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Strange stability ptoblem (I think)

P

PieDerro

Senior member
I have a 1.2GHz TBird @ 1.35 at default voltage on a KT7A motherboard. I have a GF2 GTS 32MB and an SBLive soundcard.

For the most part, including games, RC5, internet etc, the computer is very stable, however, when I play Q3A, the system seems to lock up as it is loading a level or a demo. However, this only happens SOMETIMES and the system does not really hang, as the hard drive keeps reading and stops reading for half a second, then keeps reading. This goes on and on and the system won't respond to input.

This MOSTLY occurs when I am trying to run a timedemo, but also happens in single player intermittently, forcing me to hard boot the machine. I have tried different CPU and IO voltages, but to no avail. It should not be a heat problem as the machine is stable at the 54C temp (kept that way by RC5!!) and runs pretty much every other game from Freespace 1&2 to Quake 1&2 and NFS5 etc etc.

I cannot get the problem to occur consistently no matter what I try. I also have two network cards installed in slots 4 and 5 on the motherboard, and my SBLive is in slot 3. I have mucked around with the IRQs, but I get the same problem.

I can run Q3 on my other machine (Duron on KT7) with my GF2 and MX300 and one network card, (same memory and HDD) and I get the same problem.

I am running VIA 4.28final and Detonator 6.31 (tried 6.50 too) drivers.

PLZ help me ppls!! 🙁
 
hmm... just tried setting memory settings to slowest possible timings... no effect

thanks anyways.

any more suggestions please!!!
 
What I have found is... Run 3dMark2000 for a while if it locks solid then it seems to be a driver issue but if it kicks you to the desktop then its processor related (heat or maxed out for that voltage...) This has held true on several machines I have messed with... Hope this will help... 🙂
 
I'll try that Bartman, but from my experience, 3DMark 2000 nor any other D3D or OGL game has crashed or dropped me to the desktop on this machine ever!! (knock on wood)
 
3DMark ran solid for 2 hours. D'oh!

As a side note, I also got this problem just then when I restarted my machine and bumped up the CPU speed so 1360. This is weird, cos I've had the CPU stable in Windows at 1400 before.
 
Hi, is it possible you didn't install the AGP patch that came with your motherboard? I had (what sounds like) the same, random problem. My solution was to pop in the CD that came with the motherboard and install the "AGP Patch."

Cf my thread here.

Ever since then, no problems. Credit to Dulanic for pointing me to this.
 
I have the same prob with Motorcross Madness 2 and i have tried everything. Nothing works and Microsoft Software Developnebt can't even help with it
 
Stultus I have installed the latest AGP patch that came with the VIA 4.28 service pack. The strange thing about my crashes, is that although their occurance is inconsistent, they occur at exactly the same point. That is, they happen when I the game is loading the level map.

I say the crashes occur inconsistently because the system won't crash every time when I load up a level. And it won't crash on any specific level (although the crashing seems to become more frequent when i run a timedemo)
 
PieDerro, is this "service pack" different from the 4-in-1 drivers? I installed the 4-in-1 set immediately after installing my OS but the AGP patch was not a part of them. It's just a registry entry.

If you can reproduce this same error on another machine this is not a good thing. You can't tell whether it's hardware or software. :frown:
 
The service pack is just the normal VIA 4in1's, I got the name from what Abit uses on their driver installation CD.

I have tried different voltages, as low as 1.7 and as high as 1.85, but they give the same results.
 
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