Help A7V, Geforce2 MX Freeze playing Diablo2

[Guest]

Please help,
I have an Asus A7v, Amd 900 Athlon T-bird
A Geforce2 Mx Video Card from Gainward
128Mb Ram and a Sound Blaster Live Value Sound card.
It runs great until I try and play Diablo2 on it then it freezes up instantly. I did notice that there was a 3d test in the Diablo2 folder so I ran this test and it failed , it said, "Cannot play Diablo2 on this machine."
I have downloaded the latest drivers for the video card but it did not correct the problem.
I haven't tried downloading the newest Bios yet because I've heard that you have to disable something before you flash the new Bios and I don't know what it is to disable.
What gets me is I can run this game on a Pentium 233MMX with a cheap $40.00 video card from Creative. I can also run Unreal Tournament on this old machine without any problems.
I've read some feedback about compatibility problems between the chipset on the Motherboard and Nvidia chips, and I've read others saying that they work fine together.
Is there a cure for this combo
Please advise I am very frustrated
Thank You very Much
Geo

 

[DSutcliffe]

Honestly, I have never seen that error message from the DiabloII video test. I played the game on a k6-2 500 with UMA 8mb graphics from Compaq, the game played alright but the look of the game sucked big time.

I currently run it on a Athlon 800 w/ geforce2 gts and soundblaster live and it is an entirely different game (good thing).

I would run dxdiag.exe (hit Start | Run, type "dxdiag" and enter) and test the 3D modes under the video section. If they fail then you may need to reinstall DirectX or upgrade to a newer version.

By the way, who manufactured your card?

Check out my rig:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A>

 

[Guest]

dsutcliffe,
Thank You for replying, I checked out your system on the link that you gave me. I'm glad to see that it was an Amd Cpu because I was starting to have regrets for not buying an Intel cpu. Hopefully I am on my way to owning a rock solid system myself.
My Card was manufactured by Gainward. This card got a good review in Pc World so I thought I would try it out.
I did install DirectX 7.0 that came with the game so it is on my stem.
Last night I Noticed that my video card was not set on the optimal setting, so I switched it to the Optimal setting and rebooted my computer. This time it passed the 3D test. It then gave me two options to choose from Direct X (3D) or Direct Draw (2D) It suggested DirectX so I selected DirectX . I started the game and everything loaded ok until it came to playing the actual game. It instantly froze up. I had to reboot. I tried a few more times and it kept freezing up.
I tried the other option (Direct draw (2D) and it worked fine . I was able to play the game for a few minutes with out any problems. So now it is only playable in 2D mode. I am very disapointed that it won't work in 3D mode.I tried to buy all parts that were recommended by one magazine or the other so I could avoid this problem. I am not satified because I beleive that I shouldn't have to play in 2d Mode.
This is my 2nd computer That I have built, the first was the Pentium 233MMX and that ran great with no problems.
I would appreciate any help or advise from you or anyone else who would like to help me solve this problem.
Thank You again
Geo
Here is my system Comp:
Cpu: Amd Athlon T-Bird 900Mhz
Mother Board: Asus A7V Via Appollo Kt133 chipset
Memory: 128Mb Pc133
Video Card: Gainward Ge Force2 Mx
Hard drive: Maxtor 30Gb 7200 Rpm
Monitor: 19" viewSonic E790
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value
Operating System: Windows 98

 

[mjdunn]

With the exception of my 750 Mhz and diff monitor we have the same system...

Are you overclocking the video?

What direct X do you use? OpenGL?
What drivers for video are you using Gainward or Nvidia?
Does unreal play ok have you tried any other games?
Don't forget monitor drivers.

My machine has run everything I have thrown on it.

