Odd Problems With Win98SE

Hey guys, I'm having some odd problems. I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions as to what to do.

Problems: Splinter Cell crashes anywhere from 10 secs to 5 minutes into the game with either a lockup/bsod. Also, when running the Splinter Cell 1.2b patch, the menu is distorted.

Tried: Reinstalling VIA 4-in-1s, Nvidia Dets (tried different versions), DX9.

I've installed it before and it ran fine (well, crappy fps, but it didn't crash). This is a relatively a clean install, I installed Windows 98 Second Edition last week, installed a couple of apps (norton systemworks 2k, office xp, aim, icq, etc). So I was wondering if there was anything else I could mess with, without having to reinstall windows. Thanks!

Here are my thoughts:

1. Do yourself a BIG favor and buy a copy of Windows XP home edition upgrade. XP is much better at memory management than Win98 ever was.
2. Load the OS by booting your system and entering the bios, change the first boot device to CD, save the changes and exit the bios. Put the CD in the tray and reboot.
3. When you get to the section of the install program that asks you where you want to install the OS, select the C: drive. Delete the partitions on that drive and remake one partition. Format the partition in NTFS format and load the OS. You will be asked to put your Win98 cd in the reay to prove you own it and to load the Upgrade version.

You may have a bad stick of ram but your OS really doesn't do the greatest job of memory management. Also, you don't need to load DirectX 9. You have may not have any hardware that can use it and no software is made currently that needs it. DirectX version 8.1 is included in XP and is all you really need in Win98SE.

Give us the details of the hardware makeup of your system. What is the CPU temp?

Time for either W2K or XP:)

Yeah, I have to echo the other two. XP Home. You can even just buy the upgrade version and do a clean XP install (all it asks for during the XP setup is for you to put in the 98SE CD only to verify you have it). Another thought is that DX9 gave my 98SE fits. I have a similar video card and I did not see any improvements. In fact, I THINK the GeForce2 can't even really reap the benefits of DX9 (Correct me if I'm wrong fellow chip jockeys).

DH

Classic symtoms of a overheated or failing vid card, but you never can tell, could be PSU problem too. What are case and CPU temps? What are PSU voltages?

IMO you should run this by any splinter cell forums before you plunk down cash for a new OS.

that and my other 2c is to go with win2k and not xp (aka Windows Xtra Problems :p)

I tried XP and 2k before, everything worked, well, except for like 95% of my games. Either my crappy *** Visiontek GF2MX400 is incompatible with XP or my SB Live 5.1 is, one of those. So until I get a new video card/sound card, I'll hold off on XP.

As for my current frustrations with Win98SE, egh, well, I'm pretty sure it's as OS-Wiz mentioned, failing video card. I'm thinking this because I did a clean install of Win98se on a freshly formatted HD, I installed only DX8.1, 30.82 nvidia dets, and the raven shield demo, nothing else. And Raven Shield ran fine for like 30mins, then I quit. And I tested that splinter cell updater and the menu was fine.

Unfortunately, I shut down, then switched HDs to talk to my friends (via icq and such on the main hd), so I go back to the freshly formatted HD (with nothing changed while I switched HDs, mind you) and suddenly the splinter cell updater was all distorted again and Raven shield began crashing again.

So since I didn't change ANY software or hardware and it just randomly screwed up, I think it's fair to say it's a hardware issue. So my primary guess would be Video Card, if not that, I dunno, mobo maybe, which I sincerely hope it is not. I was going to buy an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro for video editing later this month when it becomes available at retail stores, so I hope it's just the video card that's screwed up.

Although, I popped in my old Voodoo3 PCI card (since it's the only other video card I have to test) and when I ran the splinter cell updater, the menu was still corrupted.

I also tried running the splinter cell file in Safe Mode, and it was still corrupted, so since the menu was screwed up in safe mode, uh...hardware is messed up I'm guessing.

My CPU temp: 44 C
My Motherboard temp: 31 C
My GPU temp: dunno

Voltage:

Vcore: 1.80

3.3v = 3.45
5v = 4.95
12v = 12.01

aaaaiiieeee!!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Takeda
I'm thinking this because I did a clean install of Win98se on a freshly formatted HD, I installed only DX8.1, 30.82 nvidia dets, and the raven shield demo, nothing else. And Raven Shield ran fine for like 30mins, then I quit. And I tested that splinter cell updater and the menu was fine.

Unfortunately, I shut down, then switched HDs to talk to my friends (via icq and such on the main hd), so I go back to the freshly formatted HD (with nothing changed while I switched HDs, mind you) and suddenly the splinter cell updater was all distorted again and Raven shield began crashing again.

So since I didn't change ANY software or hardware and it just randomly screwed up, I think it's fair to say it's a hardware issue.

---

on the contrary... a fresh install cleared up your problems. save your money, id say you have driver issues..

Quote:

---

Originally posted by LordOPain



on the contrary... a fresh install cleared up your problems. save your money, id say you have driver issues..

