Games are jumpy with GeForce4 ????

[godspeedx]

Ok, just this evening i noticed that Medal Of honor was running kinda jumpy. It's never done this before. I've always had it on all max settings running without a hitch(for the week ive had it) But now it will lag for a split second very frequently. I've had my 2.5ghz p4 running at 3ghz with stock cooling for a week or two, no problems. But when I played Diablo 2 a couple of nights ago (i don't know why this game would do this) my computer shut down. I guessed it was from heat, bios said 50 c when i restarted. I instantly underclocked my processor and that seemed to have fixed the problem. But tonight is the first night I've played any games except for D2 after my comp shut down.

GTAIII is running a little jumpy, even Unreal Tournament every once in a while will jump for a split second. ARGH, even HALF LIFE is running jumpy. All of my games have the same symptoms. I just underclocked my processor and voltage to stock and medal of honor is even worse. Jumps more frequently and lags for a longer time. Even when I set the video options to default it still jumps, just the same as if max settings were on.

I also ran Prime95 when things got weird and not even a minute into the test it said i had an error, but i ran the test again and no error.

3Dmark2001SE score is 100 points lower than what it was when I ran it for the first time on my comp, which was at stock cpu speeds.

PLEASE HELP, I'm afraid that I messed something up while overclocking (first time overclocking)


Check out my system thru the link below but here are the basics.

P4 2.5ghz
512mb 800mhz rdram overclocked (set to 4X)
GeForce4 TI4200
ASUS P4T533-C
Windows XP Pro

 

[godspeedx]

anyone?

 

[BD231]

Well first off, you cant under clock your computer and not expect to take a performance hit, that's plain logic there. If your P4 is running on a 100mhz FSB then that's why your games are running slow, P4's are darn slow for gaming on a 100mhz fsb in my experience. What voltage did you have your processor at? If you had it over 1.7v for any prolonged period of time then you have most likely damaged the chip, getting errors in Prime95 is almost always the sign of a bad chip. There are a few forum members who have killed P4's by overvolting over 1.7v.

 

[godspeedx]

I've never had the voltage over 1.7. 1.65 is the highest. And I just ran Prime95 all night with no errors. But the thing is, i was running all these games at the speed i underclocked to.

Before overclocking anything at all I played all those games at 2.5ghz perfectly at max resolutions.

Then I overclocked it some, no problems, 3ghz was a little hot the first time I tried. But a little later I bumbed it up to 3ghz and it ran fine, not too hot. Everything ran fine for over a week.

But then I installed Diablo2 and while playing that my computer shut down, so I brought my cpu back down to 2.5ghz, or maybe 2.8 not sure.

Everythign seemed to be fine, Diablo 2 ran fine.

But the next day, which was yesterday, I played some different games, and all of them are jumpy like that. And it's not acting like a computer that can't handle the game on the highest resolutions. Every game, any resolution, jumpy.

I see no decline in performance in non-3d programs. So I don't think it's my cpu that has anything wrong, but I really don't know.


I'm really scared and I'm hoping that the only thing i damaged, if anything, was my vid card. I was planning on buying Nvidias new card when it came out.
Another guy said, on my post in cpu overclocking, that I could have damaged my vid card, cause when you overclock by mhz you screw with the agp mhz also. He said he saw it once on a friends computer at a LAN party trying to show off.

Thanks a lot.

 

[godspeedx]

Could it be a setting that Diablo2 messed up? Cause 3dmark is only 100 points off of what it used to be. And the textures and everythign are fine. Just when I start running it jumps lol. Oh, also, I have the latest Nvidia drivers which are not tested by windows xp. Should I get the version that is tested by windows? Man i hope it's something simpl like that.

 

[godspeedx]

sorry, i have to bump this, i really need help

 

[John]

Try different detonator drivers.

 

[Kowan]

Have you checked the supplied voltages with MBM or another hardware monitor program?
You might see if they seem to be in spec while running one of the games in windowed mode?

 

[godspeedx]

I'm not familare with MBM, what exactly are you suggesting I do? I currently have the Omega V 1.1.82 drivers for my vid. card. Can you give me a link please if you suggest different ones. Thanks a lot.

 

[Shagga]

I think it could be a RAM problem.....take a stick out and try the games with 256MB instead of 512MB and see if it solves the problem. (Presuming of course you have 2 x 256MB)

 

[BD231]

When's the last time you have defragmented?

 

[WinkOsmosis]

If you don't know that changing FSB speed changes AGP speed, I don't know if you have any business overclocking.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer
If you don't know that changing FSB speed changes AGP speed, I don't know if you have any business overclocking.

If you don't know that most P4 boards allow you to lock the AGP/PCI bus at spec speeds, then you don't need to be making an ass of yourself instead of offering help.

 

[godspeedx]

Thanks a lot, I'm going to bed now but tomorrow I will try all your recommendations and let you know how it goes. And jellomancer, I did know that overclocking by changing the mhz changes your agp mhz. And X-man thanks for backing me up. And how do you lock the agp pci bus speeds? Let you guys know how it goes tomorrow.

