Kicked back to desktop after a few minutes.

Many of my games (seems most d3d games) jumps back to the desktop after a while. Just instantly Im at the desktop. And the thing is, the hdd reads for three/four seconds during this incident. I havent really been troubleshooting yet, but I still thought you could take a guess on what could be wrong.

Windows Games 5469 This topic was started by ,


data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
Many of my games (seems most d3d games) jumps back to the desktop after a while. Just instantly Im at the desktop. And the thing is, the hdd reads for three/four seconds during this incident.
I havent really been troubleshooting yet, but I still thought you could take a guess on what could be wrong. I was thinking maybe I have some service enabled that causes this.
 
spec:
slot-A Athlon 850Mhz
Asus K7V (1007 final bios)
Infineon 128Mb PC133
Prophet II 64Mb
SB Live
 
win2000pro
DX8Final
VIA IDE BM 2149
VIA AGP 403e
Nvidia 6.34
 
Thanks for any advice.

Participate on our website and join the conversation

You have already an account on our website? Use the link below to login.
Login
Create a new user account. Registration is free and takes only a few seconds.
Register
This topic is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.

Responses to this topic


data/avatar/default/avatar24.webp

97 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-07-07
Do you have a 300W (or greater) power supply? If not, get one. An Athlon + GeForce 2 uses a heck of a lot of power, and if you don't have enough then in can cause crashes in 3D games.
 
I've also seen stuff kicked back to desktop if you don't have enough memory. Mind telling us what you're trying to run? You might need an extra 64 MB or so of RAM since Win2K is very memory hungry. If it keeps accessing the disk for a few seconds after the program dies, then that's a very good indicator that this is happening, since Windows had to reach into its virtual memory. Also make sure that you have enough virtual memory and enough free space on the drive with the swap file.
 
It could also be overheating. If your 3D card overheats, then a lot of times you get kicked back to the desktop without warning.

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
*Antec 300W PS
*300Mb for the pagefile
pagefile on empty D: partition (15Gb)
OS on C: (15Gb)
*128Mb of PC133 ram
 
The same thing happens with Graphicscard at default clockspeed (also CPU at default speed)

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
Should I increase the pagefile size even more? The system says "190Mb" is recommended.
 
thanks

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
Ive been testing for a couple of hours now, still no change.
 
Im at a loss here. Reinstall win2000 maybe? That is not very appealing, but if nothing else solves it I will do it.
 
Do you guys have any more ideas what could be wrong here?
 
thanks

data/avatar/default/avatar29.webp

1209 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-10-27
hmm...I have no clue, maybe in the BIOS, set your Graphics Apenture Size to 64 MB and then simply reinstall DX8 again, it seemed to work for my friend's machine a few days ago, don't know about you though.

data/avatar/default/avatar24.webp

97 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-07-07
The first thing to try is messing around with the motherboard's I/O voltage. Try moving it up to 3.4V or even 3.5V. (You might also need to bump up the core voltage to do it.) This can help if your card's not getting enough power even though you have a good power supply. Some Asus boards are infamous for not giving GeForce 2 boards the juice they need unless you crank up the I/O voltage.
 
Try using Motherboard Monitor to make doubly sure nothing's overheating. Or try running your rig with the case off. If that doesn't help, it's not overheating.
 
Is your memory maybe CAS3? (CAS3 + PC133 + Athlon = Very Bad Things.) If so, you try CAS2 memory, or run your memory at 100 MHz.
 
Try cleaning out your TEMP directory too. It rarely helps, but it can't hurt.
 
I'm assuming you've tried the Win2K Athlon AGP patch? Also try messing with AGP settings (turn off 4X, fast writes, and sideband addressing) until it works.
 
Try checking out www.geforcefaq.com for some more ideas. It can also tell you how to mess around with those nasty AGP settings, since a lot of them are hidden registry settings.

data/avatar/default/avatar14.webp

507 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-01-30
Use Application Compatibility Toolkit to find they problem. It will run your game perfectly. If it runs it well then those games aren't compatible with win2k yet.
 
ARC

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
Thanks for all the support guys [img} http://www.ntcompatible.com/ubb/icons/icon14.gif[/img]
 
I installed the Hercules 6.34 drivers, and for now, it seems to be fine. I didnt try for a longer period of time, but at least, for the last halv hour its been working out.
 
Some more info on my settings:
 
ram - cas2, also tried cas3
aperture size 64Mb ( tried them all )
VIO manually put to 3.56 (on Asus K7V)
the via+agp+athlon win2k fix is applied
 
I´ll be back if the problem isnt gone
 
Thanks again

data/avatar/default/avatar31.webp

21 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-11-22
I have the same problem with all games: Red alert2, ground control, Soldier of fortune...
I have PIII 600, 256 RAM, geforce2 GTS.
That`s it! I`m going back to Windows milleniun or windows 98. I didnt buy GeForce2 GTS for kicking me out of games!!! (before i had win98 and all worked great)

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
No luck. This time (when playing 4x4 Evolution) the computer jumped out, and RESTARTED !
 
That´s a new one. Why is it restarting? (I have automatic restart disabled)

data/avatar/default/avatar24.webp

97 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-07-07
Have you tried any OpenGL games? This way you could see if it's tied to Direct3D or not.
 
