Consistant in-game lockup, any help greatly appreciated

[The Dalai Lama]

After a few minutes of running AH all game sounds become a high pitched whine, this is soon followed by a complete lockup which requires a reset.

I've tried reducing the DX sound acceleration and switching my RAM from 133 to 100mhz, neither of which make a difference.  I have the exact same problem when playing Black & White, all my other games, directx or otherwise, run fine.

I have the very latest BIOS and video drivers, the latest VIA 4in1 drivers and DirectX 8.0a.

Specs:

Win98
1200Mhz Athlon T.bird (not overclocked)
Asus A7V-E mobo
256 PC133 RAM
Creative Labs Geforce2 MX 32mb DDR

[SKurj]

Check cooling...


otherwise I am stumped...


SKurj

Duron 800 @ 1ghz
A7V 133A
gf2 mx 32mb detonator 4's
sblive latest
w98se

[whirl]

sounds like a cooling thing. but if your cards are fine i'd start by checking bios settings.  if you've installed a newer bios(for asus,) they recommend reloading set-up bios parameters then restarting, then reseting bios parameters to particular specs.  i'd then check the irq's.  with sound cards, i like to put it in first pci slot, then leave next slot open(for dos drivers.)  also make sure to assign it an irq.  if that's all done and its still giving problems,  i'd remove all associated driver registry keys then reinstall cards.  do you have dx8 compatable sound card drivers?? what kind of sound card?  you listed everything but it<G>  try newer drivers for it also--if its onboard sound, http://asus.com  will have driver upgrades.  if you have a sound card, make sure there's no conflict with onboard sound.  the improper voltage for cpu could do it too.  heh--there are many things it could be.  i'd start with software troubleshooting though.  it really sounds like a dx or heat related issue.  if all else fails, try a different memory chip.

[ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: whirl ]

[ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: whirl ]

[The Dalai Lama]

Well my cpu runs at a steady 52 degrees celsius, and my motherboard somewhere around half that.  You think it could be a cooling problem with the Geforce?

I've played with the BIOS constantly (I've had problems before) and have reset it more than once since I upgraded it.  I have no resource conflicts (my soundcard is in the first PCI slot (; ).  I've had so many problems with my geforce and motherboard in the past, I've tried all kinds of installation sequences and drivers and am reluctant to start switching them again for fear of upsetting my system.  

I'm going to switch to nvidia reference drivers, then fiddle some more with my DX settings.  If that doesn't make a difference, I'll open up my PC and point a table fan at it, then try.  

[The Dalai Lama]

It's definately not a cooling issue.  I have a big fan pointed at my geforce2 and can feel the GPU isn't hot with my finger, yet AH still crashes without fail.

I'm about to try nvidia reference drivers, but going on past experience anything could happen, It'll quite possibly make it worse.  

[The Dalai Lama]

It still crashes.  The only difference with the nvidia drivers is a slightly lower pitched whine when the sound messes up.  I'm going to try uninstalling and physically removing my soundcard.

[Ozark]

My system is alot like yours. I too had problems with AH crashing. My problem was Roger Wilco related.

Try this: Change RW to Wav Recording in the RW setup (config) program. Lots of folks have problems with AH crashing when set on Direct Sound.

[The Dalai Lama]

I don't have roger wilco.  

[Tac]

Does it only do it in AH?

If it does it all the time, then its either :

CPU Overheating or its the ram thats overheating.

Check your MBD settings.

I had the same problem with my mbd when I first got it. (A7A266). I had to change a jumper on the mbd for the ram (known bug in a7a266) to tell the mbd to accept more than 1 stick of ram (odd eh?) AND I had to get a new heatsink. My system was also reporting 50+C temps which would spike to 69C and back down to 50C continously.

So check your heatsink as well. The system may be reporting 50C when its working, in one of those heat spikes it may go to 70C, which is when most MBDs lock up the cpu to avoid it melting.

But again, this is all if it happens in any situation, if its an AH only problem... FORMAT *grin*

[The Dalai Lama]

It only happens in AH and black & white.

It is definately not a cooling problem with any part of the PC. I've had the case open with a huge desk fan pointed at it so every component and heatsink is cold to the touch, and it still crashes in AH.

I honestly don't think formatting will help.  It took me 5+ builds on this system just to get the geforce working properly, and I've tried a multitude of video drivers.  I believe that this may be related to the compatibility issues between the Asus KT133 motherboards and geforce2 cards.  There must be some kind of workaround though.

[SKurj]

CPU at 52 degrees?!?! declock it

You have a cooling problem...  I run a duron 800 at 1ghz and it maxes out at 46 degrees.  The duron actually runs hotter than an athlon due to less surface area.

SKurj

[The Dalai Lama]

My CPU isn't overclocked.

I may have a cooling problem (probably caused by my cheap old case), but it isn't related to the problems I'm having with AH.

I just want to play AH.  

[The Dalai Lama]

I bought Operation Flashpoint today and i'm getting the exact same problem with that.

This is becoming highly annoying.

[The Dalai Lama]

I solved the problem in B&W and operation flashpoint by disabling my soundcard, but AH won't even run with no soundcard.

Is there a command line parameter or something I can use to run AH with no sound hardware installed?

Incidentally, my soundcard is a soundblaster Live! player 1024.  I read on the VIA message board that SB Live! cards can do this.

[ 09-24-2001: Message edited by: The Dalai Lama ]

[-moto-]

Try running your agp at 2X if your running it at 4X and disable fastwrite and make sure you have no IRQ's sharing going on.

Moto