[Average]

:x Have an asus a7v266e board with 256 ddr ram, radeon 7500 video card, 300 watt power supply. When playing Quake 3 whether in single mode or on the internet it will sometimes freeze up. In freezing the picture remains the same and the music cycles. Have tried disabling the onboard sound and putting in a sound blaster as well using a friends radeon 7000 to see if that is the problem. Problem is intermittent so it is very frustrating some times I can go for 1 minute or sometimes 15 minutes and somtimes nothing happens which is rare. I really don't use the computer for anything taxing to find out if any thing else locks it. Have messed around a bit in the bios setting it to default helps a bit but weird things such as my icons being black happen even after I have fixed the setting in the bios. The processor by the way is a xp1600, would be nice if there was a bios setup for me to see that works with my combo or suggestions. I am starting to get the feeling it is the memmory or a laggy harddrive since it wants to install a mass storage device if you try loading
any info for the ata100. Starting to think this was not the board to buy too many hours farting around with this to mention.

[pmistry]

I have a Radeon 8500 card and I too had similar problems in Windows 9x with random freezing in Quake 3, Alice, and Need For Speed 4, I even had problems opening an MS-DOS window, with gave me a not enough memory error, even though I have 512 MB of RAM. All of this under Windows ME.

All of this was solved by changing the AGP aperture size in my BIOS to a minimum of 64MB. I think there is a problem between Windows 9x > ATI Cards > and mapped AGP memory. I don't have this issue under Windows 2000 or XP.

Also don't use those 2.4 Catalyst drivers for ATI cards under Win9x. They are complete crap. I couldn't run any old OpenGL programs like GL Quake or Hexen 2 without complete lockups. Others have noted similar problems in Win9x, apparently though the 2.4's are great under XP and 2000. Use 2.3 for Win9x they are faster too and a lot more stable.

[Average]

Thanks will give it a shot, posted letter yesterday woke up this morning power supply died changed out cases today amazingly enough everything is still working. Will go get the drivers and install.

[Average]

Unfortunately the problem continue's any other suggests would be appreciated.

[pmistry]

Updated the BIOS?
Reinstall Windows, btw what version of Windows are you using?
Visit Windows Update?
Reinstall DirectX? Run DXDiag to check for any problems?
Run Scandisk?
Update Network/modem card drivers?
Update the VIA chipset drivers, to the latest.
http://www.viaarena.com
Also you may want to browse their message boards too.
Disable AGP Fast Writes in the BIOS.
Select "AUTO" for AGP drive strength in BIOS.

Try installing Catalyst 2.2 or 2.1, with the appropriate control panels? (Use as last resort)

[Average]

Thanks will try, I am using Windows Me by the way.

[pmistry]

Hope something I posted helps.

[Average]

Unfortunately same results, downloaded the new UT 2003 locked up in there as well after about 4 minutes. Downloads Mad Onion Mark program went through it ,graphics looked sweet . May have be too short a program to cause anything but wanted to see what would happen. Will be taking the system in next week to have it looked at since this is too much. Cross my fingers it is a system problem and that this nightmare will end. Had a high opinion of Asus at one time but due to the fact they didn't answer my email makes me leary of ever buying any more of their products.

[pmistry]

That is rough, sorry it didn't work, I am currently running an Asus board now, but probably won't buy it again simply because it is too expensive. I see others using Microstar, Abit, and Soyo boards that cost much cheaper, I wanna try a different manufacturer.

[Average]

Really appreciate your efforts nice to see people willing to spend the time to give someone else a hand. Will let you know what happens probably won't buy Ati anytime soon either, so much for supporting national brands.
Will buy a premade system that has been tested and let them have all this fun.

cheers Pat

[Average]

;( Just got back from the repair shop where they took a look at it. Really didn't do anything to it as it passed all the test. Fellow said he had it going for 3 hours no probs. Knew it was too good to believe, when I got home not even 3 minutes in freeze city once again. Asus finally emailed me back after another try at them for info ,said in broken English no use Me use 98. ME no good for games they said, the reply came from Shanghai.
Think I might invest in Xp for home what do you think? regards pat

[adamvjackson]

Personally, before I'd invest money into new software (which, by the way, I'm not convinced is the problem) I'd try reinstalling what you currently have. I would back up all data, and do the following:

1. Test your RAM. I recommend MemTest86.
2. Open your case up, check all your fans, does anything seem too hot?
3. Verify all cards are properly seated.
4. Try another power supply. If you must buy another from a store, only to use for a few days, then return it, I HIGHLY recommend that you do NOT skip this step.
5. Complete format and reinstallation of operating system.

Keep us posted, I'm sure that between everyone here, we can sort thru this.

Adam

[Average]

Tested memmory with program was ok, everything is plugged in ok and running cool. Lowered settings in quake3 seems to work better haven't tried it for any length of time but some glimer of hope. System doesn't retain it's bios settings since getting it back boots up and goes into bios. Popped out battery which I just changed last week cleared it with a jumper then removed and put back in battery still the same. Weird when I download files to desktop they are in solid black. This is starting to make me believe something is up with the video card.

[Average]

Tried test it passed, everything is in place and running cool. Lowered all the video settings in quake to lowest seemed to work much better, only froze up once so a marked improvement. Also went into bios and put all sections relating to memmory on automatic rather than a specific setting.
My bios is not being saved just put in a new battery last week hopefully it is just a bad battery the other never even lastest a year. Another weird thing is when I download off the internet the item appears on my desktop in pure black. I am thinking my video card has something weird happening to it since I can not take advantage of it in higher settings or Quake 3 doesn't allow for some of it's features which is causing a conflict.
I know when I spectate I can do it all day but when I actually play the problems start, maybe bad memmory on the card? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[adamvjackson]

If it's an option, try swapping video cards (and for that matter, power supplies) with another computer.

[pmistry]

Also I mentioned this in another forum, but ATI just released the Catalyst 2.5 suite, it is more customizable than any other release, give it a shot.

[Average]

Have been playing all week with no problems so I decided to raise the graphics level in quake3 from the lowest to the highest including changing from 16 bit to 32 bit. After 4 minutes the screen went very light and a quake has caused error in Kernell 32.dll . I closed this window down and exited the game and went to the desktop which was now also very light and blurry. I decided to go back into the game to see what would happen and it started up ok with the graphics being ok but after 2 minutes the game froze. I have seen this Kernell32 file pop up in my problem log before but never knew what it was. My assumption is that my video card in 32 bit and windows Me do not get along same I think happened in 98 when I had that. More I think about what has happened in the past makes sense. Question is it a flaw in the card or something that just is. Seems crappy to have an expensive card and not be able to use it up to it's fullest potential. Thanks in advance for all replies. Season's greetings to all ,have been shoveling snow the last 3 days so it will be a white christmas here in Manitoba after all.

[Average]

Hopefully this will be my last post as hopefully my problem has been resolved. Broke down and bought Xp for myself for xmas and put it in, kind of fruity looking . Put quake up to high quality and 32 bit just finished playing 16 matches and no problems with nice graphics. Crossing my fingers on this one after about a year of having to fart around with 98 and Me. chow pat

[pmistry]

Sometimes with newer computers and newer hardware older OSes are just not the best to use. I see people running P4-2.5GHz PCs with Windows 98. I know they like Windows 98 alot but they have had nothing but problems with their system, it might be a good idea to try a different OS. Glad your problem is fixed.

[Average]

It's official no problems since putting it in thanks all will drop by once in a while.

Average