Unidentifiable problems

[Anonymous]

I recently changed from a slow bliss (Win2k Pentium III, Radeon 7000) to a fast hell.. Hell is AMD 64 3700, 2G ram, Nvidia GeForce 128.. and lastly XP Pro R2.. Was very resistant to the XP idea. but here I am.. I have seen more blue screens in 2 weeks than in 2 years.. Archicad crashes and generates bug reports twice a day.. Other apps showing some instability too.. I have the latest Nvidia drivers. The Archicad crashes occur mainly in the 3D window..

I am really trying to Isolate the problem.. Is anyone out there using Xp Pro SR2 with 100% stability?? I am very close to going back to Win2k even if it means 2 days of work..

Thanks

[Aaron Bourgoin]

This sounds like a problem I had when I got my first Athlon at the office. The dweebs who sold it to us didn't know much about Athlons and apparently forgot to load a very critical Athlon driver. Before I found this out, everything crashed, like you say - ArchiCAD and everything else.

After the driver was added, everything worked just fine.

Call your hardware guy and ask.

[Anonymous]

Aaron,

Excruciating to say the least. Called support and all drivers are in order.. They casually asked If I had reformatted and reinstalled everything lately.. The thing is less than a month old!! Do they know how much time is involved?

Experienced 2 blue screens today during 3d Window use, one a Physical memory dump type.. Resulted in losing some file data.. Here is the kind of strange results I am getting.. Sometimes there are strange objects about....

If I end up reformatting I'll go back to Win2k to possibly eliminate XP as the culprit though I have a feeling it's hardware (memory?) related..

Thanks

[aahatimo]

Rashid wrote:
Is anyone out there using Xp Pro SR2 with 100% stability??
Thanks

rashid,
i am not sure if windows can ever achieve 100% stability...
i have had a few troubles here since sp2 install, but no blue screens of death.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Perhaps this is a hardware issue, one possible culprit would be a sticjk of RAM thats gone bad. Sounds like this puppy needs to get back to the shop.

[Anonymous]

I decided to try the easiest solution first.. Memory.. took out the Lifetime 1G strip I added the day I bought the PC and guess what? Not a hiccup in 2 days.. Tried the most complex 3d windows in AC.. all went well though slooowly... I am thrilled to say the least. Will stick with Corsair or Crucial for replacement....

Lesson?.. stay calm even in rough times..

[Aaron Bourgoin]

very relieved to hear it was the stick of RAM.

!!!

[Anonymous]

Aaron,

Final(?) twist.. New RAM (still Lifetime), same issues, but new RAM works fine in different slot on board.. Tech Support swarming in next week to replace Motherboard... I feel special

[Anonymous]

Aaron,

Just to let you know the final (PRAYING HARD) resolution?? Board was changed to no avail. The crashes became nastier in AC.. missing file data, OpenGL errors, lightworks errors, etc.. I started to think Video card.. Once the 1G chip is removed the same file opens peachy and all is well...

Called Tech support again and we played with memory location.. Can you believe the one combination I did not try (512M - 1G - 512M) works fine? Runs AC like a charm now (PRAYING STILL).. I would have NEVER thought the location of a chip should matter (it shouldn't).. Well it did. I am down from 1/2 head of hair to 1/4 in 2 weeks... gotta try to laugh

[Aaron Bourgoin]

all extremities are crossed.

hoping you make a full recovery.