Constant Lockups - CMOS?

[Alexschmidt]

I am being plagued by constant lockups while gaming (Ceaser, Pharaoh, Zeus, ....). I dont think the graphics card (GeForce 2 MX400 64MB) is the culprit as I had the same problem with a S3 Savage in the M/board. My OS (XP Pro) is also probably not guilty as the same happened using Win 2000 Pro. I have a VIA m.board with the latest drivers installed and dxdiag checks out OK. I understand that the AGP setting in the CMOS could have an effect. Can somebody please shed some light on this and possible changes I could experiment with. I have a AMD Athlon 1.2 ghz and 256MB RAM installed. Plenty of HD space available.
Thanks

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

are the lockups only when you play games? or do you possibly experience lockups during normal operations?

it could be ram related... had lockups happen to me a while back... turned out to be the Ram stick I used, it got a bit to hot... I could reboot and it seemed fine then after a while it would lockup my system once again... sometimes 5 minutes other times it would take 15 min until it locked up...

Ben

 

[Alexschmidt]

Ben - only while gaming which makes one look at the graphics card firstly but as I say, the same happened on my previous and older card. In W2000 the only way to restart was to cold boot but XP gracefully just exits to the desktop and then the game can be restarted only to once again lockup within 5-10 minutes.

 

[BadBigBen]

Alex,

take a look at the following thread602-348296

it might give you insight into what I meant about the Ram issue...

Ben

ps I hope it helps and you get it worked out...
PSS I still do believe it is RAM related...

 

[braddds]

Don't know if this relates but according to several sites the culprit may be the via chipset:

http://bwhelp.blogspot.com/

Even though you're running XP (since w2k and XP are similar)and your vid card is different these problems may be solved as outlined in above link.

This talks about sound card but also goes into vid card lockups with some solutions:

http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/934/

This site is a little dated but discusses the via chipset problems and solutions

http://pcbuyersguide.com/hardware/motherboards/VIA-Problems.html

...or good advice from Epic:

http://unreal.epicgames.com/lockup.txt

Cheers

Thx to all who respond

 

[Alexschmidt]

No guys, I'm back again and the only improvement I have had is that it generally takes a bit longer to lockup than it normally does (from 2 to 5 min to approx 15min). I went through all the links provided above, one leading to another and another. I got some patches and tweaks which I applied. I just replaced the heatsink with what is supposed to be state of the art for AMD CPU's. I turned off onboard sound and installed a new sound card. The soundcard bit I did because on more than one occasion the sound will get "stuck" playing the same thing non-stop, although the game can continue. An exit and return to the game would fix that. CMOS Health State indicates the CPU temp to be 38C and System temp to be 30C, is this OK? I have tried to run the "DocMemory" test utility as downloaded from

http://www.simmstester.com

in an effort to test the single 256MB Ram chip but all that happens is that when I select any one of the two test options the machine reboots immediatly. OK, so now you say go and buy new RAM it MUST be the culprit but hey in this part of the world RAM doesn't come cheap and why does everything else run perfectly for hours on end if the RAM is faulty. Is there any other possible help someone can think of .....please

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi Alex,

Your temps are withing the specs... ergo they are good... only worry if they reach over 60C...

when I had probs with my ram, I also tested it with a memtester(amidiag) and it ran and ran and it checked out good... ergo I replaced both CPU and MoBo... and had the same probs again... so I replaced the Ram and voila no lockups...

I can only guess from your name that you're in Germany, Schwitzerland or possibly in Austria (Oesterreich)... well the RAM prices aren't that high in Germany 256mb for around 50 €...

try to talk to your local PC dealer and see if he would let you try a Stick of RAM (NAMEBRAND) to test before buying...

BEN

 

[bcastner]

If the motherboard has on-board video, and you uninstalled it with Device Manager, you will have this problem.

If the BIOS only lets you select between AGP and PCI, but not disable the on-board video, look very carefully at the motherboard documentation to see if there is a jumper to disable the on-board video.

Otherwise, you will have to:

. Uninstall the GeForce drivers.
. Remove the board
. Set the BIOS to PCI video
. Let XP re-install the on-board
. Use Device Manager to Disable (not un-install) the on-board video.
. Re-install the board
. Use BIOS to go back to AGP
. Re-install the drivers

 

[bcastner]

Oh, forgot:

When re-installing the board, remove the CMOS battery for two minutes, and replace. Then go to BIOS setup, Hit reload defaults, then set the AGP mode, save and exit.

 

[Alexschmidt]

Thanks guys - no onboard video, but thanks anyway. Ben, I tried replacing the RAM but to no avail (I am now the proud owner of 256MB more RAM) It would seem, judging from articles on the matter, that the VIA chipset, AMD cpu and GeForce video card do not make a good combination. Fingers are pointing at the mobo (VIA chipset) as being the most likely cause of the incompatability.
In conclusion, my best option will be to get a new motherboard......
Thanks for all your efforts
Alex

 

[jrbarnett]

Hi,

My machine is exactly that - VIA PC133 chipset with Athlon 1GHz CPU, 384Mb (128+256Mb PC133 SDRAM) and Geforce2 MX AGP graphics. It runs win2K SP3. Yes, the machine is 2 years old now but it is very stable. The only time I've had a bluescreen was when I installed agnitum outpost and it started crashing about every 20 mins, so I uninstalled it and replaced it with Kerio. No problems.

My dad's machine, however, is a lot older and has sporadic lockups when I upgrade the definitions for the Command antivirus software on it.

John


John Barnett
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