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Topic: Fix my computer!

Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 10-18-2002 03:45 AM

Michael, I don't recall trying to use the GeForce drivers before installing up-to-date VIA or ALi drivers. I _always_ install the chipset drivers before anything else to avoid such problems (with both AGP and PCI adapters). So yes, as you said, you'll probably need a current chipset driver to get the nVidia card to work perfectly (just the same as with many ATI cards). However, I've never seen an nVidia card (out of literally hundreds) cause the described problem, even with fairly out-dated chipset drivers, afterall the GeForce2 is fairly out-dated itself.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 10-18-2002 03:55 AM

You seem to be very systematic in your installation procedure. That is probably why you have never had this problem. Most people simply go with the drivers included in Windows and get punished for that.
Michael

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-18-2002 12:03 PM

I use a lot of the MSI AMD motherboard combo in our shop and several Abit/AMD combos with no problems several of the MSI boards the onboard Geforce video and sound are being used others I have Diamond or ATI video cards and Soundblaster cards
When I build a machine I start with only the video card installed and load the OS then after the system shows no conflicts then I add one card at a time and its drivers and resolve any conflicts as I go. THis can be more difficult with on board components
It can be very frustrating
One common problem I found was the network cards tend to want to hook the IRQ for the Via hardrive controller

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Jan Hackett
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 148
From: Albuquerque, NM, USA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 10-18-2002 02:41 PM

All of the above good answers...I had same problem with same chipset in sys I built for a friend...took me weeks to solve after changing MB with same and processor and os......Had to change MB manufacturer to upgraded chipset. Seems chipset on that series of some MB's has defect....I changed out MB to completely different chipset with same rest of components and problem went a way. Now my friend has a super cooled system when all really needed was a MB free of defects...............

------------------
Jan Hackett
Theater Operations Manager
Extreme Screen Dynatheater
NM Museum of Natural History Foundation

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 10-18-2002 03:15 PM

Brad pointed out what I was going to say - running with covers off will usually cause components in the machine to run hotter, not cooler. A well-engineered case is designed to optimize airflow across critical components (like hard drives) with the cover in place and all fans running. I've seen plenty of clone cases that have poor airflow, or some fan isn't working at all (check the the power supply fan too). Airflow could be blocked by cables or something. Make sure the CPU is getting plenty of forced air cooling on it. Low-priced cases and power supplies generally don't use ball-bearing fans and those fans tend to fail within a few months. Also all the expansion slot covers should be in place -- missing expansion slot covers will disrupt proper airflow. I've been down the clone road many times in corporate environments, and we always ended up going back to name-brand systems like Dell because they don't self-destruct after 6 months of 24/7 use...

Flakey RAM would be my 2nd best guess.

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Jason Burroughs
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Allen, TX
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-18-2002 03:49 PM

Check with Shuttle, make sure that you have the current BIOS revision, if not, follow their instructions on flashing your BIOS.
2nd Check the core voltages of your processor in the system BIOS and make sure that it is set properly, most BIOSs will also allow you to check other voltage levels comming from the power supply.

Athalon's are very hot running processors, however as long as it was installed properly, and the fan is running you should be OK

If the shop put all the hardware together, you may want to check under the processor heat sink, and make sure that the heatsink compound is mating with the processor, some heat sinks have a bit of tape that must be removed. This can cause the processor to run too hot and damage the processor.

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Sean Weitzel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall)
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 10-18-2002 08:00 PM

I'll jump on the bandwagon here -
Have you connected to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and installed all of the *critical* updates? I run win98 SE on a machine here that is made with newer components. I've discovered that a lot of win98 drivers for parts that have been made recently were written and tested on 98 systems that had the latest patches and services releases for the OS itself. If you try installing these 3rd party drivers on a vanilla win98 SE, things will go haywire. I've had circumstances where everything is fine until you install, say, a video driver and then the system becomes very unstable. I install directX 8.1 and the stability problem vanishes. When I load win98 SE onto a newer vanilla hardware configuration, I do it in this order - clean format drive C, install OS, install motherboard chipset driver (if applicable) install DSL or nic or modem and configure for internet access. Download the latest drivers for the remaining components that still require drivers and install them starting with the video driver. Install all of the Microsoft critical updates. Install some of the Microsoft recommended updates (specifically DirectX 8.1). and last but not least, make sure you're running a current vesion of Internet Explorer (IE6sp1 is a fav of mine)

hope this helps

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 10-26-2002 03:44 PM

Thanks to everyone for your advice. Here is the update.

I flashed the BIOS with an update but I didn't note any improvement. I looked for an updated video driver. I found something on Leadtek's US site (an .exe file) with a Sept 02 date which would not run ("not a valid Win32 file" Windows sez; running it in DOS just gives an error) but one of their overseas sites had one from April so I tried that and it does seem better now. I've noticed a bit of weirdness in the way things move when stretching windows and at times it seems to get confused and I get parts of one window in aother (primarily a Netscape issue) but the weird crashing seems to have gone away. Still the occasional BSOD but they tend to be less fatal. I did also add a micro fan to the videocard's main chip heatsink. Couldn't hurt I figured.

So it's better though not perfect. I still need to see about an updated MB chipset driver and maybe find out about that newer video driver that wasn't working. Maybe I should just get another video card altogether since indications are pointing to this as a problem area.

BTW, one problem that crops up occasionally is when printing to the Laserjet with lots of programs open and having printed a number of pages it sometimes says there is not enough memory to complete this task. Considering that I've got 512M and there is tons of room for the swap file it seems kind of odd. I'm guessing the Laserjet driver creates a memory leak.

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 10-26-2002 05:30 PM

System Resource Monitor will track memory usage for you. It's not in the default Windows install package so you might have to add it through Add/Remove programs. I can't remember if the command is 'resmon' or 'sysmon'. I think it's resmon.

I suspect that it is the HP driver though. Sometimes some HP drivers will send to much data to the printer at once (for no reason) and overflow the printers memory. This also sometimes happens with complex graphics on a single page as the whole page has to be sent to the printer before it can be printed (since it is a laser printer).

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 10-26-2002 06:08 PM

Yes yes, the chipset driver. Didn`t I say that a long time ago? Well, nobody listens to me anyway.

But I got used to it

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 10-26-2002 06:24 PM

I didn't forget. Just doing one at a time (not necessarily in the optimum order I realize).

Hey, how 'bout those Märklins down at KDW.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 10-26-2002 06:45 PM

Try a different main board. There just seems to be too many things going goofy.

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Kelsey Black
Film Handler

Posts: 58
From: Pima, Arizona, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 10-26-2002 07:14 PM

I second Scott Norwood's suggestion about trying another power supply. a lot of budget PC's have a really crappy power supply that more likely than not, can't even output it's rated wattage without shutting down, getting very unstable, or burning up. after all, you spend good money for the parts that are powered by it, why not spend good money on a good power supply that you can depend on?

Kelsey Black

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 10-26-2002 07:52 PM

Maybe if there was another P/S very handy I would swap it just to see but I don't think this is the prime culprit. It's a 350W supply. It's giving me a steady 12.36V and 5.00V with both DVD and CD drives running. It has been on all day if that matters.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 10-26-2002 07:58 PM

What is KDW?

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