GeForce 2 GTS lockups

[mfbf]

Hi all. I just built a system with a friend of mine which appears to be unstable. Specs:

Abit BX133 RAID
PIII 300
128 PC133
2 15GB IBM ATA100 7200rp
Annihilator 2
sound blaster live! value
56K ISA modem
40x cd-ROM
HP9100i 8x/4x/32x
Zip 100 IDE

Hmm...anything else? Anyway, When playing 3D games, the system will lockup, quit to the the desktop, or work just fine for hours. I did notice perhaps that when the ambient temp is up a few degrees that its more frequent. The bios has only a 1/1 and a 2/3 AGP to FSB setting, so I know I'm overclocking the card. I have stock cooling on the card, and front and back 80mm case fans as well as the powersupply fan. My case temp is around 32 C , same for the CPU. I have the latest reference drivers from nvidia and I've tried to underclock the core and graphics memory via the control panel tweaks, but that doesn't seem to help. Any chance that the mobo bios could be updated? Is heat my problem? Bad connections somewhere? Help!!!

[Entragian ][]

Sounds like heat or voltage are your problem. You can always put a fan on the card itself to help cool it, or a new heat sink and thermal paste.
Raising your voltage will produce more heat. But you could try raising it up one step and see if the stability changes.

Ent

[mfbf]

As you can see, I'm a junior member...very junior. Raise the voltage? Where? Scuse my ignorance. Thanks.

mfbf

[daveleau]

A good idea above...

Your I/O voltage is set to 3.5V by default on the mobo. If you set it to 3.3V which is normal, you might get less heat and less lockups. Or...it will lock up more. Voltage brings stablility but also heat. If it is heat, then lowering the voltage might help. If not raising the voltage might help. Not sure what is safe though.

What is the highest I/O voltage allowed? MFBF's is set to 3.5V by default BTW...

Dave

(I have to add it, but double-posting is frowned up by the mods and Socalgal will probably lock the one in Tech Support)

This is done int he BIOS ont he same page as teh fsb settings if I am not mistaken...

My addition to your closed Tech Support thread:
Hmmm. I have a friend at work that has the exact same system and exact same problem. He's a real pain in the **** about it. His name is BJ though, not MFBF.
Welcome to Sysopt, Bill.

Wish I had an answer. Maybe some others here will. I actually thought this was another guy that was posting a similar problem. Then I saw the name...


Anyway, here's a bump for ya.

Is there any chance this mobo will get a 1/2 AGP divider so the AGP is not OCed when running at fsb 133? MFBF also has an AGP cooler in the PCI below the AGP.

Would putting a cooling system like this help: http://millisec.hypermart.net/GeforceII/GeforceR.htm
or like this? http://millisec.safeshopper.com/11/368.htm?1000

Thanks,
Dave (coworker of MFBF)


[This message has been edited by daveleau (edited 08-29-2000).]

[Gouki-]

Here lately I've been having problems similar to the one described above. Tried everything. Got the latest drivers, etc...and it still locks up when I play 3D games.

I saw this thread and thought about the voltage setting that my mb is set to. The default on my mb (Asus K7V) was set to 3.4 and after looking through the manual I found that the ram is to be 3.3v So I changed it to 3.3 And after reading the above posts...I changed it back to 3.4...and coincidently I played Unreal Tournament til about 3am last night...lol ;-)

In the above posts...you guys say that the default should 3.5? So...if I experience more lockups...should I try that next?

Gouki-

[Entragian ][]

Asus K7V 3.4 volts... You can run 3.5 if you have proper cooling. (usually pump 3.5 if I am overclocking my FSB)

Ent

[daveleau]

3.5V is the default for the Abit BX chipset. I have the BF6 which has a default of 3.5 and the BX133 (mfbf's mobo) is set to 3.5V as well atdefault. It depends on what is safe for the mobo. I would *assume* that it would be safe to run at 3.5V but would try and get advice about that first from ASUS.
Good luck
Dave

[mfbf]

Well, Dave and I figured it out. Aside from a serious IRQ conflict (now resolved), the problem appears to have been from overclocking the AGP bus. I dropped the fsb to 125 and the system is solid as a rock now. Played UT for 2 hours last night!! I'd still like a bios update to put that 1/2 divider in. Oh well. Thanks to all for the advice.