GA-K8NSNXP-939

[DrBob789456]

There have been a lot of postings to this topic, so please forgive me if someone has already addressed this problem and I just missed it: I have the system shown below, with the F6 BIOS, all the latest drivers from Gigabyte and ATI and running Windows XP with SP2.

The system runs just fine as long as I don't try to run a 3D game like Splinter Cell2 or Half Life 2. If I try to run either of those games (all latest updates) the game loads, runs for a little while (1-2 minutes) and then either crashes back to the desktop or shuts down the computer entirely. Anyone have any thoughts as to whether this is a graphics card settings problem, a BIOS settings problem, some other setting or software problem or a hardware problem? I have (predictably) gotten little or no help from any vendor.

Any suggestions, other than the use of a small explosive device followed by the purchase of a new computer (that one I've thought of myself) would be appreciated.

 

[joelslaw]

what are your railings on the PSU. also get a temp monitoring utility, see what temps you get during games. It seems that instability like this is usually caused by not enough power, or too much heat.

 

[DrBob789456]

Thanks for the reply, joelslaw. I don't think that the games run long enough to build up heat; Half-Life 2 crashes within a minute of starting. The nature of the crash is mainly that the graphics card shuts down - the computer keeps running but the feed to the monitor stops. Sometimes it goes into a simple lock-up and sometimes into a lock-up with sound loop. The power supply is pretty big and Antec makes a very stable PSU, so I would be surprised if that was the problem. I have temp and power monitoring utilities, but I don't know how to watch them while the games are running. Is there a way to do that?

 

[joelslaw]

Your psu is deffinately a nice model and brand, but sometimes all companies let a bad one through, just something to check. As far as monitoring utilities: some of them you can set to make a log file, or set to record. Well at least asus probe does. What program do you use? You said sometimes the video just stops? at these times does the game keep running? (do you hear sounds, see the hdd loading light, etc) Plus I think you'd be suprised how fast a cpu can heat up and cool down.

 

[DrBob789456]

You're right, it's worth checking. As far as temp. monitoring goes, I just have the basic utilities that came with the Mobo and graphics card. They show the information but don't log it. My board is not an ASUS board, so AsusProbe won't work.

When the video stops, it's all part of the game stopping as well. I was just describing the various symptoms of crashes. As I mentioned, it's usually a shutdown of the graphics output, but sometimes the screen freezes, with or without sound looping.

 

[joelslaw]

I think it's time to whip out Prime95 *whip crack* You farmilliar with it? If not, it's a freely distributed, distributed computing program used to find really complicated prime numbers. Great thing is, it doubles as one of the best pc stress tests around. You'll find it here:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
the faq on the site and the readme in the download should explain any ?'s you have. Good thing is it's a windowed program so you can watch your temps at the same time. If you run it and get errors, it's most likely a ram, cpu, or maybe mobo prob. If it runs with no probs you can (with pretty good confidence) start looking at vid card, etc.

Bad news: it's recommended you run it at least 24 hours for a thorough test (I know, Iknow ) Good news (kind of) : if your ram or cpu is the culprit, it will probably flake in the first 6 hours.

One more ? You don't o/c do you? If so and the test gets errors, you may want to run stock speeds, as this can indicate the components aren't themselves bad, just that they're clocked too high to perform stabely. What do you think?

 

[DrBob789456]

Thanks. I'll give that a try, though I think it probably is either the graphics card or the AGP portion of the mobo (would that be stress-tested by Prime95?).

If anything else occurs to you, let me know. BTW, I haven't oc'd or tweaked any part of my system. I would be deliriously happy at this point just to get it to work.

 

[joelslaw]

no, it doesn't stress the vid card at all, but that's the good thing. That way you at least know for sure if the problem is with the ram / cpu or if it lies elswhere. Let me know what happens with prime95. If it works fine, then we'll try a vid card benchmark, and if that causes a crash we know it's probably your vid card or agp slot!

 

[DrBob789456]

Well, I wouldn't have believed it, but the CPU heats up like a mother when I run Prime95. At rest, after running awhile, the CPU was at 46C. After about two minutes of running Prime95 at its most torturous setting, it was at 60C! Within an hour the system had shut down (or, at least, the video output shut down - the computer was still apparently running). I have reproduced this behavior, so I'm pretty sure it's not anomalous. Looks like a CPU cooler is called for, or do you think there's something else I should do?

