Please help with opengl freeze - long post

[dwright]

I installed the g400max Sept 7 with the 5.21 drivers and have everything working (dvd, ati-tv-wonder, dual head, tech demo, direct3d games, expenable, even the tree demo from nvidia) everything except opengl games (qIII, unreal, half life) they all hang my system after the menus. The sound may loop and screen is corrupt only reset gets me out. I have scanned forums and tried the following: disable busmaster, force agp 1x (my display is 0001 in the registry), checked opengl files present, reduced resolutions, made sure dual head is disabled, agp at 128 & 256, and reinstalled the g400 drivers again. I replaced an ati magnum which did run these games, and performed a full ati uninstall (the tv-wonder was added back in after the g400 was installed). Are there any other thing I can try?
My specs: pIII450, bh6 original, 192mb pc100, sblive irq11 (sb 16 disabled), nic irq11, usb irq11, g400max irq12, promise ultra66 irq 10, ati tv-wonder irq09, pioneer 103s, mitsumi 4802te, toshiba sd-m1002, aopen 300w case, zip 100, pt795@1280*1024*32. nothing overclocked but I can run stable @500 which proves the cpu and memory should be ok. Agp is set to 2/3 (66) in bios. Thanks
David

[damn nation]

did you try re-installing windows?

[dwright]

PS: my os is win98se

[dwright]

Thanks: thats my weekend project if I can't fix this. I will start with minimum h/w and add one piece at a time.

[paul]

disable onboard serial ports if you're not using and try splitting those irq's. you didnt mention 3,4,5 or 7. your mb may allow you to assign irq's by slot

[Kruzin]

I agree that you should try to do something with those IRQs. Having 3 devices on one IRQ can cause conflicts. But that's probably not the problem here, since the G400 is clear - unless it's crashing from your sound card/nic/usb sharing...but I am going on the assumtion they are at the same settings they where with the old video card...

I'd scour the registry for anything that might have been left behind by your ATI. Their uninstall routine often misses registry entrys. Also wipe out any ATI .inf files you can find, and any DLLs that are still there.

Also look in the games directory. Make sure there is no opengl32.dll file sitting in there (the only one should be the one in windows\system).

[dwright]

Members, thanks for your help. Problem solved. I had read from other posts that the g400 liked higher irq's, so in preparation for my g400 I had forced the tv-wonder to irq9 which gave the video card irq12 instead of default irq5. With your suggestions I disabled my one active serial port and the printer (for extra measure). I also decided to change bios back to auto assign irq's. The G400 picked up the default of irq5 and tv-wonder received irq12. I deleted and reinstalled QIII test. Then I tested at the install defaults and it worked. I increased QIII resolution, detail, and filtering and have confirmed the problem is resolved. I will enable the serial and printer (one at a time) to determine if they are a factor.
Thanks again
bye for now

[dwright]

Problem is back. Printer and com port are still disabled, but the computer was left on for a while. I will try testing again tomorrow when the computer is cold. Earlier today when the problem was resolved the machine had been off all day. Right now I removed the covers and checked the card. It's warm on the back of the pcb but not too hot to the touch. The G400max fan is operating and G400 memory is cold. I tried power off for a few min. but the problem continues. Extended power off is my next test.

[dwright]

The problem is not heat related - so the card is probably ok (machine was off all day and it still locks up). I will unistall the 5.21 drivers, try the new 5.25 drivers, and re-arrange the IRQ's and see what happens. If that doesn't fix it I will rebuild the machine.

[dwright]

I have done everything above except a reinstall of win98se. The fault is something to do with PIII, win98se, and sblive. If I remove the sblive the g400 operates correctly every time. When I put sblive back in it freezes opengl apps. I have the sblive on its own irq, tried different slots, and the system still freezes on every opengl app. I removed the tv-wonder until I get this fixed. I am using the 5.25 drivers. I have not flashed the g400max bios its at 1.3-20.

Is there a known problem with sblive, win98se, and PIII? Any solutions?

[dwright]

The Fix for opengl freeze on entry to app:
1. Place sblive in a pci slot that you can assign its own IRQ (in my case it is the 3rd pci slot from the AGP slot). This is not enough to cure the freeze in opengl. Test is still a freeze requiring reset.
2. Reinstall the sblive 2.0 drivers writing over the newer modules (it warns you). Test and opengl doesn't freeze up. Install sblive 2.1 drivers. Test and everythings still ok.
3. Install tv-wonder.

That's it! I tested the system through about 10 boots now with 100% success. It took too long to fix because moving the sblive was not enough to cure the freese.

I have installed the opengl beta drivers (they appear to be older than the 5.25 one) without problems.