Hi,
A month or so ago, I got some great direction here when I decided to upgrade from my SIS 6326 chipset, 4meg, 1X AGP Pine vid card. Now I have run into a really strage problem.
First off, my mobo is an ASUS P2B with 256 SDRAM, and I'm running a 1.4 gig Intel Tualatin processor using a powerleap slocket. The machine (running Win 98) has been rock stable as long as I've owned it... but I've always used the Pine video card. My machine is still rock stable with the Pine video card.
Ok - first I bought a generic (Mad Dog) 64 meg card using a Geforce 4 chipset. I know it is kind of overkill since I only have a 1.0 2X agp slot, but the card was only 40 dollars after rebate, so I figured the 64 meg of memory may be worth it. The computer suddenly started experiencing random freezes - mouse pointer and everything. alt ctrl del didn't work - but what did work was a soft powerdown using the ATX soft-off switch. The problem seemed to only occur while browsing the web, but I couldn't tie it to active x or shockwave or java as the freeze would happen one time at a website, but not the next - and besides I only had the card long enough for the guy at mad dog tech support tell me to take it back - so I can't be 100% sure it only happened on the web. Got a second card with same results, so I took that back too.
Next I tried a generic (Comp USA) ATI 7000 series chipset with 32 meg. That was only $50 - granted these are cheap cards, but I can't justify spending a lot on the card since it will only allow me to play some games I can't currently play. Anyway, I had the same problem with this card, however, it was much more frequent. I kept the card about a week, and noticed the system would freeze even when I wasn't using explorer (guess I failed to mention that I'm using IE 6).
Finally, I took that back and bought a Voodoo 3 2000 from someone on Ebay. I figured it was about the same vintage as my Pine card, and even though it is 2x, it is AGP 1.0 compliant as is my AGP slot. Same problem (but less frequent)- except this one sometimes freezes completely, and other times the screen gets distorted - lots of colors, and almost a checkerboard pattern in the background - appears as though there are four vertical sections, and a very slow screen roll provides the horizontal boarder for the checkerboard squares. This is still a lockup and requires a reboot. It happens most frequently when using explorer. Also, with this last card only, about 10 % of the time, when I reboot after a lockup, the volume will be all the way down upon startup - not muted, just turned down, which I can turn back up. I thought that there might be a conflict between my soundblaster 32 and these AGP cards, but tried a different soundcard (Opti chipset), and had the same problem.
Again, if I put my old 4 meg 1x generic SIS 6326 card in, I have no problems.
So here is what I have tried (unsuccessfully) to diagnose/solve the problem:
1 Verified IRQs aren't in conflict (although I can only verify that while the system isn't locked up)
2 Different SDRAM
3 Different Sound Card
4 Different Ethernet Card
5 Different Mouse
6 Different Monitor
7 Different Processor (PII 400)
8 Various video drivers (including latest)
9 Various MOBO drivers (incuding latest)
10 Various intel 440 BX chipset drivers (incuding latest)
11 Moved PCI cards as far from AGP slot as possible leaving two blank PCI slots between the closest PCI card and the AGP card.
12 Disabling Virus Scan Software
13 Disabling Firewall Software
AND Finally -
14 Reformatting and clean installing all program files and operating system.
All this seems to point to my mobo, but why would it work fine with the pine card?
If you have any ideas, or know of any software I could use to diagnose what the heck is going on, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
A month or so ago, I got some great direction here when I decided to upgrade from my SIS 6326 chipset, 4meg, 1X AGP Pine vid card. Now I have run into a really strage problem.
First off, my mobo is an ASUS P2B with 256 SDRAM, and I'm running a 1.4 gig Intel Tualatin processor using a powerleap slocket. The machine (running Win 98) has been rock stable as long as I've owned it... but I've always used the Pine video card. My machine is still rock stable with the Pine video card.
Ok - first I bought a generic (Mad Dog) 64 meg card using a Geforce 4 chipset. I know it is kind of overkill since I only have a 1.0 2X agp slot, but the card was only 40 dollars after rebate, so I figured the 64 meg of memory may be worth it. The computer suddenly started experiencing random freezes - mouse pointer and everything. alt ctrl del didn't work - but what did work was a soft powerdown using the ATX soft-off switch. The problem seemed to only occur while browsing the web, but I couldn't tie it to active x or shockwave or java as the freeze would happen one time at a website, but not the next - and besides I only had the card long enough for the guy at mad dog tech support tell me to take it back - so I can't be 100% sure it only happened on the web. Got a second card with same results, so I took that back too.
Next I tried a generic (Comp USA) ATI 7000 series chipset with 32 meg. That was only $50 - granted these are cheap cards, but I can't justify spending a lot on the card since it will only allow me to play some games I can't currently play. Anyway, I had the same problem with this card, however, it was much more frequent. I kept the card about a week, and noticed the system would freeze even when I wasn't using explorer (guess I failed to mention that I'm using IE 6).
Finally, I took that back and bought a Voodoo 3 2000 from someone on Ebay. I figured it was about the same vintage as my Pine card, and even though it is 2x, it is AGP 1.0 compliant as is my AGP slot. Same problem (but less frequent)- except this one sometimes freezes completely, and other times the screen gets distorted - lots of colors, and almost a checkerboard pattern in the background - appears as though there are four vertical sections, and a very slow screen roll provides the horizontal boarder for the checkerboard squares. This is still a lockup and requires a reboot. It happens most frequently when using explorer. Also, with this last card only, about 10 % of the time, when I reboot after a lockup, the volume will be all the way down upon startup - not muted, just turned down, which I can turn back up. I thought that there might be a conflict between my soundblaster 32 and these AGP cards, but tried a different soundcard (Opti chipset), and had the same problem.
Again, if I put my old 4 meg 1x generic SIS 6326 card in, I have no problems.
So here is what I have tried (unsuccessfully) to diagnose/solve the problem:
1 Verified IRQs aren't in conflict (although I can only verify that while the system isn't locked up)
2 Different SDRAM
3 Different Sound Card
4 Different Ethernet Card
5 Different Mouse
6 Different Monitor
7 Different Processor (PII 400)
8 Various video drivers (including latest)
9 Various MOBO drivers (incuding latest)
10 Various intel 440 BX chipset drivers (incuding latest)
11 Moved PCI cards as far from AGP slot as possible leaving two blank PCI slots between the closest PCI card and the AGP card.
12 Disabling Virus Scan Software
13 Disabling Firewall Software
AND Finally -
14 Reformatting and clean installing all program files and operating system.
All this seems to point to my mobo, but why would it work fine with the pine card?
If you have any ideas, or know of any software I could use to diagnose what the heck is going on, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!