Problems with full screen apps (Games)

[DragonSpawn]

I run Windows XP home edition. The issue is more whenever I start a game, the small loading screen appears. And at the 1-1.5 second transition phase where the game should go fullscreen the PC BSOD's and crashes.

The error I got was:

IRQL_not_less_or_equal

Check new hardware/software installation

Windows updates

Persist uninstall all new hardware/software

Deactivate BIOs options caching/shading

***stop: 0x0000000A (0x00000016, 0x0000001C, 0x00000000, 0x805021DE)

Now I assume it is a driver issue. More specifically I had a cheap USB headset, it is possible that it interferes with the VC drivers & onboard mobo audio drivers. I uninstalled the cheap USB headset and hoped the uninstall got rid of all that headsets audio drivers. Can't be sure though.

I got it to work for a day though oddly enough... after disabling the realtek drivers, rebooting the pc, then enabling the realtek drivers again. All games booted fine repeatedly. However the next day it did the crashing again. So I tried the disabling/enabling again but it continued crashing.

Another oddity is I can start all games in windowed mode. It's just that when they go fullscreen that the crashes happen. Same on the individual chance that it doesn't crash, maybe 1/10 or 1/15 tries, it crashes if I alt-tab.


My specs are:

Asus 8800GTX 768mb
2x 1gig G.E.I.L nonstandard RAM
E8300 duo core 2.83ghz

and my PSU is a 600watt Tagan.


So my 2nd and dreaded thought is. Could it be that 600watt is not enough for the above configuration? I would assume it is, since the 8800GTX takes up 300watt at absolute maximum...

[Dalo Harkin]

600 Watt is more than enough for that - not sure from memory on the 8800GTX but are both the 6 pin PCI-E connectors installed or is there just 1?
I would check that you have removed all the old NVIDIA drivers - go to their website they have an application on there that you can run and will remove all the old instances of the drivers.
do you have the latest Direct X version?

come back and let us know what you get when you have tried the above

[DragonSpawn]

Latest directx9.0c is installed.

Could you perhaps explain how I can check that with the pins? Also is it plausible that only one pin installed would only give me issues in that 1-2sec timeframe of going fullscreen? Since I can play for hours at max settings once I make it past that annoying crucial stage.

I'll look for that NVIDIA program. On a sidenote, will it erase my current drivers (newest ASUS 8800GTX ones from the ASUS website), just so I know whether to have them ready on my desktop?


EDIT: After 15min of hard searching I could not find this NVIDIA program

[Dalo Harkin]

Yes it will erase them - DO NOT get drivers for a graphics card from anywhere other than NVIDIA or ATI - they are much better and stable than the ones that ASUS provide.
If you ope the side of the case and look at the Graphics card there should be 1 or 2 cables going into the card.

DRIVER CLEANER HERE Download dcprosetup_15.zip

[DragonSpawn]

I think I may have found my issue. It's an IRQ conflict.

My soundcard and videocard are using the same IRQ port. 16. And the manual setting is greyed out:









What other kind of solution can there be to put either the VC or the soundcard onto a different IRQ slot?

[Goku]

Hello and Welcome to Free PC Help Dragon.

I believe that the Asus drivers are causing a conflict as they are known to cause such issues. Please uninstall them, reboot your computer and see if the problem is solved or not. Let us know how it goes. Good Luck.

-- Goku

[DragonSpawn]

Originally Posted by Goku

Hello and Welcome to Free PC Help Dragon.

I believe that the Asus drivers are causing a conflict as they are known to cause such issues. Please uninstall them, reboot your computer and see if the problem is solved or not. Let us know how it goes. Good Luck.

-- Goku

I doubt it. Originally I had the NVIDIA drivers, I only switched to the ASUS because of the constant crashes. But now I found out like shown above there is an IRQ conflict. The audio and videocard use the same IRQ slot. How does installing new drivers help change the IRQ slot of one of them?

[Goku]

What I mean to say is that because you installed the Asus drivers, they seem to be conflicting with the Nvidia drivers. Please uninstall them as you will not be needing them and reinstall the Nvidia drivers. The message you receive is also caused due to a driver conflict. If the above does not resolve your problem, we will consider hardware conflicts. Please try it and let us know how it goes. Good Luck.

-- Goku

[DragonSpawn]

Ok I uninstalled the ASUS drivers and put in the NVIDIA. And the same phenomenom as last time happened:


1) Last time I uninstalled the NVIDIA and put on the ASUS, the result was directly after the prompt restart I could play super, and the games always started perfectly. I tested it by starting and exiting the games a good half dozen times.

2) Then I go to sleep. Next day when I turn the PC on again, the games no longer launch.

3) Today as you said I uninstalled the ASUS drivers and installed the NVIDIA drivers. Directly after the prompt reboot, I could also launch all the games again.

However then for test I shut the PC off. Turned it back on. Attempted to launch a game and got BSOD'd again the second the game tried to go fullscreen.


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I also put system restore points at both times the games launched fine. As a test I decided to system restore to the first time it worked. When I do the system restore.........it also works fine again. At least until I reboot, then again I return to the won't launch to fullscreen issue.


Also I tried to manually change the IRQ slot of the Video Card, but apparently it's grayed out under the device manager options. I assume the issue is the onboard sound card and the video card going at eachother since they share a port whenever a game tries to start?


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Also I downloaded that driver cleaner. I'll uninstall the new NVIDIA drivers yet again, run that program and then I suppose slap the NVIDIA drivers back on?

[Dalo Harkin]

Use the driver cleaner and install the latest NVIDIA driver -
I am speaking from experience with ASUS GPU drivers - they are a nightmare.
I have no idea why you are getting that conflict - unless the GPU has an HDMI cable attached as that is an AUDIO and VIDEO stream.
try the driver cleaner and also goto C:/ NVIDIA and manually remove all the contents - I am guessing there are 3 or 4 old ones in there and they are conflicting with one another.