Need Help! Can't play games.

[challenger]

System Info:
Abit KT7A Raid Board w/ A9 BIOS (latest)
Athlon 1.4 socket A 266FSB
512mg PC133 SDRam
Nvidia GeForce 4 TI4200 w/ 128mb ram AGP Ver 4.25.00.29.00 (driver ver 41.09)
SoundBlaster 5.1 Live
Win 2000 Pro with all updates
WD 40 gig ATA 100
400 watt CompUSA PS
DX 9.0

Problems Started when I installed Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator which installed DX 8.2

Battlefield 1942 began to restart the system when it changed missions. It affects all graphics intensive games in the same way (when you change missions, pause game, go to menu, etc.) screen starts to flicker, and then restarts system or occasionally gives BSOD message of “driver_IRQL_ not_less_or_equal”. System also started taking forever to shut down.

Tried installing DX 9.0 - didn’t help

Tried uninstalling DX (Directx 9 uninstaller fr Guru3d.com) and reinstalling DX 8.1 - didn’t help

Tried flashing board BIOS to A9 (which addressed an issue with Geforce 4 cards and WinXP) - didn’t help

Tried reinstalling DX 9.0 with new BIOS - didn’t help

Tried various levels of AGP aperture size in BIOS - didn’t help

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[BipolarBill]

You don't mention uninstalling and reinstalling the Detonators...

[germanjulian]

so u used the DX9 buster which uninstalls dx9??? yes?

and u uninstalled DX8 as well right?

if u have and the detenator drives didnt fix it..............

REINSTALL

lol

are u sure flight simularto installed DX8.2? cause it should detect u have 9 and not install a older version AT ALL.

try installing flight simulator?!

oh and get a Hard drive imaging tool after u installed all programs and drivers etc etc so u can create an image and restore ur computer in 20min if you ever get another problem.
Powerquest drive image is my tool of choice for this. since its really easy to use and always works.

PS: dont create the image after u have installed games (will be to big) and test ur system for a few hours to see everything is good

[challenger]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
You don't mention uninstalling and reinstalling the Detonators...


Yeah. I did that to. Everything that can be updated has been. Can't think of anything else to do.

[challenger]

Originally posted by germanjulian
are u sure flight simulartor installed DX8.2? cause it should detect u have 9 and not install a older version AT ALL.




Yeah. It installed 8.2. I had 8.1 at the time. So I tried installing 9 to fix the problem. Since that game installed 8.2 on me without asking I've been having these problems. Even went back to 8.1 with the buster and still have problems. I'm back up at dx9 though now.

[BipolarBill]

Have you updated the VIA 4-in-1 drivers?

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

Remember that this could be a sound issue too.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If your overclocking anything the Kt7a can often give IRQL errors. If your runniung the FSB any higher than 135Mhz or +1x multiplier that sort of thing happens a lot

--Jakk:t