Problems with 9700 and DirectX games

[Cord]

I am having problems with the following DirectX games with my new Radeon 9700 Pro.

Master Rallye
Mafia
Strike Fighters
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

I am running the most current Catalyst 2.3 drivers from the ATI website (12/9/02), and I know that a specific patch was released for Mafia, but I am not using that since the Catalyst 2.3 drivers were released after this patch, and I presume they have incorporated the fix. It seems that each game will freeze in the same place. Here is a rundown of the problem in each game:

Master Rallye: This game works fine on most tracks, but one track in particular will freeze at exactly the same place (just as I approach a bridge). This suggests a problem with the DirectX driver when a certain combination of effects are drawn. I have to hard reset to clear the error.

Mafia will freeze with a black screen just before the user-interaction part of the game starts (after all the intros and menus). After about 10 seconds, both of my monitors actually shutdown to powersaving mode. On reboot I get a Windows XP message saying the the display drivers for the Radeon 9700 device caused the previous system instability.

Strike Fighters. This game does the same as Mafia.

Serious Sam 2 works fine in OpenGL, but if I try with DirectX it will freeze in some areas. It will always freeze as soon as I start the technology test level in DirectX mode.

Here are the details of my computer taken from Sandra Pro. - Rob

Processor(s)
Model : AMD Athlon(tm) processor
Speed : 1.33GHz
Model Number : 1333 (estimated)
Performance Rating : PR1773 (estimated)
L2 On-board Cache : 256kB ECC synchronous write-back

Mainboard and BIOS
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI USB SMBus/i2c
MP Support : No
System BIOS : Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG
Mainboard : <http://www.abit.com.tw> 8363-686A(KT7[A][-RAID],KT7E)
System Chipset : Abit Computer Corp KT7A Mainboard System Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 133MHz (266MHz data rate)
Installed Memory : 512MB SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 1x 133MHz (133MHz data rate)

Video System
Desktop Monitors : 2
Monitor/Panel : Iiyama A201HT, VisionMaster Pro 510
Monitor/Panel : Dell 1501FP(Digital)
Adapter : RADEON 9700 Series
Adapter : RADEON 9700 Series - Secondary

 

[BFG10K]

Firstly, why on earth are your running Serious Sam in Direct3D mode when OpenGL works far better?

but I am not using that since the Catalyst 2.3 drivers were released after this patch, and I presume they have incorporated the fix.

False. You still need to apply the patch over the Catalyst 2.3s. And do you have the latest chipset drivers and BIOS for your system? And how's your power supply?

Also you might like to load safe defaults in your BIOS to see if that helps.

 

[Cord]

Firstly, why on earth are your running Serious Sam in Direct3D mode when OpenGL works far better?

Only as a test.

False. You still need to apply the patch over the Catalyst 2.3s.

Ok I'll give it a go, but with 2.2 and that patch I still got the same problems.

And do you have the latest chipset drivers and BIOS for your system? And how's your power supply?

Latest Via 4-in-1's and just updated the BIOS, which did say it fixed a compatibilty issue with XP and GeForce 4x00 so I was hopeful, but alas exact same problems. Power supply is 300W with only 1 HD and 2 CD drives so should be ok. Also the crashes are happening at the same place in each game, PSU problems I would imagine would be more random.

Also you might like to load safe defaults in your BIOS to see if that helps.

I'll give that a go. I did try with all the quality settings of the ATI driver down to the lowest as well. Remember I am not having a single problem with OpenGL. I'm running DX8.1 (on XP) and am sure the system is clean as I only installed it a few weeks ago, and I made sure I didn't install any NVidia tweaks before changing gfx card from my Geforce 3.

Rob

 

[Cord]

Can anyone just verify that they can run Serious Sam 2 v1.07 in DirectX. Mine hangs everytime as soon as the tech test level is loaded and displayed. However if I run it with OpenGL and walk into a building, I can then change to DirectX and it will work without crashing for a while (probably until I go outside again, I'll have to check)

 

[Cord]

UPDATE

OK I installed the Mafia patch from ATI, and that fixed that. However it didn't fix any of my other DirectX problems.

