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The Chatterbox => Computing => Topic started by: MortifiedocAlot on February 08, 2011, 03:42:14 AM
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I've had this problem for a short while now (I think it's happened like 3 times total, but it's been consistent enough to worry me). I'll be in the middle of a game, and then suddenly I will lose all video output and my screen will give me the message "no video output detected" and then go into standby. I hit my power button, which should go through the processes of turning my PC off, but that won't work, so I'm assuming it's not JUST my graphics card. I've also had texture issues while playing TF2 and SF4 (a giant, 2D sprite will fill the screen, in SF4 is was Abel's skin texture). So, are these signs my card is dying? The screen going black has only started recently, and the texture problems have only happened twice and within a rather large time slot.
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Without knowing more, I'd say that does sound like your card is dieing. Are you sure your computer isn't just overheating though? Because overheating can cause issues like that (including causing your computer to bluescreen and such.)
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Also with the whole no input detected thing, I had a monitor that did that, and it was the cord going from the monitor to the PC that was dying out. After I replaced the cord, it started working fine again, but then the problem started again. It'd work for a bit, but then go blank randomly. So I decided to bring the monitor in to my friends shop, and when he checked it out, all the little bulb thingies in the monitor were fried. So it could be 1 of 4 things so far. A - The gfx card is giving out, B - the cords are starting to give out, C - stuff is overheating, or D - Your monitors bulbs are slowly getting fried. I'd say try to narrow it down by trying a different monitor to see if the problem still persists, and replacing cords, then go from there.
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I really doubt I'm overheating now, my room temperature is rather cool now and I keep my fan speeds at 100% at all times. I mean, when I got the first 2D sprite it was probably from overheating issues, but now my GPU will rarely get over 60 (just cleaned the dust out of it as well). Also the monitor I'm using is fairly new (it's a Hannspree, if that tells anything) and my GPU is also not that old, but it's taken a lot of stress in the past so I believe that it's what's the problem here.
I'll try and check the wiring/monitor, but this problem rarely occurs so it would be rather hard to get that to work.
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Another thing could be, Ive had this problem too...Clean out your gfx card. There might be alot of dust collecting in it. I've had it where my PC randomly shut down while gaming, so I cleaned out my gfx card of all the dust, then it was fine.
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I recently cleaned it, but maybe some dust guy in the connector for the wire/back of the GPU. It only started after I cleaned it anyways.
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Another thing could be, Ive had this problem too...Clean out your gfx card. There might be alot of dust collecting in it. I've had it where my PC randomly shut down while gaming, so I cleaned out my gfx card of all the dust, then it was fine.
Yeah, dust can cause it to overheat :/ Never a good thing when dust is causing overheating.
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Do you have an adequate power supply in there for any/all upgrades you've done? Only other thing I can think of
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To add to what Sneaky suggested, power supplies do degrade over time. If your power supply was just barely making it and it's getting up there in age, it could be too weak to handle the card at this point.
Of course, the card itself can very well be bad. If there is a hardware fault, computers can and will hard lock in such a way.
I recently cleaned it, but maybe some dust guy in the connector for the wire/back of the GPU. It only started after I cleaned it anyways.
You would have to have a lot of dust in the connector for that to happen. Also, both NVIDIA and ATI cards will give you an alert if the card isn't receiving enough power. If the system crashes because of the card shutting itself down, it'll yell at you on the next boot. Some cards -- certain ATI models in particular -- halt the system with an alert when the video BIOS is initialized if the power connector isn't plugged in (as in, before your system even POSTs).
What did you use to clean the card? If it started after the card was cleaned, the card might have taken a hit of static.
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I've yet to have any trouble with it, but I still want an upgrade as, from what I can see, my card is going to be scraping by as a minimum spec in upcoming games.
So, any recommendations as to where to go form an 8800 GTS?
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If you're on an 8800 GTS, don't bother going with a GTS 250 or under, as you'd basically be trading in that card for one that's marginally better.
The HD58xx and GTX 460 lines both offer similar performance, IIRC, and are relatively inexpensive. I can typically push my HD5830 to 1920x1200 in newer games without much of an issue. It smokes my old 9800 GTX (which, I should add, is basically a refresh of the 8800 line).
Here's an HD5830 from XFX (which is actually the card that I'm using right now): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150497 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150497)
...and here's an overclocked GTX 460 from EVGA, which is slightly more expensive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130597 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130597)
The HD 5830 will drive three displays, if that's important to you. I think the GTX 460 can only handle two. I seem to remember the two of those cards being roughly the same in terms of performance, so pick which one you're more comfortable with.
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I've been pretty damn happy with my 460, I upgraded from my 8800GTS after it having similar problems. And yeah the performance on a 5830 vs a 460 is basically the same, it's pretty much just a matter of which ever you can find a better deal on or brand preference.
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I'll more then likely go with the HD 5830 and upgrade to windows 7.
Also sort of off topic, but I'm not starting a new thread for this. When I go to forward a port for something, the old information is still there and I'm forced to over right it in order to get more ports forwarded. Does this delete my prior ports or what?
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I'll more then likely go with the HD 5830 and upgrade to windows 7.
Good man. We can be ATI brothers!
Damn, that sounded gay. Let's make out.
Also sort of off topic, but I'm not starting a new thread for this. When I go to forward a port for something, the old information is still there and I'm forced to over right it in order to get more ports forwarded. Does this delete my prior ports or what?
Yeah, if you overwrite the information then it deletes whichever forward you replaced.
If you absolutely need a large amount of ports forwarded, you might want to see if your router can run DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com). There is a tiny chance that it could cause your router not to run 100% correct and an even smaller chance of bricking it, but it can really make a crusty Linksys router sing if it supports the hardware.
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I shouldn't, but fuck the law I am upset.
