Win2k + Direct3D = f**ked up? 3DMark 2000 crashes...

[Joffer]

Hardware:
Abit KT7-Raid
TBird 1000MHz
Asus V7700 Deluxe Geforce GTS 2
256MB 133MHz RAM
+++
at the moment i've got asus v5.33 driver installed and via service pack (via 4-in-1 from abit cd) installed. Have also tried reference v6.18 and via 4-in-1 v4.24 with no luck.

I was able to finish 3DMark 2000 without any crashes before I installed via service pack, but with a very poor result = 3200. When I installed the VIA drivers I never got past game 1, crashing or just returning to windows 2000 desktop.

Also got a few lockups now and then...

Anyone got any solutions??

 

[Deeko]

Do your games crash?

 

[Theslowone]

My computer dont crash in win 2k but my 3d marks are not nearly as high. I am running a herc. prophet geforce 256 ddr, and my scores took about a 1500 point hit changing from win me to win 2k. But my gaming proformance has gotten better in my mind. Hell in winME quake3 wouldnt even run for over 5 mins w/o freezing, but now i can run it for a while at 1600 * 1200 *32 for a long time, isnt as smooth as lower res, but it looks fine and never froze once. Sorry couldnt be any real help, just putting in my 1/2 a cent.

 

[Joffer]

I will try a few Direct 3D games today. I played NHL 2001 for about 15 minutes or so but then i froze.. but at leaste the performance was ok.

Someone said to me that 3DMark 2000 isn't supposed to run in Win2k... that may be one solution to my dropouts - but then again i don't understand why i could run it at the very first place.

 

[Binary]

I have had the same problem as you.
There seems to be a conflict between the via 4 in 1 v4.24 drivers and the nvidia drivers...

This page is in norwegian:
http://www.hardware.no/nyheter/august00/detonator3_fiks.html
But roughly it says:
1. uninstall the latest VIA 4-in-1 driverne (v.4.24) if you're using these, since Detonator 3 won't install correctly if VIA v.4.24 drivers are installed.
2. Install VIA 4-in-1 verson 4.23 (or earlier), and then you can install the Detonator 3 drivers.
3. Finally you can install theVIA 4-in-1 v.4.24 drivers

I installed 6.34 yesterday. Managed to run 3dbenchmark demo,
haven't tested the benchmark yet.

[Ps. 1]
You could always run dxdiag and direct3d tests before you try to run 3dmark.
This doesn't kill windows

[Ps. 2]
Go to http://www.3dgpu.com/
and search for 'kt133', this will provide some interesting reading.

[Ps. 3]
I can't seem to stop editing this post
Go to http://www.3dgpu.com/
and search for 'via 4in1', then you'll find a news about 4.25 drivers.
Download here: http://viahardware.com/download/4in1425a.zip
Maybe this will fix the issues?

 

[Joffer]

You are norwegian too? I am. Anyway.. I've read the hardware.no article also.

yesterday i reinstalled win2k:
first i went with all standard settings in bios - no 4x agb, no cas 2, no fastes settings etc, and also removed APCI from windows (powersaving). I also increased core voltage +0.1 to 3.4V and CPU to 1.775 (up 0.025V)

then i installed drivers:
1)via 4.23
2)dx8rc1
3)detonator .3 v6.18
4)via 4.24
5)via 4.25 w/viagart.cat

the result of this was a pleasing 1850 points increase in 3D Mark 2000, but still far from what I think I should have - I got a 1GHz Tbird and a GTS2, but this might just be (99% for sure) a win2k/via/nvidia problem.

I will install a few games today and try them for a while (hurray - a good reason to play games, never get time to play normally). While I'm at it... is it possible to LOOP the demoes in Quake 3 Arena? That would be a good stability check.. have it run for a few hours.

If you haven't found it yet, the unofficial KT7FAQ is here. http://go.to/kt7faq . Gave me a few new ideas and was a good FAQ on over 50 A4 pages

But my thoughts at this moment is that everything will be smooth without any tuning in the bios etc. This sux a bit since I invested a few extra bucks into 2x 128MB VSCDRAM 133MHz CAS2 RAM. I will try the bios stuff a bit more, maybe try AGP4x and stuff, but leave the memory settings alone and see if that helps.

Well, any other tips etc? post them.

thnx so far anyway.

 

[Binary]

Remember that you get higher 3DBenchmark score in win98se than winme,
and higher score in winme than win2k.

I'll try out the new Via drivers (4.25a) this weekend together with the latest detonator drivers 6.35.
Wish me luck

 

[Binary]

A hard week of reinstalling windows isn't finished yet, but here are the
results...

System:
Abit KT7-Raid, T-bird 900, 2 x 128 MB 133MHz Mosel SDRAM,
Assu V7700 Geforce GTS 2 Deluxe, Creative SB Live 1024,
2 x IBM 45GB raid, Iomega Internal IDE Zip
and more that doesn't matter..

Install routine...
win98se/winme
via 4in1 4.23
Creative Liveware 3.0
Detonator 6.35
Via 4in1 4.25

3DMark2000 gave:
1024x768x16bit (default benchmark): 7086 3DMarks, 547 CPUmarks
1024x768x32bit (w/ 32bit textures): 4914 3DMarks

I also managed to play Unreal Tournament

But... when I installed the Highpoint driver, everything went to hell.
I think there's a conflict between my soundcard and the raid-controller.
Does anyone know how to resolve this issue?
I have the latest beta-bios(ul103) for the Abit KT7-Raid and HPT Raid.

 

[Joffer]

I think PCI slot 5 is sharing with the Raid controller.

 

[Binary]

I'm not using slot 5...
I've tried the following combos
nic in 2, sblive in 4
nic in 4, sblive in 2
nic in 3, sblive in 2
nic in 3, sblive in 4

Still doesn't help...
I'm wondering if it's a powersupply problem.
I have a 250w powersource right now.
I've ordered a 350 Fortron/Source powersource,
will probably get it tomorrow.

Thanx for your reply anyways

 

[Weyoun]

make an .cfg file with the following code:

timedemo 1
Set D1 "demo demo001; set nextdemo vstr D2"
Set D2 "demo demo002; set nextdemo vstr D1"
vstr D1

then exec it, watch those demos fly!

 

[Joffer]

Thanx. Will make Quake go for ever hehe.

 

[Joffer]

I haven't tried it myself, but Microsoft have released a pre-SP2 patch - VIA AGP Chipset Driver Update

Go here: Microsoft Support Knowledge Base

 

[Adde]

Binary, have you got ACPI enabled?
It seems to do a pretty good job of f..king up my IRQ:s settings since it overrides bios settings.
Check so you don´t have any IRQ sharing that could cause problems.

 

[Binary]

I installed WinME with 'setup /p i'.
So acpi is not installed.
I've disabled com port 2 and the parallell port as well.

Yesterday I yanked out the nic and did a clean install.
Only sblive in pci-4.
Everything works like a charm... until i tried to insert
the nic again. Lockup...

How do you change irq's in winme?
I get a message that I can't change this setting..
Must I do it in the bios?

What settings do you guys have in the bios that might affect this?
Memory Hole? Voltage? PnP-settings?

Any suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

 

[Joffer]

You should set PnP OS to yes
and also set the option below PnP (normally) (about reset some data stuff) to enable/yes

other than that I go for full PnP Bios/windows auto config. never been much problem with that for me.