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**SteveC** · 27 August 1999, 12:39

If you are 100% sure the fritz card is not sharing its IRQ with the G400, I'm afraid I can't help as I don't have an ISDN card in my machine. But to help anyone else, that card I *think* is the same as the BT ISDN cards.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

My PC houses one of these things which seems to affect some people's lives far too much...

**Smiff.** · 27 August 1999, 12:46

Hurrah...a response! 1st one's always the hardest...

There are no conflicts in the "PCI device listings" by the BIOS on startup, nor in the Windows98 control panel. So I guess that means there really are no conflicts.(?)

Thanks SteveC, its close but it's not the one I await your next suggestion, sire...

Smiff

**Smiff.** · 28 August 1999, 08:43

OK just a little more detail to (maybe? please i'm begging now inspire someone!

I was wondering what could cause this sort of conflict between PCI devices - i'm pretty sure its not an IRQ issue, so assuming it's a resource conflict of some kind, that leaves "Memory Range" and "I/O Range". I don't know exactly what these are, but they are listed under the resources tab of the card properties, for both the ISDN adapter and the G400. Windows sais "No conflicts" for both devices.

I tried manually changing the memory and i/o range on the ISDN adapter, which the card seems happy about but i'm not sure if it made things any better or not. I have tried 3 different sets of ranges (choosen randomly).

What did change though is that I can now play Gloom (or whatever) for a whole minute (whooooo, just don't get too excited now Smiff!) before the machine hangs, whereas yesterday it hung when finishing loading the map (i.e. just as the 3d engine is initialised). The wierd thing is that whilst playing, the graphics locked up in regular short intervals, giving a horrible jerking motion. I estimate the lock ups last about 0.1s and happen every 0.5s. And then of course, after a minute or so, it hangs completely, needing a hard reset.

I'm really confused as to what the problem is; is it the ISDN adapter, the G400 or the motherboard that's at fault here? And which piece of hardware to I change? Could it be a bios setting (BH6 rev. LN) I'm still within the 30 days so I can send the G400 back and just go back to my old but faithful TNT. BUT:

a) I like it.
b) I'm waiting for a new RRG to arrive, and I really need the video I/O

Thw way I see it, I either rip out my G400 and go back to my TNT, or I rip out my ISDN card and go back to my (i can hardly bear to even think about it) my old 33.6 modem. ARGGGGHHH!!

Just in case i didn't make it clear, everything's butter smooth when i'm not connected to the net.

Somebody *please* help i'm getting desperate here. I have used a lot of different hardware over the last 5 years and i have never been unable to fix things before now. I'm out of ideas. It really pisses me off. Grrrrrr.

On a lighter note, I just went to see SouthPark. Well funny

Smiff

**the_tsi** · 28 August 1999, 18:10

I'm no video card technician, but I have a theory that may have to be verified by Haig...

I think it may be a power issue. Today's 3D accellerators take a bit of juice. There are a variety of early AGP boards that can't handle TNT2s or (I imagine) G400s. Now, even with a current (and popular) board, once you have a G400 sucking a couple amps and the ISDN taking some (since it needs to power the line, ahh the joys of digital communication), you may be maxing out your board.

Look for stats on the current draw for both cards and compare to what Abit says your board can provide.

-Chris

**the_tsi** · 28 August 1999, 18:12

ahh, the joys of timing out on a "submit" click... double posts.

[This message has been edited by the_tsi (edited 08-29-1999).]

**Storm2** · 28 August 1999, 18:20

the_tsi might be right, maybe all the components draw too much power, it's unlikely, but possible. Get a motherboard monitor program of a sort, and see if your voltage(s) are below of what they should be.
If that's the case, than you have to get a new board, or ditch some components...
again, this is unlikely. It's probably just an incompatibility issue though.

[This message has been edited by Storm2 (edited 08-29-1999).]

**MC Lamer** · 29 August 1999, 01:06

i have the same problem but only with opengl based games... kingpin, q3, q2

it runs fine with direct 3d games like midtown madness or combat flight simulator

so its perhaps a trouble with open gl drivers

my isdn card is a bewan 128 bps. and my g400 works fine with agp x1 forced

sorry for my english

if you have an idea...

