[enyalius]

First off, I have checked for viruses none were found on my computer, no spyware or addware is on this computer.

The problem is basically this, when I run a game in high res (ie have garbage like enable pixel shading on) and view videos... mpegs/avis, it crashes my computer, to describe what happens exactly; it causes my computer to stop functioning entirely leaving on my monitor what I was last doing, no errors come up it just forces me to do a hardboot.

I first thought that it might be sound card related seeing as I have a Monster MX400 which is extremely old, compared to the rest of my components, I tried removing it entirely from my computer but this did not affect my computer from crashing.

I have all the up to date drivers for my video card ATI radeon 8500 and have windows2000 up to date as well.

I am literally stumped as to what could be causing my crashes. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[johnwill]

Could be a lot of things. I'd start with basic hardware integrety checks, open the case, reseat all the expansion cards, memory, cables, etc. Next, download MemTest86, put it on a floppy, and boot and run it all night, see if it turns up any memory issues. Finally, see if there are new drivers for your video board, or perhaps even consider downgrading the drivers to the last release, not the most recent.

 

[enyalius]

Well Reseeding the cards did nothing, and I am currently running the memtest86, its been going for about 22 hours now, 31 passes no errors so far.

Any other suggestions besides that? I might just give up and format my computer, and upgrade to xp if this continues. Its very frustrating.

 

[johnwill]

I guess my next step would be to try a different video board. Since it seems tied to games, that's where a lot of the action is.

 

[zeal]

what about this:

My computer runs different specs to you except the operating system and games also crash for me too.

I have reformated at least twice now and still games crash, I'm thinking it maybe the windows upgrades I have read other posts on a different form and they one had not upgraded past service pack 3 and not encountered this problem.

I'm going to test this thery, I'm about to run memtest soon and if I have no luck there then I am going to do a reformat installing only up to sp3, I'll post the results tomorow.

There has got to be a reason for this.

 

[enyalius]

I have tested my current radeon 8500 with 3 previous versions of drivers and it still has trouble crashing, I had a similar issue with my ati rage fury a while back, only thing in common was windows2k. So I think im gonna try to upgrade to xp and see if that helps at all I will keep you all posted see if that helps.

 

[johnwill]

I have serious doubts that a new installation of W2K would be the issue, but who knows...

 

[zeal]

what do you know

what do you think it could be? I have tryed almost everything else.

I think from what I have read that it is service pack 4 that is doing something. Ill let you know later on in the day.

 

[enyalius]

Ok so I just finished installing windows xp, got all the updates and the latest ATI drivers, as well as all the other stuff that is necessary. I am still getting computer crashes although windows XP has given me a message when I loaded back up.

"The driver for the display device was unable to complete a drawing operation. Please check with the device manufacturer for a driver update"

But it seems that the previous drivers for the video cards dont seem to help either, so until ATI puts out a new set of drivers that works properly some people that are having the same problems as me, may be out of luck.

 

[johnwill]

It sounds like a hardware failure or compatibility issue, that's why I was doubtful that reloading would solve it.

 

[zeal]

Well your right, I uninstalled sp4 and installed sp3 games still crash. however my computer is faster now, so thats one good thing.

What are some steps that I can take that to troubleshoot my video card?
I have tested it with directx and everything seems to be working fine there I even got duel monitors working without any glitches. And I can't see anything wrong with the driver.

help me what can I do??

 

[Javora]

The problem is basically this, when I run a game in high res (ie have garbage like enable pixel shading on) and view videos... mpegs/avis, it crashes my computer, to describe what happens exactly; it causes my computer to stop functioning entirely leaving on my monitor what I was last doing, no errors come up it just forces me to do a hardboot.

I first thought that it might be sound card related seeing as I have a Monster MX400 which is extremely old, compared to the rest of my components, I tried removing it entirely from my computer but this did not affect my computer from crashing.

I have all the up to date drivers for my video card ATI radeon 8500 and have windows2000 up to date as well.

