Boot to the desktop

[flyingaround]

Win 98.   Cel. 533 (I know, I know...gonna upgrade soon)
512mb Ram pc100
GeForce 2 MMX 64mb
Via on board sound.
Epox board
DirectX 8.1
Detonator Drivers (dunno which one, whatever is on nvidia site currently)

At LEAST once a night I will suddenly crash to the desktop.  It happens if I have my firewall on or off (zone alarm) and I was reading about the Apollo MPV chipsets in the FAQ and crashing, but I have the latest drivers I think)
I get no error msg, and it is a total crash.  Windows seems fine, but AH goes bye bye.
ALSO, I sometimes have a problem with the screen freezing, and the sound stuttering, and I have to cold boot the computer.  SOMETIMES I can alt/tab out of AH and ctrl/alt/delete AH.
HELP!!
Getting REAL frustrated here.
-Lute

[Bizman]

It has recently been happening to me too, and I am not the only one suffering from this here in Finland. Personally I only have been familiar to the freezing part with sound looping, but the desktop thing has also been reported. My record is so far five freezes a night, but I don't play more than a few hours at a time. A fellow said he has had  fifteen hangs during his playing session lasting half a day.
 
One curious thing: This seems to be a problem for just a few of us; might be helpful if someone could track all the factors that are uniting us - other than AH I mean, could this be a connected to our net service providers, using Windows 98 with IE6 with a certain security update, or something similar? One thing is sure: We can't blame HTC for some bugs in an update, since this problem appeared only recently , and the latest patch dates several months back

[flyingaround]

I have changed my nic card from sharing an IRQ w/ on board sound, and put it with the video card, I have lowered sound acceleration to none, and I still am booting to desktop suddenly, OR the screen will freeze  and the sound loops and stutters and I have to manual boot the tower, OR I crash to desktop and the colors are ALL messed up and nothing is really visual on screen, but I can ctrl/esc and up arrow enter/enter to restart.  WHAT is going on????  ANY help would be appreciated.  I have loaded latest AGP drivers for motherboard, AND sound drivers.  The ONLY thing i can think of is using a different detonator driver for my gforce2 mmx 64mb card (I have tried several diff. ones from old 6.5 to the latest) and I am running out of options.  I will crash when MA is full, or nearly empty, does not matter.  What I am doing in the game doesn't seem to matter.  
HELP!
As a long time flying of the virtual skies, it is breaking my heart to have to quit flying AH but I can not handle crashing 3-5 times a night.  Zooming in on a helpless nme and booting as I get gun solution is quite frustrating.
PLEASE give me some ideas.
+Lute

[Dingbat]

The Detenator 40 drivers were the culprit in my case.  Be aware they are still beta.  I'd use Detenator Destroyer and then re-install 30.82.  It fixed my CTD's

[Booky]

With a GF2 card you shouldn't be using any drivers past 12.90. If you are useing whats on Nvidia's site then that is most likely whats wrong. You can see what version by right clicking on desktop, then sellect properties. Now hit the settings tab near top right. Now hit the Advanced button near the lower right area. You should now see a list of files in a box near the bottom, if you don't see this then hit the different tabs on top untill you see it.


Booky

[Dingbat]

I don't know what site you're visiting booky but your dead wrong.  The Geforce 2MX cards are supported by the 30.82 drivers



"Products Supported
 
 


TNT2
TNT2 Pro
TNT2 Ultra
TNT2 Model 64 (M64)
TNT2 Model 64 (M64) Pro
Vanta
Vanta LT
GeForce 256
GeForce DDR
GeForce2 MX
GeForce2 MX 100
GeForce2 MX 200
GeForce2 MX 400
GeForce2 GTS  
GeForce2 Pro
GeForce2 Ti
GeForce2 Ultra
GeForce3
GeForce3 Ti 200
GeForce3 Ti 500
GeForce4 MX 460
GeForce4 MX 440
GeForce4 MX 420
GeForce4 Ti 4200
GeForce4 Ti 4400
GeForce4 Ti 4600  
GeForce2 Go and Quadro2 Go are not supported in the NVIDIA reference drivers.  Please consult your notebook's manufacturer for the latest driver.
 
"

[Dingbat]

what is the onboard sound?

[flyingaround]

I have swapped IRQ's, lowered my sound accel, re-installed new drivers, and I am still crashing.  
I get no warning, and suddenly AH is gone, and I am staring at my desktop.  It has happened 5-6 times tonight so far.
Would someone from HT please provide me some assistance here?  I have no problems with any other prog. and last time I flew (6-7mths ago ish) I did not have this problem, and I am using the same equip.  I have done everything I can think of, and I am running out of options.  

PLEASE help me out!

-Lute

[Bizman]

This reminds me of a bug in AH last winter: If you crashed without ejecting out of the plane, the system froze and the current sound looped, the only way out was to press the reset button. The symptoms are similar, but this time it happens right in the middle of whatever is happening...

As mentioned earlier, this can't be due to any failure in AH, since the current version has been running quite long now and the problems started about a month ago - at the same time with the Bugbear virus epidemy. After that I formatted my system...

My ATi drivers and settings are exactly the same they were before, same goes with SoundBlaster, mainboard, everything! All worked fine from end August when I formatted because of getting new stuff into my computer until the latest Bugbear related formatting. Plus it has nothing to do with Zone Alarm or a couple of virus scanners; I have had the freezing trouble with and without them.

The only thing that might be of different version, is the Windows Security Update!!! I am running Win98 and so are the other guys I know having this problem. I can't remember any XP users reporting about this... Hmmmm... Can we blame poor old Bill for this???