warcraft III and radeon 9700pro

[deleterious]

Hello,

My computer locks up randomly when i run warcraft III. I have a 2.8ghz machine running p4t533 with 512 megs of rdram. It will run the game smoothly, then just lockup and reboot my whole machine. Well at least it reboots for me so i dont have to press the reset button. =) Anyone else have a problem like this? I've spent so much money on this system and i want to play warcraft III on it without any problems. Anyone have any insight?

Thanks

 

[Moishe]

What card did you have before?
Have you formatted/cleared the old drivers?
Is anything overclocked?
latest bios/drivers?
What size power supply do you have?
What motherboard brand/model do you have?
Does your computer exist in a closed box with no air flow? (How hot does it get?)

I know these are a lot of questions, but we need more info )

You probably just need some tyweaking and then you can play WC3 for hours and hours....
Sounds like a very nice system... I'm envious!

Mo

 

[deleterious]

It's a brand new system. completely new build.nothing was on any of the hard drives. I am not overclocking and the drivers i used are the newest drivers and latest bios.

system specs:
intel 2.8ghz northwood
swiftech heatsink and sunon high powered fan
asus p4t-533 (not p4t-533 -c)
2x samsung 256meg 232pin rdram (gonna get 1 gig when 512meg sticks are available)
4x wd1200jb - 120 gig - 8meg cache
ati radeon 9700 pro
sound blaster audigy platinum
lian li pc-71 case
enermax 550w powersupply

I get pretty good airflow. In the bios it says my motherboard is 37-40(degrees centigrade) max at all times and my cpu is running at 38-41(degrees centigrade) with a full load. I am not using the raid config either, everything is connected to my ide ports.

My computer should be strong enough to run warcraft3 well.

 

[Moishe]

freakin sweet system... wow... in my dreams only...
well.. that board doesn't have 8x AGP... so it's not that...

I'd call ATi and see if they have any answers... might just be a bad card... it happens.

Good luck, that system should rock for a few years...

 

[deleterious]

heh thanx!. It better not be a bad card. I have talked to blizzard about wc3 and they told me perform a bundle of stuff.all without success. what else can I do?

 

[BFG10K]

Do you have the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard?
Are you using relaxed BIOS settings?

 

[Lichee]

WOW! that system looked rock hard. The only thing i saw weak about it was you didnt RAID them.

anyways, to your problem, it looks like you had this prebuilt, but not by a DELL or Compaq. Is it something like Alienware or the likes? if so, they should have awesome tech support. give them a call.

I know i was having probs with the game and my radeon 8500 locking up, but it was due to me overclocking the cpu. but, you arent oced so the rebooting sounds like either the game or a bad PSU.

do you have any probs with any other games?? or is it just war3?

btw....i must mention....that is a helluva sweet system. VERY top 'o the line.

oh, i dont wanna forget. Dont bother with the extra stick or RAM. you dont need it unless you are doing graphic software (ie not games).

 

[shurato]

My computer reboots randomly during warcraft 3....and then it started randomly rebooting occasionally during normal use. I FEEL YOUR PAIN.... it friggin sucks getting losses because of a reboot. The only thing I can think of trying is... try stressing your system with something like prime95 torture test, seti, folding@home, or anything that will stress your system for a long period of time. If your computer is fine after many hours of testings (try running the test overnight while you sleep) then you can rule out a hardware failure besides your video card. If it does reboot or crashes, then your gonna have to start looking at different parts of your hardware which is annoying since they seem to be all brand new.

Try that and then we can go from there to isolate the problem...Good luck.


edit
-----
btw, i think i narrowed my rebooting problem to a DEAD northbridge fan on my motherboard.

 

[Ninepepper]

Now your's is a problem that I have researched extensively and I feel I am knowledgeable about. Two things that have worked for a lot of people (but I am unable to try) is to clock your fsb down to 100Mzh. It seems that WC3 has a problem using a 533 FSB (occasionaly). Another is to remove/swap/repeat your RAM. From what Blizzard has said, it seems that WC3 is extremely memory intensive and uses All it can get, all the time, and AGRESSIVELY! Some users have found that an otherwise problem free RAM stick, can cause the crashes with WC3.

However, I have my own theory: When I originally got WC3 it ran fine, great as a matter of fact. Then one day I got myself an SB Audigy Gamer card. From that point on, I started experiencing the problems you outlined. I tried all the steps I possibly could but was unable to end the crashes. Eventually I got to poking around and found that Directx 8.1 sound drivers (Dxdiag) for the Audigy were not "certified". Now from what I have read, Microsoft no longer "certifies" directx drivers but since my problems began after the installation of the Audigy, I have concluded that was the problem. So if you got nothing better to do, deinstall the SB in your system, take out the card, and try running the game from the on-board sound option. If you do try this, post again to communicate your findings.

Again I realize my theory may be off base, but almost everyone in the blizzard forums, usenet forums, and fan web sites that are having problems, have a SB of one make/model. My Logic would dictate the following: While all owners of SB products do not have problems, I have found that all who have problems, have a SB.

 

[deleterious]

Thanks guys.
I didn't use the raid because the board can only raid 2 physical drives. that leaves me with 1 big 240 gig volume and two 120gig volumes. I didn't want a setup like that. If i could raid all 4 drives i would. I plan on buying a few scsi drives to raid on my adaptec 29160 card just for fun. I have the latest bios updates for the p4t533(version 1004a).

What do you mean by "relaxed bios settings?"

oh this system i put together by myself. I wouldn't buy from alienware or any other company. I like to put the computers myself so i can cable everything properly to make cooling efficient.

