i may have found my elusive problem, but i'm not sure what to do about it.
 

remember that crazy ass stutter or freeze i keep getting in windows? well, it just dawned on me a few days ago that i might know what the problem is.

to recap, in windows every once in a while the machine stutters, or freezes for a second or so. well, lately i've been having a hell of a time with halflife games. it constantly locks up on me, so much that it just isn't worth playing.

when i first installed, i got a few bsod's, memory dumps. i haven't had this happen in a long time, but the lockups in hl are much worse.

one time i even got booted from a server for a "memory corruption", and said if i kept it up, i would be banned for cheating.

anyways. generally i don't get a blue screen when playing hl, the machine just locks. so i'm thinking now that my whole problem is a memory issue.

i figure, there are 1 of 3 solutions (and i don't think a reinstall will help... i reinstalled all the hl stuff, that didn't work).

i figure it's either:

a) bad memory
b) the memory doesn't like the overclock. but, i doubt this is the case, because i'm not overclocking the memory, i have an xp 2400, and i just set it to 2600 in the bios.
c) the motherboard doesn't like the memory

i'm not sure which to do tho. probably the first thing is set the clock back to 2400, which i'm going to do first. might suck a little to lose the performance, but it's worth a try to make the machine more stable.

next i guess is to RMA the memory, it should still be under warranty. but, i'll probably have to RMA 1 at a time (512x2), because i don't have any spare ddr laying around, and i can't be off my computer for 3-4days waiting for the new memory.

this to me sounds like though it has got to be the problem i've been having all along, i dunno why it didn't hit me earlier. i mean, the machine shouldn't stutter all the time, it's damn annoying. never had a computer do this before.

i'm running an abit at7-max2 mainboard, xp 2400+, and kingston hyperx ram (i _believe_ it's pc2700 cas2.5). i don't believe there should be any native problems with the motherboard disliking the ram, but you never know i guess.

any other ideas, i'm all ears :)

this really sucks tho, guess i should have bought the corsair :( but the kingston was so cheap and came with pretty heatspreaders :)

is there any good free software out there btw that i can use to check something like this?

http://www.memtest86.com/

Download it.

Run it. (It will make a bootable floppy.)

Boot from the floppy.

memtest86, I think, is the name of a good one. Try opening your case first and directing a massive ass fan onto your RAM sticks. This time of year it could be that your RAM is getting too hot and becoming minutely instable. War3:TFT gives me this issue if I don't have my front drive bay intakes on.

Another option, if you want to be adventurous, is to download the Gentoo Linux basic disk (60MB or so), and upon boot you can run a very intensive memory test. When done, just restart the machine. Nothing will be affected by the test, and nothing needs to be installed.

You can get instructions on how to do the above in the x86 install guide in their docs section. Just run the correct parameter in the boot: prompt.

I use the Prime95 torture test for my machines.

Memtest (and the like) will give you an OS independent report on the hardware. If your parts are incompatible, too hot, unstable, undervolted, etc. then thats the best place to start.

But prime95 is nice because it does run in windows. If your chipset drivers are having issues or if you have any software corruption, this will let you know. If I can't get a full 24 hrs stable then I know I need to change something.

i had some freezing problems lately, the machine always went back live after a couple of secs. boot up was horrendously slow and shutting down, the same thing.

after some months i did a HDD test and bam, defective hard drive. never got bsod's not permanent freezes or data loss. with my new drive its like a 500% OC

well... so far i've backed off the clock to stock. that hasn't made any difference.

i ran memtest 86, it took about 7.5hrs to run 1 full cycle. i basically just ran it how it came "out of the box", and no errors are reported.

so, i'm *assuming* the memory is good. that makes me think maybe it's a hard drive issue, or something.

so, i've unplugged the storage drives on the highpoint raid controller, and see if that's going to make any difference (shouldn't, since the games and stuff aren't run on the storage drives, but who knows).

i don't have any speed problems with the system at all though... just the lockups and the freezes. the speed is pretty good, all things considered, i've been quite happy with that.

anyways, i guess we'll see what happens next.

on a side note, the memtest86 program seemed pretty nice. the best part is for version 3.0, you can download a bootable iso file, and make a bootable cd. this was a HUGE plus for me, since i don't have a floppy drive in this computer :):)

May I ask? are you using IBM drives?
I had a random reboot problem and it turned out to be a bad drive, replacing the drives with seagates fixed it, been rock solid for a year .

just my 2 cents
Aardil

I HAD 2 ibm deskstars. They both died. Slow.. deaths... torture. Anyhoo, I was getting configuration and corruption.

