I'll clear the cmos, set the bios to default settings and see what happerns with just the vid card in, if it's still crashing I'll start changing things one at a time. This is what I tried weeks ago but with the old dodgy Bios. Thanks again for your perseverence EUPHORiA.
what game does it crash in? i know there is a way to fix it in HL thats to put -nocdaudio in the loadup string
It will crash in any game, at the minute I'm keep trying Mafia and on ocasions I've played for about 45mins then it just drops back to the desk top or locks with the sound loop requiring a power off. It will do the same no matter what game I try, sometimes after 5mins sometimes longer, I can rarely play something until I want to turn it off. Over the weekend I'm getting the lend of another GF2 to try, dont think it'll make any difference, but u never know, in the mean time I'm goner try the strip down and mess about with BIos settings.
Did u install VIA 4 in 1 on WinXP? WinXP doesnt really need the VIA 4 in 1 because the AGP driver is already installed. Try a format and installing WinXP and all ur drivers for unknown ones.
Install a small game like Half life which doesnt require that much gfx card power and see if it crashes with the -nocdaudio in the command line.
Then install a much more powerful game like SoF 2 and see how long it lasts.
I used SoF 2 to test mine because it normally would lock up within 5 seconds or so of playing where as half life locked up after 5 seconds.
Its a strange problem because my brother had a problem like this but not on WinXP and i tried the fixes and some of them worked. After a while the problem came back and i was wondering what the hell could of been causing it! Until i did a complete reinstall of Win2K for him with SP3 inc instead of installing Win2K SP2 and then SP3 on top and his system ran without any need of these fixes.
Have u tried another operating system?
It was crashing with-out the 4 in 1 installed so I installed it, did'nt make any difference. Had the exact same problem with WIN98SE, thats why I put XP on, only difference is that with XP Iget dropped back to desk-top, with WIN98SE it would lock. Ok, I cleared the CMOS, but in manual it says 'to clear RTC RAM CMOS, turn off computer, unplug the cord, remove the battery, short the jumper by REMOVING then REPLACING the jumper cap, reinstall the battery, replace the cord, power up and set defaults', only problem is my mother board has never had a jumper on the two pins mentioned, so when I tried the above by using a spare jumper, and finishing the process with the jumper returned to the two pins, the LED on the mother board comes on but it will not power up from the case switch???????, as soon as I remove the jumper everything powers-up ok? Is this normal cause it seems to be working the wrong way round from the manual? By the way I tried a different vid card and did not make any other changes but it still crashed in the same way, so it aint that. I've now got just the vid card in and all BIOS settings at DEFAULT SET-UP, so far nothing crashed, so now I've put the sound card in and so far nothings crashed, obviously now I got the modem in (cause I'm typing this) and now I'm goner run stuff to see if it will crash. To be honest if this fixes it I still dont really know what the problem is (was), so for that I gota appologize for any-one else reading this with similar problems, but don't hold your breath cause I dont think its fixed.
Did u strip ur machine down and just have ur gfx card in hd and thats it? no modem or sound and try and play a game OFFLINE to see if it crashes?
U dont have a 'SELFISH' SoundBlaster Creative Soundcard by any chance do u? These are known to be greedy/ selfish the lot when it comes to resource sharing.
Did u try Georges PCI Latency patch?
Have'nt tried the latency patch, but it did'nt crash with just the soundblaster live value in, I left Battlefield 42 running for over an hour and it did'nt crash, then when I put my modem back in the same game crashed with-in 20 mins, could be coincidence but I'm goner take the modem out from slot 4 (one of the slots that should not share with the AGP) and put it in slot 2, one that definately shares resouces with AGP, if the crashing gets worse then its gotta be that (I hope). Still, weeks ago it was still crashing with just the vid card installed, a fresh install of XPpro, nothing else but one game installed, but it did have the old BIOS. I'll try and find the latency patch.
This was mentioned on the page i gave u, It spoke about resource sharing, drivers and PCI slots
Am I supposed to be able to set the PC up with nothing at-all sharing? To do this will I have to force IRQ's on specific slots in the BIOS then set the bios to non-plug'n'play OS? Anyway since I put the modem on slot 2(going by the manuel probably the one most likely to cause a problem) it has'nt crashed, so I may have corrected a problem inadvertently?DXDIAG says SoundBlaster & VIA USB Host Controller are both on IRQ10, but does'nt say its a prob?And the modem & the Geforce are sharing IRQ11, again it does seem to be saying it's a prob, on top of this theres alot of memory address sharing with each other? When there is a conflict or a problem what does it look like as oppossed to something thats just sharing, if even sharing is ok????
