AMD & Geforce3

[Guest]

Please somebody help me. I have just built a brand me new comp with these specs:
ASUS A7M mobo
256 MB DDR RAM
AMD Athlon 1200Mhz
300W power supply
MSI Geforce3
SoundBlaster live value
Promise Raid Tx2 with twin IBM 30GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA100
3com 3c905c Ethernet
Toshiba 16x DVD-ROM
Plextor 16x CDRW
NEC ATAPI ZIP100
(I can't think of what else I have)

I'm using the Nvidia detonator 12.41 drivers. And I have loaded all the Via and AMD chipset drivers. I have done everything to the BIOS and the OS that I know of. I'm using win98se. The system itself runs just fine but It freezes and I get "snowflakes" whenever I run a game. Nothing is overclocked. I have extra case fans and even have some running directly on the Geforce3. All temperatures check out okay as far as I can tell. My CPU temperature is around 120 degrees. I don't know what my Graphics card is running at. I'm tired of freezing on games when they should be screaming. I've allways built Intel machines and never had any problems like this. This is the first AMD machine that I have thrown together. Does anybody out there know of something special due to AMD machines and Geforce3's that I don't know about? Is there some BIOS tweaks or registry tweaks that I need to implement that are specific to this setup? HEEEELPPP Please!!!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I thought that I might have a bad Graphics card or cpu so I tested a working 900MHz t-bird as well. I also swapped out the graphics card and tested a Geforce2Mx and the Visiontek geforce3 with the same results. This is also the 3rd installation of win98se and the second A7M motherboard. (I manage a computer store in Utah) ALL THE SAME RESULTS. Which leads me to believe that I am doing something wrong.

Kafluke

 

[peteb]

1stly - don't install all the via drivers - your mobo only has a via southbridge so you do not want a via AGP driver screwing it up.

300W PSU is totally under spec for that system - it's loaded! Get a 450W or bigger.

Try that, re-install with the correct drivers and see how she does.

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[Guest]

I only installed the 3 in 1 drivers. It is using the AMD northbridge drivers for the agp bus. I just thought of something though. The msi board does NOT come with heatsinks on the RAM. This would explain why it only locks up on 3dgames. Even simple 3dgames like motocross madness2 and Black and white freeze.

 

[BuGaLoU]

Hum... i have a similar setup... 300 is really under powered for it?? Maybe that explain my random freezes every so often

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[peteb]

absolutely. 300W is around the minimum for an athlon system, or Intel for that matter.

Consider AMDs spec for minimum will be based on an average video card, 1 HDD and CD.

This chap's got 2HDD, CDRW, DVD, GeForce3 (do you have any idea how much power a top end 3D graphics card uses?) RAID card etc. Plus all the fans etc.

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[BuGaLoU]

Ok then... what would be a better power supply for my setup?
Here it is:


AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz @ 1.33 GHz
ASUS A7V133
384 MB Crucial CAS 2 RAM
2 Quantum Fireball AS 7200 RPM 30 GB ATA/100 on onboard RAID
1 Maxtor DiamondMax 40 GB ATA/66
Hercules 3D Prophet 3 (Geforce 3)
4x4x24 CD-RW
8x DVD-ROM
Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer!
6 Total Case Fans
Firewire Controller


I'm running on a 300 watt PS now, what would be better?

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[peteb]

I'd look at an Enermax 450W for that lot.

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[Guest]