I am literally stumped as to what could be causing my crashes. Anyone have any ideas?

Can you give us a little more information about your system? Processor type, name brand (HP, Dell, etc.), what version of DirectX installed, amount of ram installed, what games you are playing that the system crashes on. Off the top I would ask if you have the latest ATI drivers installed (latest version was released on 9/6/03) and do you have the latest game patch installed for your game? When you can answer that, I or someone else may be able to provide more information.

 

[johnwill]

My next step is to remove all the drivers for the video card, and shut down. Remove the video card, put in a different model, and fire it up. Even if you have to borrow one for a test, you can at least eliminate the video card/drivers by this test.

 

[enyalius]

Re: Re: Computer crashes for no apparent reason

Can you give us a little more information about your system? Processor type, name brand (HP, Dell, etc.), what version of DirectX installed, amount of ram installed, what games you are playing that the system crashes on. Off the top I would ask if you have the latest ATI drivers installed (latest version was released on 9/6/03) and do you have the latest game patch installed for your game? When you can answer that, I or someone else may be able to provide more information.

Well... Processor is AMD XP 1.4GHz, directx 9.0b, ram 768Megs, I am usually playing counterstrike, jedi knight *, other such games. And yes I have the latest ATI catalyst drivers, and all the games are up to date. Hope this helps.

 

[Javora]

Have you tried turning off the Anti-aliasing option on your graphics card? If you haven't tried disabling that option yet try it and see if you notice a difference.

 

[enyalius]

Anti Aliasing has been disabled for a while with no help to the problem.

 

[Javora]

Johnwill suggested trying another video card, and at this point I have to agree. There is no reason why Win2000 should crash like that unless the OS or game files are corrupt.

If you place another video card that you know is good in your system and your system still crashes, then I would think about reinstalling your games. If reinstalling your games does not work than I would consider reformatting and reloading your hard drive.

If you do have to reformat / reload your hard drive remember to back up your programs and files that you want to save. BTW you said you had an old sound card uninstalled off your system. When you removed the sound card did you also uninstall the drivers for that card as well? Make sure any left over files/folders for that sound card are removed. Getting rid of those old files probably won’t make a difference but I have seen stranger things happen. Hope this helps.

 

[enyalius]

It is not the game or the installation of the game, I have double checked that a bunch of times.

I already have formatted my HD I mentioned that in a previous post, I now have windows XP on the computer, and a new install of the game which still crashes on me.

Even though you guys suggested to swap the video cards, I dont think there is a point really, because I know that the other card works. It is a problem that I have to figure out related to my ATI radeon 8500. The card itself is not damaged, I run other games perfectly fine its just certain games it has trouble with. So obviously it is some setting in it.

I updated my motherboard drivers to no avail, and I went in and disabled AGP fast writes in the BIOS upon the request of ATI which seemed to improve a little but it still crashes from time to time. Anyone have another suggestion?

 

[zeal]

A suggestion

I have a suggestion, could it be your RAM?
What RAM do you have?
What speed does it run at?
What speed of RAM does your motherbord support?

As for me I have 128x128x32 SDRam running at 133mhz
my motherbord is PC-133 complient.
Try upgrading the speed of your RAM if you can
Id test it myself but my $ are low.

Another question have any apps crashed on you the same way?
I had Modplug tracker crash like that and IE sept IE produced an illegal operation.

There has to be someone out there who has fixed this problem.

 

[enyalius]

Micron Ram I have a stick of 256 and a 512, both 133 bus speed, SDRAM

My motherboard is 133 compliant as well

I would upgrade to DDR but I would have to replace my motherboard and ram so I wont be doing that just yet.

Ran a memory test that Johnwill suggested and it showed the memory on my computer was fine.

Apps that do not require much from the video card run fine, however I get similar problems with windows media player, which makes me believe that it is either video or sound card related problems. Since I have thoroughly checked out my soundcard including completely removing it from my computer to test, I believe that it is video card related.

As for IE, that crashes all the time but thats a windows issue.