 

[godspeedx]

Ok. I am unable to take out one of the memory sticks to test how the games run with 256mb of memory because I have RDRAM and it has to be installed in pairs. I installed PC Probe and no warnings came up or anything while playing any games. Althoughs my cpu fan speed keeps going into the -18000, don't know what that's about, just turned monitoring off for that. Um, let's see, oh ya defragmenting isn't an issue cause I've only had this comp for about 2 weeks. I've already installed some different omega drivers, but I will try to find some more.

I just played UT and on the map deck16 there's a corner with a light flashing on and off. In this corner the image quality is poor. It's acting like it's having trouble generating the flashing light or something. This might help some of you in figuring out what the problem is. If you want, I have a screen shot of the corner, I can email it to someone or send it via AIM. If you want just leave ur address/name.

Thanks.

 

[Sharkmeat]

The 533c had a bios change for the core-v setting and if you overclocked to 16.5 and you had a diff core reading the MB could have been above 16.5 maybe to 17.5 never no.Need Bios 1007C to correct the CPU-core -voltage from the MB.
I don't understand why you overclock if the game ran perfect on reg CPU settings of 2.5ghz ??.

 

[ConnectionProblem]

Diablo II can have FPS problems sometimes on even the most powerful machines because it was designed for the Voodoo series of cards. So I don't think its your PC.

 

[godspeedx]

How do I update to 1007c bios? I've never overclocked and I wanted to see how high I could go, I regret that now. When I overclock again I will have better cooling than stock.

I'm thinking that it's not my video card that's the problem. I played HL on software mode instead of opengl and it still jumps, although not near as bad. I noticed that when a lot of enemies started coming that the jumping was worse, thinking memory.

Anyone know of a way that I can pinpoint what's wrong, I've run prime95, 3dmark, speedfan, and probe. I even did memory test with my g4 card. All of these show nothing wrong.? Weird.

-connection problem
but ALL of my games are jumping. Diablo2 is what I think just started it. My comp shut down when I tried to create a place in D2.

 

[BFG10K]

Do you have the latest BIOS and chipset drivers for your system?

 

[SexyK]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Do you have the latest BIOS and chipset drivers for your system?

I agree, I would strongly suggest getting the newest set of chipset drivers you can find. I had that problem with my Geforce3 a while back after i reinstalled windows XP and the chipset drivers did the trick. Otherwise i'd say it sounds like a video driver problem, and I'd go back to some older, stabler dets if you can. Hope you get it worked out.

Kramer

 

[godspeedx]

-BFG10k, sexyK-
Thanks a lot. Finally some straight forward advice. I will surely follow your advice and will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

 

[Sharkmeat]

To install Bios 1007C---Read your Asus Manual on bios update useing ez bios change hit ALT + F1 on post boot follow instructions of your manual,it is very easy to install,I recomend you put bios on a floppy and direct it to your path to A drive and away you go.You can get the bios update at below url.cut and paste if you wish.

PS if you have doughts about your ability to do it "DON'T"

http://download.asus.com.tw/mb_dl_menu.asp

 

[risen]

I am not sure this will help, but when I run out of options to try and fix something, I reformat and reinstall windows. If things still do not work, it is a good sign that it is a hardware problem. The fact you installed a game and then things messed up could mean the game messed up windows, though it is doubtfull. Also if you do not already have something like power quest drive image, I would encourage you to get it. It allows you to back up your hard drive and then restore in a short period of time. It has saved me many times. If you put your operating system on a separate partition and games etc on a second partition you can back up the operating system partition in about 15 minutes and restore in the same amount of time. Hope this helps.

 

[godspeedx]

-sharkmeat
I tried to install the version 1007C BIOS, using EZ Flash like you said but it wouldn't let me, I forgot why but I put the bios file onto a floppy and even got to the point where I typed in the file name of the BIOS I wanted to update to but then it showed this: ####/4000, and where #s are it was counting up to 4000 and when it reached 4000 I got an error, that what I wanted to update to wasn't compatible or something of that matter. I will try again when I have more time, homework is kinda tight.

I did install the newest chipset drivers on ASUS's site. (V4.00.1009) That DID NOT fix the problem w/ my games. Please let me know if that is not the right version that I need.

And can someone post a link or tell me what version of detonator drivers I should have, someone mentioned that I should probably be using an older more stable version.

-risen
I think I will end up reformating and then reinstalling windows. I have that feeling that somethign is not right with Windows. Can someone explain to me briefly how to reformat my hard drive? I know a lot about computers but this is my first time building my own computer and I'm new to a lot of the troubleshooting stuff that doesn't come with a prebuilt computer. Thanks for dealing with my ignorance.

I'm hoping and thinking that it's not a problem with my hardware. I've run numerous tests including prime95 (had that running for about 14 hours, no errors) 3dmark, speedfan, and PC Probe. Nothing shows any problems with any hardware. Although I could be wrong. Could I really have damaged any hardware with the overclocking I did? I have overall pretty good cooling (only weakness in my cooling is stock cpu heatsink/fan) and the max my temperatures ever got to was 50 celsius. And the max I had my voltage on my cpu was 1.65.

Thanks a lot for all of your help.

 

[godspeedx]

I will be reformatting my harddrive tonight, I really think it's software related. I'll let you all know how it went later tonight. Again, thanks for all help.