3-D programs crash my box

[Tremo]

Yo guys, some help, PLEASE! I have an AMD XP1800 box using the old Abit KG7R mobo. Graphics is a Leadtek GF4Ti 4600. When I run a 3D application like a game or Google Earth, the box freezes after a few minutes. Requires a hard reboot. I have a copper heatsink on the CPU and 3 case fans. I also have a 460 Watt power supply.

Any idea what is causing this problem? TIA.

[Midknyte]

are you sure the card is good? does it have a fan on the heatsink?

what drivers are you running? GF4 cards seem to work best with the older drivers.

[rmanet]

Is this a new problem with Google and newer games?

Best bet is to make sure card supports 3D, etc. because it sounds like this is a new problem. Run AIDA32 to find out what that G4 supports and spec it against game requirements, etc. Might want to try to reinstall or install updated drivers, but MidKnyte says older ones work best.

Also check event viewer - may give you an idea what happened if it's a driver conflict, corrupted file, or something else.

And get current on DirectX and maybe run some tests on the card - any chance you had a heat problem or power surge at any point? Let us know :t

[Midknyte]

It could be that the card just can't run the program since it is written for a DX9. GFX4 cards support up to DX8

Some of the optimizations/fixes for the newer driver sets seem to mess with the older cards. Not totally sure what is causing it, but we are running into issues that require a rollback to the 5x.xx drivers or other older sets.

[Tremo]

Yes, the card seems to be good, and does have 2 fans on it's heatsink. I do have DX9 loaded on the box. Game in question is Wolfenstien Enemy Territory. That and Google Earth (also 3-D) will frequently cause the box to crash from a few to several minutes of run time. It may be thermal, seems like if the room is cold inside, it takes longer to crash, but not always. Drivers are Nvidia 6.14.10.4523, they've been around for a while. The programs do run, for a while, then crash. Card and box are NOT overclocked. I'm wondering if it's a video card problem, a video driver problem, a conflict, or a mobo/CPU problem. It runs great up until the point when it crashes.

Any more ideas? TIA!

[Midknyte]

so the program runs, but crashes after a while? I would definitely check the fans and cooling. maybe you need to clean out some dust from the fans/heatsinks.

[Tremo]

OK, I'll look into that, thanks. One more question. Since I have a GF4 card, what is the latest, stable, recommended driver to use? I haven't updated in a while. Thanks.

[Midknyte]

the latest officials are the 78.01s. for older cards, try the 56.72s. you can get them at the nvidia archive driver site.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html

[Tremo]

Thanks!