Hello,
OK...its a puzzler....one thing though, and you will be surprised how many
people finally have to say NO...are you 100% certain that you followed the
instructions exactly as described. As I have made that kind of mistake
myself I know how easy it is. If you are truly satisfied you have then the
next bit may be of help.
I have in the past experienced crashes from as drastic as an unexpected
system reset to programs locking up and loss of keyboard/mouse control. In
most cases it was the graphics card or sound card. In most of those it was
either the card not properly seated or a major problem with memory
allocation for the device or the driver was wrong/out of date etc. or it
was the printer installation (true) or in the very old days, the modem
installation
Apart from physical connections which are solved just by reinserting the
card there is one thing that all of the above have in common. Sharing
address's, memory allocation and of course drivers.
Physical
======
It is possible that a device can function apparently properly until a call
occurs to that used once in a while procedure. And that call fails because
the resistance across just one of ( or combination of) contacts is just
that bit to high or none existent. So removing where possible and cleaning
with a lint free cloth and a vacuuming out of the slot might be worth a
try.
Memory
======
It is possible that a malformed installation of any device can cause a
conflict elsewhere. It does not have to be the device you think you are
having trouble with.If everything else has been tested a visit to the
device Manager is in order. Click on Start . Settings > Control Panel >
System > Device Manager > Hardware.
The first part of the process is to look at all of the devices mentioned
above (where fitted) and check the IRQ numbers. In the ideal world every
device will have its own unique IRQ port. That does not happen in my house
though. DirectX and its sub components, Direct Show, Direct Draw etc access
two devices almost every time they are used. These are Sound and Vision. If
you discover that these devices are sharing the same IRQ number it would be
a good idea to separate them. Off the top of my head I can't remember
exactly how you do this...it should be in the same window, what you have to
do is Allocate the IRQ yourself, obviously making sure that the devices
have different numbers. In addition (again from memory) you may need to
alter the DMA port numbers. From experiences in the past I can tell you
that they can be a real bitch. The whole point of this exercise is to
ensure that those two devices have a clear and exclusive root to the rest
of the motherboard.
Still working on the assumption that there may be an allocation problem you
also need to look at the blocks of memory set aside for all of the above
mentioned devices, again from the same location as described above. Create
a simple grid and down the left write the device names as per their
installed physical location on the motherboard..... and then next to them
write down the blocks of memory allocated. Obviously you are looking for a
block of memory being allocated to more than one device. DO NOT change any
of the settings, the machine may lock up on you and they will be overridden
next time you boot up. BTW, not all devices need the same number of blocks
of memory, so don't worry about that when you see it.
The method I used to use with some success is this....lets say that device
one and two have at least one common memory block allocated (Remember these
two devices are adjacent to one another on your motherboard) mark device 2
for removal later. Check Device two and three...if there is no overlap you
can assume that they sit next to one another without problem. Once you have
decided which can sit next to which etc, power down and re-arrange them. I
would leave them unplugged for a couple of minutes because of residual
charge in the motherboard and/or device
Boot up and see what happens. If you have had to take this action because
of shared memory you should really go back in and check all of the
readings. Remember that if you moved a device AND you forced it to have its
own unique IRQ or DMA channel you will probably have to reset them as well.
Drivers
=====
One of my machines has a high performance Graphics card from a specialist
company. It uses the NVidia chipset but as I found out, it cannot use
(properly) the default NVidia upgrade via Windows Update or from the NVidia
website. This caused me loads of problems until I discovered what I was
doing wrong. I now check for updates from the manufacturer of the card
itself. The reason is, the manufacturer re-wrote sections of the firmware
and consequently you need a driver that can deal with that.....currently
the driver that works has a lower version number than the one from NVidia.
So, the lesson their is check with the manufacturer. If they offer Drivers
for download you can bet you will need it.
Whilst not certain, it is possible that when installing the DirectX pack or
even SP2 that decisions are made based on what the install program finds.
If you do install a new driver and the problem persists it may be a good
(but tedious) idea to go through the install of SP2 etc again.
If none of the above helps you find the problem, Can I interest you in our
dog Max who has just this moment pulled a part built computer off a
table...he can help you claim on your Insurance!!! ARGGGGGGGhhhh
Time for bed...hope the above helps in some way
--
John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
Truthfully, I am not an Instant Expert, But I know someone who is going to
have to try a LOT harder
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