Is My Memory Or Motherboard Bad?

Actually the update "ESCD" option in my bios is related to IRQ usage. I found that out after doing a little bit of research using Google. I believe the "Plug & play o/s" setting has to be disabled in order for the bios to set it's own IRQ usage from "ESCD". From what I understand if "Plug & play o/s" is enabled, Xp will configure IRQ allocation. But when set to disabled it'll let the bios do the dirty work. And so updating the "ESCD" comes into play when you want the bios to reorganize the IRQ allocation it has previously saved (useful when you add new hardware). If you don't update the "ESCD" it'll just use the old configuration it has, and pay less attention to new components installed. That's my understanding of it, though I may be wrong on some points.

So what I did was insert all pci cards the way I had the pc when I started this thread:

- Vga (AGP)
- Empty Slot (Pci 1)
- Soundcard (Pci 2)
- NIC (Pci 3)
- Usb (Pci 4)
- Sata (Pci 5)
- Empty Slot (Pci 6)

For the sake of doing so I also reconnected both 120mm fans to the psu. Yes I know you said it's not a good idea to have fans on the same psu string that powers a VGA, and psu. But I'll be using this generic psu of mine for quite a while until I pick the right one to buy. Not to mention it's starting to get hot outside so cooling is a must for my Pc. Add that to the fact that placing ram in slots 2, and 4 seems to have finally remedied my ram related freezes/crashes/reboots thanks to your knowledge.

I know it sounds crazy to put everything back the way it was. But I'd like to see if I actually get some stability now that my ram is positioned well, and my bios tweaked so nicely, again thanks to you.

So anyways after inserting all cards I set "Plug & play o/s" to disabled, selected yes to update "ESCD", rebooted so it could update, and am now reinstalling Xp off disc. I'd like to see if this will have any affect on the IRQ bunching once Xp is up and running in a few minutes. I'm also going to use the latest "VIA Hyperion Pro Driver Package v5.24" 4-1 drivers, instead of the retro v4.43 drivers I've tried out already. The release notes for the Hyperion v5.24 says "VIA Hyperion Pro drivers are suitable for ANY VIA chipset - but they are particularly recommended for...". Which COULD probably solve my X800 XT freezing issues, vs using the "Standard Pci-to-Pci Bridge" driver Lanselot recommends.

Hey so Xp is done installing... I'll let you know how this goes.

 

Meh... Nothing substanstial happened. The ESCD did update properly. I did notice that the IRQ's were allocated somewhat differently before installing the video card drivers. But everything was bunched up after rebooting. Same as usual IRQ 9 bunching... The newer Hyperion Via 4-1 drivers didn't help either. I still experienced freezing/black screen issues when I didn't apply Lanselot's Pci driver method.


Update:
Success!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe it or not I tried something out that I never tried before. Something that would seem so subtle, yet it solved my video card freezing/blank screen issues once and for all! I went in my bios and decided to lower the Agp speed from 4x (the maximum allowed), to 2x. And I was receiving files off msn, streaming videos without Lanselot's fps lag issues, and didn't experience a glitch in over an hour. Which I would normally experience within the first ten minutes or so of Pc use when the Agp speed was set to 4x on the official Vga drivers.

Can you believe that? Lol I'm going insane here with a smile from ear to ear. This is what happens when you never give up. And to think I was days away from taking this thing apart and auctioning of the parts on eBay!

I'm reinstalling Xp now fresh with Agp speed at 4x to make sure this wasn't a fluke, and that it works with the retro Via 4-1 drivers. But I have a question...

This AIW X800 XT video card is capable of running at 8x, and is obviously backwards compatible. But why would it be causing freezes/black screens at 4x speed which is the max allowed by my motherboard? I just don't get it...

And what kind of video performance loss would I get by running my card at 2x speed rather than 4x? Would it be noticable? If so are there any bios options I could set that would compensate for the loss?


Thank you for your help, this was an uphill battle. It's pretty much over... I just need to test the system out as is with a fresh Xp install for a week or less.

 

Well done.

I am not sure. A guess would be that in some way x4 is getting the better of the agp bus or maybe that the northbridge (to which the agp bus is connected) is trowing a tantrum in some way. Sometimes, when confronted with (agp) video card issues, I usually disable AGP Fastwrites in the bios and that tends to resolve (this setting was not available in your bios).

I don't think x2 vs x4 is likely to make much difference on your system especially as you will not be gaming. There was much debate a few years back in the forums about the performance hit from x4 vs x8 and the conclusion was that it would be negligible.

Strictly speaking, there is nothing you can do about it to compensate.

Well now that you have the system freezes (memory) as well as the ATI VPU Recover solved, you will need to test (as you say) and hope that the other pci / pci add-on cards play nice.

Good Luck

 

Yes, hopefully notthing freezes... I doubt it will... From what I read though agp 4x has twice the amount of Mbps rate. 2x having a speed of 533mbps from what I understand. Oh and yes see that's the thing I will be doing some gaming. I will also be capturing video and hooking up old video game systems via the RCA plug that comes with the video card so I can play them on the Pc screen.