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Help, I'm desperate with sblive + geforce!

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Zarlata

Technical User
Oct 19, 2000
4
BR
This is the 9th forum I post!

My video lockups every time I do a 3d benchmark or play a 3d game, whatever windows I use.

My system:
amd athlon 700
ASUS v7700
SBLIVE!
ASUS K7M
2x128 generic 100mhz ram
lan card and winmodem

There is no IRQ conflicts and I updated every driver, including the mobo bios, installed via4-in-1, read all geforcefaq.com, changed pci slots, changed to agp1x, etc etc etc.

If the video doesn't freeze, the application quits with no warning. I've been searching for a solution for 1 month now, and nothing new yet!

It seems there is something to do with my sblive + v7700 together.

Check out a page where I fully describe the problem: (for, "The problem still unsolved" page).

Thank you very much for any help!
Zarlata [sig][/sig]
 
Since the problem started after installing the new sound card, try either reducing its acceleration to the minimum setting in Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio/Advanced Properties/Performance or selecting Game Compatible Device on the Audio Page(if this option is available) before playing a 3D game. See if this helps. [sig][/sig]
 
You might try changing the drivers for both cards. For the SBlive get the newest Live Wire driver. And for the GeForce get the Detonator3 drivers.
Maybe this will help! [sig][/sig]
 
have you overclocked anythink, cpu? graphics?
If so try setting the original settings.

Don´t always rely on asus latest (beta) drivers. download the most reliable driver instead.

How many times have you installed via4in1 drivers? I have a via chipset motherboard with Asus6800. The first time I installed 4in1 my graphic-performance was lousy, I appearently forgot something because the second time 3dmark and Q3 worked like a charm...

Athlon together with geforce needs at least a 300W power supply? What do you have?
[sig]<p>Nostradamus<br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= > </a><br> [/sig]
 
I had a similar problem with my SBLive and a Voodoo3 card - it kept locking up when playing a 3D game. I know the Voodoo card and GeForce cards are different, but I got around it by changing some of the values in the BIOS, according to an FAQ I downloaded from the 3Dfx site. It involved disabling the L2 external cache (or was that internal? I don't know, I'm not a hardware expert!), but as a result, it works fine now. I would check if the GeForce sites have a similar FAQ.

It's not too hard to be more technical than me, so I'd check this theory out with someone else before trying it! :) [sig][/sig]
 
Ok here are some answers:
1- The system is not overclock anywhere;
2- I've installed via4-in-1 drivers just once..
3- I've downloaded every new driver I could find, either ASUS' or detonators. Same problem on both;
4- My power supply is 300w although I don't know if it is AMD certified - probably not.
5- L2 caches are enabled in my BIOS - should I disable them? What drawback will I experience?

BTW, today I removed my SBLIVE and started a benchmark with 3dmark 2k, running the helicopter high resolution demo in looping mode. It ran for about 5 hours or so, instead of 5 minutes when SBLIVE is onboard. However, when I got back from class, the demo was not running anymore - 3dmark quited without any error message.

I can't find a way through this problem, it is really killing me.

Any other ideas? (and thanks for the feedback!)

[sig][/sig]
 
Did you try reducing the acceleration of the SBLIVE sound card or select Game Compatible Device?
After installing a Voodoo3 3000 video card and I started experiencing graphics problems, lockups, and crashes while playing Combat Flight Simulator until I selected Game Compatible Device(which is the same as reducing my sound card's acceleration to its lowest setting). After doing that, these problems went away.
It's easy to do and it may work for you also. [sig][/sig]
 
Try installing via4in1 again. Try different settings during installation.

I also had some problem when I installed LiveWare. Strange lockups and blue-screens. Don´t install your soundblaster using the installation of liveware. On creative´s homepage you can download a file called something like &quot;update for liveware&quot;. When using that file it installs just the card with accessories (sb16 emulation, game port).

which version of asus drivers do you have?
[sig]<p>Nostradamus<br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= > </a><br> [/sig]
 
The problem could be a conflict between the SBlive Dos drivers which are loaded by default. Look in your Autoexec.bat file to see if it's loading the Dos sound card drivers (you'll see an entry in there for SBEINIT.COM). If this entry is present try removing it. You can't simply remove it from the Autoexec then resave the file! It will reinstall it again when you reboot. To remove it, go to control panel, add/remove programs and select Sblive!. You are then presented with a selection screen. Check DOS Drivers to remove then OK. The drivers will then be removed. Try it. I had major problems with a SCSI card that was conflicting with these drivers. The problem being that it forces INT10 for the card. Good luck!
[sig][/sig]
 
Thanks for your message, but in fact, sb16 emulation is already disabled in win98 and there is no sense in sb16 emulation under win2k.

