Stupid Video Problems with my rig.

[techweenie]

I've done everything I can think of but can't figure this out. If you guys could help me, I'ld be eternally thankfull. Here's my rig
1.4 GHz Amd Athlon Tbird
768MB Ram
VisionTek GForce2 Ultra w/64mb (latest drivers)
Shuttle KT266a 3.1
Win2k SP2
Antec 300 wat PSU

Whenever I run any 3d game, it either completely locks the system, or the program just closes. 3DMark2001 does the same thing. I've reinstalled the drivers, I've installed the via drivers, I've disabled Video Bios Shadowing. I've done everything I could think of. Any thoughts? I had the same exact problems with a GeForce 2 MX400. I've also set the Video Arpeture to 32 (I don't think that's spelled right.) I've also tried many different versions of directx. Any assistance would be helpful. I haven't tried flashing the mobo bios, but I'm willing to give it a shot (brand new mobo, but I guess it could be old)

TIA

 

[BD231]

I've had that happen to me twice before, and my soundcard ended up being the culprit one time, and cas latency setting the other. Try removing everything from your PCI slots including your sound card, if it works then its your sound card. Setting your CAS latency out of spec is also the main cause of problems like yours. Disable fastwrites and make sure agp is set to 2x, if you have cas 2.5 DDR set it to 2.5, not 2.0, setting this setting faster than your mem is rated at will almost always cause problems, especialy with all that DDR mem your using. If you have cas3 ddr, set it to three, you get the point. Make sure all your mem settings are set to normal, none of that turbo crap. Also, just to make sure, run the system with one stick of DDR and see if that dose it. I'm almost positive its all that mem.

 

[tstanev]

I just built a new machine and had the same problem. Nothing that uses DirectX worked.
I had to do a clean reinstall of WinXP with the latest Detonator drivers to get it to work.

 

[techweenie]

I set the AGP to 4x in my bios. Was that wrong?

 

[techweenie]

I've set the bios to AGP2, and disabled fast writes, and still the same issue.

Setting your CAS latency out of spec is also the main cause of problems like yours. Disable fastwrites and make sure agp is set to 2x, if you have cas 2.5 DDR set it to 2.5, not 2.0, setting this setting faster than your mem is rated at will almost always cause problems, especialy with all that DDR mem your using. If you have cas3 ddr, set it to three, you get the point. Make sure all your mem settings are set to normal, none of that turbo crap. Also, just to make sure, run the system with one stick of DDR and see if that dose it. I'm almost positive its all that mem.

My memory is set to 2.5 right now. I think that's what it should be at. I just ordered two new 256mb dimms from crucial. (It's PC2100 Registered Dimms) What would I want to set the cas latency to for them? I'm ready to just ditch the entire system. Should I tried upgrading the video cards bios? Also, Windows update shows drivers for my video card, but they sucked. I'm back to the latest version.

I'll throw a different drive in there tonight, and do a fresh install, just to double check that. Any other thoughts guys?

 

[rbV5]

<< I've also set the Video Arpeture to 32 >>



You may want to set that a bit higher, IIRC a setting of 32 or below automatically disables AGP texturing.

 

[techweenie]

OK. The faq on VisionTek's website suggested that I set it to half the memory that video card has. Should I bump it to 64, or higher?

 

[rbV5]

I think the rule of thumb used to be to set it at half your system memory, but mine's set at 128 with no ill effects.