 

[joelslaw]

that's odd, usually the stock cooler works fine if you are running at stock speeds (in fact some ppl overclock with them). You are using the stock heatsink / fan right? did you use the little "gum" square pad (whatever that heat transfer stuff is that is pre applied) or did you scrape it off and use a different paste? I personally have never had any problems with those preapplied squares but a lot of ppl complain about them. If it was stuff you applied yourself make sure you didn't apply too much. Remember, it's only there to fill the cracks so it takes just a thin layer, and if you get too much the heat doesn't transfer. I'd try to scrape off whatever's on there and use some arctic silver 5 (it seems to be agreed on as the best paste) before you go and invest in a new HSF combo, they can be spendy. Please, let me know how this turns out!

 

[joelslaw]

Oh and even if (getting new paste or HSF whichever you decide to do) works I still recomend running a video benchmark, just to be sure (plus there are free ones so why not) One I like is Futuremark's 3D Mark. It's pretty cool, and the demo version is a free download.
http://www.futuremark.com/download/

 

[DrBob789456]

Well, I was at Fry's and they had a good Zalman cooler for a decent price, so I bought it and put it in. Works like a charm, my CPU never goes above 53C while running Prime95 at its highest heat generating setting. Bad news, however, is that it still shuts down after a while. In addition, I have tried running 3DMark03 (you're right, it is pretty cool). However, I can't get through it without the program freezing, usually on the second run through the various game scenes. I am totally at a loss as to what to do to get the graphics card to run in any 3D graphics mode for more than a few minutes. Maybe the 9800 board is bad?

Do you think there's any chance that the new F7 BIOS affects any of this?
-----------------------------------------------------------
1/1/05: I flashed my BIOS with F7 and voila! my graphics problems are (or at least appear to be) gone!

I'll let you know if the fix turns out not to be a long term solution, but I've been playing Half-Life 2 for about an hour and a half with no glitches or shut-downs. Whatever Gigabyte finally fixed, I'm happy.

 

[joelslaw]

right on! Goes to show, you never can tell. But at least now you can rest asured your cpu is running cool!

 

[DrBob789456]

Absolutely! I have had some odd results with temperature readings with F7, but otherwise my system is very stable and fast. I'm a happy guy.

 

[boatillo]

Try running your video card in 4x AGP and play those games again.

Its odd, but my old gigabyte socket A motherboard will do the exact same stuff as you describe if I try to run in 8x AGP.

 

[joelslaw]

I think someone told me that the 939's have odd glitches when it comes to heat readings. You can always try an external heat probe, but since you can't put them right on the cpu (not if you're smart ) , they have a pretty big margin of error too. Catch 22. But as long as the readings aren't consistantly high you should be ok. Also something to think about after your system has been up and running a few months: remember to clean the dust out once in a while. I haden't done this to mine in a while. Cleaned all the fans and heatsinks yesterday, and lowered my temps 6 degrees F :Q

 

[joelslaw]

Originally posted by: boatillo
Try running your video card in 4x AGP and play those games again.

Its odd, but my old gigabyte socket A motherboard will do the exact same stuff as you describe if I try to run in 8x AGP.

are you talking about the temps!? that seems an odd thing to cause a heat mis-read. As for the other prob, I think he said he already fixed it.

 

[boatillo]

doh hehe...well now you need to fix my problem lol

I think my board just sucks...its flashed to the newest bios & drivers but 8x agp was new tech when I got it, giga prolly just gave me a lame one

 

[joelslaw]

Originally posted by: boatillo
doh hehe...well now you need to fix my problem lol

:laugh: LMAO ...... not sure why that was so funny

N E way, does it just happen in games like his did?

 

[boatillo]

Pretty much yes, in 4x AGP (using video card in sig) I can run anything and everything perfectly.

In 8x AGP my computer will reboot by itself within 5 secs of any 3D application (games, this goofy 3d desktop from MSI, etc). Not due to heat as I could set card to 8x AGP in bios right when I turn computer on for the day and it will reboot a minute later if I start a game or whatnot.

No worries though as I know nothing really uses more than 3.8x AGP nowadays anyway.

 

[joelslaw]

what is your mobo? I can't tell cause your sig is jacked up (why is that?)

 

[boatillo]

Gigabyte GA-7VAX I believe...don't have it right beside me atm hehe.

My sig is that way because, while I am using the giga & and 2000+xp right now, I am in the slow process of deciding on a new s939 motherboard to buy! I think it will 90% definitely be the Neo2 Plat. 10% Asus A8V heh

 

[joelslaw]

hmmm, that's screwy. I've read that 2x agp doesn't work on these boards, but haven't really heard of 8x probs. You sure your agp bios settings are all correct?

 

[joelslaw]

wait wait! this may be of intrest!
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/b.../index.php/t-8517.html



Edit: Yep, I just read it elsewhere too. Try updating your via 4in1 hyperion chipset drivers. Sounds like it's working for others.

 

[boatillo]

How updated heh....I installed the VIA 4in1 about 20 days or so ago