Hello, all. This is my first post to these forums. I'm posting this in both the Windows ME and Windows 98 forums because it relates to each; I hope nobody minds. I have been working on this problem for literally weeks (even staying up all night and morning working on it for several hours straight). I've finally got to the point where I will actually admit that I cannot fix it myself and I need some help. ;) All of my 3D accelerated games crash! _Every_ time. Within a few seconds of play, it hard crashes, and I have to physically reset the machine. Just FYI, I'm using Unreal as my testing program. The only thing that remedies the problem is removing the sound card. It runs fine after that (er..other than the fact that there's no sound ;) ). Here are my detailed current specs: AMD Athlon CPU, 600MHz (Not overclocked) ASUS K7M motherboard 256MB PC-133 RAM Diamond Viper v770 video card, 32MB Diamond Monster Sound MX300 Sound Card Windows Millenium (ME) Here is what I have tried so far (that I could remember; I have been working for weeks on it...): Swapping video card (no luck, so obviously not hardware failure on the video card's part) Using 1 of the 128MB DIMMs and then switching it (eliminating memory failure) Removing the sound card (which, as I mentioned before, stopped the crashes) Disabling all extra parts of the sound card in the System/Devices tab (such as the Gameport, midi, etc.), with only the "PCI audio driver on, still crashed Defragging Reinstalling Windows ME Formatting the hard drive, installed Win98 this time, no luck, reinstalled ME, no luck) Removing all extra hardware (modem, NIC) Tried using DirectX 5, 7, 8 Tried latest video reference drivers (Detonator), latest drivers from Diamond, drivers that the card shipped with Tried latest sound card drivers from Diamond Moved sound card into a different slot Changed sound card's IRQ Reduced AGP aperature from 64MB to 32MB and then back Getting latest patch for test subject (Unreal) Removed both sides of the case and placed a (perfect sized) fan on the left, which served as a very good cooling device that I shall remember if I ever consider overclocking, but still didn't solve the problem Checked to make sure the video card was using AGP 2x, as 4x is not supported on my board OpenGL rendering as opposed to Direct3D I think that about does it. I have tried _EVERYTHING_ that I can think of, and I am so completely stumped. I'm a serious gamer and it is driving me crazy. Oddly enough, Unreal Tournament (which a large part based on Unreal's engine) does not crash, but every other 3D accelerated application does that I've tried so far (Unreal, Quake III, Half Life...) I'm lost! It works in software rendering mode just fine, and works with the sound card disabled or removed just fine. I'm going to try enabling the "memory hole" in the BIOS, and that's the only thing left that I can think of. PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!!!!! -InsanePyroTeknix David Michael

It looks like you did a pretty thorough job of trying to fix your problem. I can only think of 4 things: 1. Did you get the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers for your motherboard? 2. In your bios setup, there is probably a setting for PNP OS. If it is Y make in N or vice versa. 3. Do you have the latest motherboard bios? 4. Have you tried a Sound Blaster card? Let us know if you resolve it!

simply change the sound card.

Nevermind, Aureal's reference drivers _FINALLY_ fixed this problem.

I had a similar problem with my 3D apps crashing. Installing the Aureal reference drivers (4.06.2048)in place of the MX300 drivers solved the crash problem, however, now there is no sound from my rear speakers. Any ideas how to fix this problem?