Instability and video problems

[Jime]

I recently bought a new PC, in parts, and a friend of with a large amount of PC experience put it together for me. We installed Windows 98, and the monitor and video drivers. When we tried to install sound drivers however, we encountered a blue screen. We then proceeded to reformat, and reinstall everything except sound drivers. I then downloaded the latest sound drivers from the internet, and the problems appeared to have gone. However, this machine is still largely unstable, particularly when playing games (which, apart from the internet, is pretty much all I do). Programs often crash (illegal operations errors), and then if i restart, the program will crash frequently until i restart. The problem may then disappear for a while, but it will crash again, seemingly at random intervals. I have tried swapping sound cards, downloading latest video and sound drivers, and operating without sound, all to no avail. The machine still behaves erratically, and I am at a loss as to what to do next.

I am also having video playback problems. When playing a video file, every minute or so the audio/video gets out of sync, and the video will have to play at 3 or 4x the speed (for a second or so), while the audio skips, to bring them back into sync. I have tried altering the buffer settings, with limited success. Regardless of the option I choose, it still does not play perfectly. I see this as strange, as my friend has a lower end laptop (lower CPU speed, etc.), and the video plays fine on his machine.

My specs are:
P!!! 733mhz
128mb pc133 ram
riva tnt2 model 64 (32mb memory) 3d card
sound blaster live! value
Gigabyte Technology GA-6VXE7+ mainboard
Pioneer DVD
SCSI card connected to an internal Panasonic VW 7502 cd burner
100/10mbps Fast Ethernet Adapter

Thanks for your help,
Ben

[Paleo Pete]

Might take some digging to sort this one out, but maybe...

Try to check and see if the memory is the correct type for the system, and a compatible speed.

Lots of programs running in the background might also be part of the problem.

Are you sure your friend didn't overclock this machine?

Right click on My Computer and click Properties, see what the Virtual Memory settings are. It will be in the Performance tab. Usually Windows does a pretty good job of it, setting a fixed size can be done, but can also be trouble, disabling virtual memory is strongly not recommended.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Jime]

Thanx for the reply

I am sure that I have the correct type of ram

The machine i not overclocked, and the jumper settings are correct
Besides, I have a 733 processor, and no wish to overclock

Also, virtual memory is currently being managed by windows.

[Jerkymom]

Assuming you've checked Device Manager and have no conflicts showing, the only other thing that comes to mind is the power supply. Even though you're not running an Athlon processor, you still have a pretty heavy load on your power supply.

Just a thought... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif
Kim

[griffinspc]

Assuming everything is equal meaning you've checked the other suggestions posted, you say you're running W98 but not what release or updates you have installed, you have this gaming machine with all this nice equip. What version of DirectX is installed?

------------------
"Finest KInd"

[Paleo Pete]

mom! Where in the world have you been? Haven't seen you in about a week I think, been wondering...

OK, time to start digging...

Fatal Exception Errors (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q150/3/14.asp?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0) from the MSKB.

Run scandisk and defrag. In this case I would say boot to a start up menu using the [F8] key or holding down [Ctrl] and choose Command Prompt Only At the C:\> prompt type:

scandisk_c:_/autofix_/nosummary_/surface

Use spaces in place of the underscores ( _ ). If you have more than one drive use all in place of c:.

Also try running scanreg_/fix from the command prompt, that might help.

Type win to start windows after scandisk is finished, then run defrag, and make sure everything you can find is turned off.

Using the boot menu, choose Step by Step Confirmation and perss Y to:
Process the system registry
Load doublespace driver
Load all Windows drivers
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C;\WIMDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS

press N to all others. See how the system runs, write down each step, and add one line at a time at each restart, until the system becomes unstable again. The last application you added is the cause.


This is a time consuming procedure, but could isolate the problem.

We still might be missing something...Keep an eye on this topic, someone might come up with a brainstorm...




------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[griffinspc]

Pete, I will of course always bow to the professor (I mean that repectfully) but I'm still curious if this could somehow be related to the DirectX version installed or corrupted.

His post implies that the sound drivers at first loaded incorrectly or weren't recognized at all but subsequently, after loading newer drivers, it did work but is unstable. That sounds like possible software incompatibilities to me. He changed sound cards and I assume drivers but it all still has to be able to co-exist with Windows and therefor DirectX.

He goes on to say that he is an avid gamer and that it's not stable and that playing without sound is not any improvement. Just turning the sound off in the game wouldn't matter. I just can't help thinking that with the system he describes (good solid stuff) all audio and video related problems (apparently) that he's got a simple but hard to diagnose problem since after building the machine there's no mention of not being able to boot or device conflicts or loss of power.

I had a problem after upping to DirectX 7 with my Matrox video that drove me nuts. I too went though all the diagnostics and pulling cards, downloading drivers, upgrading the cards firmware, etc., only to find that the initial DirectX install had somehow gotten corrupted. Over wrote it and no problems since though as you may have guessed I overwote 7 with 7a.

Just a thought.

------------------
"Finest KInd"

[Jime]

I have indeed checked device manager, and there are no conflicts.

I have directx 7.0a installed

I am running W98 SE

Paleo Pete - I will try your suggestion this afternoon, however I am pretty sure a corrupt HDD is not the problem - this is the second HDD I've tried.

Griffinspc - when I said I was playing without sound, I meant I hadn't even isntalled the sound drivers yet.

[Paleo Pete]

griffinspc Yep, could be related to Direct-X. Only way to isolate problems of this nature is by process of elimination. It's always tedious and time consuming, and I certainly wouldn't rule out Direct-X, any more than I'd say I have a definite idea what the specific problem is. Cuz I don't...illegal operation errors and GPF's can be a bear to figure out.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[herbert]

I doubt whether this is relevant, but I had a problem with my SB Live Value. After installing the drivers, Windows98 would get stuck on startup replaying the first few bytes of the intro.wav endlessly. I tried for days to find the cause. There were no apparent conflicts.

Eventually I went into the BIOS and enabled USB (which I don't use) and that fixed it!