Strange problems.....

[HumblePie]

I recently upgraded to a 700 mhz t-bird and an abit k7T board. Once I did this I ran my normal benchmarks (hadn't overclocked yet) and whenever I started to run a 3D game or benchmark my comp would lockup and crash. My current configuration is the abit k7t board, t-bird 700 with the "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy" heatsink from taisol, sound blaster live, Creative TNT2 Ultra, an Aopen fax/data/voice modem, 2 case fans, 50x APCI cdrom, HP 8200i CDRW 4x2x24x, a mitsumi floppy drive, and a 20.5G WD HD @ 7200rpms. Funny thing is with the TNT2 card it locks up, when I try with a friend's GeForce or Voodoo card I don't get the system lockups. On the other hand if I put my abit Bx6r2 board with celeron 333@500 back in my system the TNT2 card has no more problems. I've returned the chip and mobo twice and tried everything I could think of! I've underclocked the TNT2, underclocked the chips, flash and reflashed all bios', installed current versions of all drivers and went back a few driver versions and check with those. I fiddled around in the bios and and messed with anything related to video, cpu, memory settings to find a stable solution. I've used every diagnostic/tweak/monitoring software I could think of to solve my delima but nothing seems to work... HELP ME PLEASE!!

HumblePie <----- the one about to go bald from pulling my own hair out

 

[AC]

Unofficial KT7 FAQ

 

[HumblePie]

Okay last night I went an re-installed everything again... this time I installed (and double checked to make sure) the newest drivers. This includes the 4-in-1 drivers, the AGP VIA drivers, and the 6.47 beta det3 driversfor my TNT2 Utra card. It got more stable but not completely. Where as before I could only play a few games (halflife, unreal, 3d mark 2000, final reality, and 2d games) I could play a few more games without crashing within 2 minutes everytime (rogue squadron, xwing alliance, heavy gear 2, and a couple others I was able to test). I was also able to OC my chip again to 963 and things were running smoothly in those applications... but there were still a few more apps that wouldn't work (EQ, thief 2, baldur's gate 2, unreal tournament, and a few others). I guess I win some and loss some... any ideas? and thanks for the informative FAQ, it just needs a bit more to solve my problems

 

[rempe]

Whats your ram settings? try backing them down

 

[nilanjan]

Looks to me you might have a power supply problem. since your system worka with a different processor which consumes less power. Try upgrading the wattage of your power supply. good luck!!!1

 

[HumblePie]

Rempe, it's not the memory, running mushkin PC133 CAS 2 mem in my system at 100mhz and cas 3 and none of the tweaking on just so I can get the dang thing stable. I think nilanjan has the right idea though. I have an Enlight 7327 case with the 250w PS. Alot of what I had read said that this would be plenty and I don't have alot in my system as far as electricity hogs. Just the mobo, cpu, vid card, modem, sound blaster live card, 2 case fans, cpu fan, 1 HD, 1 cdrom, 1 floppy, and 1 burner. Pretty simple setup I thought. I guess it's time to order that 300 watter... or does anyone think I should go for more? if it works out I'll let everyone know.

P.S. the strange thing like I said is with a Geforce 2 GTS in, which I thought used more voltage then the TNT2 ultra, everything worked fine.

 

[Mem]

HumblePie if you have tried all possible Bios settings,Drivers etc,Then I would definetly try a 300w PSU,btw my current system,MSI K7T PRO,900T-bird,SBlive, had a TNT card in there with no problems(using a Geforce2 MX now) then again I`m using a 300w PSU,even if it`s not this it will come in handy &amp; rule out the PSU as the problem.

 

[FluxCapacitor]

Try pulling the SB Live out of the system and running your games. I had the same problem with my system and it turns out the sound card was causing the damn lockups and not the video card. My solution was to swap PCI slots.

Good luck.

I personally don't think it's the power supply. I wouldn't waste your money on a new one until you've tried a few more things.

 

[HumblePie]

Oh I thought I'd respond that the problem hs been solved thanks Flux.. It was part SB live, modem, and ACPI. Soon as I moved the modem and live card to different slots and further away from each other and disabled the ACPI bamm everything started running smoothly again. Glad I got this fixed and didn' needlessly burn cash I didn't have to replace a PS didn't need at the moment. Of course I'll eventually upgrade to a better PS just when i can find the funding cause i would love to get my hands on a good enermax PS.