game lock up's!

Hi, (long one :( )
i seem to have some major problem with my computer, probably gfx card. when ever i play any game from Age of Empires 3 to battlefield 2 it will lock up and freeze within about 3 minutes of it starting. when playing most games this is not to bad as after it freezes for about 10 seconds it that runs fine again for the rest of the day or until i re-start with no problem. unfortunately however when playing battlefield 2, the most stressful game on for my computer, it freezes and 9 times out of 10 will result in the Blue screen and the computer re-starting. the few times it un-freezes the game will run fine for hours after that with no problem at all. so that’s the basics of the problem.

i have however found out some more information which may be of use. one thing i tried was to install these drivers;http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/n...i=&p_topview=1 ;as i often get the problem it was designed to fixed along with the freezing in BF2 mainly. BF2 runs far better with these older drivers and while it locks up now and then for a few seconds it always recovers and i can carry on playing. the problem is however that those drivers as so old they don't work correctly with most new games. i have also tried 2 other driver versions that don't seem to be any better or worse.

also sometimes when BF2 freezes i can use Ctrl Alt and Delete to exit the game back to windows. if i then try to run any other game it won't work and this is the message i got from age of empires 3; http://static.flickr.com/36/82236440_dafb12bdf8_o.jpg
that leads me to think it's a gfx card problem.

as far as i know this has happened ever since having the card and this is now my 3rd 6600GT as the rest have all broken in different ways. i also know it's not a heat problem as i checked the card temp along with all my other components and they are running quite cool. any help would be appreciated into identifying the specific problem, thanks.

Interesting that the graphics card is being reported as 0Mb instead of 128Mb.

Presumably that is 128Mb standalone and not integrated to your mobo ?

Have you tried running DXDIAG to see if it reports any errors ?

What version of DirectX is installed ?

I know that the 6600 is a demanding card; some newer graphics cards require vast amounts of power. Some even require a direct connection to the power supply. Is your exceeding the amount of power available?
Check you specs.

On this page http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q4...p/index.x?pg=1 they talk about a 6600 Gt and a 6600 Gt AGP .

The first supports PCIE and the second AGP.

It also mentions that

Quote:

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the GeForce 6600 GT AGP has an auxiliary power connector. This auxiliary power connector isn't required on the GeForce 6600 GT, which can draw up to 75W from a PCI Express X16 graphics slot.

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which is what erkevin alluded to.

Now you state you have the GT which implies PCIE but your mobo spec only supports AGPx8 so hopefully you've got the the GT AGP and hooked up some power to it.

thanks for the replies.
my 6600GT is AGP and i do have to plug in an extra power connecter. this is plugged in and i have a Antec 485W PSU that is above the min requirements of 300W. i have also ran DXDIAG with no errors reported and i am using directX 9.0c the latest version. the graphics card only shows up as have no video memory after a game have frozen up and if i re-start it's back to normal.

Have you gone through your BIOS settings? Check the AGP aperture size and that AGP X8 is enabled.

You took the words right outta my mouth Usil....damn cold fingers aren't too quick today.:D

I'd also try some benchmark software, 3dmark/aquamark, and see if it bows out when it's put under pressure in those tests.


Liam

well I’m pretty certain i have AGP x8 enabled and i don't know how to change or even view the aperture size in my bios.
i have also just ran 3dMark 05 and it did freeze just after 1 minute but it then unfroze and kept going on for the rest of the test without freezing again. after it had un-frozen however artifacts started appearing all over as the screen shot below shows. even if i run 3dMark again these artifacts appear straight away until i re-start my computer.

oh and another thing. i looked into my bios at the aperture size and it was set to 64Mb. is that what it should be? also there was something else next to it called graphics adapter priority or something similar and it was set to PCI and not AGP. Again is this what it should be?

Nope, and Nope, set it to 128, and AGP, and save changes, boot, and check all your settings are correct for the card, and then head into a game/benchmark test. Good luck!


Liam

oh not good. it seems to have got worse. not when it freezes during 3dMark it also crashes the computer like battlefield 2, and it seems to freeze even quicker. will i have to re-install directX or the Nvidia drivers with the changes in the bios?

Okay, just checked some nice articles, and some programs react differently to the aperture size, especially benchmark apps, 3d mark 01 likes it to be set low and if you set it as equal to the card RAM, then it will drop points, or in your case crash games.:confused:

Leave AGP selected, and change the aperture back to 64....see what happens,


Liam

it's now back to the same as before. freezes and creates lots of artifacts but doesn’t crash.

FWIW, my system has problems with IL-2 FB if the AGP aperture size is set to anything except 4 MB. Try that size.
If no luck, then try 8, 16, and 32 MB.

If still no luck, then see if the card works consistently in another system, or another card works ok in your system.
If so, then your card may be bad.

well the smallest aperture size i can choose is 32mb so i may have a go. also last i checked my other card Nvidia 5200FX 256MB(i think) works fine but it's a rubbish card. i really don't want it to be a bad card as i have already had 3 die on me and it's a pain in the backside.

Is it possible to check your card in a different system?

unfortunately no.

I believe I may have a work around for your problem.

The fix for this is actually a lot more difficult than just reinstalling your old driver or updating to the new driver. I was able to use the method below to get back to directx 9.0b and now my card reports the proper memory size in dxdiag. From what I can tell the problem is actually in directx 9c.

You'll need the following to complete this work around:
Windows XP Pro or Home edition cd without sp2
Direct X 9.0b installation file - http://www.jptsolutions.com/dxtools/...ate_redist.exe
WinRAR - http://www.rarlabs.com/
DirectX UnInstaller - http://www.jptsolutions.com/dxtools/DX9_Uninstal.rar

1. Download the DirectX Uninstaller and extract the files using winrar to c:\dxtemp (This is very important as the batch file will only read from this directory.)
2. Restart your computer into safe mode.
3. Place your Windows XP installation cd into your cdrom drive.
4. Run the undx9.bat file from the c:\dxtemp directory and follow the on screen prompts, when the process is complete restart your computer.
5. Download the directx 9b installer from the website above and run it, restart your computer.

Run dxdiag and check to see if your card is now reporting the correct memory size. You DO NOT have to reinstall your drivers after this process is complete.

Installation media with sp2 won't work due to the fact that sp2 media installs direct x 9 by default. The batch file above simply deletes dx9c and replaces it with the version from your installation media, in most cases this is dx8.1 and it easily upgraded by the dx9b installer from above.

Please let me know if this does or does not work for you.

cheers for that plthayer. unfortunately i do not have access to my XP pro CD until next week so i will have to try it then. it’ll post back in a week to inform you how it went.