Well Jason if you had taken a good look on this forum you should have seen that my system config is also present. And don't think that you are better than anyone else...you aren't. If somebody has 20 years expierence doesn't mean that you done it right for twenty years. But fine you say that you are standing a few levels above most people, good luck with that...GOD.
O yeah Cat 3.4 works perfectly and it still does

And yes I too have the sound-looping when ut2k3 gets stuck.

Actually UT2k3 plays well for a long time and hangs occasionally, maybe some ppl who reported the game working didnt play for long enough. Try the CTF-Face3 map - thats the one that is the quickest to hang.

And in this map i also get jerks in the game, sometimes in the range of 2 to 3 second freeze in video, but after that game continue... then suddenly it hangs - sound keeps looping.

I wish i had a fix for this gigabyte radeon 9600 pro card. I havent tried the catalyst 3.9 yet (but 3.8 doesnt seem to work) and no where in the change log of 3.9 do they say anything about 9600 pro.

I will try catalyst 3.9 later, but i seriously doubt if it will work.

Cheers Phil,

Have tried knocking the notches back a bit and still no massive improvement on the frequency of the crashes.

Max Payne 2 seemed to be the most stable of the lot and all GFX were cranked up to the Max (scuse the pun)!

Recently installed 3.9 and haven't had a chance to try BF out as yet.....

Could a PSU really be a problem?? Many of my friends/relatives say that a 300 W PSU is MORE than enough for a PC.

I have a standard 300 W PSU - for my AMD XP 2600+, 1 7200 rpm hard-disk and CRT monitor.

How do i detect if it is a problem with the PSU ? (or lack of power).
Because PSUs are quite expensive and I can't afford to buy a new PSU and still have this problem. I would like to know if the PSU could be the cause of the random freezing of the system?

I firmly believe it cannot be a software issue. Especially since cat 3.4, 3.8 both don't work.

Could it be my 300 W PSU ??
Can someone advise...?

A 300 W PSU is usually OK to run the majority of the games out there - its if you have a number of peripherals like fans, blowers, extra drive units, lights n LEDs, GFX card, PCI cards and also a power hungry mobo that will suck the juice.

Its usually the ampage that is an indicator of power on the PSU - the higher the ampage the better (I think thats right - dont quote me on that)

Check your power and voltage settings in the BIOS aswell.

My PSU has the following power rating:

+3.3v 20 A
+5.0v 30 A
+12 v 10 A
-5.0v 0.5 A
-12v 0.8 A
+5vSB 2 A

I have no idea if these are enough/correct. Btw, my BIOS shows only voltages iirc.

Ok,

definitely no problem with UT2k3 on CTF-face3, sorry. Still having problems with c&C generals and age of mythology which i can fix by lowering the hardware acceleration by one notch. I play a lot of other 3d games, all of which seem to be working fine. Tyan have sent me an email telling me they are looking into it!!!

ATTENTION ALL THOSE WHO SUSPECT A PSU PROBLEM:

Check this out: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
A nice PSU calculator.

And it assumes max power consumption.

For my system configuration it comes to around 318 to 324 Watts. I have a 300 W PSU I should be okay as the calculator assumes each component to use the maximum.... So any other suggestions...?

It definitely is not a power problem

Just got a 550W power supply

Still the same problems

Hmm.. For me i don't have too many games to test. But ut2k3 definitely hangs for me quite frequently - but plays absolutely fine in most maps. Ok, thanks for actually testing ut2k3 in ctf-face3 map I never expected u to try so quickly and even post about it

Hmm.. still pondering the dark for a solution.

Ok so one more aspect ruled out.

So its not PSU.
Its not heat.
Its not drivers.
Its not 4x/8x.
Its not DirectX.
Its not any software setting like fast write, aperture size..


I'm beginning to doubt if its a memory chip fault. Is there a program where i can saturate the VRAM and test if each cell in the memory actually works???

The problem is on your mainboard. The chipset is not compatible with the radeon 9600.

Gigabyte GA-7VT600L is the MB without any problems and ati.

My motherboard is asus a7v8x-x (it is supposed to support agp 3.0 (8x)).
The Chipset is VIA... So many other mobos use via, Via chipsets are used in a wide variety of boards. SO all via chipset boards won't run radeon 9600 pro??

Also, if its my motherboard is there anyway to rectify it? Update BIOS/change voltages somehow??

New drivers Catalyst 3.9. Check ATIīs web.

About ut2k3, I have some problems like others. Plays good for long time then it just slows down like hell, can't even shoot properly.
Thanks for you who said I should get other memory chips, I've been thinking lately and now it's only about getting money . But anyways I still think it's just a driver difference with 3d games. Since some games work better for me with Omega drivers and some with Cat drivers, but no problem .
Have to say this forum helped me better actually than EA games/ATI support hehe.
Last but not least can anyone give me directions how to disable dual monitor from ati card? If someone can,
please email me xaraz85@yahoo.com so the discussion goes easily
Thanks

I can't believe this cards drivers always suck so BAD!

Donīt know? But my old MB got a VIA chipset. It is a VIA VT82C 686B. Maybe only old or only some of VIA chipset are not compatible, or so? Canīt say. But Iīm sure it is a chipset problem.

I have installed my card in three different computers (all are real new), in all of them it worked perfectly (no freeze or crash). So it has to be a MB/chipset problem. ( A BIOS update didnīt solve the problem, on my MB, so maybe on yours) But be carefull with the voltage theme. you can burn your card or your MB or your CPU.

Does anybody know about compatibility of VIA KT266A and ATI? This chipset is on real cheap MB. Compatible with S-DRAM and DDR.

Hi there, been browsing this forum as a guest for a while now as i too have the same problems as everyone else. My system is as follows;

AMD 2500xp barton
512 DDR
MSI K7N2 Delta MOBO
OS=Windows me
350watt PSU

Games which do not work for me are:
Silent storm
Tiger woods pga 2004

Do work:
Max payne 2
call of duty demo

(these are the only games i have tried as i these are the 1's which i want to play !! )

Sometimes on my system the sounds shuts off first then approx 10 secs later the computer freezes(note-only happens in games, windows is stable and this only happened using older drivers, aint had time to thoroughly test the new cats yet)

Thanks to all u guys who have posted on here for the tips

P.S. Im currently using the new 3.9 cats and briefly tried silent storm last nite, played on it for about 30 mins before it sent me back to desktop, so its increased my play time slightly.

Hias, that does not even say which chipset you have. The chip ID you pointed to is a common VIA southbridge. The northbridge is what controls the AGP bus.

Ok. Thanks Michael,

thereīs always something new to learn. So is it the VIA KT133A.