Games snow crashing in hardware T&L, please help.

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cuallito

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 11, 2004
Messages
68
2400+
Geforce 2
Windows XP SP1
384 MB RAM DDR

This problem started after I ran windows update and it installed some updated system drivers, sorry, but I don't remember for what devices exactly. I've tried using using the latest nvidia drivers, and 3 other versions of them (ver. 1.x,30.x,and 40.x) some work better than others but none of them solve the problem completely. Max Payne 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 work fine, but with Age of Mythology, Sacrifice, and Homeworld 2, the screen fills with garbage and the computer freezes and then tries to reboot. When it tries to boot again, it just gets caught in a loop or something and keeps beeping so I have to turn it off. If I wait 5 minutes and try it boots up fine. Maybe it's heat? Please help. Thank you.
 
If the Geforce 2 has a fan, check it. If just a heatsink, check it.
Clean it, blow it out, whatever, make sure it is seated properly. Also reseat the card in the AGP slot, on occasion those problems can occur if the card is not quite in there right.

I'm still running the Omega 45.xx drivers, seem to be the best image quality and performance on the Geforce 2. Google Omega drivers.
 
thanks very very much, but is there anything else it could be? I find it kind of suspicious that some games mess up while others work fine and the problem started right after a windows update. I checked the fan, and it spins, but maybe the motor's starting to wear out and it's spinning too slow?
 
cuallito said:
thanks very very much, but is there anything else it could be? I find it kind of suspicious that some games mess up while others work fine and the problem started right after a windows update. I checked the fan, and it spins, but maybe the motor's starting to wear out and it's spinning too slow?
Click to expand...

Try cleaning the connectors and reseating the card, are you overclocking? If so, down clock it-- see what your agp rate is, if its at 4x, drop it to 2x, if its at 2x, drop it to 1x.
 
you could try removing the heatsink puting on some new thermal compound (artcic silver 3 or 5 would be great) re-fit the heatsink and see what happens
 
inotocracy said:
Try cleaning the connectors and reseating the card, are you overclocking? If so, down clock it-- see what your agp rate is, if its at 4x, drop it to 2x, if its at 2x, drop it to 1x.
Click to expand...

Nope, running it stock.
 
I tried re-seating the card without any success. I'll try cleaning off the fan with alchohol and a qtip later. This problem started not long after I installed some new RAM also. However, I have already tried swaping the RAMs without any luck. Maybe that set something in the bios that's causing the crashes?
 
What kind of cooling do you have in your comp? Do you have good airflow around the card?
 
again, I can't thank you guys enough for helping me on this, it's been a big headache for like the last two weeks. The system just has one fan on top of the cpu (eMachines :rolleyes: ) and of course, the one on the card, which didn't come with the system (it came with some shitastic onboard video, maybe that could have something to do with it?) I tried cleaning the heatsink/fan and throttling the agp from 4x to 2x, but it is still crashing all the same. What really bugs me is I've never had this prob before the extra ram install and windows update episode.
 
Does the case have mounts to add more fans in? Like a mount on the back or a mount on the lower front? That sounds like it's your problem. Your stuff is overheating. That extra ram may just have created enough more heat to push it into the overheating range.
 
thanks. ok here's what I did just to see if it is indeed overheating. stick with me on this, I know it's ghetto, but hear me out. I opened up the case up and posisitioned one of those oscilating fans (8" diameter) you use to keep the hose cool like 4" from the open case and turned it on high (and let it run for like 10 minutes with the computer off). I tried to play Sacrifice with hardware t&l and the damn thing still crashes. :mad: It can't be the xtra RAM becuase I the problem still occurs with just the original RAM stick installed. Seriously wtf?
 
thanks for humoring me on this alphaone, I know there probably a lot more important things you could be doing than this. I have already installed driver cleaner, booted in safe mode, cleaned out the drivers (twice, like the faq suggested) and installed the latest omega drivers. I noticed an increase in performance, but I still keep getting the crashes.

edit: I didn't think about the mobo drivers, but the mobo website http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/drivers_l7.html doesn't list any agp drivers and the vga ones are for the onboard video. Should I do the ide ones, although I don't see how that could help.

edit2: maybe this even't even a vid card issue?
 
That's what I'm beginning to think. Maybe a DX issue. MP2 and UT2004 are both openGL, right?
First off, I'd try reinstalling DirectX.

Got a spare drive? Install Windows on it temporarily and see if it crashes in any of those games.
 
