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November 30, 2005
SMP computer crashes in DirectX heavy programs
Three of my Windows based PCs are Dual Pentium IIIs based on an Apollo Pro 133A chipset. Wonderful machines in every respect and dirt cheap, but they reboot at random during very heavy DirectX usage in Windows XP. There are a number of ways to remedy this.
If you never intend to use DirectX acceleration, you can disable it outright by dragging the 'Hardware Acceleration' slider under the 'Troubleshoot' tab of the 'Advanced' options of the 'Display Properties' control panel. (Or you could use a non-accelerated video card.)
If however, you’re stuck with only owning an Apollo Pro 133A based computer and have a gaming itch from time to time, the trick is to disable the second CPU. The easiest way I know of to do this, is to change the driver for you 'Computer' to a standard 'ACPI PC' from the usual 'ACPI Multiprocessor PC' setting.
Enter Device Manager and expand the 'Computer' node. Right click on 'ACPI Multiprocessor PC' and choose 'Update Driver'.
Choose to 'Install from a list...' and next.
Choose not to search '...I will choose the driver to install.' and next.
Choose from the list and next again.
Finally, finish and restart.
To return to SMP and enjoy the power of having both CPUs: enter device manager, and bring up the properties tab for your 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' (under Computer). Click the 'Driver' tab and then 'Roll Back Driver'.
Strangely it's not possible to choose the 'ACPI Multiprocessor PC' driver from the driver update wizard.
A final caution, do not update to a non ACPI driver, or you'll find all of your device require new drivers. MPS based drivers are particularly bad for this as VIA doesn't provide IDE drivers for them.
Posted by spiffed at November 30, 2005 1:56 PM