Windows 2000 doesn't crash anymore :-).

But you forgot to mention that k6 write allocate should also be disabled in you bios settings, in order to get an stable w2k setup.

Anyway, thanks a lot!

Maybe you can explain what you did to stabilize your system.

Thanks
Frank

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The following text has been ripped from www.ntcompatible.com hardware forum
=====================================
Ok, I'll help you chaps out. The Problem with the crashing TNT cards is a known one with atleast the Diamondmm/S3 Helpdesk in Europe. The Problem basically comes down to synching errors between the Ali Aladdin V chipset used on the motherboard and the memory on the graphics card. Too bad most of you people probably can't read German since there is a really good article in German about exactly this problem. First thing you do is you download the latest AGP Miniport drivers from www.ali.com.tw. (v1.66 (?)) You download the latest nVidia Reference drivers from www.nvidia.com. (v5.22) Further more you need the latest bios for your motherboard and last but not least, some luck. Turn on AGP-Turbomode, Passive Release and Frame Buffer Posted Write (these settings will be modified by registry entries later on) in the Bios. Now for the Registry Entries (I won't explain them, if you want to know what they mean leave a note). AGPDataRate=1, ForceSBADisable=0, ForceAGPEnable=1, FrameBufferSize=C, FrameBufferDisable=0, GATMode=2, K6SetEWBEC=2, USeUCForWC=0, GTLBAlwaysFetch=0, ResetAGPCommand=0, MaxPCIRetryCounter=0, InOrderQueue1=0, PCIMode-0, ForceAssertRequest=0, DisablePCIReadPrefetch=0. AGPDelayClock=hex:10, SDRAMDelayClock=hex:10, K6WriteAllocate=2. After you've modified these entries to match the ones here, close regedit and restart your machine. It should now run quite a bit more stable then it previously did. Of course I cannot garuantee that it will. For people who want to know the url for the article in German it's http://www.planet3dnow.de/artikel/diverses/aladdinv_tnt2/index.htm. Credit for finding out how to modify this stuff must completely go to the author of that article, Roland Neumeier.
Hope this helps a bit.

cheers,

Marc

Ravian
Member
Posts: 2
Registered: Jul 2000
posted 09 July 2000 13:18
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Sorry, forgot one registry entry that needs to be modified. Here it is: PADTTLInput=1
Marc

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The author of this post doesn't mention this, but it is also advisable to turn off CPU EXTERNAL CACHE and k6 WRITE ALLOCATE in asus p5a motherboards BIOS. Also, use the lastest bios revision available (I Think it is 1011 beta 001, but I use 1010 beta 002).

I`m sorry, but there are not such registry settings in my W2K registers. I have Creative Labs latest drivers installed (they are based on nvidia refs anyway, but i think they should be the best for creative RIVA TNT i`m using). i also installed the AGP 1.68 driver from Ali. And when I look to H_KEY_LOCAL/SOFTWARE/ALI/Ali AGP Driver, there are no such setting. are you sure those are for W2K and not for W9x? i also tried to read the original article in german, though my german is far from perfect, i did not find any reference there, that this article refers to w2k, it seemed to me, that that was really awkward tweak to make new 5.22 detonator drivers work better on Ali chipsets and the writer admits, that older 3.xx drivers were more stable. so the conlusion might be, that the think that mattered was the K6 write allocate or external cache disable, if those were the only other things you have changed.

Well, it is obvious that these registry keys don't exist, and so, you have to manually edit the registry and create them. But since it takes a lot of time, you could try this instead:

1-Open notepad
2-Paste the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALi\ALi AGP Driver]
"AGPDataRate"=1
"ForceSBADisable"="0"
"ForceAGPEnable"="1"
"FrameBufferSize"="C"
"FrameBufferDisable"="0"
"GATMode"="2"
"K6SetEWBEC"="2"
"USeUCForWC"="0"
"GTLBAlwaysFetch"="0"
"ResetAGPCommand"="0"
"MaxPCIRetryCounter"="0"
"InOrderQueue1"="0"
"PCIMode"="0"
"ForceAssertRequest"="0"
"DisablePCIReadPrefetch"="0"
"AGPDelayClock" = hex:10
"SDRAMDelayClock " = hex:10
"K6WriteAllocate"="2"
"PADTTLInput"="1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALi\ALi AGP Driver\1.68]

"AGPDataRate"=1
"ForceSBADisable"="0"
"ForceAGPEnable"="1"
"FrameBufferSize"="C"
"FrameBufferDisable"="0"
"GATMode"="2"
"K6SetEWBEC"="2"
"USeUCForWC"="0"
"GTLBAlwaysFetch"="0"
"ResetAGPCommand"="0"
"MaxPCIRetryCounter"="0"
"InOrderQueue1"="0"
"PCIMode"="0"
"ForceAssertRequest"="0"
"DisablePCIReadPrefetch"="0"
"AGPDelayClock" = hex:10
"SDRAMDelayClock " = hex:10
"K6WriteAllocate"="2"
"PADTTLInput"="1"


--------------------------------------
(end of registry keys)

And after this:

3-Go to
ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_7/ALI_Chipset/ALI_V
And download the lastest BIOS

4-Flash your bios with this new one

5-Turn off k6-write allocate and external cache.

6-Enjoy! No more K_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, IRQ_NOT_LESS_NOR_EQUAL..

PS: I'm using creative's drivers (5.30), and they work great!.

wooopss! I forgot to say you need to save notepad's text as a registry file, for instance, save it as "tnt.reg"