New System with Windows XP

[Nemo]

I just put together a new system with Wxp:
P4 Northwood 1.8
Asus P4S333 MB
265 mb DDR333 ram
GF2 64mb mx400  (i need a new one I know)
DX 8.1
Everything worked great, even with the cheap video card, it just
screamed compared to my old P3 500mz. but...now I have a problem.  Playing AH and 2 other online demo games (Operation
Flashpoint, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I haven't tried
any other games yet) it will run fine for 20-30 mins then the
whole thing freezes.  AH does it the quickest, after 4 or 5 sorties
I'll be flying along and bam.  It's not a hard freeze though, more like the screen changing only every 5-10 seconds.  I'll alt-f4 out
of the game and the system is still "pausing" until I reboot.  Even trying to move the mouse only works in these 5-10 second pauses.

At first I thought it might be hardware related.  So I ran Asus
PC Probe to monitor the temp, volt, etc.  After it did it again, I checked this log and everything stayed the same, smooth voltages, temperature, etc.  I don't think the system sees it as a crash because I can't find any DrWatson logs or errors.   So I thought it might be software related?  On the Windows Task manager, I noticed that half my ram is used at startup.  Right
now I only have Nortons AV, and the PC probe running, but allot
of ram is used by "System services"  This is just my home computer and I don't have a "home network", just dial-up modem.
Can anyone tell me which of these services I need to just use dial-up on Windows XP?  Or maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?  Any suggestions on where to look to solve this problem?
Could this be a failing Video card?  I would appreciated any comments or suggestions.

Thank you,
AKNemo

[Skuzzy]

If you are using the onboard sound chip (C-Media) that could be the problem.  I have the P4B266 MB and until I put in a SBLive card and disabled the sound chip I was getting all sorts of lockups and reboots when running any DX base game.
They were completely random.  Sometimes it would run an hour, other times a few minutes.

Oh,,make sure you have all the MS updates for XP.  They have released server driver updates and fixes.

[Lephturn]

GeForce card?  What version drivers are you running?

DX 8.1 and a WHQL version of the Detonator drivers is the first place to start.  Since you are using XP, I'd try the 21.83's.

[AKIron]

Nemo, was this a clean install of XP or an upgrade? If the later then consider doing a clean install.

The games other than AH, do they also lock in single player mode when you're not connected?

Many hardware problems won't be identified with a diagnostic tool. The most common hardware problem I've seen that causes the type of problem you've described is memory related, either defective or incompatible.

[SKurj]

Nemo.. is hard drive crunching along when this happens?

turn off the Server service, thats one i can guarantee you don't need at least...

Turn off screensaver

check suspend modes, set to always on...

turn on XP's firewall (it does not interfere with AH)
Control Panel
network connections
right click the connect you use
click properties
select advanced tab
check the box

u can tell i don't have much of an idea....


SKurj

[Nemo]

I think that Skuzzy might have the answer here, well maybe.
I originally used the sound drivers from the Asus website for the
onboard sound chip, but Microsoft had an updated driver on
the Windows update page, so I loaded that.  But after reading
Skuzzy's reply, and not having a SB card handy to try, I tried
loading a different driver for XP that was posted at the Asus
website.  (the Windows XP driver was ver 0365, the Asus XP
driver was 0360)  So far, it hasn't frozen in AH again. (knock
on wood)  But it will do it everytime on the Operation Flashpoint
Demo, but this is no big deal as far as we're concerned:)

They both use DX sound I believe?  Well, if it does it agian, I'll
get a new sound card and try that.  Or try Lephturn's suggestion
and roll back my Video driver (currently using 23.11)  Also, the
last time it froze/paused, I managed to get the Task manager
to come up, on the performance tab, it showed 100%cpu usage.
On the Processes tab, it showed the System as using all the
CPU, but the hard drive wasn't "crunching", and strangest of
all, I had complete mouse control, even though it took forever to
bring up any windows or exit, just like before.

Oh yeah, AKIron, it was a clean install by the way.

Thanks for all your replies.
Nemo

[SKurj]

Nemo that onboard sound could very well lead to nothing but problems for you.

Buy an oem SBLive! if money is an issue and the problem will not come back +)

I use 27.10's under XP with no problems for my GF2 MX


SKurj