Where to start...

[Rat]

Hi everyone, I hope you can help me fine tune this system:
IBM Aptiva 2170-245, Acer V75M Motherboard with the latest drivers.
AMD K6-2 450
8.4 Gig Seagate hdd
256Mb PC100 CL2 Crucial RAM (non-ecc)
VooDoo3 2000 PCI Overclocked to 160mghz -latest drivers
Win98SE all updates

I don't do much gaming, but with the games I do run (MotocRacer, Deomlition Derby@, Nascar Racing, Flight Simulator etc...), I get 1 second frame freezes every third race or so. The game just freezes for a sec and resumes. I experience this prob with other games and the screen savers. It is more irritating than harmful; the system never crashes. In fact the system is very stable as in as much as I never have lock-ups. My 3-D Marks are very low as well; averaging in the 975 range.
I'd like to get this machine running a little better so i can try some more intensive games with it.
This machine was bought from someone else and I have removed a bunch of **** from it and completely removed all the vid card stuff and did a fresh install with the latest 3DFX download.
So, what are my bottlencks and what can be done to smooth out the games? If I can get rid of the intermittant one second freezes, I'd be happy.

Rat...

[canit]

Do you have a fan on the voodoo? Does it freeze when it isn't overclocked?

[Techie Dude]

Try setting the Voodoo back to it`s normal speed (just for trouble shooting). If it helps, this may be the problem. If there problem is still there, you know it`s not that.

Did you do a reinstall of windows? Or just reinstall the drivers for it?

If you did a clean install of windows, then I don`t know, maybe a IRQ conflict or something. Try a different PCI slot!

TD.

[Rat]

Canit,
It does it regardless of the VooDoo setting; 143~160, and yes there is a fan on the card.

TD,
See above and It's a frsh Win98SE install, I will try switching the slot the card is in.

The freeze-ups aren't lock-ups; the games just stop for anywhere from .5 sec to 2 secs and resumes. It does it regularly after about every 5 mins of game play.

Thanks,

Rat...

[canit]

Rat you've got a lot of ram there but how do you have your swap file set(512min512max,768min768max)?

[Rat]

I've tried different setting, currently it's at 640/640. Set the Res at 640X480 16 bit, gives 3dmark a few extra points, but still sucks. I noticed that the hdd spins every time I get the quick freeze, I wonde rif the old Seagate is killing me? Maybe a faster hdd would be in order?

I did try a different PCI slot, but still have the same results.

I had tried the Voodoo5 drivers and had no improvement, in fact the best 3DMark score I got was with the original drivers/tools that came with the card. It scored in the upper 1100's. I think it was ver 1.02.

Rat...

[Rat]

Persistance does the job http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif After removing and installing the vid drivers a few times, getting better memory, defragging and sc an disking, pulling all boards and adding a second hdd for the swap file, I found the problem: My Norton AV was givimg me the headaches. I disabled the AV and all freeze-ups/stalls went away. Put the computer back to the way it was (with the AV still disabled) and everything is fine.

Rat...