3D Games keeps crashing, help needed

[King-Of-DK]

Does anybody have a solution to a very annoying problem. I am running win XP pro on a 2,4ghz p4 with 2x512mb ram and a geforce 4 TI4200 and 2x120GB maxtor hdd,and a SB live value. All my 3D games crash after a few minutes of play,and it always seem to be the main game executable. I have tried re-installing windows seceral times to no avail,i have tried different display drivers,i have tried not updating windows,i have tried new graphicscard nothing seems to work.. I am fairly sure it is a softwarer conflict,as i have tried every concievable burn-in test,motherboard test and ram test program there is,and nothing is wrong with my hardware. I am running out of thoughts as to what in the world causes the problem. i tried to install norton system works to see if this would correct the problem,it didn´t. So please feel free to contribute anything you can think of

[parsonsj]

Make sure you are running the latest drivers for your MoBo, Graphics Card and Sound Card.

Make sure the Onboard sound is Turned off in the BIOS and isn't Loading in windows.

You might try with the Onboard sound and remove the SB Live card.

Most 3D Games crash is attributed to The above drivers or Conflicts.

Are you running DirectX 9.0b if not get it and load it.

[King-Of-DK]

All drivers are the latest,and i don´t have onboard sound..and i am using directx 9.0b

[parsonsj]

Sorry I was going by your profile that shows a Soltek SL85-DR3 Motherboard which according to Solteks Web Site has onboard AC97 6 ch Sound.

The Latest Drivers for SB live 5.1 is

Sound Blaster Live! - LiveDrvUni-Pack (English) Date : 28 Feb 2003
Size : 23.32 MB

The Latest for the Geforce is

52.16_win2kxp_english_whql.exe
EDIT...OOOPPPPS

New Drivers Since the Last I got
Version: 53.03
Release Date: December 9, 2003
WHQL Certified

The Intel Drivers I am not Familiar with.

I know from the Past when someone says Games Crash and they have SB Card the most responses are to Throw it away. From many Support Forums the SB Live doesn't have the Best reputation.


Have you checked all your Logs to see if there are any errors showing up there?

[King-Of-DK]

sorry,you are right,i do have onboard but is is disabled in bios,and always have been..

funny thing is,i have never had any problems with this excact setup before. I do however have had a lot of trouble with faulty hardware. I have gotten a new mainboard (still soltek SL-85DR3),new 512 ram (PC2700), new DVD burner.. And ever since the change in hardware i have had this trouble. I thought at the time that it was my TI4200 that made the error,so i send it to the retailer,only to get it back saying there was nothing wrong,the real error was the AGP port on the old mainboard..

To make a long story short,it is the excact same setup as before,only difference maybe in windows updates and new drivers. I have tried to install only windows and SP1 then directx 9.0b and then the new 53.03 Nvidia and the same shit happens,every game crashes,except diablo 2,Age of empires, and warcraft 3.. Call Of Duty, Dungeon Siege LOA, Max Payne 2, MOH Breakthrough, Deus Ex 2 all crash with a fatal error in the main game executable,it is however not always the same error but always the main game exe..What log files are you particular speaking about?

[parsonsj]

In XP and If I remember right 2000 go to Control Panel and Administrative Tools and Event viewer it logs errors for Applications, Security and System(Services etc).

Like I said Earlier you might try getting the Drivers for the Onboard Audio and Enable it and Remove the SB Live and then see if you still Crash. Sometimes Even tho it's disabled there can still be a Conflict with SB Products.

[King-Of-DK]

@parsonsj

thanks for helping me,but the games have worked fine on this setup before,and there is absolutly nothing wrong with my SB live.. Secondly the sound quality from the onboard chip STINKS big time,so no way in hell am i going to use that..

I will however try and change the PCI slot for my SB live,and see if this helps..and i will check the log files,although i have no idea what to look for??

[larsli]

Try to lower hardware acceleration for both graphics card and sound card. If this helps it seems like a driver problem.

[King-Of-DK]

Where do i lower the acceleration for both cards?

[larsli]

For your soundcard you should be able to do it in dxdiag under sound(select run and type dxdiag.) For you graphicscard go to display properties->settings->advanced->troubleshoot.

dxdiag can also be used to test both the soundcard and graphicscard for incompatibilities.

[King-Of-DK]

I think i found the problem.. apparently my PCI slot 6 is not functioning anymore,as i tried changing card positions for network and SB live to a configuration that has worked before,the card sitting in slot 6 wouldn´t work,no matter what type of card,and if the other card was in the slot excatly beside it,none of them would work.. So i have then tried different combinations of slots in use,and i the problem seems to have vanished..

So it was a hardware error after all,funny thing is,when the problem first started the slot 6 worked just fine,but not quite right i guess..So i will once again exchange my mobo with my supplyer.

I want to thank you all for your help and advice.