SL Freezes on two computers, nVidia MX4000

I have two computers that I cannot run SL on. The symptoms are the same. SL will intermittently crash, and on occasion the computer will actually lock up. They have different cpu but both Athlon, different mobo, different os (WinXP Home on one, Win2000 Pro on the other). The only thing they have in common is they have the same video card, an Asus V9400-X/TD nVidia MX4000 AGP 8X 128MB.

I've tried the drivers that came with the card, I've tried the latest nVidia drivers. Both computers are rock solid otherwise. Are there known problems with these video cards on SL, or are there any suggestions as to what to do to make SL run on these computers?

What kind of Athlons do you have installed? The MX4000 is actually a pretty low-powered card, and needs a mighty CPU to compensate for that. Also, if your MX4000s do not have fans attached, they may actually be overheating, would could be the cause of your lock ups.

Have to research. Won't have time to stick my head in the boxes until next week, but I'm pretty sure they don't have fans. CPU temp does not increase significantly when SL runs. I agree, the MX4000 is a pretty lame card. Maybe I need to fork out some bucks and get some decent video cards. I have two other computers, one with a 6800 with fan, one with an old GeForce2 (I think) with fan and SL is pretty solid on both of them.

Popped off cover. Video cards do not have fans, only heat sinks. Started SL, felt heat sink. Did not get noticeably hotter. Still locked up computer after 2-3 minutes. Setup a fan blowing good on video card. Still locked up. I'm not convinced that it's an overheating problem.

These are older cards, I wonder if I should try older nvidia drivers? I have an old TNT Vanta in my linux box, and the newest legacy nvidia driver that is supposed to work with it does in fact crash - I have to use a much older driver to get it to work. So maybe I'll try older nvidia drivers. Any recommendations?

Edit: However lame the video card and/or cpu might be, SL performs very well on the system. It just won't run more then 5 minutes without computer locking up.

Swapped power supply, swapped video cards, put in my old trusty GeForce2 with fan. Ran a video/cpu stress on it, and it locks solid in less then 2 minutes. Boot to Win98, same thing. Time to go back to the shop (IE my basement) with this bad boy. This is no longer a Second Life issue, I just have a bad computer that can't take the cpu/video load, so I'm bailing out of the thread (unless anyone wants to hear about my adventures in computer repair land).

Many of us in SL are geeks or have geek tendencies. We do not fear Computer Repair Land.

The Vanta card will definitely be worse than the 4000MX cards. Don't waste your time even trying it.

Up to this point, you haven't mentioned how much system RAM you have. SL will run with as little as 128MB of system RAM, but it will be barely playable. Most of us need at least 1GB of RAM to get satisfactory performance out of SL.

Since you are running with 4000MX cards, I guess I can safely assume that you do not have a PCI-E slot on either motherboard. If your budget can stand an upgrade, go for at least a GeForce 6600GT card. AGP versions of GeForce 6000/7000 series cards usually require additional power, so you will need a decent power supply. I wouldn't run with less than 400w these days for a basic system. Avoid any "LE" version video cards. In any case, SL will run comfortably with at least 128MB video RAM. 256MB of video RAM is a little better, and anything above 256 really will not make any difference.

OH, I wasn't thinking of using the Vanta, I was just using it as an example of how current video drivers don't always work well with older cards. I think the box has 512MB, I upgraded both of them because memory is so cheap these days. The mobo is an older FoxConn board, definitely no pci-e slots. The video benchmark test (before it crashes) showed about 125. As a reference, on a P4 3GHz with an nVidia 6800 V9999 (limited pipeline version, not a full blown 6800, but I didn't know it until after I bought it) it ran at about 1300, so you can see these video cards are quite slow. But with the eye candy turned down a bit SL did perform adequately. First job is to stabalize the box. Then I'll think about spending more money on it.

dunno, i have 2 friends with mx4 cards (one is a first release model the other is a second release model)

both machines are running via chipsets (one is a year or so old the other is brand new with a athalon 64)

the older machine is a xp running @ 1.8ghz the other is a A64 running @ 2ghz

both run SL just fine @ 1024x768, constantly over 25fps

all i can think of is check ALL your drivers, in perticular your chipset drivers, agp drivers video card, sound card, and it might be best to reinstall direct x too

Are you running both systems on the same router? If you don't add something to your SL shortcut, there could be port conflicts and causes freezes or crashes.
So for example, on one comp you would use:
C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -port 13000
and the other comp, you would use:
C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -port 13001
This would be software of course. If it is indeed a hardware issue, I have no current input.

I run 2 or 3 computers behind the same router all the time, never had a problem. There are 3 of us that like to play SL here, and we do it at the same time.

I fixed it - sorta. I removed the Duron 1200 and replaced it with an xp3000+, and whaddaya know, the problem goes away. I stuck the Duron in another computer, and that one works fine. Go figure? It's been running SL for a few hours now, no problems at all. Too weird.