RTCW & other games are freezing up.

[slugraduate]

Hi. I am having a problem, and am contemplating the best course of action.

I currently have:

Voodoo 5500
AMD 1.4 ghz
Soundblaster Live
8 gig WD HD / w a 4gig slave
WinXP
512 megs of ram
Asus A7A266 MB (I think)

My problem is that I cannot play RTCW or most other games without the **** thing freezing up every 5 mins. I have to reboot the system and go all the way back into the game to pick it back up. This is very frustrating.

So, my obvious problem seems to be the voodoo 5500 card because of its driver incompatibility with xp. I have tried several of the "aftermarket" drivers, but none are doing the trick. This freezing problem only occurs with games.

Now, I have purchased a 40 gig WD HD last night, and figured I would replace the video card while I am at it. (A waste of a good card im ny opinion, since i was very happy with it prior to the xp upgrade.) What is a good 64 mb video card (at least equal to the Voodoo 5500 that isn't such a hit in the pocketbook. not interested in spending more than $150.00. Preferably closer to $100.00

Also, what benefits would I have in moving to DDR?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[jrb420]

It could be overheating. I had the same problem when I ran Max Payne on my WinXP and Voodoo5. I don't think your Voodoo5 would cause it to lock up. It could be a driver incompatibility, but I would check the temperature first. Mine crashes if my Athlon 1ghz gets above 70 degrees Cel. Check that first. Run RTCW for a few minutes and then exit and check your temps. If that's not your problem, it may be the drivers.


BTW, I have some very good drivers for the Voodoo5 in WinXP. Can't remember where I got them, but I would be happy to send them to you.

[slugraduate]

Thanks, I will check the temp issue. Although, I had installed an internal case fan that resides in one of the pci ports and blows the air out of the case. I did this because i did have some heat problems. Now, i should say that sometimes i can play the game for 20 minutes without a lockup, but invariably it happens. I have also tried changing the video settings on the game menu to the minimum, but this makes no difference.

In addition, I can watch a dvd without any problems. I don't know if this puts the same stress on the card. I would be happy to try the drivers. If you could, mail them to me at dutch1873@hotmail.com. I had tried about 3 or 4 different versions but all had the same results. This again could point to a non-driver issue. I only have a problem when playing games. Otherwise, everything is fine.

Thanks.

[slugraduate]

Well, i checked out your overheating theory, and you seem to be correct. After installing my new hard drive, I attempted to play he game. Of course, it froze up. Then, I decided to open my case, and set a house fan directly in from ot the open case and turned it on full speed.

Well, wouldn't you know I was able to play for 3 hours without a lock-up occuring. So, It seems I have a delimma. I have a fan onboard the voodoo card, and a slot fan in the pci slot directly under the video card which draws air from the card out of the case. Obviously I do not want a house fan blowing into my oen case all the time, so what should I do to cool this bad boy off?

I don't want to cut open the case, or rig a supoer cooler. What might help that is available commercially? Maybe buying a better card is the best bet. Anyone have an opinion?

Thanks.

[Monster1]

samething problem about 6 months ago..I did everything only to find out my cpu was overheating..my temps all looked good from a bios point. the problem is that when in the game you problebly dont have that info before it crashes..what I did to find out was to open the case and run a house fan right into the case..sure enough, it ran great...now to find my problem. I had to dig a little deeper, what I found after lookin' for about 45 mins was that my ciggerette smoke had gathered in bettween the fins of my heatsink..I blew it all out with some compressed air and put some filtors on the intake of my case..I no longer have any problem

[C4RC455]

i dont have a voodoo 5 or anything like that but i'm just here to stick up for the good old desk fan on full speed next to my puter... it does the job.... dropped my cpu's temperatures down about 13 degrees celcius, and got me puter running a lot more stable. only problem is now I am overheating from it.. =( hehe