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3D games etc causing wireless disconnection

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Pinksteady

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Hi all,

Need some help here, I connect to the internet with a "22Mbps Wireless Network PCI Adapter" made by Origo, using a BT 2WIRE778 Router.

While in Windows, the connectio is fine, I have 3 green bars of signal and it says strength is good. However, if I start pretty much ANY game of application that uses 3D, ie opengl or direct3d, instantly the connection goes, and the card cannot find any signal at all. I have tried using the cards software and windows to connect, no difference.

I tried with a program called Celestia, which shows planets in 3D. When I ran it, the internet connection disconnected immediately, when I minimised it, so it was still running just not visible, the connection resumed straight away! It seems its is something to do with the video card displaying stuff on the screen but how the hell is that related to the wireless connection?

Games that I play either cause the signal to go completely like above, or it is very intermittent, and every now and then will disconnect and reconnect in the space of a few seconds, which is enough to screw up any online gaming usually, sometimes it just causes lag.

What other tests should I do? I really can't see the link between direct3d etc and wireless connection!

The fan on my Artic Cooling Silencer 4 rev2 has also taken to stopping turning every now and then! Don't know if this is related, am getting an RMA.

PC:
Asus A8V Deluxe
Athlon64 4000+ 2.4GHz
Gigabyte X800 Pro 256Mb
2Gb DDR PC3200 400MHz RAM (4x512Mb)
Maxtor 200Gb 7200rpm HD

EDIT: Doom 3 does not cause the internet to disconnect. As Doom 3 is an OpenGL game, I'm beginning to think that using Direct3D is the cause of the disconnects, but that may be a big assumption. Why would this be???
 
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What size make power supply do you have, can you list the volts and amps on the different lines.

Gerry.
 
Ok I don't really know about power supplies so I'll just recite the blurb on the label and give you readings from AsusProbe.

PSU:HIPER High Performance Group HPU-3S525, 575W 'Peak Load'
Standard size I think, fits in my Raidmax Titan case.

Probe readings:
+12V - 12.032
+5V - 5.08
+3.3V - 3.328
VCore - 1.054 (varies due to Cool'n'Quiet I think)

Do you think this could be a hardware problem with power not being given out correctly to the WiFi card when the video card is under load, or something like that?

Hope this info is what you need, please help!

PS Video card is powered from a power lead which on it also powers 2 hard disks and a floppy disk drive. Could this be overloading something? I tried powering the video card from a seperate power lead, but it didn't make any difference
 
Yes I think that as the card goes into 3d mode the power consumption will increase. If you overload a rail
your comp can crash/ freeze whatever.

The seperate power lead you tried, did it have any devicesa on it?, try running the card on it's own rail and see how you get on.

Is there no chart on the side of the PSU which tells you how many amps each rail has?. if so what is the 12v lines amps?.

Gerry.
 
Will the WiFi card be affected though? Because it is not powered by a 'rail', it is powered through the PCI slot?

I did try the card on its own power lead from the PSU, it only had the power button for the case or an led attached also. I'll try it again (EDIT: it is now plugged into its own power cable, only sharing it with the power button or front led (not suer which) but surely they are negligable).

Like I mentioned I do have 4 items plugged into one psu cord, I was under the impression that if the cord had 4 white power plugs on it, then it will be able to support 4 devices. Is this wrong?

Ok here is the Amps from the table on the side of the PSU:
DC Out/AC Out:
+3.3V/28A
+5V/36A
+12v/29A
-12V/0.8A
-5V/0.8A
+5VSB/2.5A

Hope this helps, a beginners explanation to these values would be nice as well, my electronics is a bit weak!

cheers
 
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All you really need to look at is the 12v line amps (for your gfx card) modern systems, look for upwards of 18A on that rail so you "Should" be ok.
If you have 4 devices on a single rail ithey use a lot of power, (CD/DVD rom/ HDDs/ gfx card) these are all working at the same time when you start a game so the power neede dby the system will increase, stressing your PSU on that 12v line. It's always best to try and spread the load over the devices, having say maybey you gfx and floppy on one line and the other devices on the other.

Hope this explains a bit!.

