New setup causing some weird headaches

reno · Jun 27, 2003, 05:56 PM

Alright, so I buy a humble little upgrade for my brother's computer...but I run into some frustrating problems...let me list the specs.

ABIT IS7-E (i865 Springdale, newest BIOS version 13)
Pentium 4 2.4C 800Mhz Bus
2x512 MB Corsair Value ram (running at default speed/timing 200mhz: 2.5, 7, 3, 3)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Retail (Catalyst 3.5)
80GB Western Digital JB800 (8mb cache)
Onboard Realtek AC97 Audio

Now here's the kicker, I'm trying to make it play nice on Windows 98 SE, already redid the vcache so it's happy using 1GB in 98...but I know it still doesn't like it.

Machine performs well, runs the doom 3 alpha silky smooth (God...I envy that little freshman), 3dmark 2001 he scores around 14500, and shit...even 6x antialiasing nets him scores near 9000...I'm not having a problem with performance...

It's weird fatal exceptions and hangs.

For instance, I'm getting 0B and 0E exceptions in the virtual memory manager and VWIN32 VXDs. Now, some of those errors were fixed (the 0B's) by redoing the vcache and vmm settings...but VWIN32 is still having a problem. And they usually only appear after he's been playing a game for a while...

Today, after reinstalling directx 9, the catalysts, and the intel chipset software, AND doing some optimizations...he can run 2 or three games without error.

Now, it's not heat related...like it locks up if he plays one game long, it's more like he plays one engine utilizing his 3d...then tries another and it flucks the computer up...sometimes right away, sometimes midgame.

After CTRL-ALT-DELETE-ing out of Unreal Tourny 2003 (after it crashed to a frozen black screen) I saw a lot of weird video patterns...blocks of color, strips of characters...etc. (but VERY quickly) and then it rebooted and was happy.

I am stumped, I've tried running memory timings SLOWER, running in single channel with one stick (in case 1GB was hard on the non-XMS corsair for some reason), nothing helped. One thing to consider is he also had an nvidia card before this, and all his games on his old harddrive were set for nvidia cards...win98 was installed on a fresh partition by itself so it's not old drivers giving problems there, it MIGHT be his old games glitching the poor thing...so he's deleting all games on his old drive and reinstalling them on a general files partition on his new drive.

Any help you guys can give would be great, any known problems between springdale/ati/win98 and any fixes are also at least relaxing to know it's not hardware related...

Oh! One more thing, ABIT must read their temps really high...it says around 50 (!) degrees in the BIOS and around 43 in Winbond for IDLE speeds....but here's the kicker...they never get higher even under load? WTF? The HSF is usually only lukewarm to the touch, and so is the ATI's cooler...so I'm pretty sure it's much lower than that (case readings in the mid thirties to 40s...with more case fans than are in my rig...and the house is air conditioned to 24! it doesn't make sense to me)

Anyway, yeah, I know a lot of you know a lot more of stuff than I do in ati related areas...please...please help!

Dom · Jun 27, 2003, 06:40 PM

OMG, it's Reno!

Kgentatszu] · Jun 27, 2003, 06:48 PM

two things that you can do..........first that would be reformating every thing.........and second, that would be install windows XP pro...try both and see how's it going...

rogeld · Jun 28, 2003, 06:55 PM

THAT is a humble upgrade? Sheesh...and I agree with Maxxypoos. The 9x series wasn't designed to handle ram in excess to 256mb comfortably and it can be forced into running 512, but things become rather sticky once that barrier is breached. I highly suggest running 2k or higher on that, be it any version of them, and see how it goes.

Jun 27, 2003, 05:56 PM	#1
reno Painlord of Ichor Join Date: May 2002 Location: bloinkin! Posts: 1,610 Rep Power: 0	New setup causing some weird headaches Alright, so I buy a humble little upgrade for my brother's computer...but I run into some frustrating problems...let me list the specs. ABIT IS7-E (i865 Springdale, newest BIOS version 13) Pentium 4 2.4C 800Mhz Bus 2x512 MB Corsair Value ram (running at default speed/timing 200mhz: 2.5, 7, 3, 3) ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Retail (Catalyst 3.5) 80GB Western Digital JB800 (8mb cache) Onboard Realtek AC97 Audio Now here's the kicker, I'm trying to make it play nice on Windows 98 SE, already redid the vcache so it's happy using 1GB in 98...but I know it still doesn't like it. Machine performs well, runs the doom 3 alpha silky smooth (God...I envy that little freshman), 3dmark 2001 he scores around 14500, and shit...even 6x antialiasing nets him scores near 9000...I'm not having a problem with performance... It's weird fatal exceptions and hangs. For instance, I'm getting 0B and 0E exceptions in the virtual memory manager and VWIN32 VXDs. Now, some of those errors were fixed (the 0B's) by redoing the vcache and vmm settings...but VWIN32 is still having a problem. And they usually only appear after he's been playing a game for a while... Today, after reinstalling directx 9, the catalysts, and the intel chipset software, AND doing some optimizations...he can run 2 or three games without error. Now, it's not heat related...like it locks up if he plays one game long, it's more like he plays one engine utilizing his 3d...then tries another and it flucks the computer up...sometimes right away, sometimes midgame. After CTRL-ALT-DELETE-ing out of Unreal Tourny 2003 (after it crashed to a frozen black screen) I saw a lot of weird video patterns...blocks of color, strips of characters...etc. (but VERY quickly) and then it rebooted and was happy. I am stumped, I've tried running memory timings SLOWER, running in single channel with one stick (in case 1GB was hard on the non-XMS corsair for some reason), nothing helped. One thing to consider is he also had an nvidia card before this, and all his games on his old harddrive were set for nvidia cards...win98 was installed on a fresh partition by itself so it's not old drivers giving problems there, it MIGHT be his old games glitching the poor thing...so he's deleting all games on his old drive and reinstalling them on a general files partition on his new drive. Any help you guys can give would be great, any known problems between springdale/ati/win98 and any fixes are also at least relaxing to know it's not hardware related... Oh! One more thing, ABIT must read their temps really high...it says around 50 (!) degrees in the BIOS and around 43 in Winbond for IDLE speeds....but here's the kicker...they never get higher even under load? WTF? The HSF is usually only lukewarm to the touch, and so is the ATI's cooler...so I'm pretty sure it's much lower than that (case readings in the mid thirties to 40s...with more case fans than are in my rig...and the house is air conditioned to 24! it doesn't make sense to me) Anyway, yeah, I know a lot of you know a lot more of stuff than I do in ati related areas...please...please help!

Jun 27, 2003, 06:40 PM	#2
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	OMG, it's Reno!

Jun 27, 2003, 06:48 PM	#3
Kgentatszu] DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 1,802 Rep Power: 0	two things that you can do..........first that would be reformating every thing.........and second, that would be install windows XP pro...try both and see how's it going...

Jun 28, 2003, 06:55 PM	#4
rogeld DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 259 Rep Power: 0	THAT is a humble upgrade? Sheesh...and I agree with Maxxypoos. The 9x series wasn't designed to handle ram in excess to 256mb comfortably and it can be forced into running 512, but things become rather sticky once that barrier is breached. I highly suggest running 2k or higher on that, be it any version of them, and see how it goes.