Bizzarre Crash - Need Help!

[Seagoon]

Hi Guys,

Of late the following is happening on a regular basis:

I'll be flying when suddenly the system will lock up, I'll see the picture, the last vox message or sound will loop, and I get the standard desktop pointer in the center of the screen. Then after about 20 seconds it seems to come back, but then I lose UDP, followed quickly by TCP (I'll be spiraling down into the earth at that point) and then host connection lost.

Here's the odd thing, when I get back to the desk top, I'll find that my internet connection has been terminated and cannot be re-established even though the cable modem connect/traffic is fine. In other words, the AH crash is somehow disabling msgsrv32.

I've done a re-install (without wiping out the old version) but that doesn't help.

Can someone help? This is making flying impossible!

- SEAGOON

[Shane]

as always the first thing to try, if you haven't done so yet, is reduce hardware sound acceleration a notch.

[maddog]

Had the same problem although not so bad...... had service (Comcast) fixed cable problem and also changed cable modem  .... mine was 10+ years old....  problem went away....

[Seagoon]

Ok, the original problem is still there, and is making it impossible to play AH - I missed the Saturday Scenario because of it. Here is my system:

ABIT KT7A-RAID
AMD Duron 700 (safely overclocked to 800)
256 MEGs of RAM
Hercules 3D Prophet II MX
Creative Labs SB PCI 512
Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 (via USB connection)
MS-Windows 98SE
Direct X 9.0A
Toshiba PCX 1100U USB Cablemodem
Road Runner Broadband

Here is what I've tried to date:
Checked the Mainboard and Graphics BIOS - both are up to date
Checked SB and Graphics Drivers, both are most current Reinstalled SB drivers anyay
Totally Deleted and Reinstalled ACES HIGH
Reduced Sound Acceleration
Reduced Graphics Acceleration
Reinstalled Direct X
Upgraded Cable Modem drivers to latest patch
Obtained and installed a "fresh" copy of MSGSRV32 file

NOTHING TO DATE HAS WORKED - PROBLEM IS WORSE THAN EVER! I'm desperate for help with this!

[Eagler]

list your IRQ assignments

[Eagler]

why the usb cable modem?

get a NIC card and modem to interface with it

[Shamus]

I had the exact same problem using a network card and dsl. I moved the card to a different pci slot 3 days ago, no problem so far, could be an interrupt conflict.

Btw, the only thing the same about our systems is the sound card.

I also had this problem with both 98se and win 2k.

shamus

[Seagoon]

Hi Eagler, Shamus, et al,

Thanks for your help - here are the IRQs:

0 System Timer
1 Keyboard
2 Programmable Interrupt Controller
3 Com 2
4 Com 1
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
5 VIA TECH 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
5 "                                                                               "
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 LPT1
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 ACPI IRQ HOLDER for PCI IRQ Steering
11 Creative SB PCI512
11 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 OPtical Mouse5 (PS/2)
13 Numeric Data Processor
14 Primary IDE contoller (dual fifo)
14 VIA Bus MAster PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

As you can see, one of the reasons I went direct to a USB connection for the cable modem rather than via a NIC is a total lack of free IRQs

[Eagler]

haven't heard anything good about USB cable modems

do you use your comm ports? Is it possible to disable one/both of them and assign that irq to one of your pci slots and get a nic modem setup?

can you disable ACPI and free up IRQ 10? Maybe get the sound card on it?

[Eagler]

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=3a8ca3f3%241_1%40news.nwlink.com&rnum=6&prev=/groups%3Fq%3DABIT%2BKT7A-RAID%2Birq%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D3a8ca3f3%25241_1%2540news.nwlink.com%26rnum%3D6


try to get your sound card on its own irq, or at least not to share with the HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller

[spiffykraits]

Originally posted by Eagler
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=3a8ca3f3%241_1%40news.nwlink.com&rnum=6&prev=/groups%3Fq%3DABIT%2BKT7A-RAID%2Birq%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D3a8ca3f3%25241_1%2540news.nwlink.com%26rnum%3D6


try to get your sound card on its own irq, or at least not to share with the HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller

Try and move SB card to use IRQ 9   Your bios should allow you to assign the PCI slot to a particular interupt.

[Seagoon]

Ok, I disabled the ATA RAID IDE in the BIOS as I have no devices that require it. I do not have a setting for disabling ACPI and I don't want to mess with MODBIN6 and modify the Flash BIOS as I use this computer for working out of my house as well. I also switched the slot the SB PCI512 was in for the heck of it.

The IRQ settings have changed, but now one of the two outputs on the Soundcard is dead, and the original problem, although not as bad, is still there . Here are my new IRQs:

0 System Timer
1 Keyboard
2 Programmable Interrupt Controller
3 Com 2
4 Com 1
5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
5 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
5 VIA TECH 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
5 " "
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 LPT1
8 System CMOS/real time clock
9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
10 Creative SB PCI512
10 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering
11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
12 OPtical Mouse5 (PS/2)
13 Numeric Data Processor
14 Primary IDE contoller (dual fifo)
14 VIA Bus MAster PCI IDE Controller
15 Secondary IDE Controller (dual fifo)
15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller

Any new ideas? Windows refuses to boot when I try to force BIOS to use IRQ 9 for the SB.

Thanks guys for all the help with this, I sincerely appreciate it.

- SEAGOON

[Eagler]

list what cards are in what slots now

[Jospe2]

Interesting,  I have been having the very same problem.   Would lose UDP get disoc'd.   The modem lights showed it to still be active.    Used to be able to go to connections click repair and fix it.   Now that wont even work,  connection would last only about
10 mins.   Would have to unplug the modem and replug to regain connection.  

Anyways ended up getting a new ethernet card and put it in a different slot.   Problem didnt go away completly now only get disc'd once every two hours somtimes not at all.

Comcast is my supplier.    Not sure if this is related to them and their take over/merger of AT&T ????   They were of little help tho ;(


Jospe

[Seagoon]

Hi Guys,

Well I moved it to all the different slots, tried IRQ 5, 7, 10, & 11 but none of this seemed to fix. Then I did a little research. It seems there is a known bug in Windows 98SE boxes running AMD Processors and VIA USB Controllers. Microsoft has a page explaining the problem, along with a patch:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b240075

I applied the patch and the problem seems to have abated (no crash after over an hour of playing).

The second output on the SB is still dead - so the only sound I get is through the headphones, but the mike and line inputs are both ok - any idea why one of the outputs might go dead?

Thanks again guys,

SEAGOON