Anyone ever lose AGP 4X suddenly?

[Hoot]

I had not run 3D Mark 2001 in a few weeks and went to run it yesterday. I barely got the first test to start and it crashed to the point where I had to reboot. In the past it screamed along at either 10x150 or 10.5x145 just fine. So, my first reaction was to slow things down.
I got down to 6x100 and it did the same thing. I spent the next couple of hours fiddling with bios settings on my KT7A. Everything relating to AGP, FSB, RAM, etc.
Everything runs fine in non-3D gaming applications. One of the last things I tried was turning of 4X AGP. Lo and behold it ran fine, even at 10x150, though considerably slower benchmark result. I have never OC'd my Cardex GF2MX 32Mb card. I'm not relally a gamer, just use 3D Mark for stability testing. I removed the card, cleaned the pins, reseated it, but to no avail. I do have a sizeable HS and fan on it, for no better reason than the fact that everyone else does. The stock HS did not get warm, due to excellent case airflow.

So, I am faced with one of two scenarios. Either the card if buggered or my motherboard is buggered. I'm too cheap to buy another card to try, out of fear the it is the motherboard and then I would have two cards. As the title asks, has anyone lost 4X, while retaing perfect functionality otherwise? Needless to say, I'm hoping it's the card, not the motherboard.

TIA
Hoot

 

[Pinky]

I noticed that since I started overclocking my cpu (and my motherboard does support 4X agp), that my video is only running at 2X agp.

Honestly, I can't tell the difference and still get good benchmarking scores. I have seen example after example of the difference between 2X and 4X to be like 1-2% gain.

To your question, yes I have noticed. But I really haven't needed to care (yet) .

 

[Hoot]

Like I said, it's not a problem in 2D applications and certainly not a show stopper, but my CPU Mark 2001 score went from something like 3002 to 2653 going from 4x to 2x, so it's more of a curiousity than anything else. This card worked fine for the past 6 months at 10x150 and slower. I'm not very tolerant of misbehaving components. It's the nature of my job.

Hoot

 

[Josh]

Hoot (Jul 26, 2001 07:28 a.m.):
Like I said, it's not a problem in 2D applications and certainly not a show stopper, but my CPU Mark 2001 score went from something like 3002 to 2653 going from 4x to 2x, so it's more of a curiousity than anything else. This card worked fine for the past 6 months at 10x150 and slower. I'm not very tolerant of misbehaving components. It's the nature of my job.

Hoot

Is it possible something else has changed? 300 points seems quite a steep decline from changing from agp4x to 2x. if i remember correctly on my duron/gts pro setup i lose no more than 50 3dmark2001 points going from agp4x to 2x.

Josh

 

[Chief]

One weird thing on my rig which I run at 145fsp at 4x is when I tried hitting 150fsp with cas222 it wouldnt do it but now it will not 4x at 145 anymore.
Anything above 140fsb and it goes to 2x,then again testing it with quake2 crusher and the dif is 3 frames per sec so not giving up much.

 

[Michael_Myers]

It's an honor to reply to you hoot............and I don't want to sound cute.....but have you reinstalled the drivers?

Sometimes when you do "things" you don't even realize you do......it screws up DX8.0a......which in turn screws up your vid card drivers.

I'd Uninstall your vid card drivers (correctly) and then install (again) DirectX8oa and then restart. Then reinstall your vid card drivers.

Or maybe it's the other way around.....maybe your vid card drivers first, then DX8.....it's one of the two.
Then give it a go. I know it sounds weird, but hey, it's better than buying a new card, right? Let me know if that works.

 

[Hoot]

No insult there Jack. Here's what I have done so far:
Uninstalled VIA 4.32 / Installed 4.28 No change
Uninstalled 4.28 / Change bios (KT7A) back from 3R to 3C / Reinstalled 4.28 No change
Repeat with Bios YH No Change
Repeat with Bios WW No Change
Back to Bios 3C / Reinstall 4.32

It never occurred to me to reinstall DX8.0A. I am at work right now and a friend brought in his Riva TNT2 4x AGP for me to borrow over the weekend and try. So, I will try diffent hardware and if that offers no benefit, I will try reinstalling DX8. Since I'm not a rabid gamer, this has, so far, been interesting. I hope to get it resolved before it moves into the miserable stage.

Point taken on the degree of speed loss not being consistent with dropping from 4x to 2x. I will ponder that one a bit further. Perhaps my memory is not accurate regarding what I used to get for 3DMK2K1.
For anyone wondering, I did select AGP Turbo when installng the VIA drivers, but that brings up one last puzzling point. I went to System Properties and looked at the AGP port. Windows gave the typical "this is working okay" message and under the driver tab it said the "no driver required or loaded." That confuses me because during the VIA driver installation, I got the impression it loaded the AGP driver. BTW, OS is Windows ME, but I also have dual boot with the other OS being Win98se, with all the updates applied. It behaves the same.

Hoot

 

[Michael_Myers]

$1 says this is driver related. Dx8 or your vid card drivers, or both.

 

[samuknow]

I would agree. Maybe trying uninstalling all vid drivers and reinstall. I was trying to OC my GF2 when things went a little haywire. After setting VGA and then reinstalling drivers all is well.

