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Video Card/Intel ZX chipset....HELP!!

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doubled

Registered
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
I'm hoping that someone has had a similar experience, and I may draw from their expertise.

Here's the scenario:
Biostar M6TZF
Cel 700 on Abit Slotket!!!
GORB
4.3GB WD hard drive
Nvidia TNT2 M64
128MB PC133 (generic)

This system is NOT overclocked. It runs really fast in comparison to an identical system I built on an ECS P6BAT-A+ motherboard.

Here's the problem. It locks up consistantly when playing games. Total lockup....3 finger salute won't work, have to power off and back on again.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I've tried re-installing the AGP drivers from Intel, but to no avail.

Thanks,
Dave
 
I'm inclined to point the finger at the GORB. Overclocking or not, they just don't cool CPU's very well. They're OK as GPU coolers.
 
klosters64a (May 15, 2001 07:41 p.m.):
I'm inclined to point the finger at the GORB. Overclocking or not, they just don't cool CPU's very well. They're OK as GPU coolers.

Well, I might agree with that except I have seen evidence to the contrary. The system that I built on the ECS motherboard has a GORB as well, and I have pushed it above 900Mhz with the GORB and the temps reported by the thermistor on the board say different. While I realize that the thermistor is not the most accurate method, the HSF doesn't seem that bad to me. In addition, the Biostar machine runs terrific on everything except the games. The PC locks up imediately upon launching games, not enough time to stress/overheat the cpu.

Thanks for the response,
Dave
 
This is definately weird. I noticed that you like I have a fairly small hard-drive by todays standards. A couple of games and the OS and your'e out of space. Could it be that you don't have room for an adequate swap-file? I had problems in the past with being dumped to the desktop from 3d games, but not a total lockup. Are any devices in conflict with the resources used by the video card? You didn't include the sound card type. If it is a PCI card, try pulling it out and see if the games load. If the game runs with the sound card out, try installing it in a different slot. Good luck.
 
Slake (May 16, 2001 08:13 a.m.):
This is definately weird. I noticed that you like I have a fairly small hard-drive by todays standards. A couple of games and the OS and your'e out of space. Could it be that you don't have room for an adequate swap-file? I had problems in the past with being dumped to the desktop from 3d games, but not a total lockup. Are any devices in conflict with the resources used by the video card? You didn't include the sound card type. If it is a PCI card, try pulling it out and see if the games load. If the game runs with the sound card out, try installing it in a different slot. Good luck.

Well, I thought about the sound card, especially since numerous people on the forum seem to have anomalies with SB Live. The sound card is built in on this particular board. Oddly enough, the game works on the ECS board which also has on board sound. I haven't tried disabling the on board sound on the BioStar board and installing a sound card. That's a great idea. Thanks for the post!

Dave
 
By the way Slake, I notice you have a CUSL2 board. I have strongly been considering a CUSL2-C board to replace the ECS (I don't care much for the ECS board). How do you like it? Is it really as good as all the reviews I've read?

Thanks,
Dave
 
doubled (May 16, 2001 10:27 a.m.):
By the way Slake, I notice you have a CUSL2 board. I have strongly been considering a CUSL2-C board to replace the ECS (I don't care much for the ECS board). How do you like it? Is it really as good as all the reviews I've read?

Thanks,
Dave
I really like my CUSL2-C. The "C" version doesn't have the on-board video and sound is an option. I did a lot of studying before deciding on it. I narrowed it down to the CUSL2-C or the MSI 6337. I wanted the 815ep chipset for the AGP X 4 (although I haven't upgraded video yet) and for the upgradeability as opposed to the BX chipset. The only drawback I've found is that when you cold-boot, you have to set the chip at default speed and voltage then restart in order to overclock. I just discovered today though that if you set the FSB @ 100 then shut down you can cold boot. I've done that 3 times tonight to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I'd reccommend the board. It is better than the BX chipset in some ways and really close where it's edged out in performance.
Disableing your onboard sound can be tricky if it's anything like my old OEM P2B Hewlett Packard/Asus 440BX. Even when I set the jumper to disabled it would still show up in device manager and try to use resources. It may be auto-disabling, where if you install a PCI card and have Plug & Play enabled in BIOS (if selectable) the onboard sound will bow out and let the add in card take over. I guess youv'e got the latest BIOS ?
BTW, if youd like to see what my Board looks like follow this link>

Hope you can play games again soon. :-(
 
Well I think that I'm going to give that CUSL2-C a spin. I don't really care about the on board video. I've heard that it's not terribly great anyway.

Thanks for all the info and time spent. You folks at OC are the greatest!

Thanks,
Dave
 
doubled (May 17, 2001 07:17 a.m.):
Well I think that I'm going to give that CUSL2-C a spin. I don't really care about the on board video. I've heard that it's not terribly great anyway.

Thanks for all the info and time spent. You folks at OC are the greatest!

Thanks,
Dave
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A great place to make sure your purchase decision is a sound one is overclockers.com's CPU Database. Just select the chip you are gonna overclock and compare results in the database. (Best thing since the slinky)
 
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