Game Pauses - NVDIA?

[Guest]

My son and I have very different spec. machines (e.g. Intel 2.00GHz vs Athlon 1700) but two things in common

1) We both have NVDIA graphics cards (he has PCI and I have GeForce4 AGP8x
2) We both keep our machines up to date with patches & drivers

Up until about two weeks ago (circa 12th May) our games ran fine (I'm currently playing C&C Generals, he plays a variety incl. Praetorians)

Then something happened/was installed which caused these (and other) games to pause for about 10 - 12 seconds, work for a few seconds, pause again, etc. Occasionally on C&C the textures on the intro 'white out' and the game appears to run without pausing

I've tried tweaking all graphics settings, reinstalling graphics drivers, reinstalling old drivers, removing all MS patches I can identify after 12th May, reinstalling DX9, system restores - you name it. Nothing brings the games back to a level of playability. The closest patch I can see being applied after the last 'good date' is KB840374 although there is another Windows Update v4 restore point, but I've restored before both of these with no success

It's unlikely to be related to other peripherals, e.g. sound cards, because they are completely different (SB Audugy vs onboard)

Anyone any ideas before I wipe both machines and reinstall

Thanks

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi SimonL,

Try reverting back to a restore point on both machines
sometime in early May before they started pausing.

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / User
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contact
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;top
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| My son and I have very different spec. machines (e.g. Intel 2.00GHz vs Athlon 1700) but two things in common:
|
| 1) We both have NVDIA graphics cards (he has PCI and I have GeForce4 AGP8x)
| 2) We both keep our machines up to date with patches & drivers.
|
| Up until about two weeks ago (circa 12th May) our games ran fine (I'm currently playing C&C Generals, he plays a variety incl.
Praetorians).
|
| Then something happened/was installed which caused these (and other) games to pause for about 10 - 12 seconds, work for a few
seconds, pause again, etc. Occasionally on C&C the textures on the intro 'white out' and the game appears to run without pausing.
|
| I've tried tweaking all graphics settings, reinstalling graphics drivers, reinstalling old drivers, removing all MS patches I can
identify after 12th May, reinstalling DX9, system restores - you name it. Nothing brings the games back to a level of playability.
The closest patch I can see being applied after the last 'good date' is KB840374 although there is another Windows Update v4 restore
point, but I've restored before both of these with no success.
|
| It's unlikely to be related to other peripherals, e.g. sound cards, because they are completely different (SB Audugy vs onboard).
|
| Anyone any ideas before I wipe both machines and reinstall?
|
| Thanks

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion Jimmy but I've already tried that on my machine. In addition
- there's no frantic hard drive accessing whilst pausing (I've performed full scans and defrag
- music, sound effects continu
- it happens in all games requiring reasonable graphics, DX8+ (but not necessarily DX9), as sold or with patches applie
- it doesn't happen in business applications, e.g. Wor
- I have McAfee installed but it still happens even if this is disable
- There are no Application, Security or System event errors when I run the game
- I've tried system managed, custom set and no pagin
- The machine appears to run at processor capacity during the slowdown

By the way - I have two sons. The other has the same machine spec as the first but he has a 64Mb PCI NVDIA card. His machine is fine BUT he hasn't downloaded any MS fixes since mid April (including the Security fixes!!). Naturally, he is reluctant to do so at the moment.

 

[Jimmy S.]

Hi SimonL,

I have a GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP card in this system, and I'm
fully up to date with all the Microsoft security patches. It might
be an issue caused by the Nvidia driver update from the update
site, which I have never selected to install.

Try reinstalling your Video drivers again and troubleshoot them:

1. Before you update your drivers, I recommend you re-install DirectX:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/9/c/c9c8a1d4-7690-4c98-baf3-0c67e7f3751f/dx90b_redist.exe

Here are the steps I recommend you use to update your driver. If you've
never done this before I recommend you also look over the Installation hints
and Release Notes both of which are linked to from their download page.

2. Download the latest driver for your Nvidia Card

Win XP/2000: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_56.64
Win98/Me: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_56.64

3. Save the .exe driver in My Documents\My Drivers\nVidia

4. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

5. Click Start / (settings) Control Panel / System / Hardware
Device Manager / expand +Display Adapters / right click on
the adapter, pick "Uninstall", and click No if asked to reboot.

6. Use Control Panel / Add-Remove programs to uninstall the
previous driver (exe)software which may have been installed.

7. Restart the computer in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key
about once every second as it's rebooting to pick Safe Mode.

