Fixing infinite loop

JMan · Post by **JMan** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 1:21 am

I need to help someone out with crashing problems on his computer.
ECS K7S5A
Athlon 1.4 Ghz
512 MB PC133 SDRAM (not DDR for now, unfortunately)
400W PS
GTS Pro 64 MB
Onboard sound, network
WD400BB 40 GB 7200 RPM drive
Pioneer 106S 16x DVD
Lite-On 24 burner
Windows XP, 23.11 Dets, all latest drivers including AGP from ECS
The only AGP/PCI card installed is the video card.
Cautious (slow) RAM settings

One of the crashes he is getting (along with random reboots) is the infamous nv4_disp infinite loop. I have seen fixes for VIA chipsets, but I don't know if they would work on a SiS and I don't want to take that chance without knowing that it would work.
I'm not sure what else to add. These errors occur randomly, not necessarily in games. The video card shares an IRQ with a USB thing, but I cannot change this (unless I uninstall ACPI I suppose).
Thanks for any advice.

JMan

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 8:49 am

What OS are you running?

The infinite loop bug is only related to VIA chipsets running XP.

- Is this a PCI video card? If so, try relocating it to another slot.

- Are you overclocking either the CPU or the vid card? If so don't and see if that helps.

Hope this helps...

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 10:15 am

FWIW, the 5 AMD 1.4 or 1.33 Gig Athlons I built a few months ago ALL had crashing or the occasional reboot problem. Going to 'better' heat sink/fan combos and 400W power supplies ( which you have ) resolved all but one: That CPU was just replaced, which resolved the constant power cycling problem.

Paul

chottoED · Post by **chottoED** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 12:18 pm

lol... "power cylce"... bluewhale must work for Telocity

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 1:34 pm

The infinite loop bug is only related to VIA chipsets running XP.

Not true.

http://www.amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php? ... did=100309
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview. ... eadid=8568

It seems to be happening in every version of Windows when Directx 8.1 is installed.

I am using a Tyan 133 MB with XP and was experiencing the same problems...BIG TIME! But since installing the v27.42 driver, I've only had one BSOD in about a week. Sure beats one every 30 seconds....just long enough to reboot.

JMan · Post by **JMan** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 7:21 pm

As stated above, this definitely happens outside of Via chipsets. This machine is not overclocked at all, and the video card is AGP. It runs XP Home.
This power supply is a new one (had random reboots on another PS previously).
I'm hoping this is not a motherboard or CPU issue. I don't want to have the hassle of returning either, though I will if it comes to that. Any more help is appreciated. Thanks,

JMan

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 12:55 am

this definitely happens outside of Via chipsets.

Hmm, first I've heard of this. Looks like we may need to wait for yet another patch.

Once again I'm happy I stayed with Win2K. My system is mission critical.

JMan · Post by **JMan** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 1:55 am

From what I've seen that Via patch was worthless. There are tons and tons of potential fixes for this thing and I really don't know where to start. I tried installing a beta Detonator driver today which I feel weird doing since this is for a customer and all, but it's worth a shot I suppose.

JMan

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 2:15 pm

lol... "power cylce"... bluewhale must work for Telocity

Who?

Power cycling is what Cicso calls pulling the plug. It's shorter than 'turn the power off for 30 seconds then turn it back on'.

chottoED · Post by **chottoED** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 1:03 am

even so, i've never heard cisco certified folks use "power cycle"... only teloshitty "tech support"

ketchup · Post by **ketchup** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 4:34 am

Just uninstall the nvidia driver you got from Windows Update and install an earlier version.

MegaVectra · Post by **MegaVectra** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 11:00 am

Just uninstall the nvidia driver you got from Windows Update and install an earlier version.

Didn't work for me, the only thing that worked was installing the v27.42 driver. I even tried reinstalling XP and using earlier drivers versions, with the same results.

I havn't had a BSOD in a few days, the 27.42s seemded to do the trick. Sure wish I knew exactly what they changed.

JMan · Post by **JMan** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 6:42 pm

Yeah the 27.42s I installed did the trick, but only for the nv4_disp infinite loop problem. He's still getting random reboots. Ugh. I will try replacing the onboard NIC. After that, I'm probably stuck with RMA'ing the motherboard. I don't know what else to do. Hopefully I can still do that if I have to even though it was ordered in September.

JMan

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 8:04 am

JMan -

Random reboots are usually caused by a PCI IRQ channel sharing problem (this is NOT the same as an IRQ conflict, there are four PCI IRQ channels labelled A - D and all your PCI and AGP devices must share them). This problem does not affect ISA cards.

This problem is very common with NICs, some PCI sound cards (the SBLive in particular is VERY prone to it) and SCSI controller cards. These cards do NOT like to share a PCI IRQ channel I explain the problem in detail here with a fix: http://soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/glfaq5.htm#5_9

Try pulling all the PCI cards, then putting them back ONE AT A TIME. Test each one for reboot problems.

JMan · Post by **JMan** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 9:00 pm

As I've said, there are no PCI cards installed. The only addin card is the AGP video card. The rest is onboard.

JMan