Random crashes on NT

[Scytale]

A lame question maybe, but did you check your monitor cable, and the seating of the G400 card?

[jeepman]

See my post: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/006510.html

to see if any of it applies to your situation. There could be a problem on a few odd configurations.

[powerplay]

Random crashes on NT

Can anyone advise me on a solution to my problem?

I have a new machine with a G400 32Mb Dual Head card installed, latest bios and latest NT drivers.

Randomly, and for no reason, the monitor will go blank with no signal and the PC will reboot.

This happens frequently, about once every couple of hours or so, sometimes more often.

Other hardware of note in my system is a Creative Live! soundcard, Zip drive, DVD rom drive, 3-com rj45 network card and Dynamode PCI modem.

Have any other NT users had similar problems?

Thanks for any help.

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Stuart Davis,
PowerPlay Direct.
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stuart@nospam.powerplaydirect.co.uk

[powerplay]

Yes, my cable and card are both fine, my problem is not just of the display going off; my PC spontaneously re-boots itself with no warning, the display going off is just the first symptom.

I had the 4.31 drivers installed previously and had the same problem with those.

My system is a dual boot system with Win98 and on that no rebooting occurs, however the machine will lock up or blue-screen on every shut-down, and will often hang after booting up; remove the matrox drivers however and all is fine.

Scytale, the only thing I can see in common with your situation is the Soundblaster Live! card, maybe there is as conflict with this?

I notice that the IRQ assignments when my machine boots up is that my display card and network card both share IRQ 11 and I wonder if that is causing a problem. All my attempts to correct it in the BIOS have failed however (whatever IRQ is assigned to my network card is shared by the display card) so I hope that isn't the root of the problem!


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Stuart Davis,
PowerPlay Direct.
--
stuart@nospam.powerplaydirect.co.uk

[Scytale]

I would agree, but since Stuart mentioned he doesn't have a problem with W98 there must be something else.

I remember I used to have this problem for a short while (only with NT4), but I'm unsure about the context because of many upgrades and updates.

Stuart, you didn't post driver and OS details. Therefore, at this time my only advise is to check if you are using the latest drivers for SBLive and 3Com NIC, and (last but not least) NT service pack SP6.


[This message has been edited by Scytale (edited 07 December 1999).]

[BC547]

Perhaps you could try to put the networkcard in another PCI slot. That would change the irq. For example: The PCI slot next to the AGP slot shares thesame IRQ as the AGP card (this cannot be changed mostly). Best solution is to leave that PCI slot empty. I've had thesame problem in win98 with a AbitBH6 mb (random lockups, 3Dgames that didn't run smoothly) and when I left the PCI slot empty, it worked perfectly

BC547 aka Dirk

[powerplay]

All good suggestions.

I have the latest 4.34 NT Drivers installed and also the latest Live! drivers. My 3Com Network drivers are those that WindowsNT installed by default which seem to work perfectly.

My NT service pack is SP5, I am cautious about putting SP6 on - there is still time for Microsoft to withdraw it and deny all knowledge of it;-)

It looks like I am running out of options, the only thing I haven't done is move things around the PCI slots (the slot next to AGP is empty).

Also, although Win98 doesn't spontaneously reboot, it does have the problem of hanging on shutdown which is cured by uninstalling the matrox drivers, so there is definately a problem somewhere, just manifesting itself differently in either OS.

Help!!!


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Stuart Davis,
PowerPlay Direct.
--
stuart@nospam.powerplaydirect.co.uk

[Scytale]

I understand 'some' of your reluctance about upgrading to SP6, however it includes updated 3Com NIC drivers, and not without reason...

Aaaand... I am quite positive that I was using SP5 at the time I had NT blacking out and rebooting on me...

[PaulS]

Even with the system working in 98, it could still be hardware. I have seen a few systems that run flawlessly under 95 and crashed under NT, and the solution turned out to be a non driver related hardware problem. Spontaneous reboots in NT are pretty rare.


The last system I saw would spontaneously reboot under NT whenever we add some extra RAM, however the system worked fine under 98. My first thought was that the RAM was suspect and NT was using a portion of memory that 98 wasn't. However, after days off stuffing around with different brands of memory, it turned out that adding the extra 2 sticks simply pulled more current than the motherboard could supply, and it became unstable with NT. Why it didn't happen with 98 beats me, maybe NT allows the system to run more freely and components draw more power?

Paul

[PaulS]

Stuart,

Non BSOD reboots are most often motherboard or power supply related. Most likely your cards are drawing more power than your motherboard can reliably supply. Sometimes mounting a fan blowing directly on the regulator heatsinks can help, otherwise you may need to look at a different motherboard.

There is also a possibility that you may have a bad power supply unit.

Sorry not much else you can do, it is just a process of elimination.

Paul

[powerplay]

Right then, I suppose my next step is to get hold of SP6 and see (touch wood;-)


Thanks,

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Stuart Davis,
PowerPlay Direct.
--
stuart@nospam.powerplaydirect.co.uk

[vidmar]

I have just re-ghosted 35 PIII 450's with G200 SDRAMS and NT4 SP6a and PD 4.34. I am seeing the exact same problems on a LOT on the machines!

Sudden freezes, no Dr. Watson, nothing. The only thing I can do is to power the machine down. Just like you I was rock steady on PD 4.22.

Matrox HELP!!! I still have 75 more G200 based machines that I was going to re-ghost this weekend.

Alan

[Jorden]

vid-mar, what do you mean by re-ghosting?? Using Ghost the program??

Jord.

[vidmar]

I manage 230 computers for my office. Most of them I bought early last year, and are all exactly the same. Same video card G200 8MB SGRAM (not SDRAM as I mentioned in an earlier post) Same ethernet card, same motherboard, same memory, same SCSI controller, same disks, same everything.

So, when i need to update all of these puters, I use a utility from Symantec, called Ghost. It allows you to create an "image" of a full machine, and save it off to a file. Then you can take that image and apply it to another machine. This works best if the machines are exactly alike.

In any case, my latest updates to the ~100 machines mentioned above, included the lastest G400-G200 NT4 drivers (PD 4.34).

I have been able to reproduce my problems everytime. A simple scroll on the scroll bar of ANY application will cause the machine to freeze. No Dr. Watson, no blue screen, nothing. Power switch is the only option.

Again this is only happening on G200s NOT a few G400s I just received. And again these machines wortk fine with the PD 4.22 drivers.

All computers are on the latest bios, as well as the G200 cards (2.6.20).

I have no interrupt conflicts, PCAnywhere is not installed, etc.

I have seen others with this problem. There has to be something wrong with these drivers.



Alan



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HOME:
PIII 500
G400 32MB
128MB PC100
9GB 10K SCSI
Win 98 SE
DirectX 7

WORK:
PIII 500
G400 32MB
128MB PC100
9GB 10K SCSI
NT4 SP6a

[Brued_2]

I'm not using NT4 but. I did install my network card to go to a lan party. the system worked fine befor i did but once it was in it shared IRQ 11 with the G400 and Windows would hang on Bootup, playing games(if i got in windows) and i'd get the BSOD on shutdown. i fix the problem by removing the NIC and using a diffrent one that used IRQ 5. The NIC that wouldn't work was a Linksys 100TX and ever PCI slot i put it in it used IRQ 11 with the G400. So you could try a diffrent NIC or take out your NIC run your system and see if it works right.

Just my 2 cents.