Getting Frustrated - Video Freeze

[Harv]

Ok, I've run out of ideas. I keep having CM freeze up at random times...the mouse pointer still moves, but nothing else. If I use the three finger salute four times, my system will reboot normally, without scandisk running. After this, I can go back to the last autosave, and everything is fine for a while (maybe a day, maybe a minute).

I have a PII-333 with an Asus 7700 Geforce 2 GTS. I have tried almost all of the Asus and Nvidia drivers from 5.13 to 6.35. I did a clean install of Windows ME. I have tried various resolution and FSAA settings, and nothing is running except explorer and systray.

Any other ideas? Matt? Anyone?

Thanks,

Craig

[Schrullenhaft]

Have you run it with FSAA disabled ? Your CPU really isn't powerful enough to drive the GeForce 2 very well and FSAA may just be too much to handle. Another caveat, I wouldn't use the NVidia Reference drivers with the ASUS video cards. I've heard several compatibility issues (for what reason, I don't know) between ASUS and NVidia Reference drivers. I would stick to just the latest ASUS release.

What motherboard are you running on ? Have you checked for any BIOS updates ? Do you run any other games and do you have problems with them ?

I wouldn't assume that it would be necessary, but you may want to try to reduce the AGP/Graphics Aperture in your CMOS/BIOS setup. Some BIOSs allow you to do this and others don't. The default value should be 64Mb. Try the lowest setting first to see if this makes a difference or not.

You may want to consider deleting your drivers for the ASUS, cleaning out the registry (which will typically remain during a reinstall unless you wipe the entire Windows directory or the hard drive) settings for ASUS/NVidia and installing a PCI SVGA driver and then installing (after rebooting, etc.) the latest ASUS release.

[BeWary]

Do you get random freezes and crashes in other games?

I ask because I had a similar problem once, and it turned out my RAM was bad. I hope that's not your case though.

BeWary

[Harv]

Thanks for the quick replies. Actually, I should add that I never had these problems up until six weeks ago, when I tried Nvidia's 6.32 drivers. That's when I decided to buy Win ME and start from scratch.

Yup, I have run it with FSAA disabled, updated my bios (Gigabyte mobo), played with the bios settings, cleaned up the registry, and sacrificed a sheep, all to no avail.

Never thought about the RAM though, as I just assumed if Windows would run, everything else would also. I have only had TacOps and CM loaded for a year now, so I don't know how it might affect other games.

Craig

[Schrullenhaft]

There is a BIOS update for your video card (though it may be what you already have), but I have no idea what it will really affect.

ASUS V7700 BIOS update (v. 2.15.01.13.00; 8-14-2000):

http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Addon/Vga/asuse/enthusiast_hottestdrv.htm

The latest ASUS authorized driver is v. 5.33a :

http://www.asus.com.tw/Products/Addon/Vga/asuse/enthusiast_drv.htm

How come you didn't go back to an older driver after you updated to 6.32 instead of installing WinME ?

Do you have more than one DIMM in your system ? If so you could experiment with removing one or the other to see if your problem continues and then swapping them around again. Otherwise you could play with the CMOS/BIOS setup for your memory timing and reduce the settings (3-3-3-3, by SPD or CAS3 whatever your CMOS offers you).

[Harv]

Thanks for the tips, I will try them tomorrow if I can find the time.

Craig

ps. I did go back to older drivers, but with no success, so I thought a clean install might solve the problem (I was still running the first release of Win98). Maybe I need to sacrifice something bigger...

[Harv]

Well, I think I have bigger problems than I first suspected. I can no longer access my 3.5 floppy (after trying three drives and two cables), and if I touch the monitor cable(or bump my desk) my computer reboots.

I'm assuming there is something wrong with my motherboard (and/or the AGP slot), as I have to wiggle the video card to even get the computer to boot if the case is open.

Any more hints, tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

Craig

[Schrullenhaft]

With the power off check inside your case and make sure your video and other cards are seated fully. Just in case, you may want to remove them and reseat them. Make sure your memory is also fully seated. As for your floppy drive - is the drive light constantly on when you power up the computer ? If so, then the floppy cable is on backwards (at either the floppy end or the motherboard end). Typically the cable should have the "red" line near the power connector of the floppy drive (pin 1). Also the floppy needs to be hooked up to the last connection on the cable (the applicable connection after the "twist").

You may also want to check to make sure that your motherboard isn't loose in the case or that one of the mounts hasn't recessed or come loose.

[Harv]

Well here we are again.

Step 1 - I removed everything from my case and motherboard, pulled the motherboard, cleaned with canned air, and reinstalled it all. Now my video card is fine (no more reboots) and my floppy is half working. But CM still locks up.

Step 2 - Back up everything again, repartition and reformat hard drive. Install Win ME with only video (Asus 5.33a) and sound card (SB Live) drivers. Update bios on video card. Install Combat Mission (ver 1.0, no mods). Start CM QB...locks up as soon as I move the mouse to pan around.

Step 3 - Try CM again...almost instant lockup. Screw with bios setting, acceleration settings, D3D settings, sound settings and on and on and on....with the same quick lockup every time.

Step 4 - Come here and scream HEEEELLLLLP.

Step 5 - ???

Craig

[CaSCa]

Are you using a Microsoft Intellimouse? There is a known problem with CM if you're using the intellipoint software. It's probably not your trouble, but it's something to check.

[Harv]

Hmmm, I do have an Intellimouse Explorer, but it's using the standard mouse type driver. Should I try a different one?

Thanks

Craig

[Schrullenhaft]

If you're using the "Standard PS/2" mouse driver, then I wouldn't worry too much about the mouse. The driver is usually the problem when it comes to the Intellimouse series (and not the mouse itself).

