jjelinek Posted August 12, 2001 Share Posted August 12, 2001 I just received CM in the mail yesterday and installed it. I can play for 5 to 30 minutes and then the screen freezes. The mouse pointer still moves, the ambient sound is still heard, but using the mouse or keyboard to issue commands has no effect. Hardware includes: -Asus Motherboard w/AMD 751 chipset -650 MHz AMD Athlon processor -Diamond Stealth III S540 Extreme w/32MB running at 800x600 -128MB PC100 RAM -24 GB free hard disk space -Windows ME operating system I've done the following: 1. Downloaded & installed the latest version of directx, 8.0a 2. Downloaded & installed the latest driver for my video board, Windows 9x drivers 4.12.01.0258-8.20.21 3. Downloaded & installed latest mouse drivers from microsoft. Everything looks and runs good util the screen/controls freeze. Any ideas? Thanks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 12, 2001 Share Posted August 12, 2001 What sound card do you have (or sound chip if it is built into the motherboard) ? Do you know if it is sharing an IRQ with any other PCI devices ? Is your mouse a PS/2 or USB ? If it is USB is the USB Bus sharing an IRQ with any other PCI devices ? I'd suggest flashing the video card's BIOS to the latest version if it doesn't have it already. This may have no effect on CM, but it may provide the best compatibility with the latest drivers (usually refresh rates and other details): S540 Extreme's Video BIOS: http://www.diamondmm.com/default.asp?menu=support&submenu=Legacy_Graphics&item=bios&product=Stealth_III_S540_Xtreme Depending on what kind of mood you're in and how much you want to experiment; here's a listing of Savage4 drivers, including ones newer than what Diamond has released. If you use the non-Diamond drivers you'll lose the control panels/tabs from Diamond (to be replaced wtih S3 tabs). It may be worth trying if you're looking for the best performance and/or compatibility with CM. Savage4 Drivers: http://www.savagenews.com/drivers/s3/savage4.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjelinek Posted August 13, 2001 Author Share Posted August 13, 2001 I upgraded my video board bios and downloaded and installed a newer non-Diamond S3 Savage4 driver. Same results. Also the board is a AGP, if that matters. The sound is built into the motherboard. As far as IRQ conflicts, have a look. IRQ 0 System timer OK IRQ 1 Standard 101/102 Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard OK IRQ 2 Programmable interrupt controller OK IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK IRQ 4 Communications Port (COM3) OK IRQ 5 U.S. Robotics 56K Fax Win Int OK IRQ 5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller OK IRQ 7 ECP Printer Port (LPT1) OK IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK IRQ 9 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK IRQ 9 VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller OK IRQ 9 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK IRQ 10 VIA PCI Audio Controller (WDM) OK IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK IRQ 11 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus OK IRQ 11 S3 Inc. Savage4 OK IRQ 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK IRQ 12 Microsoft PS/2 Port Mouse OK IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK IRQ 14 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller OK IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK IRQ 15 VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller OK IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK IRQs 5, 9, 11, 14, and 15 have more than 1 device associated with them. Could this be a problem? Any ideas? Thanks, John 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 13, 2001 Share Posted August 13, 2001 The "ACPI IRQ Holder" is normal; each PCI device will be associated with one. I'm not sure what the "SCI" device is, but it may be the ACPI itself (which often requires its own IRQ). Basically your IRQs are fine (though ACPI is unnecessary for Win9x, but leave it as is). What sound chip is on your motherboard ? Have you updated drivers for it ? Have you tried to disable your sound or at least your ambient sounds to see if this makes a difference in CM locking up ? You may want to apply the latest AMD drivers, especially for the AGP. AMD Driver Pack 1.2 (at the top): http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/bin/ There are jumpers on your Diamond video card that control the AGP setting. I'm not sure if the default is '4X' or '2X', you may want to check. Is your motherboard the ASUS K7M-RM (which supports up to AGP 2x) ? If it is I get mixed info from ASUS' website as to what the audio is, either it is a Yamaha chip or an AC '97 Codec (a very small chip that performs some of the processes of audio while the rest of it is the main chipset and software) ? What is the name of your audio device in the Device Manager (Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > System control panel > Device Manager tab > Multimedia item or possibly another item) ? If it is an AC '97 Codec, then it will be a lot harder to find an updated driver. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjelinek Posted August 23, 2001 Author Share Posted August 23, 2001 Yes , I've downloaded and installed the latest drivers for my AC97 sound chip and AMD AGP. I disabled the audio, same results. Is there a chance that my grapics board is just incompatible? I'm thinking of just trying a different graphics board. I am going post a new message referencing the make and model of my graphics board to see if anyone has had any experience with it. You seem very knowledgeable about about computer hardware and I appreciate your time and help. If you have any more ideas please let me know. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted August 23, 2001 Share Posted August 23, 2001 A search for "savage" brought up the following threads. Though I don't know if a "special cursor" could be causing your problem it is one thing to check (in the Mouse control panel), but it is usually a culprit when it comes to minor screen corruption especially in the 2D screens: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=000652 Here's another thread where one user was having a real problem with a Creative Savage4-based card (but it wasn't lockups). I don't think he ever found a solution, but some other users were using the same video chipset and were OK (and some had the exact same problem as you did): http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=000102 Here's another listing of Savage 4 drivers, but it is nothing new (other than some tidbits about each revision): http://cgi.s3planet.force9.co.uk/cgi-bin/sml?sections/files/savage4.sml Here's a tweaked driver from Rizen (mentioned in one of the other threads) it's beneath the "Rizen's Tweaked Drivers" and "Downloads" (Savage 4 v. 2.03): http://www.rizenet.com/rtdrivers.php All in all there have been a number of problems with these S3 video chipsets (in a number of games). Some people haven't had problems and others have. This may be linked to the chipsets on the motherboard, since some video chipsets may be more compatible with particular chipsets, etc. [ 08-22-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjelinek Posted September 16, 2001 Author Share Posted September 16, 2001 If anyone's interested, I solved my problem by getting a new display adapter. I bought a Gforce2 MX400 w/64M of sram on Ebay for $70. The game hasn't locked up once and the performance is improved. There are always more than 100 nVidia boards for auction on Ebay if anyone's looking for them. Thanks for your time Schrullenhaft. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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