Computer Freezes When Playing Games

[Memo]

Ok. So recently (past month or so) my computer has been freezing everytime I play games. Sometimes it freezes immediately and sometimes I can play for 30 minutes and then it freezes. The only thing that has changed since then is that I have installed Windows XP Pro.

My Specs:
Epox 8KTA+ Mobo (Latest BIOS)
900 Mhz Athlon
Hercules GF2 GTS 64MB
SB Live! Value
512 MB PC133 Ram (Crucial)

The card is not overclocked. I really don't know what's going on here and it's starting to tick me off. Anyone have any ideas? I have all the latest drivers for my sound card as well as my video card. Latests VIA 4in1s, everything. The games which I have played recently that do this have been True Combat (A Q3 MOD) and Metal of Honor: Allied Assault.

[Memo]

Hmm. I just checked my system information and look at this:

http://www.vividox.com/irqs.jpg

Like all my stuff is using IRQ5. This isn't something normal for Windows XP, is it?

[Ladogaboy]

I don't know about IRQ conflicts/settings in XP, but I do have a different thought. Something similar happened to me a while ago, and after much pain and suffering, I finally found out what it was. My ram had gone bad. There was no warning whatsoever, it just crapped out. It caused problems very similar to what you are experiencing.

It might be a possibility. :shrug:

[LPMiller]

lessee, you have XP, A geforce card, and A Via based board.

Have you seen a blue screen? Do you wait long enough to get it?

Because chances are, you are getting the ndisp.dll crash, or the infinite loop error. Very common in this setup - It's plaguing my basement PC right now.

No one fix seems to fix it. Sometimes, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers fresh for the video card will cure it. Sometimes it is disabling fast writes and knocking it down to 2x AGP. Sometimes it is the PCI latency patch. Sometimes - luck and time. It's a real pain the rear, and via or nvidia really needs to get to fixing this sucker once and for all, because I for one am damn tired of it.

[Memo]

Well that kind of sucks that there is no fix. And no I haven't gotten a blue screen, sometimes I do wait and nothing happens. Is this a problem with ALL VIA boards or mainly the KT133 chipset?

[LPMiller]

Sorry, I couldn't see that picture at work...now that I see it, no, that's not normal at all. The geforce should not be on IRQ 5 at all. And network cards HATE sharing IRQS with sound cards. In fact, 5 is usually reserved for sound only, period.

I dunno, now I'm wondering what the heck is going on...if your bios is set to Plug and Play, turn that off and let the BIOS assign the IRQ's. Maybe move some cards around. I was just looking at my system, and for instance my G3 is on IRQ 12, my Audigy is on 5, my network is on 11, which it shares safely with the USB host controllers, where they normally belong. Either that, or maybe your VIA drivers are screwed up somehow.

It's also possible a device of yours is totally misbehaving, say that Studio PCTV, which also seems to like IRQ5. Possibly pulling one or more of those would help.

If this is a recent problem, you could attempt a system restore as well.

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by UT Memo
Well that kind of sucks that there is no fix. And no I haven't gotten a blue screen, sometimes I do wait and nothing happens. Is this a problem with ALL VIA boards or mainly the KT133 chipset?


Well, all via boards running XP with a GeForce card using DET drivers 21.81 and up. Though it has affected a smaller portion of Intel and SiS boards, it is MOSTLY the Via's.

nForce seems safe...all the more reason to think it's mainly an nVidia problem, with a touch of Via thrown in for good measure. I just did heinous battle with the problem on my lounge PC, but seemed to have vanquished it again...for now.

[Memo]

BIOS has plug and play disabled. Either Windows XP doesn't have a way to reserve IRQs or I just don't remember how. Is there a way I can do it LP so that I can manually set the IRQs in WinXP Pro?

[Hoser]

Here's my system information. All my hardware likes IRQ 11. I haven't had any problems with the network and sound cards being on the same IRQ.

http://www.amspencer.net/sysinfo.gif

I do agree with Ladogaboy about checking your RAM. A couple weeks ago, my machine started locking up at least once every time I used it. There was no pattern to it. I took out all the cards (Video, sound, network) and reseated them. Still had the same problem. I reloaded the operating system with Norton Ghost. Even without loading any additional drivers, the same problems occurred. I then loaded XP from the CD and the computer locked up during the install.

I finally took the RAM out (2 256MB) and replaced both sticks. Since then I've had no problems. Both RAM sockets were covered with a lot of dust (the case is open), so I cleaned them off before I replaced the RAM. I don't know if the dust was causing problems with the connection because I haven't put the old RAM back in. I'll take the old RAM and get it tested when I have time.

[LPMiller]

Originally posted by UT Memo
BIOS has plug and play disabled. Either Windows XP doesn't have a way to reserve IRQs or I just don't remember how. Is there a way I can do it LP so that I can manually set the IRQs in WinXP Pro?

Then does your bios have a way of assigning IRQ's manually?

I've been trying to figure out how to get XP to allow me to change IRQ's...those options are always greyed out in the device properties. I'm sure it's a reg or admin setting somewhere, but haven't found it yet.

[Memo]

Took out the Studio PCTV and moved stuff around. Still no luck. I'm thinking about dual booting Windows XP and Windows 98 for games. How would I go about doing this. Creating 2 partitions. Installing 98 on the first one and then XP on the second one? I've never dual booted, how would I chooose what OS to boot up?

[qmanchu]

I didn't know that you could dual-boot with Windows XP. However, if you can and these are going to be fresh installs, you should install Windows 98SE first and then Windows XP. If Windows XP is anything like Windows NT or Windows 2000, it should provide you a choice to dual-boot during installation. After installation, you should get a boot menu providing a choice to boot between Windows 98SE and Windows XP. Hope this helps (assuming it works). Good luck. :)

[sbp]

All the stuff using one irq is the work of ACPI.

As for the infinite loop problem there are reports of it occuring with non-Nvidia videocards also.
Radeons: http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=13&threadid=5270
S3 Savage4: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&postid=743447#post743447
Voodoo 3 2000: http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=14427&perpage=30&pagenumber=14