Have you reduced your AGP/Graphics Aperture in the CMOS/BIOS setup ? Many motherboards don't let you adjust this setting or if they do often it won't be enough to help. You'll usually find this setting under "Advanced Chipset" or something to that effect on AWARD BIOSs.

What motherboard are you using by the way ? Does it have an Intel chipset (not an Intel CPU, but an Intel chipset) ? If it has a VIA or some other chipset, then you may need to download the appropriate chipset drivers. This is especially important for the AGP performance/compatibility. Even Windows ME may need these drivers to work properly.

I'm not sure where the settings are in the Display control panel, but there may be a setting for enabling/disabling "Fast Writes", turn this off, especially if you're motherboard is based on a non-Intel chipset. Sidebanding and AGP multiplier (1X, 2X & 4X) may need to be adjusted or experimented with (I've had people say that Sidebanding and AGP 2X plus had to be set for CM to work without crashing).

[Harv]

I'm running a Gigabyte GA-686BX mobo, with an Intel 440BX/ZX AGPSet Bios for 6BX v2.9, and Award Bios v4.51PG - hopefully that makes more sense to you than it does to me.

I can't find any of the items you listed to check, so I'm guessing this chipset doesn't support them.

One strange thing I did notice was that on boot-up, in the PCI Device Listing there are both a multimedia device and a display controller using IRQ 11. Or does this not matter anymore?

Craig

[BeWary]

The IRQ thing might be a problem. You can hit the Windows Key + Pause/Break to bring up the System Properties window, and in there you can try to assign a different IRQ to one of the shared components (sometimes it takes some manuevering to get this to work right). In my experience, I've not had many problems with IRQ's, but it is certainly worth trying.

Have you contacted your video card manufacturer and asked them if this is a known problem? Perhaps they're working on a fix right now?

Also, try visiting Gigabyte's website. They may have a BIOS update for your motherboard model, which is GA-686BX. Well, nevermind, I just looked at their website and your BIOS is the most current version, but it hasn't been updated in a year and a half, which may mean it's probably pretty old technology, and that may be the problem here.

I hate doing tech support over the phone/internet, because it is so hard to really understand what is going on unless you're sitting at the computer looking at everything happen. But oh well, say la v.

Good luck.

BeWary BeTired

------------------

"Liberty or Death?" Make it "Victory or Pretty Damned Badly Wounded", and I'm yours. - a prospective recruit during the American Revolution.

[Schrullenhaft]

That could be an important factor. A shared IRQ between the video and sound card could be a bit too much for your system/drivers to handle. The higher data rates for the audio could interfere with the video, etc. (usually when there's a lot of 3D processing to be done by the video card).

It sounds like your PCI sound card is in the PCI slot next to your AGP video card. That is the most likely configuration for a PCI device to share the IRQ of the AGP video card. To change this you would have to physically move your PCI sound card to another PCI slot, possibly disable "PNP OS" in the CMOS/BIOS setup and delete the driver for your sound card so that it would be detected again (that should be done before you phycially move the PCI sound card, but don't turn the computer back on until you've moved the sound card).

You may want to look through your motherboard manual to find out anything you can about the IRQ assignments to the PCI slots. Certain slots are going to share certain IRQs with other components on the board. For example your last PCI slot (bottom-most one in a tower layout) will often share an IRQ with the USB controller. Other times (depending on how many PCI slots you have and what chipset you have) the last two PCI slots may share the same IRQ, etc. Some CMOS/BIOS setups allow you the capability of assigning IRQs to each respective PCI slot (though Windows has the capability of overriding this - thus the need to turn off the "PNP OS"-related setting in the CMOS/BIOS).

As for the previously mentioned settings (Fast Writes, etc.); they might be found in Control Panel > Display control panel > Settings tab > Advanced button > and possibly one of the NVidia/ASUS tabs in here may specify some of these settings (or an ASUS/NVidia control panel). Otherwise it is a trip to the registry to change these settings. Or you could possibly load up PowerStrip and it may have settings to change these features.

PowerStrip or GeForce Tweaker:

http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/

[Harv]

Thanks again for the suggestions (everything now has it's own IRQ), alas, still no luck.

However, I was able to borrow an Asus 3800 (TNT2 M64), and everything seems to be working fine...I even played a couple of turns in Clash of Eagles (although very slowly - I do need a new processor).

Is there any way to test a video card? I'm wondering if maybe I fried or screwed something by wiggling it when it kept rebooting my computer.

Thanks again,

Craig

[Schrullenhaft]

Have you ever overclocked your GeForce 2 ? Overclocking, especially the video memory, can often lead to lock ups under CM.

I'm not sure how good of a diagnostic it can be, but you can try a 3D benchmarking program (in some sort of looped-execution mode) to test out your video card's 3D capability (and possible defectiveness). One is 3DMark2000 and there are others like Quake Demos, Unreal, etc. Assuming that there are no other problems in the system (or compatibility problems - though a BX chipset should work OK with the GeForce 2's), if the benchmark freezes up then you might have a problem with your video card.

3DMark2000 (19+Mb):

http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/3dmark2000.shtml

[This message has been edited by Schrullenhaft (edited 11-02-2000).]

[Harv]

Well, after more playing around still no luck. Installed Combat Flight Simulator with the same problem...everything works until the D3D graphics load.

I ran all of the DirectX tests, and they seem fine, so I sent an e-mail to Asus, but they say up front that they might not respond.

The strange part is everything worked fine up until a while ago, and I don't know what I might have changed to cause this, if it isn't the video card itself.

Thanks for all the help,

Craig