I'm trying to install the specialists, and it downloaded and installed the folders right into the Half Life folder on steam. I can't figure out how to run the game, there's a file called specialists that I'm assuming is a WAD file because skulltag wants to launch it, and I've tried opening it with Half Life and HLDS launcher (whatever that is) and I get some error saying it couldn't find download.dll (I got several errors, that one was most common).
So, anyone here install any half life mods?
and NOW I can't get STALKER SoC with super mod to run right. I click on the game, steam says I'm in game and I can see the engine running in my processes, but nothing else changes.
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Hmm...
For Half-Life mods, all you should have to do is extract the mod folder into "Steam\steamapps\YourName\half-life". I believe it will automatically appear in your Steam list when you go back into the Library section. If that doesn't do it, restarting Steam should force it to pick up the mod. Half-Life WAD files don't function in the same way as Doom WADs. WADs in Half-Life are basically just texture packs. They don't have any game code or map data like Doom WADs do.
STALKER is really weird when it comes to mods. I had a hell of a time getting STALKER Complete 2009 working because there were Thumbs.db files in the textures directory (which, by all rights, should affect precisely dick). Actually, give that a shot. Do a search inside of the textures directory in the Super Mod folder for "Thumbs.db," including hidden and system files, and delete any that show up.
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Ah, there's the specalists. My god, that game is amazing.
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Well my card crashed again, and I really should upgrade so I'm going to place an order. I just have EVEN MORE questions.
http://enterbf3.com/battlefield-3-minimum-requirements.php
I'm assuming "video" memory on the HD 5830 is 1 gig, while the memory = ram?
I'm pretty dead set on this card, and I like what I see, BUT I should probably get some more ram as I evidently have 2.75 gigs...
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Yeah, the HD 5830 has 1GB of video RAM. And yeah, RAM = memory (it stands for random access memory).
Regarding your system RAM, you have enough for games. Almost all games are 32-bit, so they can't use more than 2GB at a time, but your system will be able to multitask a bit better with more RAM since it won't have to keep swapping a bunch of OS stuff back and forth to your hard drive. It will probably improve game startup and shutdown times as well.
I'd recommend at least 4GB. I had that on my last system and really had a hard time using all of it at once. My currently system has 6GB and I can't see any reason to put more in at the moment.
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For the Witcher 2 it recommends 4 gigs, but I'll wait and see.
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They probably recommend 4GB because it would give the best overall experience. Swapping data between the hard drive and RAM really kills performance.
The highest RAM use I've seen in a game is probably either GTA4 or WoW. The former used 1.7GB at one point and the latter actually crashed when it tried to consume more than 2GB (though I'm almost positive that it was because of an engine bug; that hasn't happened since Cataclysm came out).
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Okay, now I was in the middle of a game and my power simply just turned off. Now I'm afraid it might be my power supply, I'll see soon enough anyways.
Well, it looks like it's running good now. Can't exactly fit my hard drives in my case, but it all seems to be running now. At least I hope so, the installation guide was a bit confusing.
Well, now I just had the same problem (middle of a game, suddenly power shuts off) and now when I turn it on it turns off within a few seconds. So what gives? Is my power supply botched? It seems like it should have enough power to run everything (There's a lot of lose ends I'm not even using, and it seemed to run fine when I wasn't running any resource demanding games). I switched outlets so I know that's not the problem, and it doesn't seem to be the fault of my surge protector.
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Removed the new card and put in the old and got the same problem. Could it be a loose wire somewhere? I'm running out of ideas.
Also is it important what order the side power cords for my graphics card go into it? The slots seem identical and I've switched them and nothing happened.
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Quick question, would resetting the CMOS memory be beneficial in any way? I was using programs that monitored temp and increased my fans rate of speed, soI suppose they could have messed something up in my BIOS somehow.
What are the risks in doing this?
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If the power just shuts off, odds are it is the power supply.
The BIOS settings generally only affect the system startup process. Barring some very specific settings (or if you push an overclock too far) it generally doesn't affect the system after it boots.
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At this point I'm assuming you're right. I'll leave it off for hours and it will still shut off within a second, and I really don't feel like taking apart and putting everything back together just to see if it's an overheating issue (which I really doubt).
So, uh, what range should I aim for as far as PSUs go? I have a Radeon HD 5830, a EVGA nForce 680i LT SLI mobo (http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/122-CK-NF67.pdf), an intel quad core CPU and some small generic sound card.
I'm thinking something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030
Also I must say, thanks a lot for the help. Like, everything.
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I definitely wouldn't skimp on the PSU. Even if I were to build a low-end system I probably still wouldn't spend less than $80-90 on the PSU. This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009)) is quite a bit more money than the one that you picked ($140 vs. $60) but it's going to be able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it.
PSUs gradually lose the ability to handle their maximum wattage as they age, and they typically get warmer when you get closer to the maximum wattage. I have a 900W in my system and many power-sucking components (i7 930, upper-middle-spec Gigabyte board, HD 5830, X-Fi, 5 hard drives, and 2 optical drives) and the air that the power supply vents can hardly even be considered warm. The unit is also three years old, so it isn't exactly a spring chicken.
The one that you picked would probably work well. It's a good unit by a good company. I would still overspec it to accommodate upgrades and so that it could handle high loads better.
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Shit, that's not exactly what I want to hear, but I'll probably go that route (buying a new power supply in two or so years will be a bitch).
I still want to know if there's anything I can do to test what might be wrong? I'm fairly sure that it's my power supply (not an overheat problem, my RAM was running fine prior to this, my mobo lights light up [which is one thing that bothers me, as the power supply can do something and isn't completely dead]and it's not my card as I have switched them around), but I have no clue what I have for a power supply and I want to make damn sure that this will work when I pay that much money for a new part.
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If the problem is definitely the power supply, the fact that it's shutting off is good. That's another thing that crappy power supplies tend not to have: any sort of regulation. Good power supplies will kill the DC power if it can't deal with the load or reaches too high of a temperature. Bad PSUs will happily kill themselves (and quite possibly other components) if you overload them.
