Need Help w/ A7V133 and TB 1.1

[Guest]

Okay, I must throw this one out to the masses. Here is my system config:

AMD 1.1GHZ AMD-C CPU (266MHz)
OC'd to 1.133, 1.2, 1.266, or 1.3GHz
A7V133 mb running at 133MHz
256MB Crucial SDRAM CT-2
IBM 30GB ATA100 HD
Creative TNT2 Ultra AGP
SB Live X-Gamer
3COM 3C905C NIC

Here is what I have done:

Flashed BIOS to 1003a
Reserved IRQ5
Disabled SB16 Emulator
Installed 4in1 drivers
Installed ATA100 controller
Disabled onboard audio

When I am running the system normally I have no problems. I am running a distributed computing program that keeps the CPU at or near 100% and the system runs great. When I run 3D games (lately it has been Madden 2001), the entire system will lock up after a while. The system freezes and the sound card plays the same sound pitch until powered down or reset.

Here is the weird thing. The time it takes before the system locks up is dependant on how fast I am overclocking. The higher the CPU speed, the faster the lockup happens. The slower the CPU speed, the longer it takes. It appears to be happening even when I am running at 1.1Ghz (no OC).

One of my co-workers suggested that the sound card may not be able to keep up with the CPU and video. Does that seem reasonable? I would thought that I would have read that here first if that was truly the problem.

I am also having another problem that I do not think is related. My system can hang while running either hdtach or Winbench 99 and doing a hard disk benchmark. There appears to be a spot on the disk that when the programs hit it, the spin out and either take the system down or cause the program to exit. I have run ScanDisk and it finds nothing. I am trying to dig up an old version of Norton DD to see if it is a hard drive problem or a controller problem.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

-bumble

 

[ejsmith2]

I had similar problems with a millenium 2 and voodoo2. I plugged in a Geforce 2, and cured 9/10's of the problem. I get lockups, but I think it's related to the fast-writes/drivers. As long as I run at 1024x768, everything runs just ducky.
Check if you have 'fast-writes' enabled. You might try disabling that, along with setting 2XAGP for a system test. Other than that, you might try dropping down to around 101Mpz on your system bus.

On a side note, I still get lockups with win2k and my 'old' 6.4gig hard disk. As long as I don't even access it, the problem never arises. I've got it connected to a 'rounded' ata-66/100 cable, on the promise controller. I'm thinking of hooking it up with a ata-33 cable (40-conductor) and seeing if that cures the problem. I have a version 1.0 ide zip-100 drive too, but i've yet to have the time/patience/alcohol to even attempt playing with it......

The a7v133 doesn't seem to like many old (>1-year) devices.
It's all fun and games till you melt something.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. I checked and I did not have fast-write enabled, but I did have AGP set to 4x. I downed that to 2x and kicked up the processor speed. That way it should crash sooner. Time to start testing....

 

[Guest]

No go. Now I just need to determine if this is a video or audio problem...

 

[Guest]

I looks like the SB Live is the culprit (or is a major contributor). I jacked up the CPU speed and Madden crashed within 5 minutes of game play. With the sound turned off, it runs nice and smooth. Can anyone recommend a good sound card???

 

[Guest]

DOH!!! I am totally off. It was not the sound card at all. I just removed the card and the machine is still locking up. This time it was just running CPU benchmarks- not even graphics! I think my head hurts