System Lockups when playing games only! Help me!

shaxs

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Oct 17, 2001
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Okay, I am VERY pissed now. For the past three months my computer locks up, at random times, during ANY game I have played so far. I can one zillion things in windows, like email, surfing, downlaoding, unraring, encoding, all at the same time and everything is fine, but once I start a game I freeze. I have frozen in the following games:
Counter Strike
DoD 2.0
Star Fighter
Renegade Multiplayer Demo

The same things happens each time. I just freeze and what ever sound affect that was going on at the time just plays over like a broken record. Maybe my sound card has gone bad? I have to press the restart button. I thought maybe my powersupply was to weak (300 watts), so I got a brand new 400 watt. That didnt work either. I tried another video card and got lockups too (although I got less lockups). Here is my system:
Abit kr71-raid
256 megs of pc2100 NEC ram
sb live value
64 meg geforce 2 (tried the 32 meg tnt also, still frooze)
400 watt ps
2 60 gig ibm desksatrs raided
1 45 gig western digital
1 20x burner
1 cdrom
1 lean card
1 wireless internet card
Dragon orb 3 fan
1 amd xp 1800

This is truly frustrating.. I need more suggestiosn on fixes!
-Jason
 

Tiberius13

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Jan 28, 2002
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Have you tried different versions of drivers for your graphics card? I have seen lots of people saying that you should stick to the reference drivers or something like that...

I have also heard of situations where slightly increasing voltage has helped....

I recommend heading over to amdmb.com and you will likely find some good threads about that motherboard, etc. The problem you are having is quite common from what I understand.
 

pat

Expert
Can you write the IRQ that are used and shared by your system.

Maybe that there is one card that doesnt like the config you have actually.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!
 

Inferno

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Dec 31, 2007
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I had the <b>very same</b> problem on a totaly different configuration. :smile: Everything worked fine except the games. Even 3Dmark finished its test runs perfectly... The thing I found is that the system works stable in games only when using Detonator 21.83 drivers (I tried older ones and 23.11, 27.10, 27.50 and so on). Weird I know, but maybe you should try using them.

--- <i>Part of the price you must pay for any knowledge is to discover it for yourself.</i> ---
 

FiL

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Feb 4, 2002
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that is exact same problem as to what i have with my AthlonXP 1900+ soltek 75drv2 combo.....i probably won't try getting a 400W PS now....

at the moment it's been on for hours just in XP, i've been playing mp3's and things really easily....if I were to turn a game on, i'd crash within 5 minutes...actually encoding crashes my system too
 

AndrewT

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Dec 29, 2001
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does it only lock up or sometimes you get an error popup saying something 32.dll? I underclocked my system and the problem is gone, my guess is that the no name brand PC133 RAM I have just doesn't like to be pushed. Have the freeze and xxx32.dll errors only since I run RAM at 133 instead of 100.

Running at 1050 instead of 1400, damn it, at least I can play MOHAA (got it after somebody told me it's a great game, damn it is!)

<font color=red>Handsome A7V133 looking for long term relationship with a XP CPU. Prefer non smoker.</font color=red>
 

texas_techie

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What is your agp setting in bios? If its set to 4X, try setting it to 2X or even 1X.

Also, when you install new drivers, did you get rid of the old ones first? I always delete the "nvidia" entry from the registry just to be sure.

Benchmarks are like sex, everybody loves doing it, everybody thinks they are good at it.
 

Tiberius13

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Have you installed all of the relevant patches? AMD 4 in 1's, AGP patches from the AMD website, etc... be sure to read up about your particular motherboard and any patches it might require.

I still think it sounds like a driver version issue (someone was kind enough to post the specific drivers that everyone seems to have to revert to to get a stable system... the Detonator xxxx drivers mentioned previously).

Also, if it is running stable at a slower bus speed, it also brings me back to my comment about voltages. I have seen many people ask for help where they way there computer will only run stable at a slower speed, and increasing voltages fixes their problem....
 

FiL

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Feb 4, 2002
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I mentioned that I was having similar issues with my Soltek 75-DRV2 AthlonXP system....

well everything got cleared up after I installed Motherboard Monitor, during the installation is wanted to re do some IO setting which I forget, and the must have cured the entire system.....

I know I'm unable to give a very good explanation as to why my system no longer crashes, but I'd suggest people suffering system hangs to try installing motherboard monitor and saying YES to any changes it wants to do....you've nothing to loose....