Mamba wrote on 2026-09-06, 09:30:Struggling with a P5A 1.04.
It won’t complete 3d mark 2000….
I used several Ali agp versions, always with my GeForce GTS that wo […]
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Struggling with a P5A 1.04.
It won’t complete 3d mark 2000….
I used several Ali agp versions, always with my GeForce GTS that worked everywhere (7.76).
It is not a cpu related issue as it hangs even with lower frequencies than default.
Caps seems all ok.
Any bios setting I should check for this mainboard?
Thanks
I spent the last 6 months re-learning socket Super 7, starting with a regular K6-2 533, GA5 AX rev. 1.4 and a MX 420. Tested a few other Nvidia cards, 3DFX cards, and ATI Cards too.
I ran into this exact issue several times on the GA5. Runs 3D99 fine, but wont finish 3D2K.
Eventually i got frustrated, reisntalled 98 (Without formatting) and it did the same thing.
Same problem it seems your having.
I noticed during boot, that the ATI "Message" from the driver still remained during boot up.
I ended up making a 98 boot disk and formatted the drive, starting fresh.
That seemed to fix it. it removed all the weird leftover junk a simple resintall would leave behind.
That reminds me! I think what the issue turned out to be, I was testing 32MB AGP aperture (bad advice on a 64MB card) so going to 64 MB fixed it, and going to 128MB gave an increase in score. is your GTS 32 or 64mb? What setting are you using?
The other weird thing, not sure it's related.
"Set up defaults" vs. "Load bios defaults" might have been part of the issue for some reason.
I had better luck with "Set up Defaults" and use this as my baseline.
So reset the bios to defaults, and try both options. and test.
If you do this back to back you can see what settings change (Withour rebooting).
Dont make any other changes to the bios (Unless you have to) and see if 3D2K completes.
One last thing, It could be heat related, and I am on a open test bench, and I sometimes use a small house fan too cool the entire thing (Pointing down from above) and sometimes I forget to turn it on, and it can get weird/ hang up.
Side note:
I finally got my P5A-B Rev 1.04 up and running. Its an OEM version stripped from a PC some one donated back in 08, so it only has 1 big DIN Keyboard connector and nothing else. Got a PS2 to DIN adapter and now can get to desktop. I have the little boards with P2-and USB , but no cables (Propietary pinout on USB/IR adapter unfortantely) so I still cant use a mouse. I am able to launch 99 through with the keyboard (Still usiing the same HD from the GA5) and it runs 99, but i cant run 3D2K ( its not in the start menu). I hope to have that issue resolved soon, and maybe i can try and duplicate your issue. Trying to find a good floppy (Binning floppies is now a thing, 🤣) cause my boot floppy died, so I cant update the bios to use the K6-3+ yet.
So yeah, if nothing else works, format the drive, set bios to "Set up defaults" install ALI 1.82, then DX 7, and 7.76 video drivers. Stock GPU, RAM, and GPU settings too. No extra software other then what bare minumum. This seems to work best for me. You've been around a while, so you know its like chasing your tale some days, so going back to square 1 is a PITA, but it often fixes weird issues. Probably not telling you anything you didnt allready know...but its what comes to mind for me. Miss one simple step, have the wrong setting and you got "Issues" like the 3D2k one your having.
Asked Grok his opinion on my advice before posting, and he added this:
"If it still dies after a clean format + Setup Defaults + Ali 1.82 → DX7 → 7.76 at stock, tell us: exact hang point (which scene), aperture size, Ali utility frame-buffer setting, RAM amount, and BIOS rev. That combo is what separates leftover-driver junk from an actual AGP timing problem on 1.04."
