help! cusl2c + V7700 (GeForce2 GTS) locks up!

[shawnb]

I can't figure this problem out. I've tried everything I can think of.

Whenever any AGP texturing is attempted (dxdiag, "flying objects" screen saver, any game), the screen goes black and the system hangs. I have to reset (ctrl-alt-del doesn't work) to get going again.

If I put my old V770 (TNT2) card in, everything works fine, and everything else even with the GF2 works great.

I've tried reinstalling Win2k with just the Geforce and my SCSI card to make sure there wasn't some other conflict but the same problem. I've fiddled with all sorts of settings, got every new driver I can think of, and nothing seems to help.

A very few people have reported similar problems but nothing that clearly matches up and no clear solutions.

Here's my config:

Asus CUSL2-C
256MB PC 133 ram
Asus V7700 GeForce2 GTS 32MB
Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI Controller (attached to 1 hd & 2 cd drives)
Netgear Fa310 ethernet
SB Live! Value
Creative ModemBlaster 56k
MS USB Intellemouse
250W Power Supply

The way I see it my choices are as follows:

1) I have a bad GeForce card and should just get another one
2) I have a compat issue with the Asus GeForce card and should try another
brand
3) The compat issue that means I should try a Radeon or something
4) I'm stupid an am overlooking something obvious
5) My 250w power supply isn't doing the job and I should get a 300w one
6) Others?


Thanks!

Shawn

[Phrequency]

I've got 2 solutions you can try. First off is cooling. Make sure that you have lots of cooling throughout your system, especially if ya have anything overclocked in there. You can even try removing your case panels, increasing air flow, and run a few games to see if the problem persists. Check your temps in the BIOS or using MBM5 (Motherboard Monitor).

If cooling isn't the problem, then try removing 'Side Band' on the GF2 in the BIOS. I heard that some people who were getting lock-ups solved the problem by removing this feature. Not sure what it does (other than possibly decreasing the quality of your graphics card).

Those are 2 things I can think of right now. I'm a bit of a newbie too, (well...in overclocking at least)

Hope this helps, let me know if it does.

[spanner]

I think firstly you must get a 300w power supply and see if that helps. It seems that the powersupply is very important with GF cards. I got a 300w recently and there are apparently even several versions of those, some offer higher current output, I think mine is the latest called revision ATX 3.02 or something like that... not sure if its the make or a universal type number.

[Domerocka]

I have the Guillemot 3d prophet geforce 2 gts with 64mb ddr. I was also having lockups. I had about 4 other cards below the video card. I removed the cards, took off the side covers and added a fan. So far no lockups. I think I was not getting enough air flow accross the card.
Win98se
PIII600@715
320mb ram
3d prophet 2 geforce 2 gts64mbddr
Soundblaster live mp3
zoom56k modem
30.7 ata66 Maxtor
12x creative dvd
8x4x32 creative cdrw

[shawnb]

I'm skeptical that it's a heat issue -- it's completely consistant and immediate and specific to 3D. Heat issues I've encountered in the past have at least a little randomness to it.

I've narrowed this down to 2 possible problems:

1) Bad/insufficient power supply
2) Bad GeForce card

I'm thinking it's 1 because I do actually have stability problems trying to play games with my TNT2 card instead -- a few blue screens and/or random reboots.

I pulled everything out of the machine, added an ATAPI cdrom drive so all it was was the MB, the GeForce, an IDE hard drive, and the CDROM. Installed Win2k fresh on the hard drive, installed the graphics driver and saw the same problem.

However, I did see something interesting. I've always been running at 1280x1024x16bit@85htz, and the lockup is immediate when I preview the "Flying Objects" screen saver. What I noticed is the screen saver runs fine at 640x480x256 (I think DirectX may not even function at this color depth), but at 640x480x16bit, the screen saver actually a ran for a second or two before locking up (normally the screen would go black and lock immediately). So this does make me lean towards the power supply problem...as soon as the GeForce starts sucking up power, the power supply fluctuates and hangs the system.

Any holes in this theory?

[Domerocka]

Just after I posted my reply I took a nap. My wife got on the computer and I use asus probe monitoring software and it reported the motherboard over heating. I told my wife to just shut down. This is of course before I pulled out all the cards. I want to put another power supply in my computer also so I can put more fans in. I also noticed that upgrading from a PIII500 slot 1 with the abit be6 mobo to a pIIIfcpga600@750 with the asus cusl2, the abit be6 uses a 2x apg slot, where I can get 4x out of the cusl2. I never had any lockups at all with the abitbe6. Now that the graphics card is running faster it's also getting hotter. You could be drawing alot of power. I use a 250w power supply now. I would try a larger power supply especially with the scsi drives and cards. You could also try to get another lower wattage power supply and use two, I am going to try that and get a butt load of fans. Goodluck

[Jidzicar]

SCSI plus Geforce2 GTS on 250 Watt ?? Definitely upgrade 300 Watt, that should fix your problem.

[shawnb]

After all that work, it turns out I just plain had a bad GeForce2 card. Swapped it today and things are working. Sigh...