OK I think I'm sorted, on 3D-GURU I found an explanation for the 'INFINITE SOUND LOOP BUG THAT CAUSES 3D APPLICATIONS TO RANDOMLY LOCK OR DROP YOU BACK TO YOUR DESK TOP', it's all to do with RX55 register - the Memory Write Queue - FROM THE PATCH ----So what does it do? It closes the RX55 memory register in BIOS. The RX55 register's official name and function is Memory Write Queue (MWQ) timer. The MWQ timer is actually a timing device included in the memory host controller to prevent write data being held in the memory queue too long. After the data has been in the queue too long it times out. This timed out data is then given a higher write request priority. Now that might sound nice – a bit of extra performance BUT the procedure fails when overloaded. 3D games and Win XP put too much load on the memory queuing timer procedure. The nVidia new driver exaggerates the problem even more as the driver enables nVidia cards to use even more memory than previous driver versions.
So in a nutshell it’s a memory timing problem that only happens when the RX55 register is opened. Some motherboard manufacturers have already released new BIOS that have the register closed. In other instances, this patch is needed. END
I've installed the patch but still not messed around with my Bios settings, and so far so good. The patch is available on 3D GURU under mother-board files then Via. The explanation contained with the patch sounds to me like VIA (if it is their fault) new about this and will sneak this fix in with a release of 4 in 1, most of the other fixes for this problem involve memory, latency, timing issues or in general changeing the default speed of components, so I think they are indirectly fixing the problem. If anybodys got more info on this please post cause I'd be interested to know. Anyway will post again if this don't work.
Forcing IRQ in bios doesnt NOT work no more! well it wont in win2k or winxp
Don't think I need to force any IRQ's, everythings at defaults or AUTO and so far no crashes. But is it normal to have stuff sharing IRQ's or memory address's?? One thing I have noticed is since I put the modem in slot 2 the dial-up tone sounds different and my connection aint as stable, but this is a very small price to pay, I'll try the modem in a different slot to see what happerns. So far I'm of the opinion that my prob has been fixed by the new bios and the loop patch (HOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Will post if it aint.
in WinXP it shares anyways u CANNOT force anything! i guess its possible if u have APcI or whatever its called advanced sharing of resources off or something.
Going to give the patch a whirl n see how it works... cos it is a little big and if its just closing a reg u can do that with a simple bit of code
OK, last night I left Battlefield 42 running for over 2 hours and it did not crash!!!!!!I've never been able to get anything to run for this amount of time. I'm now 80% sure I'm sorted. Will start optimizing the Bios settings now 1 at a time and leave Batt 42 running after each change. Will post if I'm counting my chickens too early!!!!!!!!
Well... I removed all fixes from my machine, went on Day of Defeat and it crashed after a couple of mins. When i applied that patch u mentioned set all memory settings to optimal. Dont work for me at all, anywayas back to my old fixes which i know work for me
F**K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!it's crashed!!!!!!!!!!!, Battlefield 42 crashed back to desktop after about 15 mins........I am gutted.
Only thing that was different was AGP set at USWC instead of default UC, dont know what it does but I've turned it back off. Will keep trying, by the EUPHORiA when you say went back to your old fixes which ones do you mean?
U do know that fix ur trying to use is about 3 years old and any VIA 4 in 1 above 4.37 already has this patch incorporated in it.
Did'nt know that, but which specific fixes have u done to your sys that u know work?
I just overclock, fixes everything
Ok, got my Q-Tec 550watt PSU, gold case and gold fans, ok it looks like something outer Liberache's organ (err), but my volts are sitting perfectly, 12 volt = 12.403, 5 volt = 4.919, and 3.3 = 3.376, so the PC's been rock solid (touch wood, or plastic). The big difference is in the 5 volt, before it was 4.756, and fluctuated. If anybodys interested I paid £35 for the PSU, post if you want to know where from. Thanks EUPHORiA for your help.
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