Another thing, If you OC, and your drives arent on a an nforce2 or similar clocking scheme, they will be clocked higher and will corrupt easy. Don't expect to run safely. Basically (my theory) your virtual memory which is written to the HD becomes corrupt. Your games (HL) will attempt to cache the level or levels in virtual memory for quick load times. This becomes corrupt, and when repeatedly accessed, will give you memory errors because your errors will easily exceed the threshold.

well, it's definitely an ide problem, it appears. i disconnected the 2 drives i use for storage, and was able to play hl for quite some time without any problems. i can't tell if windows is freezing. it doesn't appear to be, but all my music and stuff is on the storage drives, so i'm not positive. but, hl no longer locking up seems indicative that it's a hard drive issue.

i'm going to install one of the extra ata cards i've got laying around, and run the drives off that, see if that makes a difference (haven't done that yet).

my concern is if it _is_ a controller error, i might have a hard time telling right off. but, if it is a controller error, i've got more problems. it's not an issue right now, but i was planning to upgrade to 1 or 2 wd raptor sata drives. the sata looks like it's controlled by the same controller on the board, and if it is, then that means i won't be able to use the sata like i want to. that would really suck.

i'm hoping it's just a combination of things, or a drive problem, because i really don't want to have to RMA the mainboard :(

as far as the system, the at7-max2 board has an onboard highpoint raid controller, that's what i'm using to run the drives.

the hard drives are all 7200 RPM WD special editions (8mb cache), the main drive is an 80gb (pretty new), the storage drives are 100 and 120gb.

well, now i don't know if it's an IDE problem or not.

hl seemed a lot more stable without the big drives attached, but i just played for about two hours (!), and it locked.

it's still doing the freeze in windows as well.

so, it's not the big drives, it's not the memory (presumably).

the only devices i had in the system were video card and sound card, other than what's on board.

perhaps tho i've got a flaky processor or something. the freezing has always happened, but i don't remember the halflife locks since my a/c broke in my house and my cpu started getting really hot.

i'm not sure now... i mean, i don't have any extra drives right now to swap in the main drive, so unless there's some good diagnostic software out there i can use (i'll google for it), that's not really an option right now.

so anyways, i dunno, i guess i'll plug back through it. i think i saw some software on zdnet that's supposed to thoroughly test your cpu, so maybe i'll DL that and see what it says.

now i'm starting to think towards video card problems. think it'd be possible for windows to be pausing courtesy of the video card?

i dunno, but i had a blue screen in windows the other day, memory-dump style. it said the program tha caused the error was 'ati2dvag.dll'. so, i installed catalyst 3.7, still had lockups in halflife.

i tweaked around some of the direct3d and opengl settings, and i'm getting all sorts of issues in halflife. seems the card just doesn't want to run very well.. i'm getting a lot of video lag and a few rendering problems on screen.

soooo... maybe i've got a bad video card??

guess it could be the vid card. are you using an old win installation? I have had strange problems with that. reeinstalled and no more. same thing if several vid drivers are loaded without the old ones being cleaned out first.
also do your videocard have its own power connector? if thats loose or has a bad connection it will cause strange errors. mine did anyway...

also, for those of you who have deathstars:
http://www.storagereview.com/php/tik...page=DeathStar

i suppose i can try that, but i took the card out last night and plugged it back in.

it's a 9700 pro 128mb.

i turned the truform on, and the thing didn't like halflife at all, but i turned it back off, and it seemed ok.

i'm thinking i might try a reinstall... but, that still won't solve the freeze i'm having.

and as far as the lockups.. i've noticed now it's just halflife that dies, not windows. if i leave hl locked for about 30 seconds to a minute, windows pops up with an error report.

i'm going to order the processor for my lan server.. eh, probably today. i was going to do it this weekend, but i was lazy.

when i get that running, i'll reinstall my desktop, see if it helps at all, and install strait to the 3.7 catalyst drivers, see if that helps at all.

i downloaded a burn-in test thingie, i might try that, see if it has any problems.