When Strike Fighters crashes and I have to reboot, XP comes up with an error log of the last crash. Here is what it says:

//
// Watchdog Event Log File
//

LogType: Watchdog
Created: 2002-09-13 12:57:38
TimeZone: 0 - GMT Standard Time
WindowsVersion: XP
EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//
// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device
// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//

ShutdownCount: 78
Shutdown: 0
EaRecovery: 1
EventCount: 4
BreakCount: 4
BugcheckTriggered: 1
DebuggerNotPresent: 1
DriverName: ati2dvag
EventFlag: 1
DeviceClass: Display
DeviceDescription: RADEON 9700 Series
HardwareID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E44&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000D 000A1816 0006000D 000A1816 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000
DriverCompanyName: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFileDescription: ATI Radeon WindowsNT Display Driver
DriverFileVersion: 6.13.10.6166
DriverInternalName: ati2dvag.dll
DriverLegalCopyright: Copyright (C) 1998-2002 ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverOriginalFilename: ati2dvag.dll
DriverProductName: ATI Radeon Family
DriverProductVersion: 5.1.2600.0

 

[gregor7777]

The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device
// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//




Ahhh, the infinite loop. The reason I went to ATi in the first place. Only to get it back with my 8500 and Morrowind, and solved with a BIOS fix. A VIA issue as I had proclaimed 8 months ago? I still think so. (BTW, my PS is a Antex 400w)

Anyhow, that sucks. The infinite loop has been the bane of many a gamer for quite a while now. Both Nvidia and ATi have suffered.

 

[coloumb]

Does this infamous infinite loop mainly happen on VIA chipset mobo's? Or does it not matter what flavour chipset?

I guess this is the price we pay for companies releasing high speed products so quickly - very little testing on their part only to leave the testing to the consumer.

 

[Nukelear]

Well I'm getting the same problem in Giants, GTA3 and Warcraft3. So far Black and White is the only game that doesn't do it (it's GL I'm guessing, not sure).

WinXP no SP1, SiS (the FS51) chipset with the latest AGP driver and the latest ATI driver.

Any ideas how to fix this? I've tweaked my bios around every which way with no luck.
Will a switch to 2000 help? Should i keep harrassing ATI? Please god help me! Is this what I get for straying from Nvidia??

 

[Cord]

Well, the latest casualty to my DirectX problems with the Radeon 9700 is the UT2003 demo. It will always do it during the Asbestos Botmatch benchmark, about 20 seconds in just as the guy runs towards the large circular bit, it will freeze everytime. Here is the bug report again:

//
// Watchdog Event Log File
//

LogType: Watchdog
Created: 2002-09-14 20:27:54
TimeZone: 0 - GMT Standard Time
WindowsVersion: XP
EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//
// The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This
// usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device
// driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//

ShutdownCount: 90
Shutdown: 0
EaRecovery: 1
EventCount: 5
BreakCount: 5
BugcheckTriggered: 1
DebuggerNotPresent: 1
DriverName: ati2dvag
EventFlag: 1
DeviceClass: Display
DeviceDescription: RADEON 9700 Series
HardwareID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E44&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000D 000A1816 0006000D 000A1816 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000
DriverCompanyName: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFileDescription: ATI Radeon WindowsNT Display Driver
DriverFileVersion: 6.13.10.6166
DriverInternalName: ati2dvag.dll
DriverLegalCopyright: Copyright (C) 1998-2002 ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverOriginalFilename: ati2dvag.dll
DriverProductName: ATI Radeon Family
DriverProductVersion: 5.1.2600.0

 

[BFG10K]

and am sure the system is clean as I only installed it a few weeks ago, and I made sure I didn't install any NVidia tweaks before changing gfx card from my Geforce 3.

Did you correctly remove all traces of the GeForce3 before you swapped the cards? If not that could be your problem.

Also reinstalling the problematic games (or just clearing the configs) might help if they are applying GF3 settings when you run them. And be sure they are patched to the latest versions.

The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop.

That usually means there's a problem with the motherboard itself, either with the hardware or with the configuration. The infinite loop issue has been covered many times in this forum and among the solutions presented were:
-Don't overclock anything.
-Upgrade your power supply.
-Use safe settings in the BIOS.
-Use AGP x1 and disable all advanced AGP functions (fastwrites, side band addressing etc).
-Make sure you have the latest chipset drivers and BIOS for your system.
-Check your system components for overheating.
-Remove all RAM sticks except 1 and make sure you are using very relaxed memory timings.

Does this infamous infinite loop mainly happen on VIA chipset mobo's? Or does it not matter what flavour chipset?

It happens more with VIA but it's been confirmed with other boards too. I still think it's flaky motherboards that cause it and I know the Abit KT7a has been mentioned a few times in the past.