[autiger91]

Perhaps this goes in the Games forum but wanted to get your advice since I believe my problem is hardware related.

I have a game (Nascar 2003) that I used to play a lot, about 2 years ago. I tried running the game again recently and the game video freezes but the sound continues. After about 10 seconds the video "catches up" but then freezes again after about 5 seconds.

To try to resolve this I have:
deselected all unnecessary background programs thru msconfig
ran msconfig clean up
removed all programs not used
and
added 1 G of memory

I thought that the added memory would eliminate the problem but the game still freezes as described above.

Specs:
Pentium 4 w/ 2.8 GHz, 2.00 GB of Ram
Dell Dimension 4600
54.4 of 74.4 GB of free space

Reckon it's my video card??

[BG-0]

System requirements: Pentium II 450 MHz processor (Pentium III 800 MHz or higher recommended), 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended), 16 MB Direct3D compatible video card (32MB recommended), 8X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 9.0, OpenGL* 1.1 or later

I don't think your system is the problem... Your 9800 pro (128 MB RAM) is well good enough. I'd say some of the hardware is bad, or you don't have enough cooling or enough power...

[Elvandil]

What are your aperture settings in BIOS for texture memory?

Have you updated your graphics driver lately?

[autiger91]

"Aperture settings in BIOS for texture memory"

Can you tell me how to determine this?

I have updated my video drivers but ran into some problems. I updated through Windows and from Nvidia, both gave me a "nv4_disp.dll" error. It would go to the blue screen and lock up anytime I updated the driver from either source.

[Elvandil]

OK. You should not use the driver from Windows Update. The MS drivers, for some reason, do not support OpenGL used by some games.

So, uninstall all the drivers for the dispaly adapter, both in Add/Remove and Device manager. Then run one or both of these cleaners to get rid of all the old files:

Driver Cleaner Professional
Nasty File Remover

Then download and install the correct driver from NVidia.

For the aperture, enter BIOS setup on boot. Look around and you should see a setting for it. If you have 2 GB's RAM, you may want to try 512, but 256 should be plenty, too.

[Elvandil]

If, after all that, you still get the error, you might want to try an older NVidia driver from their archive. Try to find one dated around the time your card came out.

[autiger91]

Thank you Elvandil. I have increased the Aperture to 256 and have downloaded 2 different drivers direct from Nvidia along with the cleanup programs. The problem still exists.

One thing too, I changed from a 15" to a 17" Flat Panel monitor a few months ago. Could this be the cause of the problem? It's a plug and play monitor so I wouldn't think so.

Thank you again.

[Elvandil]

I doubt it has anything to do with the monitor.

Have you had any other problems with your machine? I'm asking because I had a very similar problem lately with the video driver causing a blue screen. I could, however, log in to Safe Mode.

Since the video driver is loaded late in the boot process, it apparently used upper memory and it turned out I had a bad stick. It wasn't the graphics driver at all.

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista and can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

[autiger91]

No other problems. I was having the problem then added 2G of memory thinking that would help. It didn't

I've tried 3 different versions of the Nascar Sim. 2003, 4, and 1999 - all 3 have the problem. I tried an old version of Need for Speed and it didn't freeze but the graphics were not very good. Missing sections of the car, etc...

Should I bite the bullet and upgrade the graphics card?

[Elvandil]

That may not solve the problem, so I'm hesitant to tell you to spend money.

How about your power supply? Is it enough to handle intense graphics? Is the card as far from others as possible so air can flow? have you tried blowing a fan on it to see if heat may be involved?

[autiger91]

I haven't looked into any of the power issues. I'll try to figure how to answer your questions.

In the mean time the the Nvidia support suggestion I run this:
http://www.sharewareconnection.com/video-card-stability-test.htm

Thanks again.

[Elvandil]

Looks like a good idea. If there isn't enough power, stability will suffer.

[autiger91]

Is there a quick and easy way to determine the power capacity and usage?

[BG-0]

Power capasity by checking the sticker on the side of your power supply. Something like this http://eu.shuttle.com/archive/en/pro...su_sticker.jpg Post a pic or its information, and your other specs, and ppl can determine if you have enough power..

[Elvandil]

But using that stress test will actually answer the questions better. If it passes, then power is not an issue.