G400 MAX & Unreal Tournament...

[Uno]

I got a problem with a clean install of Windows ME with my G400 MAX playing Unreal Tournament. I'm using the newest drivers for ME. The problem occurs when idling or moving through menus, suddenly UT just freezes and I have to reboot most of the time - when in luck I can kill the process. Anyone know anything about this annoying problem?

[Greebe]

Is it just UT or does anything else have problems? Are you OC'd? What are your system specs/IRQ's?

[Uno]

There's only a problem with UT.
I have a PIII-700E(no clocking), Abit BF6, 256MB SDRAM and G400MAX AGP2x (not OC'd).
All devices in the system are working and there are no conflicts.

[Jorden]

Which version of UT are you playing? Do you have a screensaver on, or do you let your screen go into power-off mode (when it starts up, you could get this behaviour)?

When in luck, did you ever try pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE to check if anything else was about to hang or not responding?

Do give us your IRQ's just to be sure, and how you do that can be found here

Roll on, Mike

Jord.

[Uno]

I'm Using version 428, 432 I didn't find so smooth...no idea why. No screensaver. No power-off mode. I always go CTRL+ALT+DELETE when it freezes and when nothing responds I restart the stupid thing. When I get the Close Program box I see of course Ut not responding then I kill it and I'm back to my desktop.

Here are my IRQ's:

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 1 Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard OK
IRQ 2 Programmable interrupt controller OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM4) OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 4 Printer Port (LPT1) OK
IRQ 5 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
IRQ 5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller OK
IRQ 7 Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus OK
IRQ 10 Billion BIPAC-PCI SE ISDN card OK
IRQ 10 3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI TX NIC (3C905B-TX) OK
IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 11 Vortex AU8830 Multifunction PCI Platform OK
IRQ 11 Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio OK
IRQ 11 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 12 PS/2 Compatible Mouse Port OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK
IRQ 15 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) OK

[Jorden]

IRQ 4 Printer Port (LPT1) OK
IRQ 5 Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English OK
IRQ 5 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering OK
IRQ 6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller OK
IRQ 7 Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation OK

First off, IRQ7 is always, and I repeat ALWAYS reserved for your printer port. Same goes for the SB Pro emulators that ALWAYS want to be on IRQ5. That could help you alot already.

Especially since COM2 and COM4 want to be on IRQ3, and COM1 and COM3 want to be on IRQ4.
These are all standard positions for these IRQs.

IRQ3 = Com2 or Com4
IRQ4 = Com1 or Com3
IRQ5 = Sound Blaster cards
IRQ6 = Floppy Drive controller
IRQ7 = Printer port

Then the G400 residing on IRQ5. Can't say if any of the other games you run don't have problems, you say they don't, but on this IRQ you don't get the best out of your G400.
It resides the best at IRQs 9 through 11.

Why that is? Read up on the links given in How do we move those IRQs around?

Especially the thread in which Haig explains why the IRQs are working the way they do.

So, do you think your IRQs are OK now?

Jord.

[Greebe]

Jorden, not in all cases does the IRQ below 9 effect proformance. My Max always ran on IRQ5 and my G450 whilst on IRQ 5, is now on IRQ3 and I can tell you, it hasn't negatively impacted speed.
I think the problem lies elsewhere. (best guess, sound card drivers)

[Uno]

Thanx for your help people!
Played for an hour yesterday and didn't hang once. Maybe just luck...cause I haven't changed a thing yet. Will probably change IRQ on my G400 MAX to 9 or above to get higher priority. Maybe the driver for my soundcard is the problem, but soon I will change it for reasons you all should know.

Have a good one folks