Guest DuncanR Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 I have an Inspiron 5150 with a GeForce Go5200 and I'm trying to get some standard DirectX 9.0c shader demos to run (for example BasicHLSL). They seem to work fine for a bit (a few seconds), but then my machine freezes and I have to hard reboot. Has anyone got these DirectX 9.0c demos to run on a system like this? I've tried basically every combination of drivers/bios that I can find, and they all fail to work. Thanks in advance, -Duncan. Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation System Model: Inspiron 5150 BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A37 Processor: Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.06GHz, ~1.6GHz Memory: 768MB RAM Page File: 241MB used, 867MB available DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 Display Memory: 64.0 MB Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7041 (English) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 I don't have any experience with the shader demos, but what you're describing sounds like the 5150's biggest problem; overheating. (Unless the demo always crashes at the exact same spot.) Make sure you aren't overclocking, use a can of compressed air to blow out the heat sink on the back panel, and use a utility like 8KFanGui to crank your fan up to the max. If the crash does indeed happen at the same spot every time, let us know and we'll try to troubleshoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 Hi, You could be right, but I've tried all you suggest and it makes no difference. It certainly doesn't stop in the same place all the time, but it doesn't seem to need to get hot to hang (I tried running it outside tonight with I8fanGUI on full for a couple of minutes (few degrees above freezing) and it crashed just as fast (4 seconds)). If you have DirectX 9.0c installed would you be willing to try running the demo on your machine? I could send you the .exe from the SDK (save you having to download the whole thing?) That at least would let me know if it's a problem with just my local setup. Cheers, -Duncan (dar at cs.nott.ac.uk) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 On the otherhand, I've noticed sometime that after it's frozen (when ctl+alt+del doesn't work), sometimes for a second or two I am able to move the mouse point around (but not click on anything), before it finally freezes for good. -Duncan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 30, 2004 Report Share Posted October 30, 2004 I'm willing to give it a try. But before I do, if you haven't already, try using my INF to see if it makes a difference. It's customized for the 5150 and may behave differently. You can download it here. Let me know how it goes. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Hi, I tried your settings, and to no avail. The best I've had so far tho'. The first time it ran for about 2 mins before it hung - maybe just chance? as the next time just 5 secs :) Here is the exe (release and debug - requires DirectX 9.0c of course :) http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~dar/BasicHLSL.zip Thanks for your help, -Duncan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I've just run it for fifteen minutes with no problem :) Since it doesn't happen in the same spot or after a specific amount of time, you can pretty much rule out drivers and software, which leaves hardware. And since you've pretty much ruled out heat (I didn't see any heat increase either), you must be running into something else. I wonder if you might have a bad bit, somewhere in main RAM or on your video card, which is either failing randomly or only getting hit occasionly? Can you try running some memory diagnostics to test? I'm not sure what else to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 I wonder, would you try one more thing for me? Start the demo and click in the "X" to the left of "Enable preshaders" (so that it dissapears). Then move, the mouse away, and then return it to where the "X" was and wait for the button glow to go up to max (about half a second). This seems to hang my PC everytime... Best, -Duncan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Bah, but now the button it isn't crashing it anymore :) If we go with your first suggestion (overheating) appart from blowing the dust out, and putting the fan on, is there anything else I can do to keep it cool? On the otherhand, if it's bad card/memory is there some test software you would recommend? Thank's for all your help, -Duncan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Tried your test and it worked okay. The latest BIOS, version A37, is supposed to help with heat issues. You might try that if you don't already have it. One of the best RAM checkers is DocMemory. You can download the free version here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teraphy Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Works fine for me as well. Except I'm running 66.81 and not 70.41. Just thought I'd share from a different perspective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DuncanR Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Yes, I'm using 6681 too... This time when I rebooted it gave me a message box and a link to this log file... (this doesn't look like heat/dodgy memory does it?) // // Watchdog Event Log File // LogType: Watchdog Created: 2004-10-31 17:08:27 TimeZone: 0 - GMT Standard Time WindowsVersion: XP EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver // // The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This // usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device // driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your // display device vendor for any driver updates. // ShutdownCount: 759 Shutdown: 0 EaRecovery: 1 EventCount: 6 BreakCount: 6 BugcheckTriggered: 1 DebuggerNotPresent: 1 DriverName: nv4_disp EventFlag: 1 DeviceClass: Display DeviceDescription: NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 HardwareID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0324&SUBSYS_015F1028&REV_A1 Manufacturer: NVIDIA DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000E 000A1A19 0006000E 000A1A19 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000 DriverCompanyName: NVIDIA Corporation DriverFileDescription: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 66.81 DriverFileVersion: 6.14.10.6681 DriverInternalName: nv4_disp.dll DriverLegalCopyright: © NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. DriverOriginalFilename: nv4_disp.dll DriverProductName: NVIDIA Compatible Windows 2000 Display driver, Version 66.81 DriverProductVersion: 6.14.10.6681 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted October 31, 2004 Report Share Posted October 31, 2004 Definitely a driver problem then! Not sure why Teraphy and I don't see it with the same driver, but no matter. the 66.xx driver series is still a bit dodgy, as I'm sure you've seen. It might be a good idea to uninstall the driver in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs before you go much farther. You may have remnants of an old driver causing problems somewhere. You might also use a registry cleaner like Detonator RIP to be sure all earlier remnants are removed. If that doesn't solve it, try dropping back to 66.77, which is a bit more polished than 66.81. If no good, try 66.51, then 65.73. You need to stay with drivers in the 65 and 66 series since earlier drivers don't fully support DX9c. Likewise, try both Pieter's and my infs, since we approach things slightly differently. Mine is customized for the 5150 and his are generic. One or the other may solve your problem, in combination with one of the above drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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