A7N8X Deluxe stuttering

[JEV]

Hey!

Problem:
I'm having huge problems with this board! Had to reinstall, due to a slow
running winxp(Had been running 10 months now or something like that) - now I
get some static sounds, stuttering in both sound and graphics! Actually I
had the same kind of problem, when I originally installed XP - disabled APIC
in the bios, reinstalled, and everything worked great (Had some minor static
sounds, but not worth mentioning!)

The problem with the sound isen't that bad, and I can surely live with it,
if only my games would run smooth! The problem i'm expiriencing is
stuttering in games - feels like major lag. (FPS is great and stable, but
still it feels like getting 2 FPS at times!) I mainly tested it in UT, but
it happens in other games aswell! Singleplayer or multiplayer makes no
difference, and I'm sure, that it has nothing to do with my ISP! BTW testing
is made in both D3D and OpenGL....seems like the stuttering isen't as bad in
OpenGL.

I have read serveral forums and boards, and have learnt, that this is a very
commen and well know bug. Some people are capable of fixing it, while others
never really get it right. Funny thing is, that it's different solutions,
which solves the problem for people(Prolly due to different configuration,
drivers and hardware?). I have noticed, that the stuttering isen't anyway as
bad, when I disable vsync(Almost playable, but still not as good, as it
could be!) I have really tried to solve the problem for days now - want my
computer to work like it did before.

Regarding UT, I know for a fact, that it has nothing to do with different
graphics setting in the game - I'm using the same old ini, as I did on the
working installation! Furthermore i'm using the same settings for the GFX
driver!

Original system:
A7N8X Deluxe
2 Ghz AMD
512 MB DDR RAM
Two hd's
One CD-drive
Geforce 4 MMx 440(Shitty yes! )
Logitech dual optical

It's not a heat problem! and TBH, I really doubt, that it should be any of
my hardware not working right....

What have I done, to try to fix it?
Well.....this is going to be a long one.....I must have reinstalled winxp
upto about 30 times or something like that!

- The first couple of times, I used the exact same BIOS setting, as when I
installed the perfectly working winxp(APIC disabled in BIOS)!
Result=Stuttering!
Started reading some board and forums, and decided to try some of the
solutions, that worked for some ppl!

- Tried reinstalling using APIC Result=stuttering

- Tried reinstalling, with different settings in the bios(APIC
disable/enable), with all the onboard things like network, USB and sound
disabled.....instead using some old PCI devices and a PS/2 mouse!
Result=stuttering

-Bios update (The newest, I think it's called 1007)

- Then I read some promising article about PCI latency (
http://bellsouthpwp.net/t/o/tomrivington/pcilatency.html ) - basically using
Powerstrip, to reduce the PCI latency for my GFX card and my network -
Result=stuttering

- Using a lot of different drivers (The old ones, from my working winxp and
the newest aswell(Both the ones from Nvidia and the ones from Asus!)
Result=stuttering

- Somebody suggested using a driver, which made it work for them, using some
kind of driver reset - tried that aswell (
http://mwarhead.motherboardfaqs.com/ ) Result=stuttering

As you can see, I have tried a lot of different solutions, and I'm really
getting tired of this now!

Sure hope somebody can help me!

BTW....When the board was working, it was running very good, and I loved
it - I might add, that I know a lot of ppl having this board, and having
absolutely no problems at all with it!

What am I missing/do wrong? Plz help me! Just want my computer to run like
it used to!

/Best Regards
Jesper Petersen

 

[Kyle Brant]

Just a suggestion to try out, disable agp texturing in the UT.ini
file:
UseAGPTextures=False (d3d renderer section)

Before you do this tho, make certain your texture preference
(hi/med/lo) in UT is set where you like it, cuz disabling AGP
texturing "locks" your texture detail mode.

see if that makes any difference. I have the same mobo, but use an
ATI Radeon 8500, and have smooth action, including using all features
(sound/video) enabled. I have the agp texturing disabled, and I think
it makes things a bit smoother b/c texture transfers from main memory
to the graphics card are disabled. The only "stuttering" i see is due
to (in my estimation) "data throttling" over the net in multiplayer
games. The internet has become much more clogged in the past year or
two and responsiveness is slowly waning. Also, your ISP could have
your subnet overloaded, don't believe for a second that your ISP is
giving you a great connection. Tryout pingplotter to check your ping
stability: www.pingplotter.com .

Also, search for the "killer.dem" UT demo file, d/l and run it, tell
us what your frame rates are from running this demo (I get about 93
fps).

