[Flasher]

System Specs
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
AMD Socket A 800mhz Athlon
Asus A7V
128 megs RAM
SB Live! Value
Creative Labs Geforce2
Pioneer 10x DVD
HP 8x6x24 CDR

The system runs perfectly stable in win98/Me but when put in the Win2k environment it will lock up the graphics anywhere from 5mins-12hrs after booting up. It's just the screen that freezes...if I'm playing mp3's they will continue to play and play as long as their are songs in the winamp que..but the screen is completely frozen.

AMD released a registry fix and added a largePageMinimum setting claiming their knowledge of the lockup in win2k with an Athlon processor and a Geforce card.

I've tried various video card drivers for my Geforce...from the reference Creative Labs drivers to the latest Det3 leaked drivers (6.xx)

I've installed the VIA-4in1 drivers...the latest viaAGP 4.03 drivers...

Still crashes...

Any thoughts ?

[Flasher]

Seeing as I'm sick and tired of the crashing...

If I just replaced my Asus A7V motherboard with some another Athlon Socket A supported motherboard will I experience the same problems ?

[JediBaron]

I have almost the exact setup as you an have absolutely NO problems at all anymore. All you have to do is have the AMD/MS patch installed, have the VIA 4 in 1 installed, and last but not least - set your performance level in your BIOS to Normal, rather than Optimal.

Operating System: Windows 2000 Pro sp1 (running fully PNP w/ ACPI)
Processor: AMD K7 T-Bird 800 w/ 256 Megs PC133
Motherboard: Asus K7a (1004c BIOS) w/ the newest Via 4 in 1
Hard Drive: Seagate 20 Gig UDMA66 7200rpm (formatted in NTFS 5)
Video: Asus 6600 SGRAM w/ Asus sba bios (AGP Geforce 256,32meg - Nvidia drivers v6.31)
Sound: SB 128 PCI (1373 chip w/ 5.12.01.4035 WDM drivers - certified)
Modem: USR 56K PCI
Network: NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (PCI 10/100 card)
SCSI: PCI Advansys SCSI Host Adapter
CD Burner: Smart&Friendly 4x SCSI
Printer: Epson Stylus 740 (USB)
Scanner: UMAX Astra 1220U (USB)
Misc: Creative PC-DVD 5X drive, USB Intellimouse Optical w/ intellipoint 3.2 (ver. 3.20.0.484), Gravis Xterminator gamepad with the new no-bsod driver that Gravis tech has me beta testing - thanks dude the drivers finally rock! )
DirectX: 8.0 RC0 (4.08.00.0183)

[Flasher]

>AMD/MS patch installed

You mean that registry patch they released last week or so ?

I'll give setting performance level to NORMAL a go...that basically bumps the AGP down to 2x right ?

[JediBaron]

Yep on both accounts. It goes to 2X, but more importantly, it shuts off 2 other settings in the chipset settings that cause the problems. One last note, I forgot to mention it, but you should also have Fastwrites off in the BIOS settings too.

Enjoy your newly stable Athlon

[This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 03 October 2000).]

[GHackmann]

Try changing the I/O Voltage. If it's on 3.3V, set it to 3.4V. And if it's on 3.4V, set it to 3.3V Asus boards in particular get much more stable with GeForces if you change the core voltage, since many don't deliver enough juice to them. If everything but the game keeps going then this is usually a good sign that the I/O voltage needs to be changed, especially with a power-hungry card like a GeForce 2.

If you're willing to switch MBs, then I recommend the KT7 motherboard. It's very stable and overclocks well. I'm using the Slot-A equivalent (KA7-100) and I'm very pleased with it. It's stable even at 4x with SBA enabled with my GeForce DDR.

Also try using DirectX 8 RC0. In my experience it's more stable (and much faster) than DirectX 7. Where you get it though is your problem, since you'd have to find a site that posts leaked betas. I can't tell you where to find it but I'm sure you'll manage.

[This message has been edited by GHackmann (edited 03 October 2000).]

[This message has been edited by GHackmann (edited 03 October 2000).]

[Flasher]

LOL thanks GHackmann,

What's the diff between 4x and 2x anyways ? Does the GeForce actually make use of 4x enough that there's a performance diference...or is it basically a marketing gimmick "oh ya this one has 4x AGP, this one over here has ONLY 2x"

[@~@:~KEV~:@~@]

and where would i find these reg fixes

[JediBaron]

From my testing with the Geforce 256, increasing the card to 4X only accounted for a <5% increase in speed on my Athlon T-Bird 800. But it made the system really unstable. Direct3d crashed in a few mins and OpenGL lasted somewhere around 10 to 20 mins.
I suspect that the performance difference may be higher with different m/b chipsets and video cards. But I have yet to see any substantial numbers one way or the other.

I assume you have no more probs anymore either, Flasher?

[Flasher]

changing to Normal mode (agp 2x) still experienced crashes.

I upgraded to DX 8 beta...man that sucker flies ! My openGL screensaver just rips now !

Hopefully DX8 will fix it, if not I'll try upping the voltage on the board.

-=-=-
Registry patch for AMD+geforce
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q270/7/15.ASP

[JediBaron]

Nice try, but unfortunately OpenGL is not part of DirectX You probably just didn't have your tweak settings to VSink='Off by Default' in the OpenGL panel.

If you did everything then you should have no more probs. But if your still having them, go into your bios. I assume your running at least ver 1004, if not GET IT! then just hit your "restore to default settings". Make sure you have your memory set to the right speed (100 or 133) that corresponds to your memory type. Then go in and change the AGP to 'Normal'. Then go into the boot section and set everything from pnp on down to yes and enabled. The only thing you'll want to disable is the last setting which is the ATA100 (unless your using it of course :))
Then reboot and you should be just perfect.

[Flasher]

k i set vsync to off now. I had it set to that previously but I've uninstalled and reinstalled so many nvidia driver combos in the last week i hardly know if i'm coming or going :p

i'm running BIOS 1004C, got ram set to 133, got system set to NORMAL, got ATA100 enabled cuz i have an IBM 75GXP drive that uses it.

[This message has been edited by Flasher (edited 04 October 2000).]

[Flasher]

uhhhmmm how do i uninstall dx8 ?

or where can i get the dx7 win2k drivers ?

[ThC 129]

check the radon and directx8 thread in games

[JediBaron]

There haven't been any reports of problems with dx8 and I'm using it and all my progs work just fine. Why do you want to remove it?

[Flasher]

my FPS in Counter-strike dropped over 100fps and my favourite CS server which always pings 30 feels like over 500 when i play even tho it still reports 30 ping

[ThC 129]

thats because 1. HL doesnt like Direct3d 2. HL is tweaked to OpenGL and 3. HL just doesnt like windows2000 much in general. Yes it will run but there are a few issues with the engine and win2k.

[Flasher]

wah !?

Man Half-Life flies in win2k for me...i get <200FPS all the time in Half-Life.

As soon as I put the dx8 drivers in it just dropped by 100%

besides i'm running HL in opengl mode

[JediBaron]

So your only getting 100fps now in OpenGL which again has nothing to do with DirectX. Is that a good assessment of the problem? I would suggest you take a better look at the Nvidia drivers that you are running. I can not stress it enough that OpenGL has it's own API and is completely seperate from DirectX. OpenGL is controlled by the Nvidia options panel, but can also be controlled by video tweek programs that you may have installed. I'd start there if I were you.

[ThC 129]

yeah, thats like saying My lawnmower wont run because my refrigerator is broken. DirectX which in HLs case would be D3D isnt even remotely related to OpenGL