There really isn't a good way to test it unless you get a very good tester that can put it under specific loads. Most cheap testers only test voltage and they do it under zero load.
The next time your system shuts off, put your hand against the power supply vent on the back. If it's uncomfortably hot, your power supply can no longer deal with the load that's being put on it. There was a Dell XPS system that came into my workplace a while back in which that happened. The system was about four years old and had a high-end video card for the time and merely sitting on the title screen for World of Warcraft would shut the system down within ten minutes and the power supply would become uncomfortably hot to the touch. Replacing the unit did the trick.
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It plain just doesn't have the time to get hot. You're more then likely right, as it makes the most sense out of anything (I really wonder how damaged my 8800 is).
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The 8800 might be perfectly alright. It's entirely possible that the HD 5830 draws less power than the 8800 does. Case in point: my laptop's GPU (a 7900 GS Go) runs hotter and draws more power than my friend's laptop's Mobility HD 46xx series, despite the latter being far superior in terms of processing power.
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Yeah, load and heat/efficiency really does vary from processor to processor.
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Running fine right now (had a restart happen when I moved my GPU around a tiny bit trying to get to a loud fan) but everything seems grand so far. I just need to figure out how to update Rivatuner and I'm good.
Again, thanks for the help :3c.
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Again, thanks for the help :3c.
De nada! Hope everything runs well for you. :D
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Now when I run a high resource game it runs at a bad frame rate (Batman Arkham Asylum now runs at 14 FPS average as opposed to running fine on my 8800 GTS).
I'm going to delete everything from ATI/Nvidia on my PC, run CCleaner and then run Driver Sweeper.
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Yeah, definitely wipe out the video card drivers. I was able to do a fairly seamless swap from my 9800GTX to the HD5830, but there are usually problems when you go from NVIDIA to ATI or vice-versa.
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It's honestly more then likely my fault, but this should hopefully unfuck everything.
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Actually, did you uninstall the NVIDIA drivers before installing the ATI ones? I believe I did do that before I swapped the cards out.
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No, and I'm done with installing drivers from the net after I uninstalled everything, cleaned my PC, and then restarted and now the new hardware wizard is still telling me I am missing hardware. Should I let it install?
Last time I let it ran it installed some Nvidia software part, so I'm somewhat reluctant to do that again.
Yeah, no, terrible fucking idea. It installed some Nvidia software again and then told me there might be hardware errors. Why in the blue fuck can I not download everything I need off of the ATI site, how fucking dumb can they be.
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I'm not sure which ATI driver package you've downloaded, but both available downloads have everything that you need.
Go into Control Panel -> Programs and Features (or Add or Remove Programs if you're still on XP) and make sure that the NVIDIA software package isn't installed. It sounds like it's still on your system.
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I deleted everything Nvidia off my programs list, and I'm searching for anything with Nvidia on it and deleting it, then I'm going to use Driver Sweeper. I don't think CCleaner should have anything to do with this, as it just clears my cookies.
These Nvidia display drivers refuse to go, and I can't seem to find out why. Fuck it, I'm going to "install" my new drivers despite that never working and not allowing me to initially check online for updated drivers...
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Wait, did you grab the HD5830 drivers from ati.com? Even if the NVIDIA stuff is still stuck in there, installing the ATI driver package should override the NVIDIA drivers, since the two cards can technically coexist.
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I'm downloading drivers from XFX.com, and I believe I already got the ones from ATI/AMD.com but I'll do it again just to double check.
So far I'm still getting the "hardware not configured right" or whatever error and I've downloaded like 5 different things.
Nope, downloaded it and it still said I have new hardware installed and the windows installer asks if it can run (not letting that happen again). I'm going to sleep on this, as it's obviously not anything I need to download and install, there's literally nothing left for me to install.
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If you already have the drivers from ATI's site, don't download the drivers from XFX's site. There usually isn't much of a difference, if any, and the cards from the board manufacturer are always going to be a few steps out of date at least.
Outside of odd card configurations (such as a new card specially rigged to run on an AGP system) you should always get the reference drivers from ATI/NVIDIA.
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Outside of odd card configurations (such as a new card specially rigged to run on an AGP system) you should always get the reference drivers from ATI/NVIDIA.
What are reference drivers? I'm still getting missing hardware messaged every time I start up, and my computer locked up recently.
Fuck, my PC is randomly freezing up now.
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Reference drivers are drivers produced by the company who creates the chipset and have no modifications to them.
If you download drivers packages from Dell, HP, etc, they may have modifications done to them to affect the branding on the drivers or tweaks to get their specific card to work (the latter generally only occurs in very extreme situations, like when companies take a chipset designed for PCI-E and make it work in an AGP system).
Try starting your system in safe mode and see if it crashes there. If it doesn't, it's most likely a driver issue. Hopefully nothing was damaged when your PSU started crapping out.
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Started in safe mode, dicked around with a few programs, and when I right clicked on my desktop and checked the Catalyst Control Center and it said I either had no drivers or damaged drivers. Now while I'm in normal mode I can access this.
Should I just let the Microsoft missing software thing to download Nvidia drivers? because so far I'm at a complete lost, and I couldn't possibly download anymore ATI drivers.
Okay, I can safely say I will probably never buy another ATI card again, this shit is beyond forgivable.
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Not to be a dick, but how is any of that ATI's fault? There's clearly a lot of conflicts going on here. If your system is trying to install NVIDIA drivers without an NVIDIA card being installed, something is either royally cocked up or you're doing something wrong.
One question that I neglected to ask: does your motherboard have an NVIDIA chipset (not a built-in video card, but an nForce chipset)? If so, you need to have the NVIDIA motherboard drivers installed. That could be the cause of some of your issues if those aren't properly installed.
