Asus A7N8X-X w/PC2100 and AGP 4x BSOD during gaming

[clintonf3]

Members,

Here is a brief summary of my system:
Asus A7N8X-X Rev 2 (runs NVidia nForce2)
AMD Athlon 2600+ Model 8
Asus 4x AGP Video (128MB)
PC2100 1GB and 512MB Installed

All of the drivers for all components are the latest from NVidia.

During normal operation, there are no issues. However, when playing any type of graphic intensive game, the system will BSOD or lock. This happens on games from Boggle to Formula One.

Currently the BIOS FSB is set to 133MHz with a 8x/16x multiplier (as per AMD's guides) to get the 2133MHz for the processor. If, however, I use the Nvidia nTune application, slow the FSB to 220Mhz, the system will run without any issues.

My questions are thus:

1. Does the requirement of having to slow the FSB to 220MHz indicate a issue with this board and PC2100?

2. Is this problem indicative of an AGP 4x VGA and not related to RAM?

3. Is my problem related to both the PC2100 and the 4x AGP?

In reading here on the Techspot boards (which are outstanding btw), I found several threads related to this motherboard and various issues but none conclusively matched what issue I'm experiencing with this particular combination.

Thank you all for your time and effort in helping me solve this issue.

Kind Regards,

Clinton Fitch
Owner
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!

 

[bushwhacker]

if overclocking not an issue, try to get nVIDIA ForceWare v56.72 and Microsoft Directx 9.0b.

If your ASUS video card is nvidia, download v56.72 and install it. it should work

Lucan

 

[Charles Hammond]

A BSOD can be caused by RAM or other hardware. It could even be the RAM on the video card. You might check how hot the video card is getting. Using RAM modules designed for faster speeds like PC3200 Might help if it is the RAM that is having problems. It is hard to say what is a specific problem without removing RAM or something like that. What kind of RAM is it?

Is that Athlon 2600 with a 333Mhz bus?

Seems like I think it is. I may be wrong. If it has an FSB of 333 Mhz then you should realy use DDR333 or faster RAM.

WinXP is very hard on hardware.

 

[clintonf3]

Resolution

Thanks to those who have replied.

The resolution to this issue was a replacement of the motherboard. The Northbridge was faulty.

Essentially it would not allow the processor (266 MHz FSB) to clock faster than 200MHz. Anything beyond this would introduce instability, especially during graphic intensive applications such as games (F1 Challenge, MS Flight Simulator, etc).

I RMA'd the board, got the replacement, put the components in and haven't looked back since.

Regards,

Clinton

 

[Ray-WildX]

hello,

i have also a big problem, when i play (online) games my pc give BSOD.
only at games i get this. i have this now for 4 months... and tried alot of different drivers. 2 weeks ago i bought 1024 mb ram ,and today 6600GT.
but still it isnt solved.

i can play games for max. 30 minutes then BSOD.

i also played with my case open... i thought maby was overheating problem.

however it didnt help.

my specs:

amd athlon xp 3000+ (temp. 54c)
asus a7n8x deluxe
club 3d 6600GT 128mb AGP (nvidia 70.90 driver)
Geil 2x 512mb pc3200 2.5CL
1x ricoh dvdburner
1x Aopen 56speed cdrom

before i had a 9600XT 256mb, so i hoped new vidc. will help.

please help me !

regards,

Raymond
the netherlands

 

[dgower2]

Paste the memory dump in here.

 

[Ray-WildX]

Paste the memory dump in here.

well my C:/windows/minidump folder is empty.

so i turned on adv. settings, small dump. lets hope the logfile will put in minidump now.

some extra info from Ntune:

AGP bus: 66.818 mhz
CPU multiplier: 10.5x
CPU speed: 2104.776

Windows XP prof. SP2

attachment aida32 system report

 

[dgower2]

Have you tried to decrease the memory timings in the BIOS?

 

[Ray-WildX]

Have you tried to decrease the memory timings in the BIOS?

im not so very clever with such things...

can you explaine wich setting i have to change please

 

[Ray-WildX]

I have now the minidump file, but i cant post it here

 

[dgower2]

Change the extension to .txt and post it.

 

[Ray-WildX]

here it is

 

[dgower2]

I'd have to know what BIOS and version you have. Do you know how to get into the BIOS setup?

 

[dgower2]

What your dump file means...

"This is a hardware issue: an unrecoverable hardware error has occurred. The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU)."

I got this from http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

It seems to be hardware specific. What kind of computer is it?

 

[Ray-WildX]

well i think its properbly overheating...because now i have my pc case open and very big fan at the cpu/gpu now i played games for hours :giddy:

so...... i need to buy alot of 12 cm fans !! :knock:


thanks anyway !!!