Finally, start up a "local" game, add in about 16 bots, and see if you
have stuttering then, if not, then the problem is not with your
system.

Finally, part with $50 and get a better graphics card.
--
Best regards,
Kyle
| Hey!
|
| Problem:
| I'm having huge problems with this board! Had to reinstall, due to a
slow
| running winxp(Had been running 10 months now or something like
that) - now I
| get some static sounds, stuttering in both sound and graphics!
Actually I
| had the same kind of problem, when I originally installed XP -
disabled APIC
| in the bios, reinstalled, and everything worked great (Had some
minor static
| sounds, but not worth mentioning!)
|
| The problem with the sound isen't that bad, and I can surely live
with it,
| if only my games would run smooth! The problem i'm expiriencing is
| stuttering in games - feels like major lag. (FPS is great and
stable, but
| still it feels like getting 2 FPS at times!) I mainly tested it in
UT, but
| it happens in other games aswell! Singleplayer or multiplayer makes
no
| difference, and I'm sure, that it has nothing to do with my ISP! BTW
testing
| is made in both D3D and OpenGL....seems like the stuttering isen't
as bad in
| OpenGL.
|
| I have read serveral forums and boards, and have learnt, that this
is a very
| commen and well know bug. Some people are capable of fixing it,
while others
| never really get it right. Funny thing is, that it's different
solutions,
| which solves the problem for people(Prolly due to different
configuration,
| drivers and hardware?). I have noticed, that the stuttering isen't
anyway as
| bad, when I disable vsync(Almost playable, but still not as good, as
it
| could be!) I have really tried to solve the problem for days now -
want my
| computer to work like it did before.
|
| Regarding UT, I know for a fact, that it has nothing to do with
different
| graphics setting in the game - I'm using the same old ini, as I did
on the
| working installation! Furthermore i'm using the same settings for
the GFX
| driver!
|
| Original system:
| A7N8X Deluxe
| 2 Ghz AMD
| 512 MB DDR RAM
| Two hd's
| One CD-drive
| Geforce 4 MMx 440(Shitty yes! )
| Logitech dual optical
|
| It's not a heat problem! and TBH, I really doubt, that it should be
any of
| my hardware not working right....
|
| What have I done, to try to fix it?
| Well.....this is going to be a long one.....I must have reinstalled
winxp
| upto about 30 times or something like that!
|
| - The first couple of times, I used the exact same BIOS setting, as
when I
| installed the perfectly working winxp(APIC disabled in BIOS)!
| Result=Stuttering!
| Started reading some board and forums, and decided to try some of
the
| solutions, that worked for some ppl!
|
| - Tried reinstalling using APIC Result=stuttering
|
| - Tried reinstalling, with different settings in the bios(APIC
| disable/enable), with all the onboard things like network, USB and
sound
| disabled.....instead using some old PCI devices and a PS/2 mouse!
| Result=stuttering
|
| -Bios update (The newest, I think it's called 1007)
|
| - Then I read some promising article about PCI latency (
| http://bellsouthpwp.net/t/o/tomrivington/pcilatency.html ) -
basically using
| Powerstrip, to reduce the PCI latency for my GFX card and my
network -
| Result=stuttering
|
| - Using a lot of different drivers (The old ones, from my working
winxp and
| the newest aswell(Both the ones from Nvidia and the ones from Asus!)
| Result=stuttering
|
| - Somebody suggested using a driver, which made it work for them,
using some
| kind of driver reset - tried that aswell (
| http://mwarhead.motherboardfaqs.com/ ) Result=stuttering
|
| As you can see, I have tried a lot of different solutions, and I'm
really
| getting tired of this now!
|
| Sure hope somebody can help me!
|
| BTW....When the board was working, it was running very good, and I
loved
| it - I might add, that I know a lot of ppl having this board, and
having
| absolutely no problems at all with it!
|
| What am I missing/do wrong? Plz help me! Just want my computer to
run like
| it used to!
|
| /Best Regards
| Jesper Petersen
|
|

 

[JEV]

Hey Kyle!

Thx for the advice!

I allready had AGP textures disabled in my UT.ini

About my ISP - Well, you are right, but thats not the problem...I know what
normal lag feels like, and this ain't the case (And I have the same
problems in singlepleyer)

Couldn't find the "killer.dem", eventhough I remember testing with it some
time ago Recorded a demo myself though....72 FPS all the time(Vsync
on....and 72 hz refresh rate) - but still the annoying stuttering! (Tested
with one of my friends demos aswell - same result!) He has no stuttering @
his computer, while playing my demos!