 

[Guest]

I'm happy to hear that our systems are almost Identical. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go out and buy a new video card.
Actually I do not have the Viewsonic on this computer
I have an Nec15V+ (I believe it's called) it's about 4 years old. The Viewsonic is on my old system.
I did not do any overclocking to the video card and I am using direct x 7.0 that came with the game.
I'm sorry I'm not sure what you mean by openGL. Is this a setting??
I am using the Gainward 7.52 driver that I downloaded from their website. I haven't tried Unreal tournament yet but I will load it up when I get home tonight and try it out.
Now that you mention it I never loaded the monitor driver. or I believe the plug and play detected it and loaded the 15v+ drivers from the windows 98 Cd. I figured that the video card driver would take care of the monitor as well. oops I will look for the latest driver. I imagine I would load the monitor driver first then load the video card driver.Would the video card driver remove the monitor driver when i install it?
One last thing, I have not updated any bios for the motherboard, video card or anything else that requires it. I'm not sure if this helps.
looking forward to your response.
thanks
Geo

 

[DSutcliffe]

I forgot to ask you a couple of things:

Do you have an AMD approved Power Supply? and is it 300W?

What level is your VIA 4-in-1 patch?

What level is your Diablo II patch?

I am using 4-in-1 version 4.29 and Diablo version 1.05.

<A HREF="http://www1.amd.com/athlon/power" target="_new">http://www1.amd.com/athlon/power</A>

<A HREF="http://www.viatech.com.tw" target="_new">http://www.viatech.com.tw</A> Click on the "English" button at the top of the page.

<A HREF="http://www.diabloii.net" target="_new">http://www.diabloii.net</A>

Hope this helps.

Check out my rig:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dsutcliffe on 04/02/01 08:04 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Yes, my fan is approved by Amd it is a Swiftech Mc370-0a
The case that I bought came with a 300w power supply.
I actually have to check my 4-in-1 patch. I will do this tonight as I had to leave town on Friday and did not get back in until late lastnight.
I am using DiabloII patch 1.05
I will test check the 4-in-1 drivers when I get home from work.
Thank you
Geo

 

[Guest]

I may have misunderstood what you were asking. Are you talking about the fan on the power supply? If so it is 300w but I'm not sure if it is approved by Amd. This power supply came with the $53.00 case that I bought.
I will check the power supply rating tonight.
Thank you
Geo

 

[DSutcliffe]

Yes, I meant the Power Supply and I have edited my previous questions.

Check out my rig:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A>

 

[Guest]

I ran into a freeze-up problem on an Asus A7v. Reserching
Asus's tech boards I found that an older version AGP driver needed to be loaded and to set the AGP to 2x. I did that and the freeze-up prob stopped. In my case the screen would actually go black and sometimes the mobo would reboot itself. Your problem sounds like a video issue, but it may not be your video card, but but the way Asus has implemented AGP on that board. The board this happened to me was one purchased in December, 2000. Good luck.
fully

 

[Guest]

Great news the Video problem has been fixed. I reloaded the 4-in-1 drivers that came with my motherboard and it fixed the freeze up problem. I was able to play Diablo2 in directx 3d mode with out any problems. Unreal tournament and Nascar4 also worked great without any problems.
I do plan to install the latest 4-in-1 drivers to be up to date, but first I thought I would install the drivers that came with my motherboard. I honestly cannot remember installing them when I put my computer together I'm embarrassed to admit.
I did not not check out my powersupply since the drivers cured the problem. I will however check into this and make sure I am using an Amd approved Pwr. Sup. Since I am using the 300w that came with the case, I imagine that it is a cheap one. Do you have any reccomendations?
Thank You very much dsutcliffe for helping me through this and opening my eyes to the 4-in1 drivers. I still have allot to learn about building computers but now feel confident that most problems can be fixed. I feel allot better about building my own system now that it is working correctly.
Thanks again
Geo

 

[DSutcliffe]

Glad to see that you fixed your problem.

As far as power supplies, I like Antec PP-303 and anything from HEI (Heroichi Electronics Inc) that is 300W and above.

Check out my rig:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A>