VNF3-250 not compatible with ATI 9800 Pro?

[Nicola Mosca]

Hi,
I assembled my new PC last month. My configuration consists of:
- chaintech vnf3-250 (first revision bios)
- athlon 64 3200+
- ati 9800 pro 128 mb
- 2x512mb corsair XMS pc4000 (used as ddr400 for now)
- 1 hd maxtor sata diamond plus 9 160gb
- 1 hd samsung 160 gb
- audigy 2 zs
all running at stock speed, with w2ksp4/DX9.

I have stability problems with games (when not running games, I have no
problem for now).

While running games or benchmarks, in about 20-50 minutes, my system
just stops to function properly.
Games and bench used:
- thief3
- warcraft 3 the frozen throne
- morrowind
- 3dmark 2001
- 3dmark03
- aquamark3

Some times my monitor goes in stand by, others ATI VPU recover signals a
gpu crash, others the system just hangs, others I have a comp reset.
I have tried to use agp4x and to disable fast writes and side band
addressing, but my problems are still there.
I tried the original nforce drivers 3.3 included with the mobo, as well
as recently released 4.27.
On the graphics card side, I tried the omega drivers 2551 as well as the
catalyst 4.6, all with poor results.
To exclude hw problems, I tested memory with memtest86+ (no problems
found). I tried even to swap the 9800 pro with an ati 9500, but it did
not solve my stability problems. Then I tried to mount my old gf2mx.
Stability problems seem then to go away , as well as games
playability .
What is to blame?
Thanks in advance.
somewhere in time

 

[First of One]

It seems like the *nVidia* motherboard chipset refuses to play nice with ATi
video cards.

Seriously, though, have you:

- In Windows System Properties, where it says Graphics Hardware
Acceleration, turn the slider down 1 notch.

Try these things in BIOS, if they are available:

- enable "assign IRQ to VGA"
- VGA boot order is AGP, then PCI
- toggle video memory transfer mode between "UC" and "USWC"
- reduce AGP aperture to 64 MB
- disable AGP altogether

Oh, and make sure you don't have multi-monitor enabled. Some games don't
like it when the desktop is extended to both monitors.

Of course, this is all assuming you have cooling and shit sorted out. Run
Toast (crazy CPU usage program) for an hour and see if your CPU temps are
reasonable (i.e. < 80 Celsius).

 

[Nicola Mosca]

It seems like the *nVidia* motherboard chipset refuses to play nice with ATi
video cards.

Seriously, though, have you:

- In Windows System Properties, where it says Graphics Hardware
Acceleration, turn the slider down 1 notch.

Try these things in BIOS, if they are available:

- enable "assign IRQ to VGA"
- VGA boot order is AGP, then PCI
- toggle video memory transfer mode between "UC" and "USWC"
- reduce AGP aperture to 64 MB
- disable AGP altogether

Oh, and make sure you don't have multi-monitor enabled. Some games don't
like it when the desktop is extended to both monitors.

Of course, this is all assuming you have cooling and shit sorted out. Run
Toast (crazy CPU usage program) for an hour and see if your CPU temps are
reasonable (i.e. < 80 Celsius).

Thanks.
I read only now your reply. I will try these hints.
Bye.