D3D/OpenGL Issues

[Drotain]

I've been working on this for nearly a month, and I have yet to find a solution.

Whenever I run a Direct3D or OpenGL game, (Counterstrike and WarCraft III for example). They will sometimes run properly, then lock during use. I've tried several Detonator drivers, DirectX 9, and 8.1, and even formatting.

It may have somthing to do with my system specs:

AMD Athalon XP 2100+
MSI K7N2 Motherboard (With nVidia chipsets)
Maxtor Diamondmax 8 40GB Hard Drive
256MB DDR RAM (266Mhz)
Macronix NIC Card

The only cards are the NIC and the Geforce.

If anyone has any ideas, greatly apprecieated.

Nathan Buffett, Drotain

http://drotain.dyndns.org

 

[Lammbock]

How long does it take until the game freezes? It might be possible that eighter CPU or GPU is getting too hot, causing the system to be unstable.

 

[Drotain]

There dosen't seem to be a set time, in WarCraft III, the game locks as soon as it loads into the start screen, in Counterstrike it usually takes a while, then locks when I get a headshot or one is gotten on me. It locks when its loading sometimes too.

Could it be my RAM? I seem to fix the lockups by underclocking my CPU(which underclocks the RAM too) to 1.43Ghz from 1.733Ghz.

Nathan Buffett, Drotain

http://drotain.dyndns.org

 

[Lammbock]

It might be the RAM, yes. But when you are running the CPU at standard frequency (133*13) the RAM is fully within its specification. Whats the manufacturer, btw?
Do you have these freeze problems when the PC is running at 130*13? Ever tried it without the Macronix NIC Card?

 

[Drotain]

I'm not fully sure what you mean by 130*13, haven't gotten to deep into RAM yet. I have tried running without the NIC card before though, with the same problems.

Mind explaining the 130*13, and let me know how to check it?

Nathan Buffett, Drotain

http://drotain.dyndns.org

 

[Lammbock]

Sorry. I didnt mean to confuse you.
Your XP2100 runs at a speed of 1.733. Thats a FSB of 133MHz at a multiplier of 13. 133*13 = 1733. If you lower the FSB to 130 you also lower the frequency the northbridge is communicating with your RAM if its set to be syncronous.

If you think your RAM might be the reason for your problems you should first set the RAM-Settings into a very save mode the Bios, though. Especially if the RAM was rather cheap.
If there is an option like "configure RAM" try chosing "by SPD". Otherwise take "manually" and set Command Time to 2T and RAS/CAS to 3.

 

[Drotain]

Oh, right right, I've underclocked my CPU and RAM to 116 FSB, and that fixed all the problems. I think everything is set to SPD already aswell.

I'll try clocking back up to 133Mhz with those other settings you said.

Nathan Buffett, Drotain

http://drotain.dyndns.org

 

[Drotain]

Tried it, still locks up. These are the options I have for my chipset in the bios, and what they can be set to.

FSB/DRAM Ratio - Auto / By SPD / Manual Ratio
Memmory Timings - Manual / High Performance / By SPD
T-(RAS) - 1 to 15
T-(RCD) - 1 to 7
T-(RP) - 1 to 7
CAS Latency - 2.0 / 2.5 / 3.0
FSB Spread Spectrum - Disabled / 0.50% / 1.00%
AGP Spread Spectrum - Disabled / 0.50%

Hopefully this will help find whats wrong.

Nathan Buffett, Drotain

http://drotain.dyndns.org