8. If Windows prompts you to install the adapter, click "Cancel".

9. Double click the nVidia driver we saved to My Documents\My
Drivers\nVidia folder in step 3 to install.it. If it complains about
Windows Logo Certification just click "Continue". This is normal.

10. After you reboot, go to Control Panel / Display / Settings and
choose 32 bit Color Quality, and 800x600 or higher Resolution.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Test your drivers using DXDiag: Click Start / Run / type: DXDIAG
Click the "Test" buttons in the Display, Sound, Music & Network Tabs;
If any of the Display options are Disabled and you cannot Enable them,
your most likely solution would be to update your Chipset Drivers as per
my website: http://www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/Video.html#v11

Your program might not support dual monitors, or "dual head" video cards
You can disable the extra video output in your display properties control
panel. Click Start>Settings>Control Panel>Display>Settings>Advanced.

Along with your Video card, Sound Cards, Motherboard Chipsets,
and Video Monitors may also require updated drivers. Even your
motherboard's BIOS may need to be updated for compatibility with
your Video card. These steps are listed at: http://NibblesNbitsVideo.tk

Perhaps the old Nvidia drivers did not completely uninstall. If that's the
case, use this utility to completely uninstall the drivers and go to step 7:
http://content.guru3d.com/index.php?page=detonatorrip&menu=0

The latest video drivers sometime don't work with a particular game.
(Check the Video suggestions in the readme.txt file in your game folder/CD)
If there's no suggestions, try an older (WHQL) driver, and/or if you still
experience problems try a Beta driver, or even an Omega driver instead:

BETA Drivers: http://download.guru3d.com/
OMEGA Drivers: http://www.omegacorner.com/

There you have it, if you have any questions feel free to post them!

--
Cheers,
Jimmy S.

Additional Support Resources: My Zone.com Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk
Microsoft Online Tech Support: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=376
Game FAQ's: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gms
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights.
_________________________________________________________

| Thanks for the suggestion Jimmy but I've already tried that on my machine. In addition:
| - there's no frantic hard drive accessing whilst pausing (I've performed full scans and defrag)
| - music, sound effects continue
| - it happens in all games requiring reasonable graphics, DX8+ (but not necessarily DX9), as sold or with patches applied
| - it doesn't happen in business applications, e.g. Word
| - I have McAfee installed but it still happens even if this is disabled
| - There are no Application, Security or System event errors when I run the games
| - I've tried system managed, custom set and no paging
| - The machine appears to run at processor capacity during the slowdowns
|
| By the way - I have two sons. The other has the same machine spec as the first but he has a 64Mb PCI NVDIA card. His machine is
fine BUT he hasn't downloaded any MS fixes since mid April (including the Security fixes!!). Naturally, he is reluctant to do so at
the moment.

 

[Guest]

----- Jimmy S. wrote: ----

Hi SimonL

Try reverting back to a restore point on both machine
sometime in early May before they started pausing. :-

--
Cheers, Windows XP MVP Shell / Use
Jimmy S. http://mvp.support.microsoft.co


Game FAQs: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];gm
Visit my Zone.com / Gaming Helpsite: http://nibblesnbits.tk or Call / Contac
MS Support at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=sz;en-us;to
My advice is donated "AS IS" without warranty; nor do I confer any rights
________________________________________________________

| My son and I have very different spec. machines (e.g. Intel 2.00GHz vs Athlon 1700) but two things in common

| 1) We both have NVDIA graphics cards (he has PCI and I have GeForce4 AGP8x
| 2) We both keep our machines up to date with patches & drivers

| Up until about two weeks ago (circa 12th May) our games ran fine (I'm currently playing C&C Generals, he plays a variety incl
Praetorians)

| Then something happened/was installed which caused these (and other) games to pause for about 10 - 12 seconds, work for a fe
seconds, pause again, etc. Occasionally on C&C the textures on the intro 'white out' and the game appears to run without pausing

| I've tried tweaking all graphics settings, reinstalling graphics drivers, reinstalling old drivers, removing all MS patches I ca
identify after 12th May, reinstalling DX9, system restores - you name it. Nothing brings the games back to a level of playability
The closest patch I can see being applied after the last 'good date' is KB840374 although there is another Windows Update v4 restor
point, but I've restored before both of these with no success

| It's unlikely to be related to other peripherals, e.g. sound cards, because they are completely different (SB Audugy vs onboard)

| Anyone any ideas before I wipe both machines and reinstall

| Thank