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No, I probably deserve it, I was just really tired and pissed off when I wrote that (just spent HOURS trying to get this working).
I just checked my mobo manual and there's basically an entire page on NVIDIA SLI technology and NVIDIA SLI-ready memory (http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/122-CK-NF67.pdf). So I'm assuming that's the problem? I don't see anything about an nForce chipset tho.
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Hate to break it to you, but it says "nForce 680i" right on the front page. :p
But yeah, that's probably why shit is going crazy. My last system had an nForce 750i and I had to specifically tell the uninstaller not to remove the motherboard drivers, because it desperately wanted to remove everything from the system. I suppose that would typically be admirable, but you typically don't want thing like storage drivers removed when you just want to swap out a video card.
Grab one of the following driver sets from NVIDIA to install the drivers again (don't remember which OS you're running, so here's a bunch of links):
Windows XP: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.46.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.46.html)
Windows Vista 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista32_15.51b.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista32_15.51b.html)
Windows Vista 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista64_15.51b.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista64_15.51b.html)
Windows 7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_32bit_15.53.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_32bit_15.53.html)
Windows 7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_64bit_15.53.html (http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_win7_64bit_15.53.html)
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That seemed to work, also man I'm a little slow.
but yeah, thanks a goddamn ton.
Batman is still giving me bad FPS, but I'm not getting that missing hardware pop up. Well, this is odd, might need to redo my ATI drivers, as I did them in a completely stupid way.
Well that's odd, Bad company 2 runs fine (a little bit of delay at weird times during the start of the cutscene and at the very start of the mission, but when I got into an actual gun fight I didn't notice anything). Maybe I just need to tweak some setting somewhere?
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I think one of Batman's problems is that it uses NVIDIA GPUs as a physics processor with the PhysX drivers. PhysX is intentionally gimped* so that it works slower if you don't have an NVIDIA GPU that supports it or a PhysX card.
*"Gimped" as in it relies on instructions that are horrendously unoptimized and overly "safe." The way that it does calculations can be done on CPUs from 1989 (I'm not exaggerating), so none of the newer, faster instructions from the SSE instruction sets are used at all.
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I think one of Batman's problems is that it uses NVIDIA GPUs as a physics processor with the PhysX drivers. PhysX is intentionally gimped* so that it works slower if you don't have an NVIDIA GPU that supports it or a PhysX card.
*"Gimped" as in it relies on instructions that are horrendously unoptimized and overly "safe." The way that it does calculations can be done on CPUs from 1989 (I'm not exaggerating), so none of the newer, faster instructions from the SSE instruction sets are used at all.
That's interesting. What sort of "safe" are they trying to do? Do you know anywhere I could read more in depth about that?
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Really? So I'm SOL as far as Arkham Asylum is concerned? I'm also getting odd graphical errors in a few games I try (all lights in Amnesia can be seen through walls, and the AA looks off slightly. The wood that sticks out of walls in BC2 is untextured on some sides) so I'll probably delete all the odd drivers I have for ATI and then strictly install the CD drivers and then update them (I ran and installed a non XP pack I believe, a long with a bunch of other things).
I'm assuming CCC is part of the default drivers.
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That's interesting. What sort of "safe" are they trying to do? Do you know anywhere I could read more in depth about that?
I don't remember who did the analysis, but somebody disassembled the PhysX software driver and found that it used nothing but x87 floating point for the math. Considering that SSE has been supported since the Pentium III came out in 1999, that is inexcusable. I found a link to a story about this here: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/19216 (http://techreport.com/discussions.x/19216)
It's just bullshit. The fact that NVIDIA no longer allows their video cards to act as PhysX processors when coupled with an ATI GPU is downright anti-consumer. Fortunately, OpenCL has been making some headway lately, because PhysX is too locked down for anyone's good.
Really? So I'm SOL as far as Arkham Asylum is concerned?
You might be able to get a speed boost by turning off PhysX, if the game allows you to do that. It should still play pretty well, you just might miss out on some physics engine effects (I think Arkham Asylum has extra details like papers fluttering around in the wind if you have PhysX enabled).
I'm also getting odd graphical errors in a few games I try (all lights in Amnesia can be seen through walls, and the AA looks off slightly. The wood that sticks out of walls in BC2 is untextured on some sides) so I'll probably delete all the odd drivers I have for ATI and then strictly install the CD drivers and then update them (I ran and installed a non XP pack I believe, a long with a bunch of other things).
Yeah, try reinstalling the drivers. The only game that I recall seeing rendering errors on lately is GTA4, but those are issues with the game itself -- the same issues occur on my dad's NVIDIA card (which is my old 9800GTX).
I'm assuming CCC is part of the default drivers.
Correct. I think it is considered an optional component, but it's installed by default.
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I'm pretty sure ATI gives you 2 download options: A big package with CCC and stuff with the drivers, and a simple no nonsense drivers only download.
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Yes and no. The two Catalyst packages both include CCC, but one is missing OpenCL support. There is also a support package for CrossFireX support that's updated independently of the driver and more often, but most people aren't going to need that.
There is a separate tab that allows you to download each component individually. A nice option, but largely unnecessary. There's also a couple of optional downloads, including HydraVision (I believe it's similar to nView, offering some whiz-bang features aimed at multiple displays) and video converter software that uses the GPU for processing.
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I think I accidentally installed my drivers, then installed the same/similar drivers with CCC, which is causing my computer to randomly (not really frequently) lock up.
I'll resolve that sometime...
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When it comes to reputable companies, drivers rarely cause semi-regular crashes and lockups.
Considering you were having PSU issues, you may want to do some hardware testing. Maybe run it through Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/) or memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) after you head off to bed for a few nights. Those two tools do a good job at stressing the core system (CPU, RAM, and part of the bus) out.
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I keep getting VPU errors, but I'll run those later. I hear I need to run memtest several times?