About the local game with 16 bots - stuttering, but perfectly nice FPS(72
all the time!)

I'm sure it's something with the MB/drivers/hardware konfiguration! (A lot
others have this problem aswell)

BTW: Just noticed.....running dxdiag, and choosing to test Direct3d gives no
problems....the logo runs perfectly(Run perfectly because there's no sound
or mouse activity involved, my guess is!)! Anyhow.....playing a song in
winamp and running the test, the DirectX logo starts stuttering!

I sure would love a new graphics card, but a lot with better graphics
card(Same MB though ) than mine, has the exact same problem, so i guess
thats not the problem(Sure would be nice though ).....Furthermore before
my reninstall the system was running like a dream!

/Jesper Petersen

 

[JEV]

Seems like my problem is due to an IRQ conflict - I removed all the
stuttering "simply" by disabling 6 devices in the device manager! Now I just
have to figure out, how to get it to work with the devices active....or at
least some of them! I'm at the point, of beeing rdy to install my OLD
no-name PCI-soundcard, just to get my computer to run nice and smooth again


/Jesper Petersen

 

[AJ]

- Somebody suggested using a driver, which made it work for them, using some
kind of driver reset - tried that aswell (
http://mwarhead.motherboardfaqs.com/ ) Result=stuttering

As you can see, I have tried a lot of different solutions, and I'm really
getting tired of this now!

I had lag really bad with that board in CS. I had the game installed
on the secondary HDD. Reinstalled the game to the C: drive and the
problem went away.
There are a lot of bad IDE drivers floating around. Most are in big
self installing NF2 packs. The worst is the pak with really good
gaming sound drivers. The IDE drivers in that self installer
completely hosed my system.
_________________________
French Connection:
http://www.metrospy.com/boycott_brands.htm

 

[Kyle Brant]

I recall you mentioned disabling the I/O apic, but I have APIC
enabled, and all devices are on their own interrupt and no problems at
all with my rig (and same was true when I had a k7s5a and SBLive 5.1
sound card).

It sure sounds like there is something in a driver or a driver
conflict that's causing your symptoms. Try the performance monitor
and look at cpu usage, do you see any spiking?

Also, go back and re-enable each of the devices you disabled, 1 by 1,
and test for the stuttering, maybe you can isolate which one is
causing it.

BTW, if you re-enable the APIC, you'll have to do an "in place"
reinstall, I believe.

However, I've got my system working smoothly with win98se and win2k so
it CAN be done, and no doubt, there are many using a 440mx vid card
who have theirs working smoothly also.

good luck.



--
Best regards,
Kyle
| Seems like my problem is due to an IRQ conflict - I removed all the
| stuttering "simply" by disabling 6 devices in the device manager!
Now I just
| have to figure out, how to get it to work with the devices
active....or at
| least some of them! I'm at the point, of beeing rdy to install my
OLD
| no-name PCI-soundcard, just to get my computer to run nice and
smooth again
|
|
| /Jesper Petersen
|
|

 

[JEV]

Hey AJ

No diffenrence between the different harddrives - had UT installed on my Hd0
(Two partitions, C: being the system one) and on my Hd01....(Ut on all of
the three partitions!).....did this to reinsure, that it wasen't a hd
failure of some kind, but thx for the advice anyway!

Anyhow my problems are gone now - no stuttering at all! \o/

/Jesper Petersen

 

[JEV]

Hey Kyle!

Might be a driver problem, but I have tried several(Also the ones, which
worked for me originally!) - currently running with:
nForce_2.45_WinXP2K_WHQL_international.exe (I don't dare to make any updates
now, that i finally got it working!).

Funny thing about disable/enable on my system is, that it doesn't really
seem to make a difference? I have a lot of devices sharing the same IRQ -
they tends to wanna run on IRQ 5 or 11 a lot of them(Onboard sound, USB,
networking and GFX).....I don't really get this! (Never thought I would have
to say this, but at some point I actually missed WIN98, in which I could
have just assigned the IRQ's by myself!)

My cpu usage is normal (0-2% in idle)! No spiking at all(Tried Enabling the
devices again, which makes the computer stutter, just to test this one )

Also, go back and re-enable each of the devices you disabled, 1 by 1,
and test for the stuttering, maybe you can isolate which one is
causing it.

Exactly what I did, and I found out, that disabling the Nvidia LAN, modem(Or
whatever the 1334 or something like that is) and one thing more I can't
remeber atm.....But anyhow....It works now! \o/ Funny thing is, that IRQ 11
has 5 devices running, while IRQ 5 has 3 devices running!? But it works!

