GPL and V2 lockups and general weird behaviour (longish)

Here's a real strange problem to get those brain cells warmed up. :) This is not just related to GPL but to all hardware accelerated games. This is not the first time I have posted regarding this problem, but it did go away, only to reappear in a similar form after I thought I had fried my processor during a complete system reinstall. Today however I put a k6 300 in and the problem is still there so its not the processor that's fried its something else, though what I don't know. I was able to resolve the original lockups when I moved the HD, which was originally situated directly over the CPU, to another location, but had to go through a windows reinstall when I got a msgsrv failure when I tried to reinstall my jstick port resulting in windows failing to start at all. However, it was during the reinstallation and before I had put the V2 card back in that the CPUs fan failed whilst I was out of the room, so I put my V2 card probs, once it was added, down to the CPu now being slightly iffy. I also reasoned that this was the case because I was also having general windows problems where explorer would fail if I had too many windows open, though this problem has not appeared for the last month since I now remove the computer case before starting up. I now know it's not the CPU that's fried though. I have a Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3d2 PCI Voodoo2 card with 12meg memory. It uses the latest drivers that I downloaded from Guillemot's own site and which are specifically for this card and I have DirectX 7.0a installed on Win95 OSR2. My mobo is a Commate S7AX Ver 1.071 with an Ali Alladin V chipset running Award BIOS 4.51with an AMD k6-2 450 and 128meg RAM and my non 3d card is an sis 6215c in another PCI slot and I have a bigger and better computer case than before the fan failure for more spacing of peripherals. Before I play GPL I have to test the card to see if its ok, which it usually isn't, using the directX diagnostics tool because otherwise normally GPL won't even start. When I test direct 3d on display 2, my v2 card, even software rendering is a mess. The spinning cube is in the centre of the screen, but is jittery and its edges are not smooth, whilst there are also 2 more displaced cube images, one to each side, which are very blocky, fragmented and jittery. When this happens then I know that it's not even worth trying to test using hardware accelerated rendering because in this test the screen locks and the only fix is ctrl-alt-del which restarts my machine, though windows seems unaware that I haven't closed it down properly and will boot up without running scandisk, which is also unusual. So what I have to do in DXdiag is cancel out of the tests and then physically press down on and wiggle slightly my V2 card - I don't like to do this but if I don't do this the test results in Dx diag are always messed up - and then go back and retest the card. Generally it will look ok 2nd time around, though on odd occasions I have to do this more than once. Once it's ok under software rendering it's ok in hardware accelerated rendering. However, this doesn't mean GPL is going to work ok, though at least it guarantees that GPL will start. GPL will then generally lockup when first used within the first 10 minutes requiring me to end task on it, do the card wiggle and then restart GPL. However, GPL will only lock up a couple of times and once the card has gone beyond 10 minutes without a problem it works fine, but only real cure for problem seems to be method used above. What has me stumped is why the card is happy to work once it's warmed up nicely. I've changed PCI slots to no avail. I think my next step will be to change the card, but this won't be for a few weeks yet and so, in the meantime, if anyone has a clue as to what might be happening or any suggestion at all as to things to try - I'm game :) - it will be much appreciated. Thanks in Advance. -- Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington) No person's opinions can be said to be more correct than another's, because each is the sole judge of his or her own experience.