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VPU errors basically indicate a driver or hardware issue with an ATI card. Getting those triggers a GPU reset, which will cause the system to appear to freeze for a few seconds while the graphics card reboots.
Does it only happen on a particular application or does it just happen at random? If it only happens on a particular application, it could be a bug triggered by a particular game (my old laptop did VPU resets every 15 or so minutes on Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 due to a bug in the last driver release on Dell's site, for example). If it's happening whenever it feels like it, the card could be failing.
Try running it through 3DMark (http://www.futuremark.com/) (not sure if 3DMark 11 is limited to a single test, but I know Vantage is -- get 3DMark 06 to be on the safe side) a few times to see if that causes it to crap out faster. If it does, first try downgrading the drivers. If it still continues to fail, the card might have been damaged during the PSU's death throes or have just been bad out of the box. Get it RMA'd if you can, if that's the case. If you're past the deadline for Newegg,
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Shit, it does happen randomly. That's no good at all, where can I check to see if I'm covered for this?
Also I'll run the test as soon as it finishes downloading.
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Whoops, cut myself off there. :x
I think you might be out of luck with Newegg. Try registering with XFX (http://www.xfxforce.com/) to see if they will let you RMA it. I'm not sure what their policy is regarding RMAs.
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Alright, ran it 4 times in a row, here are the results.
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15648935
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15648949
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15648960
http://3dmark.com/3dm06/15648973
Didn't crash to VPU. Hopefully nothing is damaged, I'll run memtest at another time as I hear that can be a pain. Actually, what should be my next step? Also I'm assuming my card will automatically speed it's fan up when it gets too hot?
Was playing GTA3 and it froze up, so I'm assuming it's card problems. This is a huge pain in the ass. I MIGHT be able to get this repaired/replaced, but I'm unsure if I can and how long it will take
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It's kind of odd that GTA3 would freeze it and 3DMark would be okay. The latter is way more intense on the video card in every way. And yeah, it automatically speeds up the fan when the card gets too hot (and you can definitely hear it).
You could try doing the test in the ATI Overdrive section of CCC. I'm not sure if that alone will make any hardware modifications, but it didn't appear to on mine, since putting the card into a new Windows install showed it as being clock locked again. If you can't return the card, underclocking it could help a damaged core run more stably.
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The Auto Tune? Whenever I hit that I just get this odd multicolored screen that has an AMD logo on the bottom left. I have to hit escape to get away from it. What settings should I tweek specifically?
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Don't use Auto Tune. That is an automated overclocking utility. What you want to do is click "Test Custom Clocks" (you might have to click the "enable ATI Overdrive" box to enable that), wait for a few minutes, then hit escape. It should tell you whether it passed or failed.
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I downclocked the "high performance GPU clock settings" from 800 MHz down to 705 MHz, and I ran that without problem. I've yet to get another freeze or VPU error but I'm sort of avoiding gaming ATM.
Just locked up again, this time I had a LOT of firefox tabs open. Could that be a RAM problem? Then why am I getting VPU errors?
Finally running a defrag, going to take hours to finish, so I'll probably run the mem test afterwards as I'm unsure what exactly is going on here.
Last time it crashed during GTA 3 was probably just a random error. Also I noticed ANY slight movement of my card causes my system to freeze. Is it sitting in there a bad way or something? It almost doesn't fit in my case and I have to leave my hard drives out, so I might reset it and test it and see if I can get a VPU error/crash then, but that seems even less likely.
Some DDR2 memory will require 2.1V or higher to run stable but may auto-configure to 1.8-1.9V by default. Make sure that your memory is configured properly. This is a common cause of instability that can cause this problem.
So, how exactly do I check and change this? It also suggests increasing the voltage on my CPU, but it specifically mentions DDR2 ram which might be the problem. Other then those it it mostly suggests installing all the right drivers.
Set my ram to 2.1 volts, going to play some more demanding games and see if I can't get anything special to happen.
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It is true that undervolting RAM can cause instability. The RAM I had in my old system was designed to run at 2.1V, and the system wouldn't even boot if you tried to run it at the standard DDR2 voltage.
However, before going too far with that, make sure that your RAM really is designed to be run at a higher voltage. Overvolting RAM can cause permanent damage to the memory modules. If you purchased your RAM from Newegg or Tigerdirect you should be able to check what its voltage requirements are.
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I know I have Corsair DDR 2 gigs ram, but I'm unsure about the specifics.
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Gotcha.
Try to dig up a link to the product page on Newegg (if that's where you ordered it) before you run that RAM on 2.1V for too long. You should be able to pull up any past order that you did. If you can even get the model number that should allow us to at least look it up.
I know that many models of Corsair XMS2 RAM used 2.1V, so it's very possible that yours could be one of them. It's best to make sure, though; no sense damaging the memory.
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It was defaulted to 1.8V, so I'm hoping 2.1V won't completely fuck it up. I can't find anything about my ram. I doubt Newegg still sells it and it's not on my shipped items list because it's rather old.
Just got another freeze. Going to message XFX again as I don't think there's anything outside of a damaged card that could cause this.
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If it's taking 2.1V, it's either good RAM or is meant to go that high. That's a pretty good increase, so it probably would have died by now if it couldn't handle it. Newegg usually keeps your order history and product information pages up for quite a while. I can still see the complete order and information pages for the components that made up my 2008 system.
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I started Bad Company 2 and it started getting goofy on me, so I restarted and went to bios to down volt my ram out of fear and while I was there I noticed I had "Nivida GPU ex" enabled, so I disabled that and now I've got my fingers crossed.
I've yet to lock up, but I did get a VPU error while exiting GTA3. This really is fun, and I feel almost like XFX is running me around.
So I'm really unsure what to do with XFX. The last thing I sent them was something about a VPU error, and they said a driver crashed during the closing of a program. I might actually go and mess with the drivers again, as it seems that XFX can't do a whole lot for me.
