Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 Problem!! Please HELP!

[Dickies8]

Hi, I just bought a new Chaintec Nvidia GeForce 4 MX 440 video card. it is an AGP 2/4x with 64mb of DDR SDRAM.

When i go to play some games like delta force black hawk down and battlefield 1942 it will play for like 20 secs and freeze or my computer will restart for no reason. i have tried everything i know of including reinstalling windows, and downloading all the newest drivers for the card. i dont know of anything else to do. if it will help, here are the specs for my comp:

AMD Athlon XP 1700+
Seagate Barracude 80 hdd
256mb of pc133 ram
pci512 sound blaster
10/100 network card
16xdvd rom 40x24x48x burner
Abit KT7A Mainboard

I tried the chaintec website and of course that was no help so i am at a loss. please help if you can

[reboot]

Have you tried reinstalling the games, now that you have the new video card? Have you tried adjusting the display within the game?
I have the same card, and when I put it in another computer where there used to be a GF2, I had tried all the NVidia drivers, old and new, reinstalled XP over top, and eventually reinstalled the games, and got any game updates over top.
My biggest problem was with Neverwinter Nights, but Dungeon Siege, and Morrowind also had problems with the new card/drivers.

P.S. Welcome to PCMech!

[Dickies8]

yup i tried that, reinstalled the games and everything, but nothing worked. i heard somewhere that i could change something in the bios that would make it work?? any suggestions??

thanks

[morriswindgate]

Possible you are getting a conflict between the card and the soundblaster.
Also download and install the video drivers from the NVidia website instead of from the disk that came with the card. Before I quit using NVidia based cards, due to problems like you are having, I found that a lot of the problems were caused by the included software.

[Dickies8]

how could i determine if there is a conflict between the sound and video cards? i installed the drivers from NVidia.com and it still does it. i even installed the newest directX software.

thanks

[GooderThanYou]

I thought if your computer reboots in a situation like that, it is because your computer is overheating and automatically reboots because of it? you have any extra fans?

[Dickies8]

I checked my cpu temp using the Via Hardware software that came with my mainboard and the overheat mark 122 degrees, and cpu real time temp is 134 degrees, i noticed that there was a LOT of dust on the heatsink and fan, could this be the problem? and also, there is no fan on my vid card, so could that make it overheat too? thanks for the help guys.

[Lord Prism]

I was thinking heat also as a possibility.

I don't ever use the software that comes with the card. I install ONLY the nVidia drivers. Try removing all the Chaintec software and if you installed detonator drivers from nVidia try this:

http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/

Then do a new install of ONLY the detonator drivers.
Also, you have installed the 4-in-1 drivers/AGP drivers as well, right?

[Dickies8]

THANKS!! but what do you mean 4 in 1 drivers/agp drivers?

[reboot]

4-in-1 are the drivers for the chipset on the motherboard, in this case VIA. Those drivers include everything for the OS to run all the peripherals, including AGP.

[Dickies8]

Where would i get these drivers? i dont have to do a bios flash do i??

[glc]

http://downloads.viaarena.com/driver...4in1446vp6.exe

If you have Windows XP, these should not be necessary.

Detonators are at:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

[Lord Prism]

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

Do you have WinXP?

[Dickies8]

yes i have windows xp home edition

[Dickies8]

i installed the 4 in 1 software and the detanator drivers and it still is doing the same thing as it was before. i also got all the dust out of the heatsink and fan and everywehre else so that the cpu is not overheating. but STILL is doing the same thing.

[redbaron_snoopy]

I've the same chipset (different brand though) and could never get it to run properly after umpteen times on 3 different PCs. Could be a bad card.

[Lord Prism]

I don't know - could be a long shot, but perhaps is a Bios setting? AGP aperture or something?

[Dickies8]

Well i checked the agp aperture setting and its set at 64mb is that too high seeing as how the card is a 64 mb card? should it be lower becuase i only have 256mb of ram? i also heard that changing the AGP driving value to manual might help?

[Dickies8]

Here is the way things look on my mainboard bios settings, i thought it might help:

AGP Aperture Size 64m
AGP-4x mode - Disabled
AGP Driving Control - Auto
x AGP Driving Value - DA
Fast Write Supported - No Support (but can be switched to Supported)
AGP Master 1 WS Write - Disabled
AGP Master 1 WS Read - Disabled

Everything that says disabled can be switched to enabled, and where it says no support, it can be switched to supported. I hope this helps in determining the problem...Maybe its a problem with 4x mode? or fast Write support?

And also, sometimes when the game Black Hawk Down fails, it says:

Error
Sysdump.txt saved

would that be a problem with the fast write?

Thanks and any help is appreciated.

[reboot]

Change the aperture to 128.
Change the 4x mode to enabled.
Not sure about the other bits.
If you don't need wait states, don't enable, seems like it's running fine, but definitely get it in 4x mode. Much better than 2x.

[Lord Prism]

WOW
AGP 4X mode disabled is bad.

I've actually emailed my manufacturer asking for a better Driving Value to improve video card performance even though I was amazed that they responded, they simple said, "Use the Default Value. it's safest." Go figure.

[Dickies8]

the abit tech support said that it might be that i need a stronger power supply???any truth to this? im using a 200watt power supply that orignally came with my gateway performace 550mhz. could this be the root to my problems?

thanks for any help.

[glc]

AMD requires an approved power supply, and 200 watts is about 100 too low. Replace it, you can get a 300 watt Enlight at Newegg for 30 bucks shipped.

Enable the AGP4x, and keep fast writes disabled.

[richnpoor]

The power supply is an issue the card is rated as requiring a 250 watt supply at the manufactures website. buuut even if it wasnt id say your way underpowered.

Heat may be an issue even with a clean heatsink. Is the heatsink a recycle or did you get one rated for the cpu you have now ?

I had similar problems with the same card playing medal of honor and medievil. and i have a recycled 245 watt power supply.

most of my problems disappeared when i installed a new speeze heat sink and fan.

the game used to freeze about 60 secs in and cause me to reboot now its ok to play for about 2 hours before it locks up. lol.

these game have Massive AI and crunch alot of numbers.

check the read me files of the games both the above games hhad issues with certain sound cards.

you can also turn down the resolution or hardware acceleration settings.

my soundcard was one with know Compatibility issues when I shut the sound acceleration off it fixed what the new fan heatsink didnt.

does the audio play alright on the game /

rich

[Dickies8]

yes the sounds work, and everything you guys are describing has happened, such as lockups, and restarts. so i think that the issue is with the power supply. i got one on ebay and should have it in a few days so ill keep in touch and let you know if its gonna work. i think i also should get a crystal orb fan the geforce 4 card seeing as h ow it doesnt have one (not to mention it doesnt look as cool) hehe. Ok fellas, thanks for the help with the problem. keep in touch, ill be writing back on this subject.

[glc]

Ebay power supply? What brand is it? You may be going from bad to worse.

[Dickies8]

I dunno, what ever kind i can get. which kind are the best to get? i was thinking about a 400w enermax or something. but i dunno. what do you think?

[Lord Prism]

Enermax is a good way to go. Antec is good too.

[glc]

The 300 watt Enlight at Newegg is only $24 plus $6 shipping - that's the cheapest power supply made that I'd trust.