Computer Freezes to often now... HELP!

[Dimoe]

Hey, I need some help with various comp issues.

I am starting to get frustrated that my computer is beginning to freeze more often than it used to.

Here are my updated significant comp specs:

***AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (Non-Overclocked right now)
ASUS A7V333 w/RAID
Windows XP Professional
***256mb DDR333 SDRAM
2 x Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 40.98 gig IDE 2mb 8.5ms 7200RPM DMA/133 (RAID 0) (RAID 0)
***Radeon 9700 Pro (Non-Overclocked)
***Creative Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer
***Lite-on DVD-ROM 16x
LG CD-RW 8x4x32

I would like to start off by when my comp first started to have problems. When I formated my computer one of various times, I got a KMODE_EXEPTION error. I left it alone and it kinda went away after I applied some artic silver to heatsink with perfect precision. or did it??? Weird???

Anyway, now I have a Radeon 9700 Pro (Retail). I have all settings set to quality and all my games I run with max graphics usually at 1024x768(min) up to 1600x1200(max). I have catalyst 3.0 and DirectX 9 installed.

I first noticed the problem when I ran games on my TV. After some gaming in various games, I would suddenly loose a signal to my TV and get "Video 1" on the top right hand corner of my screen (meaning lost signal). It would freeze less when I "turboed" my heatsink and back outtake fan with turbo button on PC case.

You guys think this may be an over heating problem with the video card since I'm REALLY pushing its capabilities. The fan on the card does seem a bit slow...

BTW: My CPU temp goes from 30 idle, to 30s, 40s general use to 50s gamming. That’s with fans "turboed" of course.

I also know that SoundBlaster Live has some issue with RAID stripes??? Some type of PCI latency patch needed???

 

[gothic]

Firstly the temparatures you indicate would, in my opinion, be well within the 'green' range. Mine runs normally at about 28°- 32°, but after heavy gaming can go as high as 40° (AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with GeForce 4 - 440)
The only freezes I have ever incurred was when I used DirectX 9.0 Dump DirectX 9

TOK:blink:

 

[gothic]

Slight update on that last one.......have just visited a german site which implores it's users who use Radeon9700's NOT to use DirectX 9.0 until the issues patch is released.

TOK

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by Dimoe
I am starting to get frustrated that my computer is beginning to freeze more often than it used to.

I'd go nuts if it frooze at all...

You guys think this may be an over heating problem with the video card since I'm REALLY pushing its capabilities. The fan on the card does seem a bit slow...

If the card isn't overclocked you're not pushing at all.

 

[Dimoe]

well...

Whats this thing I hear about this german site and a patch needed? I thought Catayst 3.0 and DirectX 9 where meant to work together.

Any chance I could see the site if its not in german?

Anyway, I think it might be a problem with either:

Soundcard and the PCI latency
RAM Latency
Damaged RAM
Lack of RAM
CPU and/or VPU/GPU overheating.
and maybe even somthing with A7V333 and Via drivers.

Thats what I think at least... Any ideas?

edit: I don't have 768MB or DDR333 right now

 

[jumpy]

I think you can safely rule out
RAM Latency - I doubt it, unless you've set more agressive timings
Damaged RAM - If it passes memtest from here
Lack of RAM - This is what a pagefile is for
CPU and/or VPU/GPU overheating - I doubt it since your temps seem fine and your vid card isn't o/ced

Download the latest via 4in1's and I do remember something about a pci latency patch. Have a look around on the via website.

 

[RobbieSan]

how about power? I've heard some users had problems until they got a better power supply.. this doesn't mean more power overall but a supply with higher available voltage on the specific rails.. there's a good article on this over at Tom's Hardware somwhere..

 

[Dimoe]

k, back

I can't seem to be able to install the mem test to a floppy disk, i get an error window.

Anyways, i'll check for a PCI latency patch both from Via one for raid array???

I do have that cold boot issue with Radeon 9700, but I don't need to restart comp, the screen just turns on once it reaches the windows login screen. I get 2 beeps when starting my computer when this happens. I assume it thinks there is no video card???


I'm planning on buying a new 400w or 450w power supply very soon. I have like 4 thing disconnected because I don't have any place to connect them.

 

[jumpy]

Possibly could be the power supply, what have you got now?

When you install memtest to a floppy it formats the floppy in a linux type filesystem that windows can't read, so you'll get a message saying the floppy isn't formatted. Just restart with the floppy in the drive and memtest will run.

Found the pci latency patch for via chipsets (thx google), although the kt333 isnt officially supported with v0.19 it still might work
http://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/ a little bit down the page
Good luck

 

[Dimoe]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OOOOOOOO!O!!!!!!!...O

Damn, the things it fixes sounds very similar to my problems!!! One small problem, the file downloads, but the zip is EMPTY!!!!

BTW: My PSU is currently 300w.

 

[Dimoe]

WHOA! Whats this:
____________________________________________________

Current Version '0.19' - December 12, 2001

Old PCI Latency Patch versions:
0.15 0.19 0.19c 0.19d 0.20b2 0.20b4 0.20b5 0.20b6 0.20b8 0.20b9 0.20b10 0.20b11

Notes:

0.19d maximizes RAID performance, but is dangerous on Asus A7V266/A7V333!!!.

Almost all 0.19 versions, and 0.20 betas below 0.20b12, are unsafe on Asus A7V / A7V133.

____________________________________________________

Anyone know where I can find a link with the latest patch that works. And will it harm my RAID array since I do have an A7V333 with RAID 0.

 

[jumpy]

Don't know about the empty zip file but you could try one of the beta versions.

Check out this forum post by the author of the patch
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=17&threadid=27558