A7V133, TB1.1 and Lock Ups

[Guest]

Here is my update to the saga of the instable system...

Once again, here is my system config:

AMD 1.1GHZ AMD-C CPU (266MHz)
OC'd to 1.133, 1.2, 1.266, or 1.3GHz
GlobalWin FOP38 HSF with Arctic Silver II compound
A7V133 mb running at 133MHz
256MB Crucial SDRAM CT-2
Maxtor 40GB ATA100 HD
GeForce2 MX 32MB AGP (4x/fast writes off)
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
Installed Windows ME

When I am running the system normally I rarely have problems. 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.

The only thing that I have noticed is that the system locks up sooner at higher speeds. The processor is not overheating (it runs around 42C with the new HSF and compound).

I have tried upgrading the video card, upgrading the OS via patches, upgraded device drivers, ... still no luck.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

-bumble

 

[lillazy23]

damn same problem with me when i play counterstrike, its pissing me off. If you get it fixed please email me at lillazy23@mindspring.com

thanks

 

[Guest]

Will do. Right now though I am at a loss. All I know is that it does not seem to be the sound card, video card, or hard disk. It could be CPU, mobo, memory, case power supply, gremlins, ...

I will let you know and post here if I figure anything more out.

 

[HellDiver]

I know it's trivial, but...

Tried running at strictly 1.1GHz? Regardless of temp you reported...

Are you overclocking the FSB, or just the CPU (via multipliers)? If FSB - go down to 133MHz, or even 100MHz just to check it. May have serious impact if one of your cards doesn't like the overclock...

Are you running AGP x4? Try forcing AGP x2. I seem to remember reading posts of people for whom it did the job.

Replacing SB Live! for a test run?

 

[Theobob]

I have been having identical problems to you bumble(mine locks up on delta force land warrior)
my system spec:
1Ghz athlon
via appolo KT-133 m\board
voodoo3 3000 agp
s\blaster 1024 live
128 ram(generic)
30 gig hd
diamond supra modem
I have been told that fast amd`s do not like generic ram so i am ordering some branded this week,i will keep you posted.
I too have disabled on board sound,it could`nt be could it?
I have been wondering abut the repeating sound i get when system freezes,also do you get jerky sound when system running? i do!
If you find the fix PLEASE post results.
Cheers,
Theobob

 

[dmcmahon]

I'll add a big ditto to this. I've got the A7V133, with an GeForce2 MX card, SB Live, CAS2 PC133 DRAM, C-type 1.2 Athlon, yada, yada, yada. I have seen similar lockups running Quake, though not using the low-res software driver. I can say this: that same infinite-sound lock-up used to happen to me on the old 266 PII system I moved up from. I'm starting to wonder if upgrading to Me was a good idea, seems like things ran bettern under 98.

One thing I did discover re. the "glitchiness" is that it's very important to have all the game-critical cards on different logical and physical IRQs. Me doesn't seem as good about sharing IRQs as Win2K (I have a multi-boot system). I discovered that the AGP slot is wired to INT-A and INT-B, which means that if you put cards in both PCI slot 1 and slot 2, you are guaranteeing that you'll share a low-level INT between one card and the video card. slot 3 is wired to INT-C, slots 4 and 5 are wired to INT-D. I moved my LAN card from slot 1 to slot 3, leaving the SB card in slot 2. I put my modem card in slot 5. I disabled COM2 in the BIOS to free up IRQ 3. The result is that now the video card can have INT-A all to itself, the sound card can have INT-B, and the other cards can split the remaining INTs with the USB and IDE controllers. In the software, Me is now using IRQ11 for the GeForce card, IRQ10 for the SB card, IRQ5 for the modem, and IRQ3 for the LAN card.

One other source of trouble for me under Me has been the damned CD-ROM. This seems prone to freezes that can hang my system. Unfortunately games seem to require the CD to be in the drive to operate, but I think many of them will install the files they need to run directly on your hard drive. Since you have a big hard drive, this might eliminate a potential problem if you're not already doing it.

If you get any more info, please let me know. My old system had a PCI video card, so I was never able to run games with 3D accelleration before. Now that I have the new system and the GeForce card, I'd like to run in these modes but so far every attempt seems to result in a hang or crash of some kind (I'm just trying to get one game, Quake, running).

 

[Guest]

Latest info...

With the new Geforce2 MX card installed, I do still get lock-ups- but with fast-writes DISABLED (I know the card does support them) the system is more stable. I have not had as many issues once I made that change. The faster I OC the setup, the faster it locks up. I can run fairly comfortably @ 1.266GHz though.

A note to dmcmahon, you are right about the IRQ issues with these mobos and ME. My system is setup like this: AGP video, SB Live slot3, NIC slot4. This has worked well and is recommended by a number of the more senior members of the forum.

For all of you experiencing these lockups, let me know if yours are directly related to overclocked speed.

-bumble

 

[Guest]

Why don't you just.... not overclock your processor. Then you will know if it is directly related to overclocking, not rocket science. It sounds to me like you don't want to believe that overclocking is the culprit.

 

[Guest]

Nope, the lockups still happen when the processor is not overclocked. It just takes longer. I do acknowledge that overclocking the CPU is making the problem worse. Since the problem is still there without overclocking something else is causing it. OCing is not he culprit.

-bumble