However, I think that maybe I fixed my problem somehow.

Here is the full message I posted to newsgroups.

[quoting]
Hi ALL;

After 30 days of 3hours/day tweaking in my PC, I think that finally I could fix the lockups problem here.

I can't say exactly what I did to avoid lockups, but I will give a few hints that can work. Along the week, I intend to reformat my PC and start everything from scratch to be certain about what is the correct procedure to avoid lockups. The full description of the tweaks will be available in .

My system:
asus K7M mobo
AMD Athlon 700mhz
SBLIVE
asus v7700
2x128mb pc100 RAM
lan card
modem card

PCI1=empty
PCI2=lan card
PCI3=modem card
PCI4=sblive
PCI5=empty



Some things to try:
1- Instead of installing the VIA AGP drivers, stay with the AGP
miniport drivers. I suggest installing just the new PCI VIA drivers and after that installing the miniport;

2- Change your memory settings on BIOS to the following:
PAGE Idle timer - > 8
Precharge time - > 3
Race to Acticve time - > 5
CAS Latency - > 3
RAS toCAS Delay - > 3 (or 2)

3- Change the AGP speed to 1x;

4- The last &quot;official&quot; version of the K7M bios in the ASUS site was km1009. Since I haven't anything to lose, I made a try on the beta bios. The version I tried was km132.

5- Avoid PCI slot 1 and 5. Make sure SB16 emulation is disabled and that the AGP slot isn't sharing IRQ with any other card (except on win2k, since my system is sharing the same IRQ (acpi on) and no problem yet).



Using those tips I could make my system work without any crashes, based on a 3dmark 2k benchmark (test1, high resolution in looping mode) during 24 hours, either on Win2k with detonator3 drivers or win98se with ASUS 5.33 drivers.

My 3dmark2k score isn't that good yet and I know that the Geforce2GTS isn't showing its full potential. Any tips on how could I improve my performance? ---- What's your 3dmark2k score with agp1x and agp2x ? - ----

I highly recommend checking out the support section of the ASUS German site ( If you don't speak german (like me), use babelfish to translate it ( It's a pitty that the support section of the .tw and .com asus sites don't follow the german example of support.




Finally, if you try those tweaks and fix your problem, please, send email to me so I can be sure that they worked to anyone else. I would apreciate any comments on this.

Good lucky!

Julio Augusto (Zarlata aka JhAgA)
BR
[/quoting]


Any comment on that would be highly appreciated.

Julio [sig][/sig]
 
I'm almost betting the problem began way in the very beginning of this thread, where Zarlata said:

My system:
amd athlon 700
ASUS v7700
SBLIVE!
ASUS K7M
2x128 generic 100mhz ram <---- !!!!
lan card and winmodem

Athlon systems can be VERY picky about their ram. You must use &quot;Athlon Certified Ram&quot;, sorry. I installed a 128mb stick once that was 100mhz but a cheap variety, and it would crash the computer all the time! I'd get bluescreens and random crashes for no reason. Replacing the ram with 6-layer super-ram fixed all problems.

If you've got a friend you can borrow some Athlon-certified ram from, try this. It will most likely fix your problem. Else go to a memory outlet store like and purchase some compatible ram.

Good luck,
Mark
 
-Disable the ACPI controler in the BIOS. Sounds crazy, and nothing related. Trust me, do it and your done. ^_-

-If that doesn't fix it, maybe yo have a pc100 ram damage.
Try with only 128ram, until you detect what memmory is the dammaged one.

-Upgrade your Bios.

-Sell your PC and get a new Mother Board!!

-Have you probe the onboard audio and without the SBLive? Work?

-Go, open your wallet, find you sellticket, go to the store and get your money back!!! :D Try to trade them...
 
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