I am building Athlon systems for over a year. Well, maybe the power suply is the problem for the "freezing", but maybe not. I have the following system
Athlon 1,2Ghz
TNT2 Vanta 32 MB
128MB/133MHZ SDRAM
Adaptec 2904 SCSI card
Yamaha 16x10x40 SCSI
Plextor 40x SCSI
Radio tuner
Skystar 1 satellite receiver card
Intellinet 10/100Mbps Ethernet Card
and I use a 235W power suply without any problem.
In my opinion you should also check some other things except the suply.
Firstly, about Via drivers: When you install Win 98 SE then you must install only the first two of the four drivers. That is the IDE and AGP drivers. The others two are only installed under Win 98 first edition. Unless you do that you will usually have some blue screen problems.
Second, I recomend that you should use the manufacturers drivers for your AGP card and not the nvidia's drivers which are generic reference drivers.
Third, I had once the same problem with you. Diablo II was having some "snowflakes". We had tried everything then. Changed various 3d cards, used various power suplies. Changed different CPUs, mainboards, SDRAMS. For over a month we couldn't find what the hell was happening. No one from the technical support of our providers could solve that.
Finally what was it? Mainboards have a value in BIOS. In Advanced Bios Features there is the AGP driving value which by default is at auto. We put it manual and gave the value of DA. Try to experiment with it.
Hope I helped,
Regards,
Kavala Greece

 

[Guest]

maybe your rams are bad.
Try reduceing fsb to 130 or 129

 

[Guest]

what does via hwm or any other hardware monitor show for the 5V, idle and when your playing a game, run in a window so you can monitor the voltage.

 

[Guest]

Anybody have a link where I can download the VIA 3-in-1's, I can only find 4-in-1's.

I AM Canadian.

 

[BDuncan]

Nobody will agree with me on this but I have seen it two many times to dismiss the problem between the power to the AGP slot on Asus mobos and the VIA chipset. I burnt a 300w Antec power supply, then I went to a 400w Antec....which was complete crap.....then finally to a Sparkle 400. I'm using an original MSI slot 1 board with the Irongate chipset and even though the mobo is nearly 3 years old, I wouldn't change it for the world because I do not want to deal with that damn VIA chipset. My suggestion, go to an older MSI mobo with the Irongate chipset, if it's a slot board, use a converter socket card, 400-450w Enermax or Sparkle power supply...then try to run it. It should give you better results. And....this should go without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway....make sure that GeForce3 card gets plenty of cooling...sucker gets hot fast!!

 

[Guest]

Hey i agree, whats the point of keeping up with the Jones's?

~OMG IT nearly melted, lucky I had the extra fan *inside* ~

 

[Guest]

To reply to an earlier post. The Nvidia reference drivers are the best drivers to use. I know this. The drivers that come with the card are just the reference drivers with the company's name on them anyway. As far as the whole power supply issue goes, maybe I could try that. I thought that it might be the ram on the msi board without any heat sinks but I swapped it for a visiontek that works awesome on our p4 1.7Ghz machine at work. Still locks up. I'm not getting any blue screens or errors, just lock ups on games. There was somebody who mentioned something earlier about a BIOS tweak? Could you give me some more details on that?

 

[khha4113]

Anybody have a link where I can download the VIA 3-in-1's, I can only find 4-in-1's.

Download each one separately.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Guest]

Still looking for a solid answer. How do i get Tom to respond? He seems to like AMD and ASUS.

 

[FatBurger]

How do you get Tom to respond? Send him a Sledgehammer 3.5GHz to test and you'll be his friend for life.

But since that's impossible, you'll probably never get a reply from him.

------------------------------
My Athlon can beat your Ferrari off the line.

 

[stonerboy]

What computer store in Utah do you work at? (I live in SLC). Also, a 300 watt power supply should be sufficient. Where more would be preferred, you should be fine with 300 Watts. I am running a P4 1.7 with GeForce 3 and a SB live platinum w/live drive, P4T, zip drive, DVD, and CD-RW all on a 300 watt and it runs fine. I doubt your setup consumes more power than mine. Maybe try a different OS, IMHO win98se is not the best for your setup.
Also, maybe try a different motherboard, could be that you have a bad IC or something.

 

[Guest]

I manage totally awesome computers in Layton. I agree with you on the power supply issue. This is the second motherboard I've tried and win98se should also run just fine. We have the exact same setup as you in our store running great! I can't figure this out

 

[Guest]

what does via hwm or any other hardware monitor show for the 5V, idle and when your playing a game, run in a window so you can monitor the voltage???

 

[stonerboy]

Try newer drivers. You can download 12.91 from <A HREF="http://www.the-ctrl-alt-del.com" target="_new">http://www.the-ctrl-alt-del.com</A>