3mark won't really run either. it starts going through the tests, gets almost half way through, and just dies. no errors, nothing, just closes out.

Ok.. there are several issuse that I could think of off the top of my head...

1) Catalysts are sensitive to install changes.. ie installing new or old ones without uninstalling first.

2) Studdering could be IDE interrupt probs

3) 3dmark crash to desktop usually is a vid-memory issue but could also be driver/system related.

What OS are u using? Service Pack? What are the IDE config/layout (devices and connection master/slave)? What are the driver revisons for the Via (Cpu to Agp, Pci-Pci, CPU to PCI), HighPoint, Vid, Sound, Network Card.

Also are u running HL in D3d or OpenGL?

Ill try and help but need more information.

Could be service related, but from all the behavior I think is either OS/driver or possible Bios issue.

win xp pro, i don't think i'm running any service packs, but i've installed all the updates windows update finds.

i've got a sony dvd-rom on secondary master, yamaha 44x cdrw on secondary slave, 80gb wd se 7200 on primary master, 100gb & 120gb wd se on a promise tx2, but they were running on the on-board highpoint raid controller. those two drives do not appear to cause the problem, since i've switched them out or removed them with no change.

the drivers for everything onboard are the ones that came with the board, and i haven't flashed the bios or anything for the board.

i'm pretty sure hl is running in opengl, i'd have to check, but that's the only mode that lets you run in 1600x1280 if i remember.

sound card is a sb live plat, the drivers were the latest ones as of a couple months ago.

network card is on-board, using the M$ network drivers.

now i'm guessing with the half-life issues, i think that could be a corrupted driver file of some sort. sometimes it works great, sometimes it locks. it also doesn't appear to like having truform turned on.

but, i was just playing around with some stuff and found something in the archives of some crazy forum. it was the only thing i could find thus far on my error.

and.... I THINK I HAVE IT FIXED! i'm not _sure_ yet, so knock on wood.

but, it appears that nvidia have some serious windows issues. anyways, on a troubleshooting situation with an nvidia device, i found this.

apparently on some systems, the windows voice and keyboard recognition stuff can mess up a system, and cause the pauses i've been having.

i've never had problems with this in the past, but i never really thought about it.

so, i disabled the handwriting and voice recognition crap, and did what every manly man would do... moved the files out so hopefully windows couldn't find them (just in case something crashed i could put them back.. although i don't remember where i got them :) ).

the file is sapisvr.exe. it wasn't actually showing up in the process manager, but i moved it anyways, since it seems its the file behind the mayhem. there was also a "prefetch file" associated with this, so i pulled that as well.

now of course i'm not convinced since i've only been running it this way for about 15 minutes or so, but thus far i haven't noticed any pauses. believe me, i've got my fingers crossed.

i think it's _possible_ i didn't remove the previous catalyst version the last time i installed the drivers (prior to the install i did today). so, it's possible that's causing issues. i did remove them today before i installed 3.7, but it still could be causing issues.

i'm guessing a full reinstall and a direct install of 3.7 should be fine.

so, that's my situation as of now, i'm going to run it for a while 'fore i crash out for an hour or so to see if the speech thing fixed my pausing issue.

i'll keep everyone posted, i'm really hoping i don't have to rma my vid card. i have a guy that's interested in buying it in a couple weeks when he gets back to the states, i was kinda thinking of upgrading to a 9800 pro 256mb (although i'm not convinced yet it's worth it..)

If you have a Canon printer drivers installed, try removing the printer + all drivers. Canon printer drivers are notorious for causing exactly the kind of problem you're mentioning.

Another way to pinpont the problem, is to open the the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del), and watch closely the processes runing. The culprit (if any) will show up as a process that consumes upwards to 2% or more of CPU time every few seconds or so.