Gerry.
 
Ok thanks man I'll try out a few different combinations and see if I can fix the problem that way, but really, do you think the load on the rail will affect a PCI device?

Oh and how do I know which 'line' is which? I think there are about 3 cables coming out of the PSU with white power leads on them. Do each of these cables represent a different ampage line? I think I'm beginning to confuse myself!
 
This is driving me nuts! Have been trying different settings ie fast writes on/off agp speed 4x/8x, PCI Latency changing of both the Wireless device and video card - each time the wireless signal seems to act differently. Sometimes its always on, sometimes its intermittent, but always its off during a video card-using application (but sometimes flickers here as well!). Also turned off Cool'n'Quiet and ACPI 2.0 support.

Main thing is that by changing all these settings there is definately a (albeit very small) affect on the wireless signal. I just don't get why or how these two things are related.

Gerry you're helping so far, don't stop now! Anyone else please read this thread and tell me what you think!

Cheers all
 
Do you think it could mayby be a card fault(your wireless card)?.

sorry bout the short reply will try harder when I wake up lol :)

Gerry.
 
Maybe! Its a very old 802.11b card, and made by some random company called Origo. Found out last night it is using Texas Instruments ACX100 chip, if that helps. I would have got a new wireless card ages ago to take advantage of the speed, but I am waiting for one that has x64 drivers, because I have a 64bit PC it would a waste of money to get one that wasn't supported. At the moment, though, it seems hardly any, if any, are supported out-of-the-box.

If you know of any good 802.11g PCI cards that are guaranteed to work with Windows x64 then let me know!

Thanks for your help, much appreciated, but don't stop now! Keep thinking!
 
Could also be an IRQ conflict between the vid and network card I would make sure that the 2 of them arent sharing.
 
Device Manager doesn't report any IRQ conflicts, WiFi card is IRQ 18, video card is 16. Anything else to check along those lines? Would the IRQ change or something when in 3d (bearing in mind connection is ok during non-3d apps etc)?

I just nicked my sisters Belkin USB 802.11g dongle thingy and after endless problem getting the drivers to work, I succeeded and I don't have the problem of disconnects.

I don't know if this is due to the fact that it is simply is a better signal (11g instead of b and I can move the receiver around for best position, unlike PCI) or if its something else.

I guess I should move the comp closer to the router and try with the PCI card again, but it is so clearly related to the video card that I don't think reception is the issue. Why does the wireless PCI card get affected by 3D/video card and a wireless USB stick doesn't?
 
Try and get hold of another card and try that?.

Failing that just purchase a usb dongle :)

Gerry.
 
hehe goddam computers! Can you recommend any 802.11g PCI cards that have drivers fro Windows x64?
 
may be you have an EMI problem.
If you are palying games or give something else to the monmitor this will increase the EMI output of the pc significant.
So locj fpor poor shilded cables, or try an external device.
An if you have problems in finding apropriate drivers, i think stick with intel, 3com or orinoco.
those cards will surely well supported by ms or the manufacturers.
Another problem is the fact that you are using VIA based mainboard.
i am sory, but VIA is famous to not building suitable chips which, they can't handle larege i/q things, even normal IRQ routing is a mess with it.
So i think this coud be the problem.
The other thing i mean, that at the moment i won't use any 64bit software, as this is in my opinion not matured.
So may be in about 2 to 4 months the situation will cahnge, but remember, ms needed 10 years to bring out a roughly stable 32bit os, so i don't belive that they manage it in 3 years to build a stable 64bit os.
 
Ah well always nice to know the brand-spanking-new pc you bought has a rubbish chipset! I will read up on VIA and its problems, thanks for pointing that out (I think!). I take it the VIA chipset is integral to the motherboard, you cant change it without replacing the whole board?

The wireless antenna is right next to the monitor cable (and every other cable that comes out of the back of the pc!). I'm beginning to think internal wireless cards are not a good idea unless you have amazing reception. There is just too much interference.

I agree, x64 is not going to be commonplace for absolutely ages, but if I am going to buy a new wireless device, I may as well get one that supports x64, otherwise I'll be buying another one in a year or two.
 
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