Frozen in time...grrrr

[kayden azagthoth]

Firstly, here are the specs of my computer. K6-2 500, 128 megs of RAM, 13G HD, 52x CD, NVidia TNTII 32 Meg Video Card, Sound Blaster Live.

Okay, with that out of the way, I'll explain my problem and I bet there is no easy answer for it.

I bought my system brand new in March 2000 and it gave me no problems until about 3 months ago. While playing any games ( NHL 2000, Unreal Tournament, Diablo I, Age of Empires II) my computer locks and nothing will help it but resetting with the button on the tower. Along with the freeze, the sound sticks too...you know what I mean, wherever the audio was during the freeze, the sound repeats over and over.

I tried to fix things myself by doing simple things like defragging, scan disks and disk clean-up's and that's not the problem. I tried lowering my resolution, and that didn't help. I tried slowing my cache on my CD ROM to it's slowest and that didn't work. I even brought my system back to where I bought it and they ran a lot of tests ( so they say ) and they said the system was 'tip top'.

The only thing I can think of is:

1. Windows 98 is a rotten assed OS
2. The AMD K6-2 is a rotten assed processor
3. Or am I expecting too much of my system? I mean, it should be able to run the original Diablo for pete's sake.

Basically, I am frustrated and bitter to no end. I can't play any games without the fear of knowing the unevidable is soon to come. The freezing happens at least once an hour, but I can't count on when it happens exactly.

Like I said, I am sure there could be dozens of reasons why my system is so unstable. I would love it if someone could please help me.

Thanks

Kayden

[scada]

That sounds like a DirectX problem. You can check the files by running "dxdiag" ( type that in your "RUN" box).
When it runs there will be tabs across the top for each "version" of DirectX. (sound,display.....) in the "notes" area it will display any problems it finds.


I would start there first.

Hope this helps http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[ReddDogg]

Kudos there scada, i had never seen that nifty little utility... and just when I thought I had seen everything.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Paleo Pete]

Try a lower resolution. If you're currently running 32bit True Color, drop to 16 bit, or even 256 color. Refresh rate may also have an effect on it.

Cut the detail level in the games back, that sometimes helps a lot.

Also check the sound settings, high quality sound settings may be grabbing too much of the system's resources.

I would also suspect the K6-2, but that's mainly opinion. Realistically though, I see many more problems on the forums with AMD's than Intels...about a dozen for one I'd say...and not just the K6-2, all of them.

Not trying to slam AMD folks, just a realistic observation, check the forums and see for yourself before you start flaming me...

And again, it's probably more likely to be either direct-x as scada suggested, or settings somewhere, not the CPU itself.

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

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

[kayden azagthoth]

I tried the Direct X option and sure enough, there was a problem under the input tab. It said that Direct x should be reinstalled. So I downloaded DX 8 and installed it over my old version of 7. I also found that my drivers for my sound and video cards 'aren't Microsoft certified' and I tried to get new one's directly from the sites and they didn't work. I was told that they didn't download correctly.

Even with the new Direct X installed, I tried a game of NHL 2000 and it still froze. And my resolution is always on 800x600 high color 16 bit. I also thought my game was installed funkily so I re-installed it and that never remedied it either.

Thanks for the help though and if anyone thinks of any other options, please let me know.

P.S. I am a faithful reader of PC Gamer magazine and in last month's issue, Greg Vederman kinda bashed the K6-2 processor...I tell ya, it was like I was punched in the guts. Especially when I was told by the guy in the computer store that I was getting 'a great all around system'. I even asked him, "I mostly game on the system. Is the AMD a good processor?" He said it was...but now I'm not so sure.