

Any help will be appreciated. Anyway I just ordered a P4 1.8 so I hope to still be able to do something with the AMD.

Also whats and average temp for the AMD 1.4? mine starts at 47 and climbs to 55+.
 

pamf

Senior member
Dec 11, 2000
307
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Your temps are fine .. They could be better, but they're not likely the cause of your problems.. My 1200 @ 1350 runs at about 53c with a coolermaster hsf and some as2..

It sounds like your video card is the problem.. have you overclocked it at all? You should try to get your hands on another one (a gf2 maybe) and see if that helps.. Try checking if theres enough airflow past your video card, too ..
 

RustyNale

Platinum Member
Apr 14, 2001
2,220
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The order of the drivers is crucial--OS, sp's, board, video, nic/modem's, with sound cards last. I'd uninstall the sb and video drivers, reboot, load the video drivers with the latest xp version, then load the sb drivers, again with the latest xp update for them. Also check to make sure that your hsf is mounted correctly to the cpu, heat may be part of the problem, they seem a little high for a t-bird.
 

xospec1alk

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
4,329
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been seeing many issues with AMD and games, me being one of them

Radeon 8500
volcano 7
epox 8kha+
athlon 1900+

i have an 80 mm fan pointed directly at my vid card, and temps are running in the low 40s and games will freeze...sometimes an hour, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.....

i'll try reloading the drivers tonite....hope that works...its starting to piss me off
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81


<< been seeing many issues with AMD and games, me being one of them >>



Both my AMD rigs are rock stable for gaming,it could be the Radeon drivers or anything,did you try a minimal install (clean OS is recommended) also add the PCI cards one at a time,the SB live card might work better in a certain PCI slot so try them all,also install latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers (4.38),few bios tweaks won`t do any harm,disable all video shadowing in bios,disable system bios cacheable,also try setting AGP at 2x in bios if you still have problems at 4x,AGP aperture size should be set at 64 or 128mb.

I`m a hardcore gamer and can tell you I`ve never had any problems with my AMD+VIA boards,btw one has Win98 and the other WinXP OS.
 

xospec1alk

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
4,329
0
0
i've tried my sound card in every slot, and disabled the shadowing, upgraded bios and 4in1s....still locking up...im gonna do a clean install soon...
 

Tiranee

Member
Oct 12, 2000
95
0
0
Well, I took off the 4x AGP mode (It is either on or off) so I don't know if it goes to 2x or 1x. It seems stable now, though I don't think I am getting the full potential out of my card. The card is not overclocked , I never overclock anything.

Also have another question, In the bios under the 4x mode is a (shoot can't remember what its called), but it has setting for DA, D9, D8, etc. What is that?

I just purchased a LEADTEK 7350KDA I am very disapointed in the VIA chipset I think that is most of the problem myself. I have had everything working perfect on a non-via based pentium 3 system, but I put in a via board and things go to hell.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81


<< Also have another question, In the bios under the 4x mode is a (shoot can't remember what its called), but it has setting for DA, D9, D8, etc. What is that? >>



That is the AGP driving value,normally best to leave that at auto setting,unless you know what you are doing.



<< The AGP Driving Value determines the signal strength of the AGP bus. The higher the value, the stronger the signal. The range of Hex values (00 to FF) translates into 0 to 255 in decimal values. By default, the AGP Driving Value is set to DA (218) but if you are using an AGP card based on the NVIDIA GeForce2 line of GPUs, then it's recommended that you set the AGP Driving Value to the higher value of EA (234).

Due to the nature of this BIOS option, it's possible to use it as an aid in overclocking the AGP bus. The AGP bus is sensitive to overclocking, especially in AGP4X mode and with sidebanding enabled. As such, a higher AGP Driving Value may be just what you need to overclock the AGP higher than normally possible. By raising the signal strength of the AGP bus, you can improve its stability at overclocked speeds.

But be very, very circumspect when you increase the AGP Driving Value on an overclocked AGP bus as your AGP card may be irreversibly damaged in the process!

BTW, contrary to some reports, increasing the AGP Driving Value won't improve the performance of the AGP bus. It is not a performance enhancing option so you shouldn't increase the value unless you need to.
>>



Going from 4x AGP to 2x you won`t notice it, I think you only lose 1-2 fps max at present.


 

stockjock

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2000
4,205
2
76
Have you downloaded the latest Via 4in1 drivers...You can get them HERE. I would think you shouldn't have this problem if you loaded XP..but it would hurt to try the latest drivers.
 

xospec1alk

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
4,329
0
0
Alrite, i tried a clean OS, formatted installed my win2k...

put in SP2, then the 4 in 1s, then directx8 then the radeon drivers,

and then i put in the sblive card, and the drivers

loaded tony hawk 3, a lil over half an hour later, it locked up...

im getting frustrated....clues anyone?
 

xospec1alk

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
4,329
0
0
Alrite, i think theres something wrong with my vid card, i was running 3dmark and BAM froze....
 

pamf

Senior member
Dec 11, 2000
307
0
0
Here's something you could both try.. Reinstall XP, and when it says 'Press F6 to install a 3rd party RAID driver' or something like that, hit F5. Go through it and select 'Standard PC' instead of ACPI compliant PC (I can't remember the exact menu) .. Then continue installing XP. XP won't run ACPI, which drops most things onto one IRQ.. I was having major problems with my sound .. I'm guessing my GF2MX was whoring the IRQ, since whenever I did *anything* graphical (even as mundane as opening a menu) the sound would stop for anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds .. disabling ACPI has fixed that.. So what may be happening is your video card is whoring the IRQ and something else in your machine doesn't like it.. so bam, it locks up.

ACPI seems to suck harsh.. The only benefit I can see to it is if you have so many devices that you have no free IRQs.. I still have some things shared, like my Live and one of my nics, but I haven't had any problems, sound or otherwise, since I got rid of it..

You can also disable ACPI without reinstalling windows, by removing it in device manager (been a while since I did it this way so I'm not sure of the specifics) .. but if you do that, XP will want you to reinstall every single driver.. it's messy, so it's better imo to just do a fresh install..