---

dunno about that. I've Tried 2 different versions of the VIA 4in1s, 4.48s (the newest) and the 4.35s (which are supposedly optimized for 98se). I've also tried the Nvidia dets 30.30, 30.82, 40.72, 44.03. All gave me the same results, crashing of the games and distorted splinter cell updater menu (I haven't seen distortion anywhere else, unless from after running that). I've Tried running:

Unreal 2: Crashes
Splinter Cell: Crashes
Raven Shield: Crashes
Aliens versus Predator 2: runs fine
Aliens versus Predator: runs fine
Red Alert 2: runs fine
The sims: runs fine
GTA3: Crashes


All of the above mentioned games ran fine before, without any problems, so I'm baffled as to why they've suddenly stopped working.

Same with the drivers, I was running 40.72WHQL for like 5 months, with no problems, so even though I used those, I still got problems more recently. =/


<=/

It sounds to me like it could be a couple of things. First, your video card could just be crapping out on you, which there is unfortunately no cure. Or, those newer games you mentioned that crash (Unreal 2, Splinter Cell, Raven Shield, etc.) could be trying to do something that your video card just can't handle. Finally, maybe those newer games are just overworking your card and it's overheating, which would cause the BSOD.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Takeda


dunno about that. I've Tried 2 different versions of the VIA 4in1s, 4.48s (the newest) and the 4.35s (which are supposedly optimized for 98se). I've also tried the Nvidia dets 30.30, 30.82, 40.72, 44.03. All gave me the same results, crashing of the games and distorted splinter cell updater menu (I haven't seen distortion anywhere else, unless from after running that). I've Tried running:

Unreal 2: Crashes
Splinter Cell: Crashes
Raven Shield: Crashes
Aliens versus Predator 2: runs fine
Aliens versus Predator: runs fine
Red Alert 2: runs fine
The sims: runs fine
GTA3: Crashes


All of the above mentioned games ran fine before, without any problems, so I'm baffled as to why they've suddenly stopped working.

Same with the drivers, I was running 40.72WHQL for like 5 months, with no problems, so even though I used those, I still got problems more recently. =/


<=/

---

curious.. is that a list of games that are part D3D and part OpenGL(or the new unreal engine)?

Quote:

---

on the contrary... a fresh install cleared up your problems. save your money, id say you have driver issues..

---

Think LordOpain called this right, buddy. If you can swap HD's and your games work fine, your video card is probably OK. Hardware normally works or it doesn't. If it was failing, you probably couldn't get any HD/OS combination to work with it. I think you definitely have some sort of driver or OS configuration issue on that 98SE drive.

Although, replacing the vid card would probably fix the problem as you will get an entirely new driver set. If your not ready to drop the cash yet, you might want to continue researching a driver/configuration fix. This sounds like software not hardware...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by WISEGUY


Think LordOpain called this right, buddy. If you can swap HD's and your games work fine, your video card is probably OK. Hardware normally works or it doesn't. If it was failing, you probably couldn't get any HD/OS combination to work with it. I think you definitely have some sort of driver or OS configuration issue on that 98SE drive.

Although, replacing the vid card would probably fix the problem as you will get an entirely new driver set. If your not ready to drop the cash yet, you might want to continue researching a driver/configuration fix. This sounds like software not hardware...

---

Well, I definitely plan on upgrading my card, seeing as how it's like 3 years old. But I would like to see if I could get this problem solved.

Sorry, I don't think I explained it clearly before, but I did the fresh install and Everything worked...until I restarted the computer, then the clean install got all screwed up for no apparent reason, and I didn't change any software or hardware, so I'm baffled as to why the clean install stopped working.

If it was simply a matter of clean installing or switching drivers, I'd bite the bullet and go through it all again, except now that's not happening. Clean install isn't working.
:(


But what's most frustrating is that I used the same driver configuration that I used a long time ago, so I know for a fact that it works, or rather, should work, but for some reason, it's still screwed up with my failsafe driver config. Which leads me to believe that it's my hardware that's screwed up, since the software config is the same that it was a long time ago. Plus the whole clean install thing. When you clean install an OS and things screw up from the start, on a freshly formatted HD with nothing on it, knowing that it's worked a thousand times before, you know it's the hardware that's screwed up, regardless of the component.:(

i had a power supply that kept eating IDE devices... took me a couple of drives to figure that out..
things worked fine during the OS install and when i shut down, they'd never work again..

i took great pleasure in dismantling it..

Your right, Takeda, if you are unable to get any of your HD/OS configurations to work with that card, the problem could be hardware. I misunderstood one of your original posts that indicated you were able to get everything to work fine when you used a different OS/HD combo.

That being said, I still would look for a configuration or software solution before assuming the card is failing. Hardware failure is much less common. One thing you might consider is a possible harware compatibility problem that exists with your current compentents that did not exist back when everything was working fine. Have you replaced any components in your system since you began experiencing this problem? Have you overclocked CPU or GPU? Might want to check BIOS to make sure everything is configured properly there.