0ldman said:
That's what I'm beginning to think. Maybe a DX issue. MP2 and UT2004 are both openGL, right?
First off, I'd try reinstalling DirectX.

Got a spare drive? Install Windows on it temporarily and see if it crashes in any of those games.
Click to expand...

Max Payne 2 is D3D, and UT2004 has OpenGL support but it defaults to Direct3D if I remember right.
 
cuallito said:
I tried re-seating the card without any success. I'll try cleaning off the fan with alchohol and a qtip later. This problem started not long after I installed some new RAM also. However, I have already tried swaping the RAMs without any luck. Maybe that set something in the bios that's causing the crashes?
Click to expand...


Well not too many GF2 cards had 128mb of memory, and you're naming some games with high texture amounts. My guess is that the ram is creating errors - try underclocking it, overvolting it, or both. Also, Homeworld2 is a know CPU hog. That just reinforces IMO that its not really the GF2's problem. If the update installed new drivers for the motherboard, that could be the problem too - WU has a history of it's 'updated' drivers messing things up.

If you still have problems, try underclocking everything, then push each item until you find the prob. Also, what PSU are you running?
 
If you're not getting artifacts in the games (white dots that look like snow, or weird looking flashes of corrupted textures across the screen) then I would say that heat is not the issue here. It sounds to me like one of the drivers you updated broke everything. To me, it sounds like it's your mobo drivers. What chipset is your mobo running? VIA or NForce2? If it's VIA you might want to try to get the latest official drivers from VIA's website. Same deal if you have an nforce. That sounds like it's the problem. Windows update gave you a crap driver. I am now throughly convinced that this is not a hardware issue.

Now the driver trouble shooting begins. Ewwwww....
 
My mobo is a ecs l7vmm2: http://www.ecsusa.com/products/l7vmm2.html

I CHIPSET

* VIA® KM266 (NB) & VT8235 (SB) Chipset
o KM266 V-Link Host system controller and VT8233 V-Link Client to PCI/LPC bridge
o Peak Bandwidth 266MB/S 8-bit V-link Host Controller
o Integrated ProSavage 8 2D/3D video accelerator, 32MB shared memory
* LPC I/O ¡V IT8705F
* VIA® VT6306 IEEE 1394 host controller (optional)
* LAN: 10/100 Mbps faster Ethernet (optional)
* AC97 Audio Codec: Compliant with AC97 2.2 specification

Thanks again guys, I have to be off to school now though. I'll report back.
 
I just ran via4in1_443.exe (in safe mode, to get around the windows file protection) and guess what





THE




GAMES





ARE







STILL





CRASHING

No new problems at least. What the heck is going on?
 
Tried version 441 of the mobo drivers for shits and giggles. No luck :( I know it has be stumped too.
 
rereading the original post, sounds like a vid card hardware issue. cap going out on the vid card or a cap on the mainboard that supplies the AGP slot. If you have another comparable vid card or know someone who does, plug it in and try.
 
But he said it started only after he got a bunch of software updates.

The only thing I can think of is somehow finding a way to go back to what worked before the updates.
 
Well, originaly the system had 128mb or RAM, which is very performance limiting a xp system so maybe adding the extra ram pushed something on the card too hard and it broke? Games run fine with normal hardware acceleration however, but no hardware (t&l), so something may have physically broke on the card. Oh well. Time for a new one anyways.
 
I uninstalled the omega drivers I was using and installed the latest drivers from nVidia (again) just to see what would happen, look what turned up:

funkysacrifice.JPG


Just sacrifice does that, but maybe a clue? Never had this happen before though.
 
alphaone said:
But he said it started only after he got a bunch of software updates.

The only thing I can think of is somehow finding a way to go back to what worked before the updates.
Click to expand...
In days of old, when certain hardware acceleration was not available in drivers, you could overclock farther without issue.

Newer drivers *may* have started using a portion of the chip that wasn't working correctly but wasn't being used yet.

Just a shot... as the screen corrupts then crashes, then loops... I say hardware issue and the software updates are coincidental. I do this for a living, that would be my next course of action.

If it were not hardware, why does it not reboot properly, why does he have to wait 5 minutes, as tho a cap is cooling, CPU/GPU/RAM is cooling...
 
0ldman said:
If it were not hardware, why does it not reboot properly, why does he have to wait 5 minutes, as tho a cap is cooling, CPU/GPU/RAM is cooling...
Click to expand...
Good point.
 
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