In the past year i have had 2 video cards and 3 motherboards in my computer to go along with 3 versions of windows (98se/me/xp)and all of these configurations lock up or crash my system when running some (but not all) d3d aplications to make matters worse these same programs (games) run perfectly well on my p2 400.

OK heres what i have tried
microstar via kt133a MB
biostar via kt133a (M7VKD)MB
iwill ali M1649(i think) kd266 MB

ATI rage fury pro AGP
Geoforce 2 ms 200

The afore mentioned 3 versions of windows and all of the combinations lock or crash to desktop (in case of xp no error report is detected or generated) this happens with the fail safe defaults or optimized defaults or any combinations of bios settings that i have timkered with if i didnt have the latest nvidia drivers and XP i would say i was having directx conflicts but i have the latest detonator drivers and the directx that comes with XP. I have pretty much exhausted any ideas i have to clearing this up, as its very annoying that my 400 runs these games easily (although slowly) and they crash or wont even run on this system

By being 'in your computer ' do you mean the same case over and over again? How old is this case and are there fans front and back? I upgraded mine too from an old 486 case, not sure why I didn't just get a new one, and after 2 days I noticed it was giving the 'blue screen of death a lot, and tried and tried to figure out why, changed video cards, etc. . Finally I just took the cover off of the case, and put a small fan pointing inside, and now no problems at all, it was just overheating. Yhis might be your problem, take the cover off and run it for a while, see if it makes a difference. Then if it does, get a new case with the proper fans.

Hope this helps, if not some experts are in here to help ya out. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Gigabyte GA-5AA MB
AMD K6-2/550 Mhz
15GB hard drive
Rage Fury Pro 32 MB video
Linksys 10/100 NIC
128 MB RAM

Hello glynng,

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Indeed, heat could be a problem! RAM could also be a problem. It would help if you provided some additional system specs on the actual system you want to troubleshoot. I would suggest that you not swap back and forth with the different cards once you begin troubleshooting.

Have you received any error messages when encountering the freeze ups?

Since the P2400 system can run the games...what OS are you using with it? I would then load that into the system you are troubleshooting. Keep comparing apples to apples as much as possible.

Do you also have the same software installed on the troubleshooting unit as the P2400?

Oops, one more question: What do you have running in the background on your troubled unit? (Ctrl+Alt+Del)

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[This message has been edited by Whyzman (edited 01-27-2002).]

I do not believe over heating is the problem the utility says im at 39-45 degrees (varies by the actual room temperature)
i have not been changing back and forth between video cards or mother boards. The first motherboard the microstar via kt133a died for unknown reasons after i had it for 6-8 months i then bougth the biostar m7vkd via kt133a and to my suprise i had the same problem with d3d stuff so i figured my video card was the problem so i got a geoforce 2 mx200 put it in the system. This did not fix my problems but it also did not make them any worse. I then rationjalized that my problem was the via chipset (after reading a forum on their website where everyone was having similar problems with video)so i traded for the IWILL kd266 with the ali chipset
this did not fix my problem.
as for my system i basically striped it to make sure it wasnt something else in the system i traded memory with a friend (all 3 133sdram 128mb)and this had no affect i removed my modem and network card and sound card still got the same crash to desktop. I then put the sound card and network card back in (network for cable modem). I had a spare 3 1/2 in floppy drive lying around so i put that in then i also swapped cd drives. None of this fixed the problem.

As for the p2400 system it has an onboard agp video card and a pass through voodoo 2 card with win ME (i had 98se on it before and had no problem with it either) so the operating systems were identical before.
I was hoping XP would solve the problem as it appeared to have all new drivers for my card but alas this didnt work either.

This pretty much has me stumped since im have no clue what could possibly be causing my problem

Once again this is my system
athlon 900
kd266 IWILL board with ali 1649(i think) chipset
384meg of 133sdram
geoforce 2 mx200 video card
soundblaster 512
linksys ethernet card
SB4100 cablemodem
sony cd-rw
WD 20gb hardrive
Win XP all drivers are "digitally signed" for what ever good that actually does
and pretty much an aplication or game that uses D3D or glide crashes to the desktop or locks up the crashes to the desktop do not even trigger the fatal error message that XP generates for any crashed program.

What, if anything is common to the motherboard/video card changes?

Have you swapped out the power supply in all this?

You have had the same problem with three motherboards (two different chipsets), and two video cards.....I also assume that there were varous updates and reinstalls of the various operating systems and chipset drivers, you have swapped out the RAM (have you tried adjusting the settings on BIOS to something a little more on the conservative side, like CAS to 3). Two of the most common causes of problems like this are heat (which you said isn't a problem) and power supplies...a third common cause is overclocking.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

actually the power supply is about the only thing that has not been changed and yes ive done all those things many times over however the ps is only like 6 months old if that but i will see about swapping another one in and see what happens

As mjc pointed out, Power supply failures will give you some of the very same problem's you've been describing. I would try a differnt one; just becuase it's not old doesn't mean it can't be defective.



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iisbob

CPU= 5mhz
Memory= 16 K
Storage=10.2MB's
Video=Onboard S3 4K
Modem=14.4 baud
Sound=ISA Yamaha 8bit
Mouse=2 button MS
Monitor=ACER 12.5"
OS= { dual boot }DOS 2.1 & WIN 3.1

My ultimate gaming system :)

Hi Glynng;
I occasionally check back PCG forums.A year back I had the same problem:
My system:amd : Athlon 950 mhz slotA ; Tekram mb ; Infineon 512 mb memory;
Matrox G400 DH video card ; Maxtor 30 gb hd ; Modem : 3 com cable . My problems were the same as you have described . Whenever I was on the net the system would crash ; freeze ; reboot randomly . I also tried changing everything like you did but to no solution . At PCG everyone put lots of efforts to find a solution to the probems but sometimes bad hardware/software conflicts prevail.As you have noticed it's true that the Intel runs more stable & need less cooling . I think amd will have to come up with a solution to cooling the cpu's more efficiently & with effective & less noisy cooling fans for cpu's . Good Luck

Ok i just installed a new case and 350 watt power supply approved for AMD Athlon and for Pentium4 and you guessed it no change i still get the same crashes to desktop

OK......what is the complete current configuration?



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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

athlon 900
kd266 IWILL board with ali 1649(i think) chipset
384meg of 133sdram
geoforce 2 mx200 video card
soundblaster 512
linksys ethernet card
SB4100 cablemodem
sony cd-rw
WD 20gb hardrive
Win XP all drivers are "digitally signed" for what ever good that actually does
and pretty much an aplication or game that uses D3D or glide crashes to the desktop or locks up the crashes to the desktop do not even trigger the fatal error message that XP generates for any crashed program.
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif