Since about a month ago, my computer locks up whenever I play 3D games using my GeForce3 Ti 500. In RCTW, it plays for about 10 minutes, and then gives me a loud, long beep sound, and locks up. In Max Payne and 3DMark2001 SE, it locks up after about 15 seconds of gameplay. I'm using a ECS K7S5A Mobo, and this is a brand new card (I got it through RMA with PNY, and it used to work, but now it doesn't, so I believe the card is functional).

I'm also running WinXP Home, therefore running also DirectX8, and using Nvidias 23.32 video drivers. I also have a SoundBlasterLive 5.1 XGamer, and a standard Ethernet Card (I think 3Com), and a FireWire card.

Anyone have any ideas?

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--Daniel--

Just a friendly reminder that my PC still can't play games

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--Daniel--

I'm bumping this because I'm curious to hear what others think about this problem.

I'm wondering if its OpenGL related.

It may be, I know that RCTW relies on OpenGL, but does 3DMark?

BTW, thanks Rob ;-)

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--Daniel--

3DMark is Direct3D.

I'd say start stripping hardware to just videocard...and if that fixes the problem, start adding each thing in seperately and testing again. If the problem arises again you should know which piece of hardware is causing the problem.

That would be my initial thing to do.

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ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing

Hmm...thats a good idea. I will try it once I get back to Princeton, but I honestly don't think it will work, with the luck I have been having with the card. I think that the ECS board is just not compatible with my video card. I will probably take it onto a PC repair shop once I get back home to see if they know whats wrong with the system. I bought the PC mainly to play games, and thats what I want to do!

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--Daniel--

I had similar problems with my PNY card. It didn't like the 23.32 Nvidia drivers. I started having problems when I upgraded from 21.88 to 23.32. But it works fine with the 29.42 drivers.

Thanks for the help, Smile, but could you tell me what kind of problems you had? Were they the same as what I am experiencing? Thanks!

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--Daniel--

hmm hello im new here but interessted on all this stuff looks nice
guys got some knowing. Im using a Elitegroup K7S5A
Board running a AMD Thunderbirth 1,33GHZ / 512 MB DDR / Geforce 3 TI 200 128MB DDR / Sounblaster Pci 128 / haupauge Tv card bt 878/ Ethernet 100Mbs Networkcard. the Problems wich are posted here are not new for me.i think for me self it may is the board cause if i play some Games (doesnt matter if openGl or D3D ) do i get sometimes a Blue screen (Debugscreen from Windows XP Prof) with the Message that my Driver goes in stuck the screen shows me too that the Nvid.dll goes in a endlssrun.
i used the Detonator driver 23.xx / 29.42 / and the Beta 30.30
at least i notice by the beta 30.30 dont i get the problem that often / i got too the D3D fix but the Problem is still alive.

hmm at last i think the K7S5A board has some incompatibility to
Nvidiacards from the new generation....

maybe some Biosupgrades could be fix the problem but im not sure

cause i tried to flash the bios , but looks like im to dumb to get n working Disk (systemdisk) with the Programms to flash on it
and to start the boot from the Disk... because it told me always
I/o Error
but Floppy is working fine


greetings one all the PC-freaks wich cant stand without PC
PS: sorry about my english (germany)

I had a wide range of problems using those drivers. Random lockups and random reboots. The only consistency was when I went to play UT or Q3 it would lock up. No loud beep, but the sound card would get stuck repeating whatever the last sound was.

I was thinking it was the motherboard...I'll try upgrading the drivers once I get home, I think im using 23.28 or something old.

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--Daniel--