Are there any diagnostic programs i can run to test my system? i will cry if warcraftIII runs poorly. =)
When I am in windows xp pro, if i set my screen to 75hz its starts to shake. I dont know why. I can only run at 60hz at every resolution. Is this normal? or is it a sign for something?
I just want to get a 1gig of rdram just to have a gig of ram hehe. I do some photoshop and stuff. I dont really play any other games except subspace(continuum) and warcraft3. Those are the 2 games i must have. I brought my unreal tournament and quake3 cd and i will try to run those to see if my system crashes on me.

Where can i download all these torture programs?
I had a feeling it would be my sound card. But i dont see any reason for it to hurt warcraft3. One thing with my PSU, is that when i touch it, it doesn't even feel hot; just a little warm but thats about it; so it can't be overheating.
i mean my scsi yamaha and plextor cdr's can't be the problem since they seem to read the CD without a problem.

if yall have any ideas for things to add on my system tell me.. i'm willing to play around.

 

[Lichee]

edit:
check this out from rage3d forums:
<FONT class=nf>
grrr.....i dislike how html is disabled here. anyways....here is a link to the 60hz problem you are having:
http://66.224.5.66/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33605164



original thread is here:
here</FONT>

 

[Dug]

No offense but I wouldn't rule out the P4T533 as the problem. At about 1400 posts and 95 pages long, users over at HardOCP seemed to have problems with this board. They all can't be wrong.

 

[WyteWatt]

deleterious what os are you running? Curious. I had a hard lockup problem in lots of games where i could not move my mouse or do anything like ctrl alt del.

 

[deleterious]

I am running winxp pro. As of now, I'm not ruling out any piece of hardware. It could be a number of things that cause this issue. I am just anxious to figure out whats wrong with my computer. I didn't know many people were having problems with the board. I always thought the board was a strong performer. Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. At first I thought nobody would even reply to my messages. =)

 

[Mem]

Try the very new ATi 9700 drivers from here .

 

[Lichee]

Originally posted by: deleterious
Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it. At first I thought nobody would even reply to my messages. =)

hehe. welcome to anandtech. i felt the same way when i first came. it was awesome creating a thread which garnered 50+ replies.

the nostalgia will die sooner or later though.


anyways, hope u figure the prob out.

 

[BFG10K]

What do you mean by "relaxed bios settings?"

Most BIOSes come with a setting called "safe defaults" or something similar.

 

[BFG10K]

I wouldn't rule out the P4T533 as the problem. At about 1400 posts and 95 pages long, users over at HardOCP seemed to have problems with this board. They all can't be wrong.

In that case I'm even more glad that I waited for my Gigabyte. The guy at the shop tried to tempt me with the Asus because he didn't have the Gigabyte in stock but I stuck by my guns.

I've never liked Asus at all really and I've always felt that their high prices weren't justifed at all.

 

[WyteWatt]

deleterious safe defaults in the bios that BFG10K is talking about does slow down your performence a lot but its to rule out any issues in the bios. Like say something is set on and if you turned it off it may fix your lockup issues or it could be anything.

 

[DARRIN]

Is it locking up in other games?

 

[shurato]

I just replaced my power supply and now wc3 is does not reboot randomly....man oh what wonders a good quality psu does for your system...Next time im gonna get something even better, a pc power and cooling psu unit.

 

[deleterious]

I am with my default bios settings. everything is set on auto. Only thing i changed was disable the soundcard and my serial ports. No overclocking at all.

Then game just reboots my machine. My screen goes black. and the i see my computer going through the post. The only other game i play is subspace(continuum), and that runs fine at 1940x1440 or something. no problem at all. What games should i install to test my system? I have my quake3 cd with me and my unreal tournament cd. I will try to install those tonite and see if anything happens. How can do i test in quake3 and UT? how do i see my frame rates? and what resolution should i play? which graphic settings should i use? im guessin i should use maximum graphics right?

My psu seems fine. its an enermax EG651P-VE FMA 550w.

I just played wc3 last nite and i got pretty far in the game, then boom my computer rebooted when my lvl 10 demon hunter was unleashing on some humans. heh

 

[Lichee]

hehe. you seem to have a great attitude about it.

try testing those games out hard and rough by using high settings. that should really work your system. However, if you had a game that was more recent, that would probably work your system even more since Q3 and UT are older games.

It would be interesting to see how your "tests" make out. im beginning to think it is just war3.

 

[artemedes]

Deleterious,

Your problem sounds exactly like the one I USE to have. I bought the game the day it came out and immedietly started playing on the 1v1 ladder. I have so many losses on my record, and many of them were due to the computer rebooting randomly. It was really frustrating cause I would try different drivers, or change bios settings, and I would play a few games and think I had the problem licked then boom it would reboot or lock up.

The thing I noticed was that it if it didn't reboot, but rather lock up it would just sit there repeating part of a sound. I was using a Santa Cruz card and they didn't have any updated drivers (for win98se anyway). So I put my older sound card in and havn't had a single lockup or reboot since. I am now happily using a Hercules Fortissimo II. I have also read on some of the Warcraft forums that lots of people have similar problems with creative cards espeically when using EAX. It has something to do with the way Blizzard is implementing EAX that causes some people problems. By the way the santa cruz played all my other games fine wiht no lock ups. Just WC3 was the problem.

May not solve your problem, but I hope that helps.

 

[Lichee]

so did they just disable EAX and all was well? or how did they fix it do you know? maybe that could fix his problem.