#$%@#$%(@#(^)@$(%*@_*)@*(^)(@!#$%)(@#)$(%@#*^*@)#$ (%^)@#($%_)@#_$(%@#*^_!@#$%_!)#_$)%!#*$^(@#$(^)@(# $%_)!_+@#)$%!_)#*$^*!@#$)%!_@#)$_+!)_@#+$(!*#%^*!( )#$(%!_)#$@_!*$%^!*^)#@$%_!@)#$+!@_#$_+!@(^%!#*$^) (!#($%)_!)_@#$!_+@#(%!*$^!#*^)!#($%_!@#)$_@(!#$!*^ )(%!@_#$)!_+@#$+!

Go to http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2 and download the 4in1 drivers it should help with any AGP issues you are having. Also if you are getting an error message go to the MS knowledge base and see if you can locate the error. If it is a as simple as a vid card memory issue it will be on there. That way if you continue to get the error you will at least know where its coming from and sometimes how to fix it.






Iroc you win the coveted cybrsamurai strangest post of the day award!!!

lol. it was frustration.

here's my winbond right now, it doesn't seem to have anything out of whack, but check it:

http://www.idahoes.com/pub/winbond.gif

i've just updated the 4in1 from abit, flashed the bios using abit's little windows one click flashy update thingie (pretty damn cool, btw), updated the sound card drivers, recently upgraded directx, installed the newer ide drivers that were listed, etc.

checked the task manager, doesn't appear to be anything outside of the ordinary, although there are a few things i'm not sure what they do. i thought maybe it was my messenger client, but i left it off and still the problem.

i downloaded the latest version of wd's datalifeguard windows tool, and did both the quick test and extended test on the primary drive, they both passed. i didn't do the 'write zeros' test, because it's destructive.

it seems the problem is much more pronounced when i'm running several programs. if i just have winamp, firebird, and maybe gaim running, it seems to happen very little. but if i open the usual slew of programs, photoshop, imageready, dreamweaver etc and even just basically let them idle, the problem is much more noticable.

i usually only actually notice it when winamp or wmp is running, but that's only because the machine is constantly giving me something to guage it with.

although what is kinda wierd is i don't usually actually notice this stutter when games are running. they seem to run just fine, even if i have something like gaim running in the background.

i rarely get any sort of actual error. i've had like 3 bsod's since i've reinstalled several months ago, the first two were shortly after i reinstalled, the second the other day with a mem dump and an error in the file 'ati2dvag.dll'.

so, i would assume from my tests that the hard drives and memory are good, and theoretically the ide controllers aren't giving me grief.

that puts it to the sound card, video card, mainboard, or processor.

the video card and sound card were transferred in from the old machine, so i'd kinda think this was a mb or cpu issue... but hard to tell for sure. it still could be the vid card, but if i remember right i've pretty much had this problem since i upgraded.

maybe it's the power supply?? i dunno... i'm starting to fish again :(

anyone have a copy of testlab 2003 or hot cpu tester pro? :D

finally got 3dmark03 to run all the way through (just using the demo ver), scored 4381 marks. that any good? here's online specs:

edit: holy crap. someone on there is running an amd at 2810mhz, with a 9800 pro running at 526/411, and 512mb sys ram coming in at 7472...

i guess that means i'm not ready for hl2 :(

wheeeee! win32k.sys bsod'd me when i clicked on a gif button in my filesystem!




aRgH! i don't know what to doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

have you tried running the abit "fail safe" setting default in the bios? With my first AMD based system (ABIT board slot A ) I had a similar problem the only way i could get it to stop was to set the fail safe option. Give it a shot and let us know

Ok.. this is getting interesting.. ok.. sorry.. your misery is not interesting just the problem ;)

Have you changed any hardware since installing XP?
Can you provide a shot of the task mng so we can see what programs and services are running?


If you decede to go the reinstall route my advice would be

1) XP
2) Via 4in1 (4.49 appears to be latest)
3) CAT's and cpanel if u want it
4) Break Creative card in half and get an Maudio.. ;)
ok.. just install the creative drivers not the extras....
5) DirectX
6) Sp1 (always recommend major service packs.. its M$)
6) Test the begesus out of it with HL, 3dmark, prime, cpuburn,
and try and get it to fail.. that way you have a limited
selection of software to fix/update/test

Sorry about just asking more questions but its hard to diagnose without being there to change and test or see configs...