Windows Drivers?

[Gridley 257]

First, my system specs:P4 2.26ghz, 533mhz FSB, 768MB RAM, GeForce4 ti4200 64mb, Det 43.45, DirectX 9.0a, Soundblaster Audigy Gamer with Audigy Drivers dated 12/21/2002, Windows XP Home w/all current updates. System had (:)) been stable since I installed 43.45 and dx9.0a several weeks ago - very smooth and fast in FS2k2 and IL-2 FB. But then...Problem:Several times upon startup, the PC would begin at 640x480x4 bit color and I'd get the error message: "Current driver was written for a previous version of windows and cannot be used." After several attempts at simply reinstalling the detonators, I resorted to completely uninstalling Detonators (by completely, I mean running both detonator destroyer and "nasty file remover" from www.guru3d.com to delete all detonator related files). I then installed freshly downloaded det43.45s, then reinstalled directx 9.0a, configured everything the way I like it (1024x768x32x72hz, clone nView so I can watch DVDs on the Tele), and set a restore point. Now sound seems to pop and click and stutter. Causes massive frame rate drops in all games, and the volume of sound is variable and random, with occasional looping. I've reinstalled audigy drivers, then dx90a again, PC was okay for a day or two (slower, noticibly in forgotten battles), then popping and whistling came back.I've searched the various 'knowledge bases' but either there isn't anything there or I just haven't stumbled on the right keyword yet. Figured I try the real help desk- you guys have all been here.Any suggestions? Anyway to rebuild the registry, maybe that'll do it? I'm at the end of writing a several hundred page thesis, and clean install is a last resort at this point (sure, its all on CD, but I just don't have the time to reinstall everything at this point)Thanks in advance,sg

[Guest Bill Kunert]

I'm sure you checked this, but are you sure you have the XP version of the drivers and not the 95/98 version? Just a thought.Good luckBill

[Gridley 257]

Checked, doubled checked, and re-downloaded! Thanks though. Strange thing for me is that the PC functions for several days in a clearly debilitated state before it kicks the driver out...baffled. Tried all of the defrag/scandisk permutations i could find - hard drive(s) are error free to the best of my knowledge.

[Vulcan 14]

Only a couple of suggestions I'm afraidas I don't run XP.Based on several years as a service engineer (not PCs) and my own logic :-) what have you changed since the last time the PC ran OK?Usually systems run OK until there is a hardware failure or something gets changed.Have you installed a service pack, some new software, visited 'dodgy' sites, picked up a virus?If the answer is an honest 'No' then I would suspect some sort of hardware failure and the first two places I would look at are HD and RAM.Scandisk your HDand make sure there are no errors, if there are bad sectors there is every chance the HD is failing.For testing RAM the only thing I can suggest is looking for a memory testing utility, there are a number about, and running that to see if your RAM is failing at some point.I hope someone with more knowledge pops in to help you further.Best of luck.

[Guest FPSFREAK]

You didnt say what motherboard your running but you did reinstall the latest Via 4in1 or intel chipset installation software depending on if its a Via or Intel based board. Did you try turning hardware acceleration down one notch and see if the problem persists?. Have you pulled your sound card and video card and reinserted them. Although they are screwed in place they can suffer from a condition known as "heat creep" wereby the constant heating and cooling of startup and shutdown can actually make the boards slide up in the AGP or pci slot causing some really weird issues.Bobby

[Gridley 257]

Thanks to all for the info...The machine is a Dell 8200 - about a year old. It's an Intel based board - I have not updated BIOS or Chipset drivers at all. Since the machine was seemingly stable prior to these events, I didn't consider that a potential problem. The bios update dell has available does not mention anything in the readme applicable to the problems I'm seeing.It is possible that I have installed some software or "dodgy" web applets, I'm sure. I do run AdAware6 and have run that and norton antivirus full scan since these problems started, but nothing major came from that.I did pull RAM, Audio, and Video cards, air-canned the slots and reinserted them into the same positions. After that, the system seemed to be top notch again. However, I started hearing the popping-whistle from the audio card again on Friday, along with the system slow downs - I'm really believing this problem is audio card related entirely.Is it possible that a conflict between my DVD drive or CDRW drive, maybe related to DMA, has arisen with the audio card? I have no idea where to find DMA settings under windows XP...Thanks again. I'll look into the chipset drivers.sg