Strange problem

[ainwood]

I have recently upgraded my PC. I have put a MSI KT4V motherboard in, with 512MB of DDR ram. Am running an nVidia GeForce 440MX 8xAGP video card, and an Athlon XP2000+ CPU.

I set it up with nothing too fancy in the BIOS - the only thing I really needed to do was change the FSB frequency to 133 MHz, as the motherboard doesn't automatically detect an Athlon 2000XP, and it wanted to run it at 100 MHz FSB = 1250 MHz CPU clock speed.

Now the problem: When I'm playing games, whenever there is a scene change, I get a crash. Playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the intro, game and cutscenes run fine. However, I reach the end of the first level, get the level finishing sounds, the wolfenstein logo appears in the bottom corner, the screen fades to black and the game crashes to the desktop.

I tried it with Half-life. Played up to the bit where Gordon 'inadvertently' opens the dimensional gate, I see the few cutscenes where Gordon sees the aliens' home planet, then when it tries to change scenes, the games crashes. This ones a bit more serious - complete system reboot.

I've installed DirectX, latest motherboard drivers and game patches. No avail. I can't really think what could be causing this - the game runs fine, then crashes in the same place.

Any suggestions????

 

[Jeratain]

Hard to say. Could be the RAM. Could also be the BIOS settings. Are there any flash updates for your BIOS available?

Your best bet really is to contact MSI's tech support, or search a bunch of FAQs for people who have had similar problems and seek a solution. I really wish I could help, but problems like these are always difficult to pinpoint.

 

[ainwood]

I have downloaded the latest flash bios rev, and will install that tonight.

But it is a bit frustrating....

 

[IceBlaZe]

Make sure the Antivirus isn't running.
Try the WHQL Certified detonators... I think 41.07.
Make sure "Autoreboot on Lock up" or some option like it isn't checked, not sure where to search for it, and then you might get a BSOD on Half life showing what is the cause of the problem.

 

[Jeratain]

Also be sure to have the latest patches and updates for all the games.

 

[Zelig]

Hey, your system sounds a lot like mine.
If you have Baldur's Gate, could you try that and tell me if the movies crash the game? I'm just curious, I don't have a solution.

I've had the best luck using the latest drivers off of Omegadrive's Little Corner with the GeForce4 440 MX.

BTW, what OS are you using?

 

[ainwood]

I'm running XP Professional. I've tried the 'latest' Geforce drivers... but the little omega ones look good - I'll check Omega's BIOS recommendations against mine as well.

 

[DaEezT]

Maybe it's just a cooling prob.
As you describe it you don't have any problems during "normal" PC activities (= anything ot 3D) and you only get the problem after playing a 3D game for a while, not as soon as you start it, so it might be the chip getting too hot during 3D stuff.
Since you got everything up-to-date (BIOS, drivers, DX9 etc) you could try running a new 3D benchmark to put some strain on the chip for a while and see what happens and after (or before that if u like) a 2D benchmark for the same time and see if there are any problems.
It's unlikely that it's a software prob since then the PC would surely crash every time the game engine is started or running for a few secs, not after you played for some time.
But as always with PCs (especially with Windows): anything is possible

 

[IceBlaZe]

You can always try underclocking the Core in ~5-10Mhz.

 

[ainwood]

I underclocked to a FSB of 100 MHz, and still got the problem. It happens in exactly the same place everytime, whether I've been playing for half an hour, or reloaded at the 'crash' point, which is what made me think it was software related.

I think the power supply is a bit gutless (only 250W) but would this cause the symptoms I'm seeing?

 

[TedJackson]

I haven't played half-life in a long time and I've never played RtCW but I would suggest that you try disabling all sounds then see if the problem persists.

I've come across a couple of games where the DirectSound (or whatever) support is flakey.

Can't promise miracles but you might like to try

Ted

 

[ainwood]

Thanks for the idea. I've tried setting the hardware sound accelaration off, and that didn't work. But might as well try turning the sound off altogether....

 

[Hurricane]

I had a similar problem earlier, and it was due to overheating. It will be nice to see if you find a solution.

 

[Plutonium239]

I've seen similar problems in game forums before. I did a little searching but couldn't find the old threads.

One possibility is that the game is using Bink for the cutscenes. Radgametools blames this on MS as crashes sometimes occur when Bink makes use of WMP. I'm not aware of MS offering any solutions for this.

Cutscenes are rendered in 2D (whether the source was rendered in 3D or not). Because of this adjusting the hardware acceleration for your display adapter may help. If you move the slider 1 or 2 notches to the left some 2D won't be hardware accelerated (mouse, text, etc.). As long as you don't go more than a couple notches 3D performance won't be affected at all.

I'm not sure if this will help but it may be worth a try. I've read about many 2D types of problems in game forums (often mouse cursor related) that can be worked around by adjusting hardware acceleration.

 

[Matt_G]

Did you ever find a solution Ainwood?

Originally posted by ainwood
I think the power supply is a bit gutless (only 250W) but would this cause the symptoms I'm seeing?

250W is not enough power for an Athlon. This could cause those problems. If the game is pegging the processor and making the vid card work it's butt off, it could cause this issue due to higher power requirements at that point in time. (hope that made sense )

I had several 'weird' issues with a Athlon PC with a 300W power supply in it. Went to a 400W and all those 'issues' went away.

FWIW
Matt

 

[ainwood]

I put in a new power supply, and initially it didn't make much difference - still the same problems. However, I then reinstalled the game and it now works.

I really don't know what to put that down to - maybe reinstalling changed some automatic configuration settings or something?

No harm in getting a new supply me thinks - wasn't too expensive, and means I should now be able to add a few extra peripherals