AGP Radeons 9xxx - hangs, sound loops and other - solutions

Hery

<div class="IPBDescription">support topic</div>If you are having any kind of problems with making your AGP Radeon card work perfectly, then check this topic for help.

I'm the owner of a Radeon 9600pro (put in KT266A, xp1800+ - old stuff, but game is enjoyable). From the beginning (2 years ago my gf2 burned ;>) I've had many problems. Launching a 3d benchmark, or running NS for a longer while, usually made my system hang with an annoying sound loop in headphones (sometimes it could happen when I was surfing the net :|). So I've searched for other people with that problem.

I've found many pseudo-solutions like:<ul><li>manipulating smartgart settings (start -> run -> smartgart)</li><li>lowering AGP speed, disabling fast write, changing AGP voltage - AGP bios settings</li><li>memory bios settings</li><li>swapping PCI cards (NIC&Audigy) to be sure that there's no IRQ conflict</li><li>many combinations of drivers for soundcard, motherboard, gart and graphic</li></ul>
The only thing that have changed something to my system was turning off AGP read/write options in smartgart, or using PCI driver as an AGP gart. Unfortunately, that was only delaying the unavoidable crash...

And finally, no more crash for me <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> There are two options in BIOS called Assign IRQ for USB/VGA. I've read on Omega Drivers site that this should be enabled, but that's wrong. Disabling this setting makes your OS (Make sure you have PNP OS option enabled) to set the proper IRQ for your GPU, not the BIOS. Now my graphic card has significantly lower interrupt [3, before it was set at 12]. System is stable, even if all GART settings are enabled.

Hope, that this topic will help anybody.
PS. Sorry for any bugs in spelling or grama. My english skills sucks <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/lerk.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::lerk::" border="0" alt="lerk.gif" />

Lt_Patch

This is more of a generic problem than something specific to NS, but I'll back this up with some knowledge, seeing as it's quite the problem, specifically with mid-high end games (not the rigs themselves) on relatively older systems.

Basically, the "Assign IRQ for VGA" and "Assign IRQ for USB" options in a BIOS were introduced quite a while back, after a problem with a version of Windows (I forget which one it was now), caused problems, by assigning interrupts over an existing, new created device, the Universal Serial Bus. What that then lead to, were crashes, and hardware issues, which very few people could solve. They were pretty much true to the cause of "random" crashes. Then, one day, someone realised that Windows was assigning an IRQ to the USB controller, which was stacked too high. They then rushed out a modified BIOS file, with the option to assign an interrupt via the hardware, instead of allowing Windows to assign it. This pretty much fixed the problem instantly.

However, now that Windows has improved, in the sense of interrupt handling, that option isn't necessary any more, it's a legacy function, left in to preserve the adage "You don't miss it, until it's gone". Meaning, that the option is there, just in case, at some point, someone decides they want to install this version of Windows, with the buggy interrupt handler...

CoolCookieCooks

Thanks for the info, this problem caused me to buy a new graphics card, so I passed down my 9800 pro to my dad. This will still become very useful for whenever he gets problems.

DC_Darkling

As a general rule remember the following:

If a BIOS and any OS BOTH want to set settings for a certain thing, its bound to break. Don't make it be controlled by both

Preeeemo

Changing the IRQ didn't do anything for me.

I was playing fine for about a week or so until NS started crashing :\

edit:

I'm gonna try deleting everything half-life related and reinstall and see if that fixes it -.-

Preeeemo

well that didn't do jack, and I'd really love to play ns, so I'm open to any suggestions.

DC_Darkling

posting the exact problem helps.
if the solution differs, the problem differs

Hery

Sure, give some details about your system.
I've read so many topics about agp related radeon problems, seen so many solutions, maybe I'll find one for you <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
Firstly, be sure to have best drivers for your system. Most important ones are for your motherboard (chipset drivers for AGP, IDE etc.) If you are sure about the drivers, then time's for bios settings. Usually problem is suited in agp settings. Try to disable fast-write (if enabled), it is the most common cause of any graphic bugs. Also try lowering agp bus speed to 4x. Both changes have really marginable impact on your system performance.
Anyway, give more info.

Preeeemo

Windows Vista Ultimate
AMD Athlong 64 X2 4200+
Gigabyte K8 Triton GA-K8U-939
Asus Radeon 9800 XT
1 Gigabyte Mushkin PC 3200
Creative Soundblaster 24-bit 8.1

latest drivers and firmware for all.

the game crashes after around a minute of gameplay (screen freezes and sometimes the sound skips)

my computer doesn't have any problem playing half life deathmatch.

need anymore details let me know

Preeeemo

bump

Disturbed_One

I run an MSI 9550 Radeon and NS plays perfectly, as well as any other HL or HL2 based mod.

Though instead I get bad lag spike problems with NS...

I'm using the latest ATI drivers, nothing special.
Nor have I messed with the bios

AnAkIn

I have a ATI Radeon 9550...and when i am in game, and pushing a strafe key (or maybe any key) + esc, my comp freeze, and i can't do anything except pushing reboot button. Does anyone of you have this ?

I have this since i formated my computer, and i tried the following drivers : catalyst 6.4, 6.8, 7.1, 7.5 and it still crash...

Iconoclast

Try setting hl.exe to low priority in Windows Task Manager.

AnAkIn

Already tried, didn't change anything.
I searched for posts about this, and there are lots from around 2004...and no real solutions except changing drivers...I'll try omega now, but since it's based on catalyst...


EDIT : omega doesn't work, it freeze too. And holding ANY key with ESC cause the freeze...

Iconoclast

have you tried killing the ati2evxx.exe process/duplicate? Solved an issue similar to this my mate was having.

AnAkIn

the ATI Hotkey poller is already disabled...

AnAkIn

Ok it seems that AGP 4X fixed it...