Try isolating the video card with it's own IRQ. That's what worked for me after much trial and error. It can't share with anything other than maybe a USB controller. It should never share with the ethernet or sound card, which is common depending on your system. The video card needs it's own IRQ.

Hope this helps someone.

you guys are all either smoking crack or very stupid. there is no problem with the geforce at all with directx
i have a ti4600 and i havent had any problems at all. you all probably just dont know what your doing.
i have ran directx 8 and 9 on it. i have an NFORCE2 board but i also use it on a KT400. and my buddy i built his rig too. he uses an MSI 4200 on an asus kt400 or 333 board also with no problems.
so if you buy cheap motherboards and generic cards. there is your problem. but dont blame direct x or nvidia.

I agree with Rob to some extent; minus the smoking crack or stupid comment. Rob, that isn't very productive nor intelligent.

As in an earlier post in this thread, a lot of people were blaming the card or directx on ghost recon problems, but it was a software issue, not a hardware issue, as I pointed out. There could very well be compatibility issues with some forum users hardware. For instance, buying a motherboard without 8X agp support is silly if you have this card. Why hinder it's performance? The Ti 4200 I might add outperforms the FX chips with the exception of the FX 5900. It's a very overclockable card, pushed my memory core to 600 mhz with no instability issues. Instead of reading forums, why not go to a manufacturer's website and see what hardware they recommend for their boards, if the information is available.

I have a compaq presario running an AMD Athlon XP 1800+, WinXP, Geforce 4 4200 Ti, for over a year now. I never had any problems with my card whatsoever. maybe cuz I have the nForce chipsets?

However, I did have problems with stability before SP1 came out. Not to do with gaming, but just general problems and glitches. I had to do a few reinstalls every know and then, but since SP1 alot of problems are gone, and I'm glad I never had a problem with my video card.

One thing for people who are still having problems, try turning the hardware exceleration down one notch...I've read that that can fix some gaming issues.

Hope that info helps someone

Jason

Hey,

I'm secure about my own intelligence, so I don't have to flame others...


Some background on my earlier post:

I built a system with the following components:

Windows 98SE (clean install)
DirectX 8.1
AMD 2500 Barton 333, retail fan
Corsair XMS DDR 512 PC2700
Biostar M7VIT Pro, KT400, Hyperion 4.45
PowMax 550 watt AMD approved PS
Chaintec GeForce 4 128 4800SE 8x, Nvidia 41.04
Onboard AC97 sound
Onboard LAN
PS-2 Optical Microsoft Wheelmouse
Usual hardrives, CD drives, etc.

The system worked great, however the display would freeze if left on for long lengths of time. In 3d games, the game would freeze either right away of after awhile (depending on the game) with a stuck sound loop. Mega frustrating, considering this was to be a gaming machine. I tried multiple driver combos (motherboard and video), and disable onboard sound in lieu of various PCI sound card/driver combos. No dice (btw, for me the 41.04/4.45 driver combo worked the best with the least number of problems, but still not good). I never tried the beta driver suggestions, or the underclocking procedures as others have done, since that wasn't where I wanted to go.

The motherboard has three USB controllers, each with their own IRQ. There was a lot of IRQ sharing with my setup. The sound was on IRQ 10, shared with a USB controller. The video was on IRQ 11, shared with the LAN and a USB controller. I decided to isolate the video card on IRQ 11.

I completely reformatted. In the BIOS I disabled ACPI, and set the PnP OS to disabled. The PCI assignments were set to be controlled by ESCD. Assign IRQ to VGA and USB were enabled. Memory was set to "Ultra", and the clock was set to 166. AGP was 8x, 128 aperture, with Fast Writes and WS settings disabled. COM 1 and COM 2 were disabled. Onboard LAN and sound were enabled. Finally, I reinstalled Windows, using the "x:\setup /p i" switch, which doesn't install ACPI. I used the 41.04/4.45 combo as mentioned above, and installed DirectX 8.1. After the installation was complete, the sound was on IRQ 5 by itself (C-Media AC-97 Audio Device) with a USB controller. However, the video card, LAN, and a USB controller were still on IRQ 11.

I disabled the LAN in BIOS, and installed a LinkSys 10/00 card on PCI slot 2. This put it on IRQ 10 with a USB controller.

After all the above, I tested it out for the first time. The screen freezes are a thing of the past. All my 3d games work perfectly, with no lock ups or freezes at all. The problems I had before are now gone. The sound functions well also (my games are Rune, Unreal, Undying, UT-1, UT003, and Morrowind).

Finally, I went into BIOS and set the AGP to Fast Writes, and enabled the WS settings. Still no problems. I've been using this heavy duty for days now, and still nada.

I tried using the mouse on USB, and thought the mouse wasn't as smooth. Possibly a result of having to share with the sound card or video card? Placing it on PS-2 takes care of that and it works good.

So, what was the deciding factor here? I don't know, and that's why I listed all my steps and settings. I suspect the main factor was getting the video card on it's own IRQ, however the above combination was what I used. Needless to say, it works as I wanted and I'm not changing anything from here on out.