**Smiff.** · 29 August 1999, 03:39

OK, I got MBM 4.10 B3. I set it to update every second, then started downloading a big file and loaded up quake2, letting it play the demo (not for long 'cos it hangs, duh!). After quiting Quake I left it running whilst doing other things (downloading etc.)

+----------------------------------------------------+
|Up/Down log |
|29-8-1999 / 16:30:24 - 29-8-1999 / 17:10:42 |
|# of readouts: 2093 |
|CPU Speed : 464 MHz |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| |Lowest |Highest |Average |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|Sensor 1 |33.00 |34.00 |33.98 |
|Sensor 2 |0.00 |0.00 |0.00 |
|Sensor 3 |0.00 |0.00 |0.00 |
|Core 0 |2.11 |2.11 |2.11 |
|Core 1 |1.49 |1.49 |1.49 |
|+3.3 |3.22 |3.25 |3.25 |
|+5 |5.00 |5.03 |5.03 |
|-5 |-5.09 |-5.09 |-5.09 |
|+12 |11.49 |11.55 |11.55 |
|-12 |-11.99 |-11.94 |-11.94 |
|Fan 1 |0.00 |0.00 |0.00 |
|Fan 2 |0.00 |0.00 |0.00 |
|Fan 3 |4787.00 |4821.00 |4817.62 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

Is this normal? I've no idea what the tolerances on these devices are, so the results don't mean much to me. If they are too low, what can I do about it? I don't want to buy a new MB, cos they cost about £90 and my BH6 is great. Anyway MBM measures voltages, not amps, so is it relevant? How do I find out the current drain on the G400 & ISDN adapter? I've no idea about either.

I tried forcing AGP 1x, makes no difference (apart from making things slower). I also tried some Direct3D games (Blood2, AvP). The jerking is still there, but not so bad as in OpenGL (not so often, not so long). This confuses me, 'cos it suggests driver issues not hardware at all. (??)

How do I contact the God that is "Haig" ? I'm way out of my depth here!

Smiff

**Kruzin** · 29 August 1999, 03:55

Those voltages look good to me (the +12 is a shade low, but I don't think it low enough to cause any problems).

I have not tried 5.15 (no RR-G here), but I did have a similar problem with HalfLife in one of the beta builds I tested. It played great single player, worked great on my LAN, and it would run on the net with a modem, until I met up with an opponent. Then it would lock up. This did not happen to me in quakem though, and the problem was fixed in the next beta build. Hopefully it's a similar problem, and the 5.2x drivers will fix it up...

Running the mobo monitor itself will cause pauses. Anything that polls the system every second will produce a skip every second. Disable all background apps, and see if the skipping goes away.

As far as contacting Haig...He's been on vacation. He'll be back Monday...if he doesn't see this thread, post another with his name in the topic, and he will respond.

**Smiff.** · 29 August 1999, 05:02

OK here's someting guys: If I connect to the net, but leave the line idle, no jerks, no lockups, no problem. Only when transfering data (uploading or downloading) does it jerk, and usually within a minute lock up.

This has nothing to do with background tasks (apart from the ISDN of course!). I tried closing down everything (apart from explorer, Rnaapp, Dbserver, Systray because it seems to need these for the Net connection) and that did not help. Its *definately* data transfers on the ISDN adapter.

Any ideaswhat to do? Please?!

Smiff

**Kruzin** · 29 August 1999, 05:14

Wait...are you saying you are tranferring files AND trying to play 3d games at the same time?

**Dilitante1** · 29 August 1999, 05:15

have you seen the other threads with the BH6 + 400 issues? sounds like a general issue that needs a set of better drivers to me

my .02$ worth..

**Smiff.** · 29 August 1999, 05:20

I'm trying to play games like ActionQuake & Gloom over the net, with Gamepsy. I'm lucky to get a minute's play before it locks.

Smiff

[This message has been edited by Smiff. (edited 08-29-1999).]

**Smiff.** · 29 August 1999, 05:22

Dilitante1: Is it even possible to fix things like this with drivers? Who do I look to for them, AVM (makers of the ISDN card) or Matrox?

(stupid comment deleted)

Smiff

[This message has been edited by Smiff. (edited 08-29-1999).]

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G400 + ISDN = dead PC?!

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