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Yeah, most companies like XFX just take the reference hardware and attach it to the board. They can help with out-of-the-box issues (i.e. DOA cards), but outside of that they just design the boards. The main reason for going with a better brand is that they usually use higher quality board manufacturing processes, have a better heatsink/fan assembly, and sometimes tweak the hardware to squeeze more performance out of it.
If it's definitely driver related, it's possible that something vital could have been removed or damaged during the driver removal process. Do you happen to have another hard drive that you can do a quick fresh Windows install on to see if that might resolve it?
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I can't say that I do, but I've deleted my old CCC and I still have visual drivers up and with that I got Bad Company 2 to run for a few hours with no issue since then.
If it crashes again I'll uninstall, search for anything ATI/AMD related and delete them, then I'll use driver sweeper.
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I you have a windows CD, you can always reinstall windows without formatting the drive... Some programs wont work properly because their registry info will be gone, but you could reinstall the right drivers and be sure there's nothing conflicting with them, or missing. And you'd keep all your games/files/etc.
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I'd be wary of tools like Driver Sweeper. Anything that pokes around the registry and Windows directory can easily cause you a world of problems. If it wipes out the wrong thing, you could wind up getting into a worse situation.
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Will do. I'm also getting some minor graphical glitches in BC2. I'm assuming BC2 is more demanding then most the games I currently own, and I can run that for hours without problem. Maybe I'll try Arkham Asylum?
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Yeah, give that a shot. Throw everything you can at it. Your goal should be to make it crash at this point.
Minor graphical glitches could be game bugs. I don't recall seeing any in BC2, but I don't play it nearly as often as you do.
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Was getting some graphical issues in MNC from particle effects (smoke would show up black, some fire effects where goofy). I've had similar problems with BC2 when I alt tab the game, and MNC did just update and it was only on the new map so who knows.
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Usually, smoke or fire not appearing properly is all engine-related and can sometimes be resolved by upgrading your drivers (which release are you on now?).
The main things that you'll want to be looking for are corruption on textures and static or garbage on the screen. Sometimes, faulty hardware can cause surfaces to extend too far or something crazy like that, but that can also be an issue with the game (GTA4 for PC, for example, has tons and tons of graphical glitches that occur on both NVIDIA and ATI cards).
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After a while and a lot of stability during fairly demanding games, I crashed again. Was in the middle of Killing Floor with music and I got the typical everything frozen with sound glitching. Should I go with with driver sweeper and reinstalling from the disc then updating? Should I look for the newest ones online and install from there?
Ran the steam check on my drivers, and it updated them. I'm going to be semi sad and disappointed in myself if that works.
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The Steam utility just downloads the latest version from AMD/NVIDIA's site, so if you've already tried that, odds are you're still not quite out of the woods.
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Thing is, I'm unsure about the drivers being right last time, but I've yet to have a problem (I haven't been running for a while since power outages, but I've yet to get any freezing since my last driver update. Still, my last time without freezing took about a week or so without turning my PC off).
The Witcher 2 should unlock soon, so I'll stress test with that. I just hope I can figure all this out ASAP.
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Ah, gotcha.
Well, make sure to report what happens. Good luck!
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Just got another one randomly. I am CoreTemp when they told me not to use third party temperature software, but it just monitors my CPU temp so I really doubt that has anything to do with this.
Welp, I'm stumped again. I guess it's card damage, and it seems XFX will not refund this.
Just got anothere freeze, either these are getting more frequent or I've just been unlucky.
Also evidently steam said it does not recognize my card (started L4D2 and it recognized it was from the 5800 series, but I cannot find that screen again), despite me running the steam driver update. Would there be a reason for that? I'm lost again, going to ask XFX.
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All of those temperature monitoring programs have to install high privilege drivers in order to read the temperature sensors on the motherboard/CPU, so you could potentially have issues while running them. Mind you, the odds of having issues are low, but it's still entirely possible.
I can't see any reason for Steam not being able to recognize the card. I believe it pulls that information from the installed driver. The only thing that I can think of is that L4D2 doesn't have a profile available for the 5800 series. That series came out two months before L4D2, so that is entirely possible. I know that if you start standard HL2 (it might be different now since I think they upgraded the engine to Source 2007) it would always give recommended settings that were far below what the card can handle.
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Last crash happened when I wasn't even running coretemp, also I believe that's what steam was trying to say, and I'd say it was a non issue if L4D2 didn't crash the last two times I've played it.
Also I'm like 99% sure the freezes only happen when I am actually using my PC. I leave it on constantly and I don't believe that I've ever seen it frozen when I get back. Unless it unfreezes, which I somehow doubt.
I'm getting random things going unresponsive now. Maybe my RAM got damaged, I'm unsure why I've had so many programs go unresponsive (my downloads folder did, no clue WHY).
and steam goes unresponsive CONSTANTLY. It's a pain.
Well, looks like XFX just gave me the trouble shooting bullshit again, so I'm trying that. Going to try and run memtest from my USB drive if I can figure that out, and I'm installing the latest version of PhysX.
Also I'm unsure how to boot from my USB with memtest, but I've yet to try it.
Hell, I'll post the entire thing they sent me, as I'm a little confused by it (it talks about memory voltage, but then mentions my CPU and I'm too tired to get it all right now. Plus last time I changed my RAM voltage that didn't help).