However, I've got my system working smoothly with win98se and win2k so
it CAN be done, and no doubt, there are many using a 440mx vid card
who have theirs working smoothly also.

Count me in as beeing one of the 440mx users who have a smooth running
system

I'm so happy \o/

Thx for the advices, allway nice to hear a second opinion on the problems!

BTW one of my friends had the same problem as me, had APIC
enabled....somehow a lot of sharing IRQ's - we both have the Rev. 1004
board....bug with that board revision?

/Best regards
Jesper Petersen

 

[Nick Le Lievre]

Hey Kyle!

Might be a driver problem, but I have tried several(Also the ones, which
worked for me originally!) - currently running with:
nForce_2.45_WinXP2K_WHQL_international.exe (I don't dare to make any updates
now, that i finally got it working!).

Funny thing about disable/enable on my system is, that it doesn't really
seem to make a difference? I have a lot of devices sharing the same IRQ -
they tends to wanna run on IRQ 5 or 11 a lot of them(Onboard sound, USB,
networking and GFX).....I don't really get this! (Never thought I would have
to say this, but at some point I actually missed WIN98, in which I could
have just assigned the IRQ's by myself!)

My cpu usage is normal (0-2% in idle)! No spiking at all(Tried Enabling the
devices again, which makes the computer stutter, just to test this one )

Exactly what I did, and I found out, that disabling the Nvidia LAN, modem(Or
whatever the 1334 or something like that is) and one thing more I can't
remeber atm.....But anyhow....It works now! \o/ Funny thing is, that IRQ 11
has 5 devices running, while IRQ 5 has 3 devices running!? But it works!

Count me in as beeing one of the 440mx users who have a smooth running
system

I'm so happy \o/

Thx for the advices, allway nice to hear a second opinion on the problems!

BTW one of my friends had the same problem as me, had APIC
enabled....somehow a lot of sharing IRQ's - we both have the Rev. 1004
board....bug with that board revision?

/Best regards
Jesper Petersen

Never enable APIC mode in my expierience with the ABIT AT7 KT333 board
running at 133fsb and 166fsb as it is damn hard to get a stable system with
it enabled due to the device driver got stuck in an infinite loop problem -
see my post here http://tinyurl.com/wk2w disabling APIC mode will require a
re-install or in-place upgrade. APIC is not ACPI - ACPI works!.

 

[Bitsbucket]

Hey Nick,
Did you test the memory before you sent it back, with something like
memtest86? (I read your link about killing the memory with a too hi FSB
setting) I'm curious to know if memtest picked-up on the bad memory.
Everyone here seems to think that if you can run memtest86 overnight then
you don't have a memory problem....so I just wondered if it found your bad
memory stick.
Thanks
Bitsbucket

 

[Nick Le Lievre]

Hey Nick,
Did you test the memory before you sent it back, with something like
memtest86? (I read your link about killing the memory with a too hi FSB
setting) I'm curious to know if memtest picked-up on the bad memory.
Everyone here seems to think that if you can run memtest86 overnight then
you don't have a memory problem....so I just wondered if it found your bad
memory stick.
Thanks
Bitsbucket

No becuase by then I knew it was faulty - this is becuase I was getting the
infinite loop problem whilst running Prime 95 for a few hours with it in the
system - with the PC2100 stick from my other system there was no infinite
loop while running Prime 95.

The moment I really *knew* it was faulty was the first time I tried the
stick of PC2100 in the system and it ran Prime 95 stable. Up till then I was
at a loss.

Then I tried the PC2700 stick in the other system from which the PC2100 came
it wouldn't even POST just the beeps indicating memory problem so I knew it
was faulty. The replacement worked fine with no device driver got stuck in
infinite loop during Prime 95 testing but if you read on I recently
discovered that the main cause of the infinite loop error is APIC Mode
enabled in the BIOS - but with replacement memory and some conversative BIOS
settings I had a stable system for 5 months with APIC mode enabled at 133fsb
just never at 166fsb while APIC mode was enabled - infinite loops all the
time regardless of BIOS settings.

Really complex issue to resolve during which I had a bad stick of RAM for
sure. I think the way to detect a ram problem is to run Prime 95 and know
the signs which is not always possible for a newbie to ram problems;

Look for;

Spontaneous Reboots
3D Mark / Games quitting to Desktop
Intermittent Bluescreens PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL
PRN_LIST_CORRUPT
The device drive got stuck in an infinite loop error when APIC mode is
disabled or not present in the BIOS

Running Prime 95 can help you tell if you`ve removed the right stick and
whether the problem still exists.