Silent Warrior Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 Alright, that's it, I have tried to post about this problem THREE TIMES, and I wasn't allowed to! Can I post this? OK, good. Since I've wrote a quite lengthy post about this TWICE, you'll have to make do with a shorter version. I bought an X-Fi Extreme Music this Saturday. By Monday I couldn't play any games because my machine freezes a few seconds into 3D-rendering. X3, F4:AF, X-Fi Splash and CCC have been tested and all freeze. I make sure the drivers are all installed as they should be, no change. I yank out the X-Fi and go back to the onboard soundcard, no luck either. When I get this freeze I can hear some sort of 'thunk' and the HD-activity light goes full throttle. I have contacted Creative about it. In case it's something wrong with my Radeon 9700, I've also contacted ATI. No concrete help from them yet. If this has torched my 9700, I'll have a fit like you wouldn't believe. It cost me $600 back then (2002)! There's a possibility it's my RAM buckling, it's just as old. (512 Mb RDRAM PC2700) Any thoughts?
Guest ThomasDWeiss Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 If I may give a Oprah-style advise - I am certain that it probably may perhaps be your hard drive, my advise is to get another HD do a backup as soon as you can, if it isn't your HD, you have a backup, if it is, you spared yourself a lot of work. You 9700 is near the end of its expected life - you can get a very good X800 and cheap very cheap.
Prophet_169th Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 Try reinstalling DirectX. There is an update to it from December-05. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3F2828FA-0E3C-4837-AFC0-6C67DCAA54BF&displaylang=en If you have taken the soundcard out, most likely it is not the sound card. Did you uninstall the drivers before you pulled it out? If not, you may want to put it back in, so you can, and then yank it again. Also try reinstalling your MoBo drivers. Check what the transfer speed is at for the IDE controller the HDD is on. If its in PIO, then you can try setting it back. But windows will revert to PIO when it gets to many read/write errors, and so it may be bad. <- The HDD, not the controller.
Mustang Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 also, what PCI slot are you using? never use the first and second PCI slot for soundcards, 3 or 5 are typically the best ones to use....also check for IRQ conflicts, maybe the soundcard and videocard were sharing same IRQ
Alfa Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 Alright, that's it, I have tried to post about this problem THREE TIMES, and I wasn't allowed to! Can I post this? You can - if you use the right section of the forum for it :icon_twis . - JJ. JJ
Mustang Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 lol Alfa, i was just about to edit my post with "BTW you really should post this in the Tech section...." :p
zenTera Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 What motherboard do you have, especially which chipset? Especially the earlier X-Fi's are known to have problems with nVidia nForce4 chipsets. Many motherboard vendors made BIOS updates available to sort these problems out. Also, Creative used to update the firmware of your X-Fi if nothing else worked. Read a lot about that at the Creative forums, because I wanted one, too. Don't know if they sorted out the problem meanwhile or if I just was lucky, but my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium has an nForce4 chipset and my X-Fi Platinum runs without problems up to now.
Alfa Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 lol Alfa, i was just about to edit my post with "BTW you really should post this in the Tech section...." ".....if you want to avoid THIS..:icon_hang". :) . Cheers, - JJ. JJ
Silent Warrior Posted January 14, 2006 Author Posted January 14, 2006 AAAAH! AGAIN! IT WOULDN'T LET ME POST NOW EITHER! #¤"#¤"@€$! :mad: GRAAAH! Alright, in order... AGAIN... Thomas: certain that it probably may perhaps be Heh! Well, that does sound reasonable. Though that HD isn't the oldest piece of my rig, it has been put through its paces, I suppose. But it's my C-drive, it must be a real *beep* to switch just like that! Well, at least they're reasonably cheap... As for the 9700, it does smell kind of funny... Not torched, but all w3rd-like. Like some sort of really warm goo. I was looking to upgrade like soon, but I'd be gunning for PCI-E then... Prophet: Downloaded, will install when opportunity arises. I'm sort of busy for the next 10-11 hours, actually. The soundcard is back, and I agree that it doesn't seem to be the problem. At least I won't be embarrassed, always something. My harddrives are using PIO 5, I think. Or was it 4? Anyway, it uses a higher digit than my CD-drives (PIO 2). Both default-settings as I haven't dared touch them. Will see what can be made to happen. Mustang: I didn't bother counting the slots, but I have an IRQ-conflict on another machine (weird that, it used to work, honest, it did!) and this looks nothing like that. Different hardware, true, but I don't think IRQ is the issue... unfortunately... Alfa: I tried, but it wouldn't let me. :p zenTera: nForce? Pff, newfangled twinklies! :rolleyes: I happen to have an ASUS P4T-E. Latest BIOS-update being a beta from november 2003-ish, latest 'official' release from august 2003. Latest general download is Intel's wossname-installer v. 5.10.sumthingsumthing. Yay to be me! I'll look over the HD next. Stay tuned... *Marwin-mode engaged*
Shaman Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 When you remove X-FI card from your computer does the problem occur? Oh, and thanks guys for posting link to new DX! 51PVO Founding member (DEC2007-) 100KIAP Founding member (DEC2018-) :: Shaman aka [100☭] Shamansky tail# 44 or 444 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] 100KIAP Regiment Early Warning & Control officer
Silent Warrior Posted January 15, 2006 Author Posted January 15, 2006 shaman: Yep, so I do believe it's the HD. At least those are fairly cheap... Prophet: Oopsie, those were the U-DMA-settings. PIO was at 4 all around. Now set to 3 for HDs, at least, it gives me a few more seconds of play in F4AF. I'll set it even lower and hardly even touch the thing before I can buy a new HD. Hopefully that'll sort me out.
Silent Warrior Posted January 22, 2006 Author Posted January 22, 2006 OK, got that new HD. Flashy little Western Digital Caviar :confused: 80Gb. So, now to Teh Gre4t Transf3r. In short, I've tried this the messy way - copy everything and export all registry-entries to the new HD and see if it works. And, well, it didn't quite work. The main catch is system32/config/, there are some apparently really important files there I can't copy because "they're in use by another service" - not that ever had any issue listening to my MP4s while defragging, but I sort of understand why you shouldn't move things like that around any old how. I have also tried RARing this, with the same result. I don't have an XP-CD in my possession at this moment - explaining would have to include translating something I don't know how to, so I won't bother - so I'd prefer it if this could be done without installing XP on the new drive. Um... btw, what do you suppose will happen when I hook up the old C:-drive with the new one to copy all the files and stuff? (The names of these crucial files are: system, SAM, security, default. I'll see if I can get something out of Microsoft as well, but I have a feeling you lot'll be quicker by a few magnitudes.) As for how it looks right this minute... I get a very XP-like screen declaring system32/config/system AWOL. It's a start, at least.
emenance Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 OH MAN We had a church with this set up I THINK and had to RMA the video card twice for lines. It was a 9700 .....I think its the same creative set up but not sure. Your running sound through the video card right???????? If so junk the video card and find a new set up. Ok read thread some more........yeah make sure you update your IDE drivers and get on ultra dma for sure. What motherboard you got? OK those were first thoughts and i read some more.......... Double check your motherboard drivers. ATA 100 drive is udma 5 ata 133 is udma 6 you can dl sisoft sandra for free and see in there where your harddrives are at or divice manager make sure they jive. Sorry for the ramble & quick post. Asus P8Z68-V GEN3/ 2500k 4.4ghz / Corsair 64gb SSD Cache / Corsair 8g 1600 ddr3 / 2 x 320gb RE3 Raid 0 /Corsair 950w/ Zotac 560TI AMP 1gb / Zalman GS1200 case /G940/
Silent Warrior Posted January 24, 2006 Author Posted January 24, 2006 emenance: :rolleyes: Aye, that looks to have been a quick post. I have no idea how to run sound through the videocard, by the way. Now, here's what I'm gonna do: with this new HD, I have at the very least a worthy back-up. This weekend I'll just go home and get that XP-CD (and it seems I'll have to live without SP2 until summer - MS won't mail SP2 on CDs anymore), come back here and work some magic, fire up X3 and see if it works. Well, LOMAC'll have to come soon after - bagged some new campaigns to tear through. :icon_supe Although my 9700 does smell kind of funky, I know the smell of burned electronics, and this is not it. I'm hoping to be able to upgrade this summer, so it'll have to hold together until then. I'm optimistic.
Pilotasso Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 I have no idea how to run sound through the videocard, by the way. huh?! sound through the videocard?!! WTF? Care to elaborate on that one? .
Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN Posted January 24, 2006 Posted January 24, 2006 emenance: :rolleyes: Aye, that looks to have been a quick post. I have no idea how to run sound through the videocard, by the way. Now, here's what I'm gonna do: with this new HD, I have at the very least a worthy back-up. This weekend I'll just go home and get that XP-CD (and it seems I'll have to live without SP2 until summer - MS won't mail SP2 on CDs anymore), come back here and work some magic, fire up X3 and see if it works. Well, LOMAC'll have to come soon after - bagged some new campaigns to tear through. :icon_supe Although my 9700 does smell kind of funky, I know the smell of burned electronics, and this is not it. I'm hoping to be able to upgrade this summer, so it'll have to hold together until then. I'm optimistic. if you want, pm me ur address and i will copy one of the sp2 cd's i got from m$ and send ya a copy, if you wish that is, dont post your address on the forums, if you want sp2, then pm me your address, no big deal and no i aint no stalker who will travel over the world to hunt you down. :p
Silent Warrior Posted January 25, 2006 Author Posted January 25, 2006 EVIL_SCOTSMAN: Nah, I'll wait until I get the computer back home to an internet-connection, I'll take care of SP2 myself. If X3 goes bonkers without it, well, I have other games. :) Pilotasso: I'd like to know that myself. emenance mentioned it as a potential source of locking. I r teh confj00s.
Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN Posted January 25, 2006 Posted January 25, 2006 np dude, i never read your post properly, if your not connected to the web, then you will be cool without sp2 installed...
emenance Posted January 26, 2006 Posted January 26, 2006 huh?! sound through the videocard?!! WTF? Care to elaborate on that one? I know I think it was a AIW. They were running the creative platinum soundcard thing with the extra box of outputs and inputs. I wish I could give more detail. All I can say is that when the video card was gone so was their sound. I had to set bios for onboard sound. Yes this is the way it was. Had to rma the thing TWICE. It was probley a AIW. Long time ago I forget. Microsoft service pack 2 is basically just security stuff, check the specs before you just think you need it. Most people dont. Some old cheap motherboards need a new bios for it too. Service pack 2 is worthless for me. I dnot like thier firewall. I use norton antivirus and the Sygate firewall all the security I need with those. The sygate firewall is free and has a huge forum on thier site for issues. PLus it works UP AND DOWN. Dont forget MS antispyware or Spysweeper. Then there is this info off the ubi forum : I think I found the ultimate solution to the campaign/msvcrt.dll/instability problem on windows xp sp2. First make sure you have the msvcrt.dll that came with lomac in the lomac folder (this is for those of you who tried replacing it with other versions). Now create an empty file named "lockon.exe.local" without the quotes of course in the same folder where lockon.exe is located (C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Eagle Dynamics\Lock On). When you start lomac you will get a couple of dialog boxes saying "The procedure entry point _resetstkoflw could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll", just click ok and continue, go into your campaign and play it. The explanation. What we have here is a classic problem known as DLL HELL. Lomac comes with its own msvcrt.dll but due to the way it loads dlls, it ends up always loading the one in the /system32 folder which is buggy (it loads ntdll.dll which loads other dlls which load the wrong msvcrt.dll). The trick to force windows to load the msvcrt.dll in the lomac folder was to create a file with a .local extension, as in lockon.exe.local, which forces windows to load the right dll. I just tested the su25 campaign which worked for me and it flew it without errors for the first time ever. I would like to know how it works out for other sp2 users. Asus P8Z68-V GEN3/ 2500k 4.4ghz / Corsair 64gb SSD Cache / Corsair 8g 1600 ddr3 / 2 x 320gb RE3 Raid 0 /Corsair 950w/ Zotac 560TI AMP 1gb / Zalman GS1200 case /G940/
Silent Warrior Posted January 26, 2006 Author Posted January 26, 2006 Heeeey! Have any of you guys checked out your Windows-directory lately? The SP2-files are all there! Neat! I'll delay the installation until I know I need it though, probably nets me another FPS or two. Heh, imagine what Windows Update will look like next time I go there! msvcrt.dll-thingy: That's a snazzy trick, that one. I'll try it myself when opportunity presents itself.
Silent Warrior Posted January 31, 2006 Author Posted January 31, 2006 OK, HD and XP in place, testing X3 (I'll bother restoring the registry for my other games later...), result: SUCCESS! WOOHOO! But... I STILL get that *thunk* followed by excessive HD-activity. After playing X3 for a while (and I even got the chance to save and exit in an ordinary fashion, yeah! :cool: ) I wanted to go poking at some Flight Sim 2004 add-ons I had downloaded ("No internet-connection?!??" you say? USB-memorysticks r teh win, says I!). So, fire up Windows Explorer, click that little + next to my other HD, and WHAM all frozen over. Does this mean that second HD is faltering too? What are the odds for that? TWO harddrives, different brands and capacities, cracking down at the same time? (As a side-note, X3 v1.31 beta with Catalyst 6.1 runs REALLY REALLY well now. I'm even considering setting Shader and/or textures to medium. Will next patch get X3 up to a releasable condition? Stay tuned.)
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