Video Freezing - Plz Help

Greetings,

As my first post here I ask for some help with a problem I’m having. I just finished building my first machine (stats below) and it runs well for the most part. Of the few niggling issues there is one that I guidance on.

Some of my games “stick” or freeze to the point that playing them becomes too difficult. Many (high end) games run well. Doom3 for example, runs smoothly on the highest resolution but some freeze so often it’s not worth starting them. Sadly, HalfLife2 is one of those games that are unplayable. I’ve updated the mobo, video card, Ethernet, and sound card drivers at least once each but no luck. My only CD/DVD drive is external and is connected via USB. I have a normal CD drive coming in the mail. Could that be part of it?

The games that stick/freeze are HalfLife2, Tribes Vengeance, UT2004 (this has gotten better!), and Rome: Total War.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

My New DorkBox! --------------------------------------------------------
Case - ASPIRE (Turbo Case) X-Superalien Blue Aluminum Server Case
Power Supply - Aspire Turbo Case 500W 12V Black Dual Fan Aluminum Power Supply
Mobo - MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset for AMD Socket 939
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 512K, L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor 939 Pin
RAM - 2 Gigs of Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MBx4 DDR PC-3200
Video Card - BFG GeForce 6800GT, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, 8X AGP
Hard Drive - Maxtor 300GB 7200RPM SATA, 16 MB Buffer, Model 6B300S0
Monitor - UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1-inch Flat Panel LCD
OS - Windows XP Pro

Do you have fastwrites on? What is your agp aperature size set to?

Nandro said:

Do you have fastwrites on? What is your agp aperature size set to?

Click to expand...

Eeep, what is fastwrites and where do I find it? I also don't konw anything about the agp aperature.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I am VERY new to this computer stuff. Building this machine was my way of getting to know my way around a bit more. Abviously I have a lot to discover

Fastwrites is in the bios, try disableing that and try changing the agp aperature to 128 or 64 and see if that helps. Usually you can get in the bios by holding down delete during bootup.

Oh, and no worries....we were all a little green at one time

Nandro, I would proclaim my eternal love for you right now except that might be a little wierd.

IT WORKED! I can't believe it. I have this awsome new machine and a couple of the new games were just sitting on the shelf --- until now! Seriously, thank you very much. As my first experience with this forum I have a GREAT impression. I only played for about 6 mins but it did NOT lock up once. Played VERY well.

Question: (If you have time to answer) What did those changes do? I set the Fastwrites is now disabled and I set the apature to 128 (from 256). What exactly did that do?

Thanks!

Through what i have been told the agp aperature size has something to do when your card doesnt have enough ram to it then windows kind of puts that agp size added to your card. Basically the smaller cards will have a bigger size, and the bigger 128-256meg cards will have a lower number. I'd suggest having it set to 64 for your card and any good 128meg cards having theirs set to 64 also. If you have too big of a size you will expeirience the problems you just did.

THE SIZE OF YOUR CARD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SIZE OF YOUR AGP APERATURE SIZE. via a 128meg card having it set to 128, or 256meg set to 256.

-Jacobman-

Jacobman, thanks. Next time I reboot I'll set it to 64. I'm just so happy this has helped!

From Adrians Rojak Pot
"This BIOS feature controls the chipset's AGP Fast Write capability. Fast Write is a feature which accelerates memory write transactions from the chipset to the AGP device.

Normally, any data meant for the AGP device must be written to the main memory for the AGP device to read. Fast Write allows the AGP device to bypass the main memory and directly access the data. To do so, the AGP device will act as a PCI device whenever the chipset attempts to write to it. This allows the data to be directly written to the AGP device (like other PCI devices), instead of being written to the main memory first.

As you can see, bypassing the main memory saves time and improves the AGP read performance. However, AGP writes (to the chipset) will not benefit from Fast Writes as it will follow normal AGP protocol and write to main memory.

In addition, while PCI signals are used for Fast Write transactions, the behaviour of those PCI signals has been modified and do not follow PCI specifications. Therefore, this feature may cause problems with some PCI cards.

Therefore, it is recommended that you enable AGP Fast Write for better AGP read performance but disable it if any of your PCI cards start acting funny."

Glad it worked for you!!