Shader competition killed my computer

[ET]

Okay, I don't know if this is the right forum, but this does have to do with 3D technology and hardware, and I have some steam left to blow, so...

Anyway, thanks to the extended deadline I finally managed to borrow a Radeon 9500 Pro for the weekend. Everything was fine at first, and it was really helpful. What a difference from 1 fps at 160x120. Unfortunately, after a day or so my computer started to reset once in a while (occasionally also crash in the ATI driver). I've seen messages from Radeon owners who had that happen, and I had been worried about the card's power consumption even before, but I continued to use it. But I was starting to lose data from the restarts, so I decided that I was finished with the competition program and should put my GeForce3 back. Unfortunately, that didn't help. Seems like Windows 2000 got so fucked up that it wouldn't even boot completely.

I tried a few things, but couldn't fix it. I finally copied the partition aside and installed XP (had it for a long while, but Windows 2000 was set so well...). However, it would really be nice if I could go back to that Windows 2000, without having to reinstall and configure a multitude of programs. Anyone have an idea how I could fix it?

(BTW, I thought perhaps there was a virus, but I'm pretty careful, don't use OE and rarely use IE, have a firewall and up to date antivirus, and also scanned with Trend Micro's online scanner after the reinstall, which found nothing. So I'm convinced it that damned Radeon's fault. Now if I don't win anything, I'll be very pissed -- although if I win a Radeon 9800 Pro, I won't be able to install it anyway without buying a new power supply.)

 

[Humus]

My best wishes for you and your contribution, though I don't think the jury will go with sympathy votes, not that I think that was your point either, just saying it. Let me also say that this additional time wasn't all that useful. I've haven't done a whole lot the last weeks on my contribution. Just some minor tweaks. It's basically just been a delay for me.

 

[ET]

Thanks. Working with a DX9 card was helpful. I don't know if I have a shot at winning with what I've done. It was just something that I thought would be fun to program. But if I do win anything, it would at least be a kind of consolation for the time wasted and probably still to be wasted (lost a day of work today because of this, and will probably lose more hours reinstalling everything.) Not that it'd be a total waste even if I don't win, because I learned a lot (haven't worked with pixel shaders before, nor with HLSL or effects), but I always hate it when something really bad happens to my computer.

 

[Colourless]

I know this problem all too well... killed my WinXP installation, but i recovered from it.

Here is a relevant section copied from the readme file that comes with the catalyst drivers. It says WindowsXP, but it probably was the same problem you had in Windows 2000,

Data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled in Windows XP.

For complete details see; http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4217.html

This symptom does not occur on all systems. The key ingredients that lead to this symptom may include:

- System Memory greater than 512 Meg. (1 gigabyte of RAM is common)
- Large NTFS disk volumes. And multiple large volumes. (60-100 gigabyte hard drives possibly in RAID arrays)
- AGP graphics with large AGP resource requirements (AGP aperture greater than default)
- Large file transfers

To avoid this symptom ensure the System Cache option is NOT selected for Memory usage. Use the Programs option.

- right-click on the My Computer Icon then Properties to open the System Properties dialog box
- select the Advanced Tab then the Settings button under Performance
- select the Advanced tab on the Performance options tab
- in the Memory Usage area, ensure the Programs radio button is selected
- Apply the changes and select OK

This may not be the problem, but it sounds like it to me.

 

[Humus]

but I always hate it when something really bad happens to my computer.

I know the feeling. I've had my share of loosing data. It has happened that I've spent many hours on a demo, typically working with a new extension that happened to just have appeared in the extension string in the latest driver, and thus be quite unstable, and then hit a bug that instantly reboots my system, just to reload into windows and find that my source files are corrupt or truncated. Not funny. Living on the cutting edge of technology sucks at times. It's been a while since the last time though, probably 6 months or so. Disabling write-cache on my programming HD is usually a good idea anyway.

 

[ZoinKs!]

Dang...
and I thought it was bad that one time I lost all my downloaded Swedish Chef vidoes

 

[V3]

BTW, I thought perhaps there was a virus,

Just in case you didn't know, there was that MSBlast virus, that can cause reset. So d/l the patch from MS homepage if you haven't done so.

 

[ET]

Data corruption may occur if the Large System Cache feature is enabled in Windows XP. ...

Thanks. Can't access that ATI page now, but this does sound like it. I have 640MB of RAM, quite a few partitions, and the Windows one and several others are NTFS. It's too late to fix that, but it's good to know. It may not be a power problem, then, which might mean that I can install a Radeon card.

 

[ET]

Hmmm, seemed like there was more to it than just destroying Windows. My computer started crashing last week, and it seems that plugging anything into the AGP port now causes it not to start. I'm now torn between just buying a new motherboard (socket 370) or changing MB/CPU/RAM (which would be quite a bit more expensive, mainly due to RAM costs).

 

[rwolf]

My Geforce 3 craps out when I run UT2003 during the summer, but runs fine during the spring, fall, and winter. I have five fans (including a PCI video card fan) and my computer is in the basement of my house. I think a faulty power supply damaged my video card.

I feel your pain.

It would be nice if video cards had some form of low/faulty power detection. When you boot the video card could display a message saying faulty power detected or something like that.

Hey I should go and patent that idea.

 

[bloodbob]

but I always hate it when something really bad happens to my computer.

I know the feeling. I've had my share of loosing data. It has happened that I've spent many hours on a demo, typically working with a new extension that happened to just have appeared in the extension string in the latest driver, and thus be quite unstable, and then hit a bug that instantly reboots my system, just to reload into windows and find that my source files are corrupt or truncated. Not funny. Living on the cutting edge of technology sucks at times. It's been a while since the last time though, probably 6 months or so. Disabling write-cache on my programming HD is usually a good idea anyway.

That pretty bad luck cause it had to go through all the compling and stuff before it ran them demo you would have thought it would have been flushed :/

 

[Humus]

Well, there's write-caches on harddrives, and even the OS caches some stuff in RAM before it goes to the HD. So even if the app has completed the write it doesn't mean that the write is complete on the filesystem side. Disabling the write cache on the programming HD is usually a good idea.

 

[Sxotty]

I had windows XP die on me in a very similar fashion with 9500pro, but it was last spring and I have only 512MB ram. Suddenly I had to reinstall and reactivate for absolutely no reason I could fathom.

Misleading, I mean I had to reactivate for no reason, so I figured I might as well reinstall well I was busy getting screwed.