4400+x2 and game problems

[Jester]

Hi People,

I've just built a new pc as below:
Shuttle SN25P barebones,
2 Gb Ram
AMD 4400+ x2 CPU
Asus 7800GT
Seagate 300Gb Barracuda HDD
NEC DVD Burner
XP Home

Which should rattle along nicely. But I can't get HL2 to run at all without
crashing, and BF2 has graphic issues on occasion.
Has anyone else had problems running games on Dual cpu machines? Did you
find the solutions or are we going to have to wait for the software to catch
up?

Thanks,

J.

 

[dino]

don't necessirly blame the CPU, Have you checked for RAM issues?...have you
checked for overheating?..BIOS settings?..and modt importantly..do you have
enuff of a PSU to power it?

 

[Jester]

Any pointers would be helpful.
I've run occt which I think checks cpu and ram and didn't get any errors.
I've also run the seagate desktop tools on the HDD (just incase) which also
has a memory test and that came out okay too.
I admit I haven't checked temperatures, so thats something I should monitor.
The shuttle barebones comes with a psu built in. I assumed that as it was
designed to use modern kit it would be up to the job. I'll check it out. As
for the Bios, thats as default. Nothing is overclocked by the way.

Thanks for the pointers.

J.

 

[dino]

disable spread spectrums for CPU..maybe knock down the HT to 4 or 3..if
there is a Cool'N'Quiet option disable that..

 

[dino]

also Memtest86 is a good program for the ram check..

 

[Cherokee]

There is a Windows patch available for X2 cpu's.Apparently some games on
some systems require it.

 

[EdG]

Hi People,

I've just built a new pc as below:
Shuttle SN25P barebones,
2 Gb Ram
AMD 4400+ x2 CPU
Asus 7800GT
Seagate 300Gb Barracuda HDD
NEC DVD Burner
XP Home

Which should rattle along nicely. But I can't get HL2 to run at all without
crashing, and BF2 has graphic issues on occasion.
Has anyone else had problems running games on Dual cpu machines? Did you
find the solutions or are we going to have to wait for the software to catch
up?

Thanks,

J.

What sort of ram? , are the timings manually set or are you using AUTO?
, sometimes AUTO ram setting in bios sets the ram timings up wrong!

Have you tried setting the memory Command Rate to 2T instead of 1T?

btw, Does XP Home support dual cores? I thought it only supported one
single core CPU.

Cheers,
EdG

 

[VanShania]

I believe some games, apps need to have "affinity" set to one core also to
run properly. I think it is done by right clicking on the exe and choosing
affinity to one core. Maybe send amd a question. Their customer support
responds in a day, maybe less on a business day.
www.amd.com and hit customer support. You have to register.

 

[VanShania]

From Ed G in previous thread


For single threaded programs under Windows XP pro for example the OS
balances the work load between the 2 cores unless the cpu affinity is
set to CPU0 or CPU1. In windows xp pro task manager, select a running
exe like "notepad.exe", right click , select affinity.

EdG

 

[VanShania]

Again from a previous post. I'll probably catch flak for this.

I slapped the Auto Affinity program together in a hurry just using list
boxes (easy to use but slow) to store, retrieve and compare the running
exes and the users favorites. The only reason I wrote the program was
because one game was pissing me off, Madden 05 , it ran real choppy on
my dual core system but now I don't bother setting affinity because the
MS dual core hotfix solved my madden 05 issue, so for now I stopped
working on the program, no doubt someone else has already written such a
program and is freeware too. I just like writing my programs when I can
because I know exactly what they are doing and I can add just about any
feature I want to them. ;p
From Ed G

 

[EdG]

btw, Does XP Home support dual cores? I thought it only supported one
single core CPU.

Don't all jump in at once to answer, lol, never mind, this seems to
answer my question (if correct?)......

XP Pro and XP Pro x64 support dual processors, dual-core
or quad-core. XP Home only supports one processor, but that can be
multi-core also.

For workstations with four or more processors you would have to install
an appropriate edition of Windows Server.

Windows 2000 Professional always supported dual procs. That was one of
the reasons there was no upgrade path from Windows 2000 to XP Home, it
had to be W2k to XP Pro.

EdG

 

[dawg]

Don't assume the PS that came with the barebones is adequate. I wouldn't
think it was. Better check.It should be at least 400W decent quality brand
name.
The 7800 is a power hog. Have you connected both power connections on the
card?

 

[dawg]

Hi People,

I've just built a new pc as below:
Shuttle SN25P barebones,
2 Gb Ram
AMD 4400+ x2 CPU
Asus 7800GT
Seagate 300Gb Barracuda HDD
NEC DVD Burner
XP Home

Which should rattle along nicely. But I can't get HL2 to run at all without
crashing, and BF2 has graphic issues on occasion.
Has anyone else had problems running games on Dual cpu machines? Did you
find the solutions or are we going to have to wait for the software to catch
up?

Thanks,

J.

On the PS issue.I just looked up the specs of your bare bones. The PS is
350. I wouldn't bet on it being enough.
Look for power reccomendation for the 7800.Give your 7800 it's own
power.Don't share with drives.

 

[Mike]

It looks like you may need the dual core hotfix from M$
Go to google and do a search for (dual core hotfix)
When I installed this windows patch for dual core,
my system came alive. Before I thought I had a duron chip
instead of a atholon x2.

 

[Jester]

Crucial PC3200, everything is default, I haven't fiddled with anything yet!

I heard similar, but I think they have secretly added dual core, and
distinguish it from dual processor which it cant do.
2 cpus do show up in the task manager.

Thanks,

J.
Lol, just read your next post! I should read the whole thread first.....

 

[Jester]

Thanks I'll give it a try.

J.

It looks like you may need the dual core hotfix from M$
Go to google and do a search for (dual core hotfix)
When I installed this windows patch for dual core,
my system came alive. Before I thought I had a duron chip
instead of a atholon x2.

 

[Jester]

Yes.
Sorry for the delay, been away.

J.

Don't assume the PS that came with the barebones is adequate. I wouldn't
think it was. Better check.It should be at least 400W decent quality brand
name.
The 7800 is a power hog. Have you connected both power connections on the
card?

 

[Jester]

I had tried the affinity thing on HL2 but at the time I selected cpu 1 when
I should have selected cpu 0 (I've discovered since).
I'll give all these suggestions a try over the weekend.
thanks
J.