I had a similar problem with a 12MB Diamond Monster II card. I had to leave the case open and press down on it and wiggle it to get it to un-fuzz. Usually that would make it happy but sometimes it would fuzz out again and I'd have to wiggle it, etc. Tried different slots, drivers, all that stuff too. What I found made it work for a while was a rubber band! Use the rubber band to put a bit of tension on the card by attaching the other end to a handy spot in the case. I had to experiment a bit to find the right direction for the tension. This didn't always work but it helped a bit. I finally got tired of it and bought a replacement card (exact same model). But just for fun I thought I'd try SLI'ing them. Fuzzing went away for good! My theory is the SLI cable which links the two cards put tension on the bad one in the same way thay the rubber band did. p.s. Not long after I bought a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP. Can't say it made a huge difference over SLI but at least I'm a bit more confident it won't die on me one day. "Peter Ives" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Here's a real strange problem to get those brain cells warmed up. :) > > This is not just related to GPL but to all hardware accelerated games. > > This is not the first time I have posted regarding this problem, but it > did go away, only to reappear in a similar form after I thought I had > fried my processor during a complete system reinstall. Today however I > put a k6 300 in and the problem is still there so its not the processor > that's fried its something else, though what I don't know. > > I was able to resolve the original lockups when I moved the HD, which > was originally situated directly over the CPU, to another location, but > had to go through a windows reinstall when I got a msgsrv failure when I > tried to reinstall my jstick port resulting in windows failing to start > at all. However, it was during the reinstallation and before I had put > the V2 card back in that the CPUs fan failed whilst I was out of the > room, so I put my V2 card probs, once it was added, down to the CPu now > being slightly iffy. I also reasoned that this was the case because I > was also having general windows problems where explorer would fail if I > had too many windows open, though this problem has not appeared for the > last month since I now remove the computer case before starting up. I > now know it's not the CPU that's fried though. > > I have a Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3d2 PCI Voodoo2 card with 12meg memory. > It uses the latest drivers that I downloaded from Guillemot's own site > and which are specifically for this card and I have DirectX 7.0a > installed on Win95 OSR2. My mobo is a Commate S7AX Ver 1.071 with an > Ali Alladin V chipset running Award BIOS 4.51with an AMD k6-2 450 and > 128meg RAM and my non 3d card is an sis 6215c in another PCI slot and I > have a bigger and better computer case than before the fan failure for > more spacing of peripherals. > > Before I play GPL I have to test the card to see if its ok, which it > usually isn't, using the directX diagnostics tool because otherwise > normally GPL won't even start. When I test direct 3d on display 2, my > v2 card, even software rendering is a mess. The spinning cube is in the > centre of the screen, but is jittery and its edges are not smooth, > whilst there are also 2 more displaced cube images, one to each side, > which are very blocky, fragmented and jittery. When this happens then > I know that it's not even worth trying to test using hardware > accelerated rendering because in this test the screen locks and the only > fix is ctrl-alt-del which restarts my machine, though windows seems > unaware that I haven't closed it down properly and will boot up without > running scandisk, which is also unusual. > > So what I have to do in DXdiag is cancel out of the tests and then > physically press down on and wiggle slightly my V2 card - I don't like > to do this but if I don't do this the test results in Dx diag are always > messed up - and then go back and retest the card. Generally it will > look ok 2nd time around, though on odd occasions I have to do this more > than once. Once it's ok under software rendering it's ok in hardware > accelerated rendering. However, this doesn't mean GPL is going to work > ok, though at least it guarantees that GPL will start. > > GPL will then generally lockup when first used within the first 10 > minutes requiring me to end task on it, do the card wiggle and then > restart GPL. However, GPL will only lock up a couple of times and once > the card has gone beyond 10 minutes without a problem it works fine, but > only real cure for problem seems to be method used above. > > What has me stumped is why the card is happy to work once it's warmed up > nicely. I've changed PCI slots to no avail. I think my next step will > be to change the card, but this won't be for a few weeks yet and so, in > the meantime, if anyone has a clue as to what might be happening or any > suggestion at all as to things to try - I'm game :) - it will be much > appreciated. > > Thanks in Advance. > -- > Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington) > > No person's opinions can be said to be > more correct than another's, because each is > the sole judge of his or her own experience.

Maybe some contact spray on the vidcards pci connection might solve the problem... Not to sure though, lets see what others say about it... -- Sjon Peter Ives <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Here's a real strange problem to get those brain cells warmed up. :) > > This is not just related to GPL but to all hardware accelerated games. > > This is not the first time I have posted regarding this problem, but it > did go away, only to reappear in a similar form after I thought I had > fried my processor during a complete system reinstall. Today however I > put a k6 300 in and the problem is still there so its not the processor > that's fried its something else, though what I don't know. > > I was able to resolve the original lockups when I moved the HD, which > was originally situated directly over the CPU, to another location, but > had to go through a windows reinstall when I got a msgsrv failure when I > tried to reinstall my jstick port resulting in windows failing to start > at all. However, it was during the reinstallation and before I had put > the V2 card back in that the CPUs fan failed whilst I was out of the > room, so I put my V2 card probs, once it was added, down to the CPu now > being slightly iffy. I also reasoned that this was the case because I > was also having general windows problems where explorer would fail if I > had too many windows open, though this problem has not appeared for the > last month since I now remove the computer case before starting up. I > now know it's not the CPU that's fried though. > > I have a Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3d2 PCI Voodoo2 card with 12meg memory. > It uses the latest drivers that I downloaded from Guillemot's own site > and which are specifically for this card and I have DirectX 7.0a > installed on Win95 OSR2. My mobo is a Commate S7AX Ver 1.071 with an > Ali Alladin V chipset running Award BIOS 4.51with an AMD k6-2 450 and > 128meg RAM and my non 3d card is an sis 6215c in another PCI slot and I > have a bigger and better computer case than before the fan failure for > more spacing of peripherals. > > Before I play GPL I have to test the card to see if its ok, which it > usually isn't, using the directX diagnostics tool because otherwise > normally GPL won't even start. When I test direct 3d on display 2, my > v2 card, even software rendering is a mess. The spinning cube is in the > centre of the screen, but is jittery and its edges are not smooth, > whilst there are also 2 more displaced cube images, one to each side, > which are very blocky, fragmented and jittery. When this happens then > I know that it's not even worth trying to test using hardware > accelerated rendering because in this test the screen locks and the only > fix is ctrl-alt-del which restarts my machine, though windows seems > unaware that I haven't closed it down properly and will boot up without > running scandisk, which is also unusual. > > So what I have to do in DXdiag is cancel out of the tests and then > physically press down on and wiggle slightly my V2 card - I don't like > to do this but if I don't do this the test results in Dx diag are always > messed up - and then go back and retest the card. Generally it will > look ok 2nd time around, though on odd occasions I have to do this more > than once. Once it's ok under software rendering it's ok in hardware > accelerated rendering. However, this doesn't mean GPL is going to work > ok, though at least it guarantees that GPL will start. > > GPL will then generally lockup when first used within the first 10 > minutes requiring me to end task on it, do the card wiggle and then > restart GPL. However, GPL will only lock up a couple of times and once > the card has gone beyond 10 minutes without a problem it works fine, but > only real cure for problem seems to be method used above. > > What has me stumped is why the card is happy to work once it's warmed up > nicely. I've changed PCI slots to no avail. I think my next step will > be to change the card, but this won't be for a few weeks yet and so, in > the meantime, if anyone has a clue as to what might be happening or any > suggestion at all as to things to try - I'm game :) - it will be much > appreciated. > > Thanks in Advance. > -- > Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington) > > No person's opinions can be said to be > more correct than another's, because each is > the sole judge of his or her own experience.