I don't know how much of this applies to Windows XP, since I don't have that. I also didn't try any of the other sound cards (yes, I know what you're thinking about onboard sound) after things were done. Maybe later on down the line, but for now, I'll stay with the AC-97.

I hope some of this helps others with the same problem.

Tom Union XP Handles IRQ sharing better than 98SE, in other words i think it creates more Irqs than what 98SE can do.

Hi!
I've just bought an Asus V9180SE Geforce4 mx440 64mb 8x.
My problem is that some games are not running with it. The exact problem is that game start's up and runs fine (I can hear the sounds, and the computer doesn't freeze), but on the display I just see horizontal lines in the middle in different color. This happens with Civilisation3 or Homeworld2.
I have the latest drivers for all of my hardware.

My computer is:
MSI-6788 motherboard with Intel 848p chipset
intel celeron 2.4 processor
maxtor 80gb hdd
512 266mhz ram
msi 52x32x52 cd-rom

I have tried many things (dx diag, reduced performance,) so please help me

Karde

Does XP put the video card on it's own IRQ? I mean, like in Device Manager, what does it show? It could be a problem still if the video card is shared with another PCI device, although for me the question is academic since I don't use XP.

to ANDREW JOHNSON....i dont have agp 8x. i run agp 4x on a ti 4600 again no problems AT ALL. the performance between 4x and 8x is more or less un noticeable. i feel 8x agp is a marketing thing...plain and simple. i mean benchmarks show a slight gain. but to gamers in games....pointless.
my 4600 runs at 1600x1200 32bit with all the goodies on. antialising...antistropic filtering...etc. with NO PROBLEMS also have coolbits overclocking it. again if you buy a generic....chaintech...or evga...etc. who knows what your gonna get...in mobo or video card for that matter. the saying you get what you pay for is true.

to JASON MAXFIELD. your first problem is compaq presario...if i am not mistaken their BIOS is locked out (burned in) from compaq and doesnt allow you to tweak it. there are certain bios settings required for these cards to run. keep that in mind.

to TOM UNION. yes your problem was most likely a conflict with your other hardware. but please note the name of this forum is geforce4 problem with directx. so the problem wasnt with the video card.

to KARDI TORNI my guess is you have the game set to a resolution your monitor cant support or the refresh rate is off. or an issue with the intel chipset on that board. i am not familiar all that much with intel chipset as i usually use the more superior VIA or NFORCE with AMD which is clearly better gaming rigs could try installing dx9 or go back as early as dx8 or 7 and see if that helps...if it does. then it was either a corrupt install on 9.0 or something in your hardware configuration doesnt jive with it.

oh also to all that suggest power supply to be problem i run a 350w sparkle. i have about 4 case fans....a bigger fan and heatsink on the video card....and basically every plug on the power supply filled and doubled up...and i have no issues with anything needing more power...i believe you can run a 300 and still be ok. i use xp pro....with nforce2 and an xp2200+ granted it is SOLTEK BOARD which by the way...if you arent familiar with SOLTEK they are ASUS quality...with a cheaper pricetag. i have used nothing but soltek in the past years from kt133 chipset on up to now...and have never had any problems with them. they overclock and tweak well...and very stable. user friendly BIOS. RED STORM OVERCLOCKING ....its like an auto overclock that tweaks it to the best and highest possible setting without problems.
and the benchmarks on this board ROCK. read toms hardware or sharky or one of the mobo review places and check out SOLTEK.

Rob:

That really wasn't the point I was trying to make. The point I was making though is that if one buys a video card, sound card, etc., was to make sure that their system at LEAST supports the features of the component. This, in a nutshell, comes down to compatibility issues, does it not?

well not with the video card...itll support and run on 4x or 8x either one. and tell me what sound card wont work in any computer? i have never heard of a sound card not working because of it not being supported by a MOBO. so i guess i am still lost in what your meaning. but it definately wouldnt be the title of this forum geforce problem with directx

Rob Stephenson,

Yup, the title of this forum is "GeForce 4 Problem With DirectX". I've read all the posts on this thread from the beginning. A lot of people have problems similar to what I experienced, some more, some less. The cause of the problems they're experiencing may be something other than DirectX, however, and they're assuming that DirectX is the culprit. I agree with Andrew that hardware compatibility is a major issue. It's been well documented, for example, that some Via-based chipsets have issues with the Creative 5.1 (it may work, but does it run DirectX games well?). There are other compatibility problems out there, as well. A little research would go a long way.

There are many problems that may present the same symptoms. DirectX may be one scource, hardware incompatibility another, IRQ conflict yet another. The end result is the same: marginal functionality, and the inability to run DirectX games well. Maybe my problem was DirectX-related after all, and all I did was somehow by luck implement a work-around for my particular system. All I know is now it works and I'm ready to move on...

Maybe this thread is better titled, "GeForce 4 Problem with DirectX GAMES."

Tom Union

I have an Intel 2.4G with 500mb RAM, XP home edition, Soundblaster Live! 5.1 and Geforce 4 ti 4600 with 128mb and an Albatron motherboard.

