Geforce 3 lockup.

[Guest]

Everyone,

I recently purchased a new computer and am having a lockup issue related to the Geforce 3. The system is using Windows 98 SE. Whenever I run a Direct X app. the computer will usually lock up between 1 and 30 minutes into starting it. The screen freezes and the sound being played repeats itself over and over. The system has also locked up during Direct X diagnostic tests and a couple of times while trying to re-install the 12.41 driver. The last two lockups mentioned are what lead me to believe it is the Geforce 3 which is causing the computer to die.

Here is some relavent information about the computer...
ECS K7VTA3 motherboard
Athlon 1333MHz CPU
256MB 266MHz DDRAM
Enlight case w/300W power supply
Sound blaster live
Visiontek Geforce 3
2 PCI Ethernet NICs

I have upgraded the video drivers to the 12.41 release and Direct X to 8.0a. I have also installed the VIA drivers.

Does anyone know why this might be happening or what I could look at to figure it out?

Thank you for your help!

John

 

[BrainStorm]

I repeat myself but do your system is sharing IRQ's between hardware? Especially your video card?

It's better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick!

 

[Guest]

I have the Geforce on a separate IRQ. It seems that the ethernet NIC and sound card are sharing IRQ 11 though. I'm actually having a devil of a time trying to get the devices on separate IRQs. It seems like the BIOS picks what IRQs they take and windows won't allow me to change them.

I installed windows 2000 yesterday so that I could try the suggestion I saw in the Geforce FAQ which was to put the BIOS in no PnP OS mode and windows 2000 into standard PC mode. However once again it seems like the BIOS determined that it should place some cards on the same IRQ.

-John

 

[Toejam31]

I worked on a system that is very similar to yours last week. The games would start to play, but then the display would lockup, with the audio still running.

I ended up replacing the customer's Antec 300W PSU with a Sparkle 400W, formatting the drive, and reinstalling Win98. The two NIC cards were causing problems when sharing an IRQ with the sound card and video card. I also checked his heatsink, and discovered that it had been installed with some thermal tape that had melted on the CPU die. Not a pretty sight.

However, even when installing Win2k as APM, the system still had problems with the games locking up. Of course, it didn't help that the sound card was an Aureal Vortex II, and the drivers were beta! In the end, I installed a SoundBlaster 5.1 digital, to avoid the 16bit drivers, because it became clear that Win98 might be the better choice for his system.

It took some work, but with Win98, it was easier to set up the IRQ's manually, because the installation of the two NIC cards caused consistent conflicts in Win2k, no matter how I attempted to configure them. Adding the new PSU simply ensured that the system had enough clean power for all the devices.

I've found myself upgrading more and more PSU's as systems become more demanding ... and with an Athlon rig, it's become one of the first things I check out when a computer has display issues.

I also noticed that afterwards, the system voltages "settled down", and the computer ran much cooler. The combination of the new PSU and a decent heatsink with some Arctic Silver made a big difference.

I suggest that you dual-boot, or reinstall Win98, and take a look at your PSU specifications under load. And maybe check your cooling solution.

None of this, or all of it might be applicable to you ... but these are a few things that might be worth investigating. It certainly couldn't hurt! ;-)

Afterwards, if none of this is appears to be a working solution, <i>then</i> I would start being supicious of the GeForce3. So far, I haven't run across a single bad card, which is surprising, considering how many I've already installed.

Toejam31

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