System Hang: NO SOLUTION?

[VidMadMan]

I have a SD11 FIC motherboard and Matrox G400 DH. I installed a clean install of Win98SE with the 5.30 drivers. I did not install any additional hardware. When I load a 3D program it hangs after a second or two. That's ANY 3D game. 2D works fine.
I have the AGP miniport for my mobo installed, I have tried every combination possible of AGP 1x, AGP 2x, and Bus Mastering and nothing makes the card stable. I also had a similar problem with my diamond stealth (savage 4) card. Could it be a power supply or motherboard hardware issue? My Savage 4 used to work fine but when it started screwing up I bought the G400 and that worked for a while. Now even the G400 doesn't work.

[Goc]

hi VidMadMan!

How strong is your power supply?
Personnaly, I don't own an Athlon system, but from what I've been reading around, any powersupply that hasn't got at least 250W is unacceptable, and 300W is optimal... It is also important to have a powersupply that AMD recommends... That's the safest way to go :-)

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Just my humble opinion...

Specs--=>

PII 300@450 Mhz SL2W8
ABIT BH6 rev1.63
64 Mb PC133 SDRAM
Matrox Millenium G200 8Mb
HDD 4,3 Gb WDCaviar U/ATA66
HDD 1,6 Gb WDCaviar U/DMA33
Yamaha Waveforce 192XG
TEAC 32X ATAPI CDROM
MITSUMI 4X ATAPI CDROM
17" Macom S82
HP Laserjet 5L
Scanner, and loads of other stuff ;-)

[Wombat]

What revision of the motherboard do you have? There was a bad batch or two of the SD-11, and you may be fully entitled to an exchange for a newer version.

[VidMadMan]

I only have a 233 W power supply, and it is one of the recomended brands. However, if it was a power problem I suspect that it would solve itself if I unpluged my 2 CD-ROMs. Sadly, even with minimal cards and peripherals installed I still get lockups. Also, I used to have no problems whereas now I all-of-the-sudden do.

[VidMadMan]

I have rev. 1.7 of the motherboard. I am pretty sure that is the most recent and is good.

[Giz]

Hey VidMadMan,

I had the exact same problem with my Athlon 650Mhz, FIC SD-11, G400 Max. Everything in 2D ran great, but anything 3D, whether it be a game, the TechDemo or 3DMark would lock up after a while. Sometimes right away sometimes after about 30 minutes. After trying a number of things, the place that I bought my system from replaced the powersupply and put in an Asus K7M motherboard and now everything runs perfectly.

If possible I would get a stronger powersupply and I would also try the K7M. It certainly has worked for me.

Good luck.



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Athlon 650mhz, Asus K7M, 128MB PC100, Matrox G400 Max, SB Live Value, Quantum KA 18.2GB ATA66 7200rpm, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Viewsonic PS 790 19" monitor

[VidMadMan]

Giz,
I am buying a new power supply (costing me $90!!). Do you think that would be enough (ie I don't have to replace my motherboard)? How much does the K7M cost?

thanks for your info.

[Giz]

It might help you out. My new powersupply was on the AMD recommended list, but not on the FIC SD-11 list. Its the SevenTeam 250w PS. I do hope it works out for you. I know it was very fustrating for me. But I promise you, once everything works... its GREAT!!!

As for the cost of the K7M I'm not sure how much it will be for you. I didn't have to pay extra for my K7M. The company that built my system swapped it for the SD-11 for free.


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Athlon 650mhz, Asus K7M, 128MB PC100, Matrox G400 Max, SB Live Value, Quantum KA 18.2GB ATA66 7200rpm, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Viewsonic PS 790 19" monitor

[motub]

I would think there's a good chance that replacing the power supply should be enough... but if you need or want to get a K7M.. it seems to run from about $165USD to $199USD without CPU on http://www.pricewatch.com/.

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Link!Zilla

[rickn]

Why are you spending $90. Get an antec pp-303x from buy.com for $36. It is on the AMD approved Powersupply list

[Zwisch]

You do not only need the AGP drivers for the AMD 751 northbridge but also teh 3 in one from VIA and the Bus Mastering drivers... Do you have all these in?

[Gurm]

I feel obliged to point out that my generic $30 case and generic built-in power supply run my P3-600 just fine, thus reinforcing my belief in the crappiness of AMD's chipset designs (not the CPU design, which is brilliant in this case).

- Ash

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

This signature is not Copyright by anyone. Especially not some guy named Steve. Yeah. That's it. Please don't kill me, Holly.

[Nuno]

Gurm, I think the CPU design is the one to blame. Well, not that there´s something actually wrong with it, its performance is very good, but it has a much higher power consumption (W) than any Intel CPU out there. So if the PS isn´t up to par, the system won´t work properly.

[VidMadMan]

The major problems I have with video only pop up after I install the AGP miniport drivers and such. I am running without those to maintain stable.
I will consider refusing my package and buying the ps from buy.com, but there's something Titillating about a really expensive power supply... :-)