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AMD 2.7 & XP Prof - Crashing VIZ


Eric
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I'm curious to see if anyone here has experience with a 2.2+ processor, or XP, under VIZ 4. I read on the Autodesk site that VIZ4 has a tendancy to crash on 2.2+ systems, but it was something to do with the system, and not VIZ. Way to pass the blame Autodesk! Anyone know what the problem is? I'm tired of clicking the render button on a scene that has to render overnight, only to come in the next day to a blank screen. Any ideas?

 

I'm running:

AMD 2.7

WinXP Prof with all the latest Windows Updates

NVIDIA Quadro4 XGL with the latest drivers from NIVIDIA

1 GB of DDR RAM

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A 2700+ XP is not a 2.2 Ghz system. Its a 2.167 ghz. So technically its lower then 2.2 :) .

 

But thats obviously not the problem.

 

Is the computer stable in other programs/applications? Have you run any stress tests? Memtests?

 

Are fast exits occuring with other applications?

 

What motherboard are you using?

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Forgot about the 2700 not equating to actual ghz. Oops!

 

No, I haven't run any tests on my system. I didn't know where to look. I tried one this morning that I saw recommended on the Autodesk site, but I couldn't get it to run. Something like memtest86. It ran under DOS. Any suggestions?

 

Fast exits in other programs? None that I can really remember. I've only had the system for about 2 months, so I'm still finding "issues". Photoshop 5.5, AutoCAD 2000, and VIZ4 are my main daily programs. AutoCAD seems fine, besides typical AutoCrap errors. No issues with PShop. VIZ4 is my main PITA.

 

I'm running an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

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Are you using any serial ATA hard drives? You should also find out exactly which specification of memory you are using, i.e. DDR 333 or 400. Do you have TWO Dimms installed or only one DIMM because this is a dual channel memory board.

 

I notice the deluxe edition has SATA capability. Exactly which brand of harddrive have you installed? Exactly which service packs, drivers, VIZ service packs.

 

Which bios revision have you got on the mobo at the moment. If you notice here at the bios download page:

 

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X

 

There is a new bios revision available for 2.0 PCBs only. Is your board a 1.03, 1.04, 1.06 or a 2.0 revision PCB? Download the latest bios for your A7N8X Deluxe and check the revision list, a readme.txt file to see mention of any issues with the previous bios versions.

 

Instructions available here (study them very well)

 

http://www.asus.com.tw/support/english/techref/bios/index.aspx

 

 

The following table shows the support for CPU / Motherboard

 

Motherboard Since PCB Since BIOS Memo

 

A7N8X 1.04 1001C

A7N8X Deluxe 1.04 1001.C

A7V333 2.00 1013

A7V333-X 2.01 1002

A7V8X 1.04* 1006 *Only with a FSB333 sticker on south bridge.

 

A7V8X-X ALL ALL

 

There are some A7N8X Deluxe 1.03 version PCBs circulating around out there that are not compatible with AMD XP 2700+ 333FSB, so check your pcb.

 

[ April 11, 2003, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: garethace ]

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I agree with that whole-heartedly. Case ventilation, size, airflow, fans as well as chip silicon heatsink grease coupled with a really, really good cooler.

 

Stability problems can be down to that, and also your PSU. Use Enermax, Antec or Sparkle PSUs is possible, with plenty of power for software such as VIZ.

 

Mind you Pentium 4 is almost as bad now with generating heat. The Hyperthreading 3.06 version of the Pentium 4 is sending out close to 100Watts of heat energy under intensive load circumstances. This really needs you to pay proper attention to your cooling solution.

 

A bit of money spent in this area, will always repay longterm with increased stability and peace of mind.

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No, check the second paragraph of my reply to your first post.

 

How do I go about running those tests?

 

I did the "Trimming the Fat" tips yesterday. Freed up about 100 meg of RAM. About to start a rendering today, at least the modeling phase of it, but that doesn't put much strain on my computer. I'll know more in a few days when I click the go button and start testing materials and lights.

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Yes, memtest86 is the one I ran, and couldn't get it to work. I created the bootable floppy, and couldn't get my computer to boot from it. I assume it's the boot sequence on my computer, and not a problem with memtest86 not being compatible with XP Prof, right? I got into my bios, and couldn't find anywhere that would signify that "boot from floopy" is disabled, and I hit all the keys I could think of to pull up the boot options (safe mode, VGA mode, etc) and couldn't get that screen to pop up on boot. Any ideas what I did wrong?

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A single error indicates bad ram or overclocked ram.

 

Test each dimm individually, and whatever dimm has errors needed to be replaced.

 

Thats where your computer problems are coming from.

 

Get high quality replacment ram, and your crashes will disappear. (Or just get replacement dimms from the manufacturer).

 

Remember its only necessary to run a single pass to determine whether the dimm is bad or not.

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Originally posted by Greg Hess:

Eric,

 

Have you run mem tests yet? Stress tests?

 

Can't help unless you help us :) .

I got one of the memory sticks replace because it was giving me errors. Ran the tests again today with the new chip, and it ran fine with no errors. That was with memtest86. Is the mem test the same as a stress test? If not, how do I run a stress test?
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  • 3 weeks later...

Memtest just stresses the memory.

 

A good stress test would be sisoft sandra (do a google search).

 

Run the burn in test on high for 10 runs.

 

That stresses everything but the video card while in windows.

 

To stress the video card use...

 

3dmark 2001 SE (for d3d)

 

and

 

specviewperf (for ogl).

 

Hows the system after the new ram stick? Are your instability problems fixed?

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Still crashing about as often as waves hit a beach. I'm debating wiping it and installing Win2000 Prof instead of XP Prof. The new stick didn't make any difference. I'm pushing to get a 1GB stick, for a total of 2GB, but I don't know if that will fix it. Models that crashed every time I clicked the render button with the default scanline renderer don't crash now when I use the VRAY Free renderer. I don't know what the problem is. I have 3 big variables between my two systems.

 

1) AMD 2700 on one, Intel 1300 on the other

2) XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional

2) Nvidia Quadro 980 XGL, Nvidia GeForce2 MX/MX400

**Listed First is the AMD computer, listed second is the Intel computer

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Is the crashing just hapening in 3dsmax? Or other apps as well?

 

Im running a similar config to you with XP pro with no troubles at all. The only time I have run into trouble is the improper settings in the BIOS for the FSB and Mem Timings.

 

A7N8X-Deluxe

AMD XP 2700+

2x 512mb Corsair PC3200

Visiontek GF4Ti4600

Promise Ultra 133TX2

Adaptec 2940UW SCSI

2x mxator 80gb HD's

3x westerndigital 8mb 80gb HD's

Plextor 12/10/32 CDRW

Sony DVD-R

 

-dave

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Only in Viz, and generally only when I attempt to render. It doesn't always crash when I render, just when the model is big. I've been getting quota errors, and the only way to fix them is to reboot. Happens when I try to access the network, but I think that's a license issue our admin is working on fixing.

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