Hello Matthew, Try this card in another computer if it is possible. If you can replicate the problem in another computer with this card then it should isolate the issue to the card. The most important thing to check is your system memory voltage. Misconfigured or defective memory is the most common cause of this type of issue. If you are overclocking your CPU or system memory then revert back to the default frequencies for those devices through these tests. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO OVERCLOCK ANY COMPONENTS DURING THIS TEST. If you are using 1066MHz or 1333 MHz 1.5V memory then try increasing the memory voltage to 1.6V and leaving the memory at stock speeds. AMD CPUs and Intel Core i3, i5, i7 CPUs are all rated for a maximum of 1333MHz memory. If you are using memory rated for higher then this then return the memory frequency to 1333MHz at 1.6V. You could be overtaxing the memory controller in the CPU, not actually running at a frequency where the memory is unstable. Some DDR2 memory will require 2.1V or higher to run stable but may auto-configure to 1.8-1.9V by default. Make sure that your memory is configured properly. This is a common cause of instability that can cause this problem. Please get us the exact model memory that you are using and the voltage setting that you have set in your motherboard
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http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2247#comic
RELEVANT.
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I'm getting random things going unresponsive now. Maybe my RAM got damaged, I'm unsure why I've had so many programs go unresponsive (my downloads folder did, no clue WHY).
and steam goes unresponsive CONSTANTLY. It's a pain.
If things are going unresponsive, it generally is an issue with memory or the OS.
Well, looks like XFX just gave me the trouble shooting bullshit again, so I'm trying that. Going to try and run memtest from my USB drive if I can figure that out, and I'm installing the latest version of PhysX.
ATI aren't supported by PhysX (because NVIDIA feels that maintaining a proprietary physics engine in the age of OpenCL is a good idea), so updating PhysX won't do a thing.
Also I'm unsure how to boot from my USB with memtest, but I've yet to try it.
Usually, you insert the device, boot the computer, and spam F8 or F12. That should bring up a menu that will show all of the bootable devices in your system.
The hotkey to get to that screen is typically referred to as the boot menu or "BBS popup" on the startup screen.
Hell, I'll post the entire thing they sent me, as I'm a little confused by it (it talks about memory voltage, but then mentions my CPU and I'm too tired to get it all right now. Plus last time I changed my RAM voltage that didn't help).
In a nutshell, they're telling you not to overclock, to make sure that your memory is set at the right voltage, to update your BIOS, and to make sure that your drivers are up-to-date.
I ran mem test about 2 or so times and it passed fine. Also I FINALLY got the Witcher 2 installed and ran it on medium settings for a while and outside of a few framerate issues at times, it looked and ran fairly well.
Maybe some odd loading time between menus, but nothing terrible.
Call an exorcist*.
*Don't actually do this.
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I'm super afraid to mess with my GPU voltage. Could my ram be the issue? I know I need to close down firefox and steam to run the Witcher 2 with a good frame rate, but I'm assuming that's because the game requires 2 gigs.
I also reinstalled L4D2 and it seems to run better, but I've yet to test out bad company 2.
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I don't think you can adjust GPU voltage. Maybe PCI-E voltage, but you would have known if you would have touched that.
I seem to remember hearing a lot of people have framerate issues with the original Witcher. They could still be getting the kinks out.
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I also got random framerate dips in the Battlefront 2 (which should be easily runable) when looking at random parts of levels. Really unsure what that was about, might be physX or something silly.
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Check your video settings. Antialiasing can be particularly tough on cards, so if it was automatically kicked up to 8/16x, that could cause framerate dips, particularly when dealing with smoke effects.
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I think my hard drive is messing up, everything on my C drive works more or less fine, yet trying to launch a game off of steam causes steam to lock up for 20 to 30 seconds prior to it launching.
Really unsure what's going on now, but overall things seem odd. (firefox will also act goofy, I had to restart my PC just to get it to run without instantly crashing).
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If you don't already have it, grab a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/). Boot to it, go into the HDD category, and select "Drive Fitness Test." It's made for IBM and Hitachi hard drives, but it works quite well on other manufacturers' drives as well.
Run a quick test, then an extended test. If both of those pass, hit ALT-E and run it through a few passes through the "exerciser" (it basically performs an extended test multiple times to really stress the drive). 4 is generally the magic number that I use. Of course, you'll want to run those tests while you're doing other things, as they can take up to a couple of hours to complete.
Finally, always make sure to back up any data that you hold dear before running a hard drive test of any kind. If the hard drive is starting to fail, the stress of running a test on it could cause it to conk out completely.
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I don't see any place to simply download "Ultimate Boot CD". Also I don't really see how one old hard drive could cause this problem (the only reason I suspect it is because it makes a that "this hard drive is old" sound when it gets under load) with programs that run on a different drive completely. Maybe I'll run a longer memory test, or some programs are just now taking up more ram than they used to (I usually run steam, firefox, and itunes constantly, and maybe they updated to be resource hogs).
Also XFX is asking me if I would like to mail my card to them so they can check if it's messed up. I haven't had my system lock up in a LONG time, and outside of some issues (like the current one, and some games running poorly when they shouldn't) I don't see why I should. Fuck it, if it's free I'm definitely going for it, I'm just going to hate wrestling with bios again.
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Go to this link and scroll to the bottom for a list of mirrors (and a torrent link): http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html)
I'd check to make sure that it's free. If it is, definitely send it back to them so that they can have a look-see. You'd have to do without it for a few days, but at least you'd be able to rule that out.
Firefox is getting better (though it's still a bit hoggish). iTunes is a bit of a resource hog, and the worst part about that is that it sets all of its services to start automatically, regardless of whether you actually have an iDevice (or, for that matter, regardless of whether you actually need the service -- no iOS device relies on the iPod service, yet that's enabled by default with no official Apple way to disable it). On my iTunes VM I'm showing 175MB of total memory usage for iTunes -- 122MB for the program itself and 53MB for its additional services. Steam is pretty hungry, even if it's idling (it requested 100MB of RAM on my system just to sit in the tray and do its background downloads) but it's probably the best of the bunch.
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alright, will do that and send my card in anyway. I'm hoping to upgrade to 7 soon-ish (need more ram from what I've been told) also need to figure out how to properly make a partition and install windows 7 without losing anything. Then again I have so much useless shit, supposedly there's a program that shows how much each program takes up space, so I'll look into that.
OR I might just try a fresh install.