Also try disabling EAX. From Control Panel, go to Sounds & Multimedia, Audio tab, Advanced under Sound Playback, Performance tab, and set Hardware Acceleration to one notch short of the right end. (This setting should say Standard acceleration below it.) Those SB Live! drivers love crashing when EAX is enabled.
 
What slots are all of your cards in? SB Live!s are really picky about which slots they go in (especially in tandem with GeForces) and I had to move mine around to get it to stop crashing when EAX was enabled. If ACPI is enabled then this probably won't help much (Microsoft thinks there's no reason you wouldn't want all of your devices sharing IRQs, and you can't convince Windows otherwise) but it's still worth a shot.
 
As a last resort you could try removing or swapping out the sound card. SB Live!s and GeForces don't play together very well, thanks to Creative's shoddy drivers.
 
The restarting thing is really odd. AFAIK that can only happen when it crashes really, really hard. Because Win2K runs apps in a protected memory space, it shouldn't normally be able to do that, except maybe with problematic drivers. (Can anybody say "Live!Ware"? <g> ) But at least that rules out overheating since I don't think overheating can cause reboots.

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
I looked in the SBLive settings, and it was set one notch from the right already.
 
I havent upgraded my SBLive drivers, Im running the default that comes with win2000pro. Maybe I should try and upgrade?
 
The reason I didnt want to install the latest Liveware is the delay of the startuptime (toolbar) by approximatly 10 seconds on my system. But of course, if installing newer drivers can solve my problem, I will install them right away.
 
My Ethernet card is in pci-slot 5, and SBLive is in slot 3. That didnt cause any problems before.
 
I dont have many opengl games (Q3A, Half-Life and 4x4Evo), but crashes in 4x4Evo when running opengl also occur as with d3d (maybe its just a buggy game?)
 
I mostly play Evo and VirtualPool 3, and both games kicks me back to the desktop. Virual Pool 3 is also running in d3d.
 
 
What do you think?

data/avatar/default/avatar32.webp

89 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-03
OP
Forgot to say; Q3A, Half-Life DONT crash to desktop.
 
Games that DO crash:
 
NHL2001
Sacrifice
Real Myst 3D
Virtual Pool 3
4x4 Evolution
 
Games that DONT crash:
 
Unreal Tournament
Quake 3 Arena
Delta Force 3
Monkey Island 4

data/avatar/default/avatar24.webp

97 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-07-07
You might want to try upgrading your SB Live! drivers. At worst, it won't work and you'll need to uninstall them.
 
Another way to rule sound problems out is by temporarily yanking the SB Live! out of your PC (not when it's on, of course :-P) and see if it stops crashing. Somehow I doubt the network card is causing it, but just to be sure you might as well update your network card drivers. (It probably won't help, but it couldn't hurt.)
 
What I'd try is pulling your sound card, then running 3DMark2000 in a loop a few times with sound disabled to see if it crashes. If so, then you're dealing with a system-wide issue. Otherwise, it's game-specific. I'm not sure if knowing that will help you any but it's worth looking into.

data/avatar/default/avatar37.webp

39 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-10-20
hmm my mate is having an identical problem with win2k and a voodoo3 he is running an amd k6-2 550 and gets booted to the desktop after 5/10 mins in game
 
i really want to know the cause of this one so id like to ask anyone running SP1? he isnt and im wondering if this is a side effect?
 
he also has a SB PCI 128, not a live!
 
Aragorn
----------------------------------------
System Specs:
 
AMD Duron 800 @ 1000mhz (100x10)
ABit KT7-RAID Motherboard (ZTb01)
256MiB Crucial PC133 @ 2-2-2 Turbo
20 Gb IBM 40GV
Pioneer 16x40x DVD
Mitsumi 2x8x CDR
GeForce DDR @ 135/340
SoundBlaster Live! 1024 Retail
Linksys LNE100TX v4
Surfboard SB3100 Cable Modem
Sigma Designs Hollywood+
Hauppauge WinTV GO!

data/avatar/default/avatar03.webp

379 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-09-09
"Memory Hole at 15M-16M Enabled" in Bios may cause reboots in W2K.

data/avatar/default/avatar40.webp

3087 Posts
Location -
Joined 2001-01-21
I have run SP1 on my machines with no ill effect that I have seen.

data/avatar/default/avatar16.webp

1623 Posts
Location -
Joined 1999-12-06
the problem is the unstable 4x AGP and Athlon and VIA and Win2k problem yeah that sounds right heh. Anyway the best way to fix it is to get win2k SP2 now that it is out. Im finally back on 2k after reading about SP2 and i have no problems before i was using XP because it was stable.

data/avatar/default/avatar03.webp

17 Posts
Location -
Joined 2000-04-16
I had similar problems with things well anything related to 3d screensavers, games anything crashing back to destop some would start and some would just kick me to desktop and here is what i found...
 
 
i use a kewl email proggy called incredimail and if thats running in the task bar then NO games work so i just shut it down before hand and everthing is great.... it used 3d for some of its animations and flash,
 
dont know if this helps of if you are using this email proggy