3D Game Problems Please Help

[ILC]

Alright my comp totally locks up when playing 3d games. It will start them and run them for a little while then it locks the entire comp up and I have to restart. My specs are:

Athlon 500
Viper 770 Ultra
64m Kingston Value Ram (pc 100)
Diamond Mx300
250 watt power (AMD approved)
Win 98SE

Here is what ive tried so far, newest frivers for everything, scandisked both HD's, rebuilt comp, formatted and reinstalled HD'd, tested for heat. Could someone please help me out. This is really getting on my nerves and I would love for my comp to run right. Thanks all!

[a Bill]

Try playing the games with the case open and see if it takes longer to lock up. If it lasts longer, then heat is your problem.

[gmarsh1]

First, I am NOT an expert, but my experience has shown thus far:

1. Get another 64 meg of RAM, might help, can't hurt, I know it's expensive.
2. Try some different video settings. I've seen lots of different gaming issues and most of em wind up as video conflicts. Your card my just be an SOB. I actually have the Diamond V550 card, but I figured out that the Riva TNT drivers work it better. This can be a hard fix to find so have a good boot disk ready.
3. I've also seen lots of other ideas if you go to your video drivers .com site and check out as many of their tech sites they have...sometimes a post meant as an OEM note will answer your issue.

Good luck, I HATE these types of conflicts...
What game are you trying??

GeoR

[ILC]

Did the no case thing a while back, no effect, have been to the manufartures sites MANY times and have done everything theyve said. Someone please help me!

By the way.....Everquest, anyone else play it?

[Legoboy]

Sound Card? I've seen a SoundBlaster PCI128 do this before, took us hours to track it down!

HTH

Legoboy

[U-96]

Post which games cause you crashes. Some are know to have AMD-specific and/or Viper 770 problems... (I'm sure you've already checked the game boards, but I thought I'd mention it)
Also post your soundcard, video driver version, and DX version.
It may be that you need to revert to an EARLIER driver or DX for stability in some games.

If you're sharp enough to rebuild and reformat, then I assume you are putting the game CD in http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

I love Jane's Fleet Command, but it crashes to the desktop if I have 3D sounds enabled, regardless. SSI's Fighting Steel also treats me to desktop crashes for no reason. Both are patched, and I have good, popular, and common components. I can play UT and Rogue Spear for hours without problems. Just bad programming, maybe you are suffering from the same affliction.

[BEOR999]

start by disabling the sound card in the device manager, then run the game.

pls list the 'suspect' game's, it may help us work this one out.

Have you overclocked the 3D card or the sys Bus? if so set back to normal bus speed.

Is the RAM in two stick's? will the game run with 32mb, so we can eliminate the RAM from the equation.

If using DX7, when you next refomat the beast, use the DX that come's with the game, hopefully 6.xx

ALSO, CTRL-ALT-DEL and close all programs running in the background, except of course, systray and explorer, and test the game once more...you may also want to take a quick look at msconfig from start-run...

[This message has been edited by BEOR999 (edited 01-18-2000).]

[ILC]

I am running Direct X7.1, newest drivers for everything, mainly only play everquest. Its only 1 stick of 64m SD ram, Ive closed all other apps, no effect. I have not overclocked anything yet, not really sure how and dont wanna mess with that yet. oh yea.... Diamond mx 300 sound. Thanks for the help so far, really appreciate it. Can more people help me pleaese?

[BBA]

If you think it is hardware, pull out all PCI cards except the video card and play the games. If no problems, install the sound card...do the same for all until you rule out a hardware problem/conflict.

If this manifest itself mostly in online gaming, then suspect your modem card or drivers.



[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 01-18-2000).]

[pcmedic]

What Mhz are you running? I would try different ramm
Daniel

[This message has been edited by pcmedic (edited 01-18-2000).]

[blondini]

i know this may not be the solution but if you could borrow another vga card off someone install it with it's drivers then run the games, if the games play fine then it is most likely your card or conflict with it, i aggree in disabling or removing other cards first,also borrow some memory too--at least this may eliminate the hardware issue!

[ILC]

Come on people. Everyone here is smart. I know theres someone out there that can help me. PLEASE!

[AuraEdge]

try a clean install of the V770 drivers. I had the same problem, where it would kick me out after a couple seconds/minutes, but did a clean install of the NVidia drivers, and it works great now. I think I may have had a corrupt driver and maybe you do to. Heres how to do it

Go to display properties (Ctrl panel -> Display) and change the adapter to Standard VGA (PCI).
Then after a reboot, do a find for all nv*.* files, and delete the ones under windows. Then reinstall the drivers...It might work after that.

[Dave_H]

Sounds like a direct X problem to me.
Try going to start/run type in "dxdiag.exe"
(without the quotes) and do all the tests there. Make shure to read the "notes" section on each screen.
Also you may want to look here for more
direct X troubleshoting: http://support.microsoft.com/Support/DirectX/DirectX_7.0/TShooter/default.asp
Hope this helps http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Dave

[stryfe]

OK here's my 2 cents...Try moving your sound card to another PCI slot and moving your mem stick to another socket. Or maybe try disabling AGP and see if that works.

[ILC]

Alright heres whats up. I moved my sound and it did nothing. However removed my sound card totally and I have absolutely no problems what so ever. Mx-300. How can I fix this? Please help some more, and thanks everyone who has given me suggestions before!

[ILC]

No ideas?

[Hellhound]

Im not trying to be a smart ***** but i would consider getting another sound card...if your having this much trouble is it worth keeping? I mean how much trouble is the sound card worth??

[InsaneMorphius]

ILC...check which IRQ your MX300 is set to. I had the same probs as you, reassigned the IRQ and PRESTO all games work. Seeing that you have no probs with the sound card out of the system, my money is that you are having some sort of IRQ prob with the MX300! Worth a shot anyhow.

Good Luck

Morphius