CRASH, BOOM, BANG !!!

[SeBA 0]

Dammit. I always get intermittent and various crashes (mostly BSODs) under Windows 2000. For example PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA or KMODE_EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED or FAT_FILE_SYSTEM etc.

 

Hardware:

Asus P5A (latest bios)

K6-III 450 MHz

128 MB PC-100 (2 x 64 MB DIMM)

Matrox Millennium G400 (latest bios + drivers)

SoundBlaster Live! (win2k original drivers)

Pinnacle StudioPCTV (drivers not installed)

Adaptec AVA-1515 SCSI card

 

Software:

Windows 2000 English build 2195 (latest updates)

Office 2000 premium SR-1 (+ win2k fix)

Norton AntiVirus 2000 for NT

 

This system works perfectly under Win98 and I don't understand why it always crashes under Windows 2000.

I have disabled K6 write allocate, agp turbo, frame buffer posted write and I still get those crashes... I don't know where to start as the BSODs don't indicate a driver but usually ntoskrnl.exe or just nothing.

Why is Windows 2000 doing this to me? I was so kind to adopt it and he refuses to obey! What a shame! So I have to go back to Win98 SE?? Never in the world! Any suggestion is really appreciated, I'm terribly suffering from these problems!

[Palos 0]

It usually happens with buggy video drivers; i don't know how it is with Matrox, but with TNT2 i used to get a lot of similar problems.

 

Did u get all the AGP/Busmastering patches for your mobo?

[SeBA 0]

Well, I have the latest drivers for the Matrox (5.04, certified by Microsoft).

There aren't any 3rd party bus master drivers yet and there's a beta v 0.10 AGP driver, but I didn't install it. The default Windows 2000 AGP driver is installed.

I remember I had much more problems with Matrox 5.00 beta drivers with for example easycd creator and winoncd...

I hope these problems are going to be fixed soon! And I hope that Matrox are getting their butts moving and making decent drivers, as ANY 3D application/game crashes here.

I contacted ALi (the chipset maker) and they told me they tested it and found the same problem. The system works fine when just the G400 is installed. When the SBLive is installed (win2k original drivers or liveware 2000) the system hangs on 3d apps.

This doesn't annoy me much 'cause I have a dual boot with Win98SE, but I would like to get AT LEAST a stable system for surfing the internet, working with office etc. Which I haven't got yet.

Sebastian

[SeBA 0]

So I might use the VIO jumper to increase voltage by 0.1 V?

This is recommended by Asus when overclocking...

My Matrox and everything works just fine under Win98, no power problems whatsoever.

Why does Win2k need more voltage?

Sebastian

[FrogMaster 0]

The P5A is well-known to have weak on-board power supply.

For example, Guillemot had to release a special bios for their TNT2s which lowered the power drain of the video card on the P5A's AGP bus (you may want to read the story at their site).

Win2K puts more strain on the hardware than Win98.

When you launch a 3D app with everything plugged in, maybe you just put the motherboard's voltage regulators to their knees.

I had this prob last year with such a board when I built a system for a relative. I brought it back to the retailer and traded it back for another super 7, maybe a Fic PA2013

[FrogMaster 0]

It need not more voltage.

It is a problem of current drain. If you increase the voltage, you only make things worse because doing so, you increase still more the current drain!

 

Here is a quote from Guillemot's site:

begin quote

 

"Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 BIOS update for Asus P5A, Asus P2B-F and Gigabyte 686LX3 motherboards ONLY. If you do not own any of these motherboards, DO NOT UPDATE YOUR BIOS.

 

This new BIOS has been developed to solve the incompatibility problem of some motherboards with Maxi Gamer Xentor 32.

 

The AGP 2.0 specification requires a power supply of 6A at 3.3 volts for the AGP port. Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 consumes up to 6A at 3.3 volts when running 3D games, but some motherboards fail to deliver more than 5A. As a result, the PC crashes in 3D games when the motherboard fails to deliver sufficient power intensity to the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 AGP port.

 

This new BIOS reduces the power consumption of the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 board by lowering the clock speed from 175 MHz to 150 Mhz. With these modifications, these motherboards will be able to supply the proper current required by Maxi Gamer Xentor 32."

 

end of quote.

 

Average CPU load is heavier in Win2K than in Win98. This means more amps to feed it and more load for the voltage regulators.

You may well be just at the limit : no crash in Win98, crashes in Win2K because of a few hundred milliamps difference.

 

Try to downclock everything a little bit, reduce CPU voltage, both or one at a time and see what happens.

 

I may be wrong but it's worth trying

[Maniac_NL 0]

remove 1 off your memmory dims, and see what happens

 

good luck

[SeBA 0]

OK, so I'll experiment all these things during the week-end.

I know a guy who has an Asus P5A-B, G400 and SBLive (so almost identical setup) and he has the same problems.

Let's hope for the best. I don't want to buy a new computer now...

Thank you guys!

[someone_nt 0]

Just install Ali Agp driver for windows 2000!! I have an Asus p5A with 1010 beta 2 bios, and it works.

 

Although it is a beta driver, it really SOLVES many crashes, specially the ones concerning about games.

before, I couldn't play Indiana Jones and the infernal machine in Windows 2000 Pro. Now I can play for hours without a single crash. I am also using 3.78 Rc2 windows 2000 drivers from nvidia, because they are the most stable right by now.

 

The only two problems I still encounter are that Windows 2000 still puts a BSOD after sometime when I connect to internet (K_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) [by the way, is anybody having similar crashes with another videocard?) , and also, the Windowed mode performance of DirectDraw & direct3d app is pathetical (compare 10 FPS Window to 60 FPS in fullscreen mode). Though I beleive that is caused because of the specifical NT architecture (GDI model is diferent).

 

So, be nice and install ali's beta driver (www.ali.com.tw). it is not a perfect solution, but you will be able to play games at least :-)

[someone_nt 0]

Just install Ali Agp driver for windows 2000!! I have an Asus p5A with 1010 beta 2 bios, and it works.

 

Although it is a beta driver, it really SOLVES many crashes, specially the ones concerning about games.

before, I couldn't play Indiana Jones and the infernal machine in Windows 2000 Pro. Now I can play for hours without a single crash. I am also using 3.78 Rc2 windows 2000 drivers from nvidia, because they are the most stable right by now.

 

The only two problems I still encounter are that Windows 2000 still puts a BSOD after sometime when I connect to internet (K_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) [by the way, is anybody having similar crashes with another videocard?) , and also, the Windowed mode performance of DirectDraw & direct3d app is pathetical (compare 10 FPS Window to 60 FPS in fullscreen mode). Though I beleive that is caused because of the specifical NT architecture (GDI model is diferent).

 

So, be nice and install ali's beta driver (www.ali.com.tw). it is not a perfect solution, but you will be able to play games at least :-)

[SeBA 0]

News!

Well, I finally tried the 0.10 beta AGP drivers from ALi. I installed them without problems. And I also bought a new CPU cooler 'cause mine was vibrating sometimes and running slow. The system seems stable now (no crash yet). I used a specific patch from ALi to boot up win2k with the G400/SBLive combo they have found a problem with too. I also disconnected the chassis fan to "save" some energy...

3D apps are running very slow but stable, with hardware acceleration.

I hope this is not a temporary thing!

Seba