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> I have a Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3d2 PCI Voodoo2 card with 12meg memory. > So what I have to do in DXdiag is cancel out of the tests and then > physically press down on and wiggle slightly my V2 card - I don't like > to do this but if I don't do this the test results in Dx diag are always > messed up - and then go back and retest the card. Generally it will > look ok 2nd time around, though on odd occasions I have to do this more > than once. > Once it's ok under software rendering it's ok in hardware > accelerated rendering.

I had the same card (actually two of them in SLI ;-) my problem was cured when I started to underclock the cards at 85MHz. these voodoo2-chips can't stand too much heat ... not even the one they produce themselves ;-) other options: - try another slot for the V2 and check if the problem remains. - install directx-7a with the latest guillemot-drivers Lio

Ok, I did not see the start of this post but in general there are some things I can come up with: - Overclocking SLI is hard. - Some main boards are picky as to which slot you use for a PCI device. I have a ABIT BH that does not like to have cards that require IRQ's in certain slots. - Note that Windows85/98 use IRQ sharing. I saw a post about someone having problems with the sound card sharing the same IRQ as the USB port (FF wheel). In relation to GPL I now that I can run GPL for hours with a Voodoo2 at 100MHz overclocked (what heat problem??), but only at 640x480. Any higher resolution at any clock speed for the V2 (even at 88MHz) locks up GPL at 1 to 10 minutes. Hope this helps, Marc Peter Ives <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> I think some additional info may be required to explain why this problem > is so hard to pin down. > > I bought the card back in December of 1998 and it worked flawlessly with > what was my system then and continued to work until I upgraded a to my > current mobo and cpu back in October of last year. This was when the > problems first started. Foolishly, because I still had 66mhz Dimms when > I felt I should be using 100mhz ones with my new mobo, I perceived the > problem to be potentially related to this and so it wasn't until I > finally bought some 100mhz Dimms and the problems were still there that > I first enquired on this NG as to what may be causing this. > > In one reply to my initial enquiry someone suggested making sure the cpu > was well away from other peripherals and so I temporarily moved the HD > away to discover that the fault disappeared. Hooray! > > Unfortunately, my joystick was playing silly buggers with GPL, with it > getting very jittery when I pulled it back for braking causing the car > to be nigh on undrivable at times and because it was only 2 months old > and a digital stick I thought that maybe my jstick port was playing up. > Especially considering that when trying to configure my controller it > would throw an error up saying that no stick was connected - wrong the > joystick was indeed knackered. Once again, I took the wrong decision > and decided to reinstall the joystick port only to discover the msgsrv > error that meant that windows would not boot up at all. > > So, prior to reinstalling windows, because I didn't really have a > suitable slot for my HD to keep it away from my cpu I bought a new case > and did the reinstall, only to have my cpu's fan fail because I allowed > a piece of cabling to fall across it unnoticed and because it had been a > bit iffy anyway it didn't take much to stop the damned thing from > spinning - all this whilst I left the room for 5 minutes. I've since > replaced the fan. So now I'm thinking my cpu is fried and when I added > the v2 I put it down to that. Wrong again! > > Like I've said, I put a previous cpu in and the problem is still there > and so I'm completely stumped, apart from one possible thing and it's a > complete stab in the dark. In order to run an AMD cpu above 300 with > OSR2 I needed to run a patch proggy. Is it possible that this patch > would not be appropriate for my k6 300 (which wouldn't need it) and so > that is why I am still seeing probs even though I've gone back to my old > cpu. As I say it's just a guess, but in order to confirm it I would > need to put the system files that the patch changed back to how they > were. Does anyone know of a patch to unpatch the patch. :) Or is it > not even worth considering anyway. > > Anyway, now you know the complete story you can see why I am so baffled > by this. I've tried all the obvious things, such as running the card at > as slow a speed as possible, making sure there is plenty of ventilation, > even tried running computer during winter with casing off and no heating > on so room was pretty cold (though if it was an overheating problem I > would have thought things would get worse the longer it was used not > better) but nothing has helped. Cheers to anyone who can come up with > something new to try. > -- > Peter Ives - (AKA Ivington) > > No person's opinions can be said to be > more correct than another's, because each is > the sole judge of his or her own experience.