New computer - many problems, any help?

JoeUk

JoeUk

JoeUk

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Joined
2 May 2006
Posts
137
Hi guys,

New poster here - I just put together a new computer with bits from OCuk but seem to be having problems thus far -

x2 3800
Sapphire x1800xt (6.3 catalyst)
2 gig geil value ram
Audigy 2 xs
MSI neo4 ultra platinum
WD 16meg sata 2 250g hd

Now - nothing except the gfx card is overclocked using the inbuilt software in CCC.

I seem to be having quite a few problems - first up game performance doesnt seem as it should be.. i'm having a lot of stutters on several games (oblivion, fear etc) now I've never had a decent computer so i'm not sure what to expect really - but the framerate is ok but it stutters and stops for a split second and continues.. maybe thats normal?

My more serious problems are that I get frequent crashes - 3dmark05 won't finish for one.. just quitting out or resetting my computer at random points, games can do that occasionally too. When I came home today I had a blue screen with the main message being 'Driver_IRQ_NOT_EQUAL' does anyone have any idea what this means?

It's kinda getting me down after dropping £850+ on a new computer I imagined would run most games (1280 resolutions) but the stability just isnt there, could it be a bad windows install? maybe I should reformat again and install things in a strict order? Any good benchmarks to try? I'm going to run memtest but other than that I can't really see anything to try - i'm a beginner at overclocking etc but fully capable at using my pc! haha

If anyone has any tips that'd be great as I don't really know what to try besides reformatting.

Cheers
 
The stuttering might be because you have a dual processor and the games dont run properly without changing there settings or something im not sure about the other problems
 
Hey, welcome to the forums.

Stuttering in games is something quite a few X2 owners have had trouble with due to not setting up XP properly for the dual core chip - see here.

As for the crashing, firstly I'd put the graphics back to stock speeds just to eliminate this from the situation. Then check all chipset / graphics drivers are installed and up to date, chipset drivers should be installed first after format then graphics after. If memtest comes back OK you could try another stress test like Prime95 / S&M / OCCT to see if the system as a whole (CPU / board / memory) is stable.
 
Update everything.
-Graphics drivers
-Chipset drivers
-BIOS
-Software/games
-Windows

I had problems like that before and it was caused by graphics drivers.

Welcome to the forums. Hope your folding \/
 
Thanks for the replies - i'm going to download all new drivers and reformat, havent had time to settle in to this installation anyway
 
I have a similar rig (see sig) and I am having similar problems.

Don't really encounter stuttering in games, except when I first enter a game on CS:Source but games randomly freeze.

Tbh I am not sure this motherboard likes the GeIL RAM in dual channel.... when I run one stick it seems to fine, although to be honest the crashes are too erratic to tell whether something is fixed or not..
 
Driver_IRQ_NOT_EQUAL

is an issue caused by memory fault.

PSU can cause this to happen if it isnt functioning correctly, and also other RAM issues.

As above, remove all overclocks until you get it stable as standard. Try memtest86 to check your RAM. Try running with just 1 stick of RAM in.

Also, install the AMD CPU patch/driver for dual core.

M
 
Well - i reinstalled everything.. fully patched up now, going to run tests overnight.

Everything seems fine so far - 3dmark completed fine this time, got 8490 - that about right?

It does seem like it might be the ram - i'll see

Thanks again
 
Well.. got home today and tried running a game and I got a new blue screen! "Machine_check_error".. surely I must have some hardware fault?

Any idea what component thats related too?
 
Download and run Memtest86.

Sounds like a RAM problem to me tbh and this will test for it. You have put everything back to stock haven't you - this isn't an error in your overclocking?
 
maybe because you installed the games while your computer was overclocked.
and there has been PSU issues being said.
so maybe your HDD didnt get enough juice to install it properly because it wasnt able to spin the disk up to speed.

whats your PSU wattage?
 
Right - well I ran memtest for 10 hours, i ran 2 together testing 851 meg each as the program told me too. It didn't detect any errors though..

I've checked the system log and there is several save dumps listed, i tried running them through a search engine but it's all pretty vague what comes up scanning through the various logs i get these error codes. 0x10000050 & 0x0000009c. A few other messages include 1 about the cdrom having a bad block and everytime i boot up it complains about DCOM.

As for my PSU - it came with the sonata II case I bought, i was told it would be more than adequate? Anyway to tell on this one?

It's really strange - I get the Machine_check_error or just a random reboot while testing this one game, but not during 3dmark05. Must admit I havent tried any other games but I guess i'll check.

Sure is getting me down this fault! I'm going to take the ram out of my old mobo and see if it gives me the same message.

Any continued help would be great, I really appreciate it
 
Well - managed to get rid of the dcom error at least, apparently it was to do with my audigy 2 zs. Still crashing though!
 
dont get down about it mate its just a pc + will get sorted :)

have you made sure all the power connectors are in the motherboard and graphics card. i know on dfi boards theres like 4 power connectors you need to put into the mobo + one directly into the graphics card.
 
haha guess your right.. can't let it beat me!

Yep - I double checked but everything is plugged in properly. I whipped out the ram before hand and put in a gig stick of older ram from a different pc but it still crashed when trying this one game
Just been playing oblivion for a half hour and had no problems.. bit confused by all this really! seems to be very selective as to when it decides to crash.

Hmmm.. I just typed in the game name (for some reason I was trying to play this naff Dragonshard demo that came with my D+D online.. not really a good test i guess) and lots of people are getting a blue screen that might be related to the soundcard.. could it be i'm just being a dumbass and trying to play a bugged game? heh I havent recieved the Driver_irq_not_equal since reformatting with different drivers.

Feel a bit stupid right now but i'm not convinced just yet
 
I don't think the DCOM errors are related - I get those every now and again and my PC is fine. I believe these to be with my home networking - do you have a LAN or Wireless LAN there?

On the face of it, the 450W PSU in that case should be plenty enough - not sure about the quality of it though (although as its Antec, its is probably fine). You could download OCCT, and stress your CPU. OCCT will give you a graph of the PSU output and VCore, and will show you if the voltage to the CPU is dropping under load etc. As games also stress the graphics, making the gfx draw more power, stuttering and crashes during gaming would support this.
 
Try the machine without the Audigy 2. They can occassionally cause errors similar to what you are getting. Personally i'd say its the RAM, although as has been mentioned the supply can cause similar problems as well.

Is it the 256Mb or 512Mb X1800XT you have ? Both Oblivion and FEAR are pretty hard on your machine, and i'd suspect that a 256Mb card would stutter a bit in places. I think it can also be down to loading areas as well, so i wouldnt worry overly about the odd stutter in either of those 2 games. If you still get pauses and stuttering in something a little less system intensive then it may be worth worrying about it a bit more.

Your machine is in many ways almost identical to mine, the same motherboard etc. I have the 512Mb version of the X1800XT and i've never had any of the problems that you have listed. Have you tried the RAM in the other 2 slots, are you running the most recent bios. Check that your memory timings are ok in the bios.
 
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