System unstable... GF2Ultra to blame I think.

[FishDog3]

I have been experiencing a great amount of instability in my new sys while gaming. What is happening is soon after I start the game it either completely shuts down and goes back to the desktop or the screen gets garbled and freezes.

EPoX 8K7A+
TB 1.2 266 AXIA
2x 256 PC2100 Crucial
VisionTek GF2 Ultra
Maxtor 20gig
TDK VeloCDRW 12-10-32
360w PSU
Win 98 SE

I am currently using the 12.41 WHQL drivers and all the newest AMD and VIA4in1's and the newest EPoX BIOS.

I have found that if I take out one of my sticks of ram the instability is greatly decreased but still there infrequently. Also when I used NVmax and disabled Fast-Writes, VIA Side Band Addressing, as well as AGP Fast-Writes in the bios I can run with both sticks in but still have some instability. I am going to update to the 12.90 drivers and see if that helps, should I get the unofficial or the WHQL?.

But I wanted to know if anybody had ideas on how to get my system more stable, I was going to try tweaking stuff individually in NVmax to see if I can get it stable, but any recommendations would be welcomed. Thanks.

fd

[dozier768]

have you checed to see if there is any irq conflicts or shaing going on? i had similar problems an sure enough my soundcard and my vid card were on the same irq after moving ths soundcard down to a lower pci slot the problem ceased . also there are some 14.70 leaked drivers out that seem to run great

[FishDog3]

I tried the 12.90 WHQL drivers and they were more unstable than the 12.41. I coulden't even get windoez to boot without the screen going to gobeldy gook if fast-write was enabled in the bios. And I coulden't get through the NASCAR 4 grafix test without freezing no mater what.

I am using AC'97 sound could that be causing it?

I am going to get the 14.70 drivers and see if they are better.

[G T i]

Trying going with AGP 2x instead of 4x. The samething was happening to me. I think its my memory cas setting. But I rather have a faster system then 4x AGP. ;)

[dozier768]

i dont think the ac97 would be the culprit , have you checked to see if there were shared irq's?

[FishDog3]

How can I check to see it irq's are shared, and if they are how can I change devices to diffrent irq's?

tx

[FishDog3]

I was wondering if my bus speeds could have anything to do with it, I don't know much about the system busses or pci dividers, I believe that the EPoX bios I have supports a 1/5 divider, is that set automaticly or can I do it manualy?

my bus speeds are: memory - 133; AGP - 67; USB - 48

[FishDog3]

Here is what wCPUID says, and sense I'm still in the intermediate phose of learning about hardware I don't know much to make of it except that irq 11 is on ther a lot :) thanks guys

[FishDog3]

I think i got it. I set everything manualy in the bios that I could and it was still not working. But I just set the memory timings manualy now after everything is off the "auto" and I think it is cured :) :) :)

course now something else will go blamo

[dozier768]

what version of windows are you running? if 95-me go into your device manager and double click on the little computer icon at the top of the list and it will tell you what device is on what irq