Games keep quiting to desktop

SmasH

Please, can anyone help me?

New rig (I've another post in the mobo forum) consisting of;

ABit NF7-S v2.0 (2.2 BIOS)
Barton 3200+
Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256Mb (6.14.10.6396)
AGP aperture set to 64Mb
Fast writes On
Video caching Off

The problem is, whenever I'm playing a game, so far Deus Ex Invisible War and Tiger Woods 2004 (dont ask, it's a clean install...:p ), at any given time, either after 10 seconds, or 20 minutes, the screen resets and I'm back at the desktop, and the game is gone.

I've got the latest nForce drivers installed, and I had the latest Catalyst's installed too, until the problem showed itself, so I switched to the ones that came with the card.

I read somewhere else that switching to AGP 4x smooths the problem over, which I've done, but nope, still the same.

Please, has anyone got any suggestions as to what is causing this?

SmasH

Now tried with Fast writes Off and without VPU recovery.

It still crashes out, but I get a nice BSOD, with no text :\

/me sobs

citrixmeta

are u OCing at all?

or all stock

SmasH

All stock, I did try tweaking the cpu up 100mhz or so, but I've put it back.

It apparently made no odds to this problem.

I also haven't got the 'Overdrive' feature enabled.

I've now updated to WinXP SP1, and installed every update after it, reinstalled DX9b, removed all traces of previous Catalyst's and reinstalled 3.9's

Here goes nothing...

SmasH

Right, I've now chucked a spangly new 5700 Ultra in, and it's done the same thing.... :\

Nebulous

What memory do you have?

Jolyon33

memory or maybe power supply?

citrixmeta

i say its time for memtest86

if you are running 2 sticks, take one out, see if it crashs.

test 1 stick at a time

Coaster

That or PSU

What are the specs of your PSU? (make/power)

SmasH

Thanks for the replies guys, right, there's been a breakthrough;

I've done an IT Professional special and reinstalled WinXP, , and I thought it had solved it, I managed to run 3DMark03 4 or 5 times on the trot with no problem...

until I installed the last of my items, a SB Audigy2 Platinum, and the USB2 support.

It then done the same thing, so I rolled the drivers back, and it now still does crash out, but only occasionally.

I've now pulled the Audigy out and activated the onboard and it seems to be ok for the most part, I think it crashed last night, but I dont really remember due to drinking my own weight in Guinness.

Possibly conflict? I really want to use my Audigy, I didnt buy it to look at it, but my other hardwqre and it dont seem to get on...

I'm gonna keep running benchmarks, and see if I can get it to quit to desktop some more.... (I hope it doesn't, but somehow I think it will...)

My ram is; 2x512 Dual chan PC3200 TwinMOS

My cooler was a Zalman 300w, but I swapped it out for a 400w Jeantech because I suspected it could be power.

rapture

Can you not move the soundcard to another PCI slot? And does the Audigy hog the bus like the Live! always did?

Looking at all the stuff you have tried I take it the envent log doesnt come up with anything interesting?

SmasH

Event log doesnt catch anything

Right, it crashed out whilst playing NFSU after 20 or so seconds

I've now taken 1 stick of the ram out, and it hasn't crashed yet!, 5 laps of a circuit, 3DMark03, nowt yet...

So do you think it's the stick, or the fact it doesnt like the dual speed thang?

SmasH

Right, well, I know what it is now... sort of

It works with only 1 stick of ram in Slot 3, either of the sticks, but with 2 in as dual channel, it crashes out.

Is it possible that perhaps the AGP aperture doesnt know how to handle dual chan ram? Has anyone else got this setup working ok?

I mean if push comes to shove, I spose I could handle having 512 in, but that's kinda missing the point.

Is TwinMOS a good make? would it cure it if I bought Crucial or one of the other top brands? AAaaarrrggghhhH!H!

Nebulous

I dunno, but I think that ram is messed up. Maybe an RMA or get a refund and get Twinmos. My twinmos is running 245 @ 1:1 with a vdimm mod at 3.1v Twinmos with the winbond BH-5 modules is the way to go. Or you can pick up some Kingston HyperX PC3500 from zipzoomfly.com which has the BH-5's.

SmasH

TwinMOS is what I've got at the moment, it wasn't as pricey as others tho', hence me wondering if the quality isn't as good as some others.

It was bought as a Dual Channel kit tho', which makes me wonder if it's the mobo that's the issue.

EDIT: I've e-mailed ABit tech support, see if they can shed any light on it...

EDIT2: In sheer desperation I read on another memory makers webby that the DDR voltage rail should be uped to 2.7v or 2.8v... I've uped mine to 2.7v, and low and behold, it's yet to crash Mind you, I've said that before....

Nebulous

Well sometimes ram needs a little coaxing to run. Glad you have it running now. i have a funny feeling you don't have Bh-5, more like Ch-5 because of it's stubborness.

SmasH

Well, it did crash again, but it took longer, so I've uped the voltage to 2.8v. This is the max on my board.

It successfully ran NFSU and 3DMark03, but it was getting late, so more testing tonight.

Should I slap some heatsinks onto it now, what with the higher voltage I assume it'll run hotter?

timinator

just a stupid (probably) question, sometimes when you run folding, games will quit to the desktop, although youve probly checked this

SmasH

Well, it's still crashing, after less than 5 mins every time with CoD.

So I've pulled 1 stick out, and it's perfect.

That e-mail has been sent to ABit, and depending on their verdict, I may have to get OcUK to swap the board or ram.

I'm just glad it's my system I'm building and not someone elses, this sort of thing just shouldn't happen.

Nebulous

It's gotta be the ram. Each stick works great, but together they don't. There's a compatability issue with those sticks pairing up.

SmasH

Well, I've e-mailed OcUK and asked them to swap them out for some OCZ Platinum's, yet to get a reply tho'...

Nebulous

Hope it works out for ya

SmasH

Well, it seems that Overclockers.co.uk now know about the problem.

When I phoned them to get them to swap the memory, they said it's 'obvious' why it doesnt work, and that there's a statement about incompatibility with the ram and TwinMOS dual chan sticks under the product description. Well there is now, but it's been added within the last few days.

I've now got a dual chan pair of OCZ PC3200 DDR Platinum's on their way to me.

Thanks for all your help on this here forum I'll post to let you know it runs ok with the new OCZ

Nebulous

I dunno bro, to me that's utter BS. I have Twinmos in my rig now. 2x256MB of PC3200 and she's been runnin like a champ at 275FSB 2-3-2-6 Turbo with 3v. They sold you defective ram and they won't admit it, those bastages!

Hope the new ram works out for ya.

SmasH

cheers m8, me too, it should be here Tuesday.

btw, I typo'd slightly in my last post, the issue is apparently with nForce2 + the TwinMOS dual chan's, well, that's what they say on their webby anyhows...