Video lockup--but only in FPS games. Any suggestions?

[WarLocke]

I have an Elsa Gladiac GeForce2 that has been running flawlessly under driver set 5.22

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, 3D games are locking up, when they never did in the past. Three examples are 3DMark 2000, Isle of Morg demo, and System shock 2. Games like Planescape Torment and Alpha Centauri still run fine, but as soon as I throw in a FPS, the game freezes within 2 minutes. I've re-installed the drivers, but the problem still occurs.

I haven't tried going back to 5.16 or up to 5.30, because the problem isn't the 5.22 driver set. I've used them flawlessly for over a month. Something else is causing the freeze. Any suggestions?

Win98
p3-866
128mb sdram
sb mp3+
32mb Gladiac Geforce2
directx 7.0a

 

[koeizen]

it may be your settings on the AGP bus.

 

[Shagga]

koeizen - Could be right. I could never get UT to run for more than a couple on minutes before it would either throw me out or lock up.
I read somewhere that the aperture size could be the problem. I haven't installed UT again to see if that works yet so I can't tell you either way.

Change you aperture size to the next level lower. You might have it set to 64mb, drop it to 32mb and see if that helps.

 

[snow patrol]

Yes, what motherboard do you have? Hopefully it's either a VIA 133 or an Intel 820/840, which is capable of a 1/2 AGP divider (i.e it will run your AGP card in spec at 66mhz when the FSB is at 133).

Also, just to be on the safe side - try opening the case and checking that the fan on the Gladiac is still functioning correctly - lockups are often heat-related, and a broken fan could potentially be the problem.

In the BIOS, aside from lowering your AGP aperture size a notch or two, try increasing your RAM timings. If they are set at CAS 2, try them at CAS 3.

Good luck...

 

[WarLocke]

I do have a VIA 133 chipset. The cards fan is working fine, plus I have three other fans in the system, so heat shouldn't be the problem.

Just a couple more quick questions. If it is the AGP bus setting, why hasn't the problem shown up before? I've never once touched the AGP settings, and the card always ran fine until now.

Finally, I'm a newbie at changing bus settings, could someone please give me a step-by-step? Will this severely drop my performance?


Thanks, everyone, for your help........

 

[Shagga]

It's a good point about the AGP settings. You might find that if you have installed a patch recently, then that patch may make the game deal with textures in a slightly different manner which could dictate a change in AGP setting. Also, if you have installed a recent patch, it may be that this patch uses a later driver such as the 5.3's.

Try them. You can get them from http://www.reactorcritical.com/

 

[snow patrol]

Don't worry about changing the actual Front Side Bus setting. It will be on 133mhz at the moment, and that should be fine - you're PCI devices will be running at 33mhz and your AGP card at 66mhz, both of which are bang on spec.

The RAM CAS timings might still be worth looking at though...I had lockups when I tried running my RAM at CAS 2, but they stopped when I went back to CAS 3. Of course, this doesn't explain why things have suddenly stopped working for you without you changing anything...

What VIA 133 Motherboard do you have specifically?

Of course it could just be that the Gladiac is dying Maybe you ourght to consider a replacement?

 

[WarLocke]

My default AGP aperture setting was 128mb with 4x enabled. (factory setting)

I tried lowering it to 64mb, and then 32mb, but the lock-ups still persist.

I don't know if this is important (doubt it) but the lock-up problem didn't start happening until I tried installing my old Voodoo2 card to play Deus Ex with Glide. I never got the card to run with the Gladiac, and took it out. Ever since then, the Gladiac has had this strange lock-up problem. I don't know if the two might be related, or just a timing coincidence.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued help. I'm going to try the RAM CAS settings now. Any more ideas would be appreciated!

 

[snow patrol]

If you've taken out the Voodoo 2, I suggest you make sure you've totally deleted any drivers you installed with it. Have you tried reinstalling the latest version of direct X?