For a while, I had a problem while playing games (especially Operation Flashpoint). After playing a while, my computer would just reboot. I visited this forum and got some interesting hints on what might be the problem, but whatever I tried, it did not work. (Changing drivers, editing in BIOS etc)

I changed the settings in Configuration Manager so XP would give me an error message when crashing. This is what I got:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (and then some other jibberish)
Microsoft told me it had something to do with drivers.

I turned off my Soundblaster in the hardware profile and the problem disappeared. So somehow, my Geforce and Soundblaster did not like each other. I changed drivers (again) but nothing worked. Then I put my Soundblaster in another slot in my computer and the problem just disappeared... So this was my solution. I hope it might help someone else. I checked for IRQ conflicts before but could not find anything in XP.

you can manually change your IRQ's in the BIOS and try it that way....assign IRQ to vga also may work in this case.
and let XP drivers control the card. all you need is the utilities...cause the drivers that come with the creative and soundblaster lives ....etc. edit your autoexec.bat with things it doesnt need that will just confuse windows.

and as far as direct x problems with games and geforce cards. i still say that with the right configuration there is no problems. i have had none. in fact when i bought a ATI RADEON 9700PRO i couldnt get it to work at all....2d graphics were great
but the 3d and agp 8x wouldnt work.

also i believe the problem with geforce cards could be side band addressing. these cards dont like having that enabled. need to find a tweak to turn it off.

Side-band addressing does seem to be the cause of some of the problems, but it's not the fix all. I still believe it's a compatibility problem with hardware. Some cards, depending on their BIOS, will not work properly with side-band addressing disabled. I know, I tried this with the MSI Ti 4200.

Hey,

I'm back, haven't posted in awhile but been keeping up on the thread. I also tried to isolate my card to irq11 in XP it shows it all alone, but in 98/Me it shares irq with IRQ steering. Didn't help much anyway! card still froze at 250 (default). i swapped out all my ram modules 3x256mgs ddr2700 opened the case put a fan directly into it. disabled/ removed everything. went to ftp://ftp.gainward.com/lan/nvidia/bios/geforce4 tried every bios in the book, Nothing worked but lowering clock speed to 175

I was at Pny website and found that all Verto cards have lifetime warranty. as long as their still in manufacture.

Benched marked 3dmark03 at 989 today! 175 clock speed

14 months old
athlon XP 1800
Dfi ad73 pro
Kt266 via chipset
768mg DDR 2700 generic
Geforce4Ti 4200 x4
Maxtor ata 133 40g
maxtor ata 100 80g
phillips rythmic edge 703
realtek lan

Windows XP/98/Me multiboot sys.

"hope is fast and flies with robins wings"

Ok. Im right along with everyone one here!!!!

I have had my PNY G4 ti 4600 for a while now and all I've had are problems. After attempting to correct the problem I have sent my machine to the doctor all I received was a doctor bill, LOL. Even the support teams didnt know what was wrong with it.

My machine locks up all the time. Its always random too. I have a scsi drive but its useless. I have the card inserted into the pci slot but if I connect the drive BOOOM! My machine wont even boot up! I know I have had some IRQ Conflicts (maybe) because I had an pci network card and once I removed that it seemed to help stop the machine from locking up. Now I cant even put a usable device into the pci slot. My machine still locks up. Any suggestions would be great. I have tried seval "simple fixes" but to no avail.

Seems to me that a majority of the people here are AMD I am not and still have the same problems. ECS support has been very unhelpful.
Im guessing its seriously something wrong with my video card though I cant test it because its the only agp 4x card I have.

System specs:
400w psu
ecs mb LV4
via chipset (4 in 1 drivers)
p4 2.53 512K Northwood
1024 ddr 333 ram Kington
Pny Geforce 4 ti 4600
40 gig maxtor drive.
adaptec 19160 scsi Card
atlas v 36 gig. scsi drive
Win xp sp 1

thanks
Todd

Back Again,

did some more tweaks in winXP, loaded bios 4.25.00.28 (had to reinstall 45.23) disabled fastwrites, still at 175 clock speed, 446 mem clock and scored 1044 on 3dmark03, fps was over 200 in ww2 dogfight but battle for proycon locks up at 180 clock speed so i think this might be the best possible score for me, though i've got everything back in comp, case still open. really happy with this because i seen results from others that score 1200 or better with awesome gaming gear and my system is over 14mo old. no longer using geforce tweaker nvidia 45.23 allows clock speed changes and that seems the only thing that helps after 2months of mind boggling complexity and exhausting work in my spare time.


Daddy's Back ..... flying missions in deep space! (Tachyon:the Fringe) Novalogic


"Hope is Fast and Flies with Robins Wings"

I seem to be having the same problem with my computer. No matter what game I play actually it doesn't even have to be a game. Sometimes it just randomly freezes but I have to restart it myself. I play Medal of Honor: Breakthrough. I have been working on this issue for the past 3 weeks and i have gotten no where. These are my system Specs:

P4 2.4Ghz with Hyperthreading
640MB of RAM
ASUS P4P800-VM Motherboard
80GB HDD
Abit Siluro Geforce 4 Ti4400 128MB

If someon could help me out here I would greatly appreciate it.