 

[Jon]

Mine did exactly what yours is doing now but miraculously fixed itself. Meaning I don't know what I did. It seems to me that it lies somewhere in the order of installing these things. Via 4-In-1's, video card drivers, etc.

Losing over 300 points by switching to 2X is a big question mark to me. I've switched from 2X to 4X and back again and my margin was 2 whole points. I have an overclocked bus to 150 as well and in the beginning thought this is where my problem lay, but it wasn't since it is all fine now. I can't run SideBanding or Fast Writes at all, however. Those lead to an instant lockup when just getting to the splash screen.

 

[Hoot]

Well, I have my friends RIVA TNT2 Vanta 16 card in and it runs CPU Mark 2001 in 4x mode just fine. Fine that is, if you don't mind slow. About half the speed of my GF2MX 32 in AGP 2X. The RIVA does not support fast writes though, if Sandra is correct. My GF2MX 32 does. So, I will reinstall everything relating to my GF2MX 32 again and see if it will play. If it still does not, I must accept the fact that something in my GF2MX 32 hardware has changed. If that is the case, I will watch for a good deal on a GF2MX 400 32 or 64. Maybe one with the 4ns memory chips. My GF2MX 32 has 5.5ns chips.
Thanks to everyone for their input.

Hoot

 

[Hoot]

Well, I reinstalled the GF2MX 32, all the drivers, even DX8.0a and no change. So it looks like I have a minor problem with the card. Not a show stopper, but if the right deal comes along, I will pick up a new one. Again, thanks to everyone.

Hoot

 

[Placid]

http://www.tweak3d.net/faq/faq.cgi#sw:drv:agp4x

Try some of things here. They have reg stuff to force agp 4x and other things to try.

 

[Tomas]

Hoot (Jul 25, 2001 10:12 p.m.):
I had not run 3D Mark 2001 in a few weeks and went to run it yesterday. I barely got the first test to start and it crashed to the point where I had to reboot. In the past it screamed along at either 10x150 or 10.5x145 just fine. So, my first reaction was to slow things down.
I got down to 6x100 and it did the same thing. I spent the next couple of hours fiddling with bios settings on my KT7A. Everything relating to AGP, FSB, RAM, etc.
Everything runs fine in non-3D gaming applications. One of the last things I tried was turning of 4X AGP. Lo and behold it ran fine, even at 10x150, though considerably slower benchmark result. I have never OC'd my Cardex GF2MX 32Mb card. I'm not relally a gamer, just use 3D Mark for stability testing. I removed the card, cleaned the pins, reseated it, but to no avail. I do have a sizeable HS and fan on it, for no better reason than the fact that everyone else does. The stock HS did not get warm, due to excellent case airflow.

So, I am faced with one of two scenarios. Either the card if buggered or my motherboard is buggered. I'm too cheap to buy another card to try, out of fear the it is the motherboard and then I would have two cards. As the title asks, has anyone lost 4X, while retaing perfect functionality otherwise? Needless to say, I'm hoping it's the card, not the motherboard.

TIA
Hoot

I bet its the mobo, i had exactly the same problem with my gf2mx on my abit kt7 mobo. It would just lockup or just crash. Tought it was the card but ran fine in my friends pIII then i tought my cpu was busted, went to the store and got a new 1.1tbird but still the same problem so at last i bought me a new asus a7v133 and it has never crashed on 3dmark or 3d games since.

 

[Tomas]

Hoot (Jul 25, 2001 10:12 p.m.):
I had not run 3D Mark 2001 in a few weeks and went to run it yesterday. I barely got the first test to start and it crashed to the point where I had to reboot. In the past it screamed along at either 10x150 or 10.5x145 just fine. So, my first reaction was to slow things down.
I got down to 6x100 and it did the same thing. I spent the next couple of hours fiddling with bios settings on my KT7A. Everything relating to AGP, FSB, RAM, etc.
Everything runs fine in non-3D gaming applications. One of the last things I tried was turning of 4X AGP. Lo and behold it ran fine, even at 10x150, though considerably slower benchmark result. I have never OC'd my Cardex GF2MX 32Mb card. I'm not relally a gamer, just use 3D Mark for stability testing. I removed the card, cleaned the pins, reseated it, but to no avail. I do have a sizeable HS and fan on it, for no better reason than the fact that everyone else does. The stock HS did not get warm, due to excellent case airflow.

So, I am faced with one of two scenarios. Either the card if buggered or my motherboard is buggered. I'm too cheap to buy another card to try, out of fear the it is the motherboard and then I would have two cards. As the title asks, has anyone lost 4X, while retaing perfect functionality otherwise? Needless to say, I'm hoping it's the card, not the motherboard.

TIA
Hoot

I bet its the mobo, i had exactly the same problem with my gf2mx on my abit kt7 mobo. It would just lockup or just crash. Tought it was the card but ran fine in my friends pIII then i tought my cpu was busted, went to the store and got a new 1.1tbird but still the same problem so at last i bought me a new asus a7v133 and it has never crashed on 3dmark or 3d games since.

I have heard lots odd issues with gf2 cards on the kt7 boards for some it works too change the agp timing and strength in bios but didnt work for me.

 

[Tomas]

btw i also had the carexpert gf2mx golden sample