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You definitely don't need more RAM for Windows 7. If anything, you need less. I used a laptop with Windows 7 and 1GB of RAM daily with no woes or major slowdowns. Upgrading to 2GB didn't help much. Vista, on the other hand, needs 2GB or more if you want it to run smoothly.
You don't have to make a partition to avoid losing anything. You can either do an upgrade installation or a fresh installation. If you opt for the latter and install it on the Vista partition, it'll move all of your files (the Program Files, Users, and Windows directories come to mind) into a "Windows.old" directory so that you can have a fresh installation without having to backup files, play with partitions, and/or lose anything. Very convenient.
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I was told XP wouldn't be able to upgrade into 7, which seems odd.
Also would having too much shit on a hard drive cause programs to randomy freeze up? my shit has been getting worse (almost firefox 90% of the time) and I'm unsure why.
Going to run defrags and test my secondary hardrive (it's much older and makes noise when under load).
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No, XP can't be directly upgraded to 7. I thought you were running Vista for some reason.
In that case, it'll do a fresh install and move the system and user files to the Windows.old directory. It should be pretty easy to pick through it and get your documents and stuff back into place.
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I've been told that the current drivers I'm using are horrible, and that the new drivers coming out will either improve or make this worse.
Either way, this seems like a driver issue. My most demanding games (Witcher 2, Arma 2) run well and less resource hungry games run like shit (Monday night combat, Painkiller, BC2 are all almost unplayable).
Maybe I still have something setup wrong, maybe I should just mail it in and stop being lazy. I suppose waiting for the driver update won't hurt, but this shit is just getting old at this point.
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Are you using the latest drivers from ATI/AMD's site? I think I'm fairly close to up-to-date and haven't had any odd problems with my card. Even if you aren't using the absolute latest right now, that still doesn't explain why I've had zero issues with the same card. We had to have overlapped driver versions at some point.
I'd say it's either that the card itself is bad, there is a motherboard issue (if your PCI-E bus is having trouble, it can cause video problems and general instability), or that the drivers just don't play nicely with XP (highly doubt the last one, but that is one major difference between your build and mine).
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The graphics card ([Mobility?] Radeon HD 4650) drivers for my laptop don't work in XP :(
My most demanding games (Mass Effect, Half Life 2) ........... :( my desktop has a really awful video card
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Huh...the HD 4650 should run great under XP. Did you downgrade to XP from Vista or something, and the drivers just aren't available from the manufacturer?
In many cases you can bypass the OEM (if you haven't tried that already). I used official ATI drivers for the RADEON X300 that my Inspiron 9300 uses in the past and it works very well. Try downloading the official desktop drivers from ATI, then patching them with Mobility Modder (http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php). That should allow you to use the latest drivers on your system without having to deal with your laptop manufacturer's broken, no doubt obsolete drivers.
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Fresh install of XP 32-bit (the laptop is 64-bit). Tried both the drivers that came with the disk and the drivers I could download. They pretend to install but don't actually install. :(
Ok, I'll try that.
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If I remember correctly, on "unsupported" setups, it only installs the Catalyst Control Panel and other non-essentials. It leaves the drivers alone.
Let me know how that works. :)
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Firefox is still freezing up a little, and it seems the longer my PC is on the worse it runs. I had a bunch of things mess when trying to uninstall IDM and explorer seemed to have crashed.
When I restarted it did a hard disc check on my C drive, but that passed and it seems to be running rather well now.
I'm assuming if anything is damage, it's my F hard drive. I'll back up my music then run that stress test on it.
Also really, Firefox is running better now but I have no clue what would make it run worse by having my PC idle.
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http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/Response.aspx/10/en-US/5.1.2600.2.00010300.3.0?SGD=3b89a462-f769-404e-a781-fc06150ab765
Got a BSOD while randomly using chrome and steam. Would a bad card cause this, or would this be more likely to be a hard drive thing?
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Just about any piece of failing hardware can cause a BSOD.
Idea: zip up everything in your C:\Windows\Minidumps directory and e-mail it to me (spectere-at-gmail-dot-com) and I'll analyze the dumps when I get a chance.
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I'll do that prior to swapping cards.
Also I slapped my new ram in, and I just noticed one of the old sticks didn't seem to be all the way in it's slot. So my system says I have 2.75 gigs of ram (I'm not sure if it said that before, but I somehow doubt it since I only had like 2 gigs installed) . I'm assuming this is because XP 32 bit limits you to 3 gigs of ram?
Either way, I need to update to 7 ASAP and as cheaply as possible. Isn't there a way for students to get a free copy?
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The RAM limit is kind of an odd one, sort of a mix between how both Windows and your hardware handle large amounts of memory. On every system that I've seen, the cap in 32-bit Windows is 3.25GB. I've never seen or even heard of 2.75GB, though. Run CPU-Z (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html) and take a look at the Memory tab. That should show you exactly what it detects in each slot.
I don't know about free, but many universities have cheap copies of Windows and/or Office. Microsoft has a program called DreamSpark that provides free tools aimed at student developers, but it doesn't seem like they handle operating systems and productivity suites through that program (outside of Server and Embedded versions, neither of which would be good for you). I'd ask around at your school; that'll be the best way to know for sure.
Failing that, OEM copies of Windows 7 Home Premium can be purchased for $99 at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986). If you need Professional edition for any reason (namely, Windows XP Mode for 16-bit applications), it can be had for $140: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992)
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I'll run that in a second. I just had another crash that was somewhat similar to my last one, difference being I got control somewhat back when I tried to move my mouse (did the whole locking up and skipping sound thing, but it would let me control the mouse for a few seconds and the sound skips would move forward then freeze again).
Now that I think about it, I'm unsure if this card had the same freezing problem the other one did, but this problem definitely seems similar (outside of being able to move the mouse a few times while it was happening, I just hope my mobo isn't damaged). Just got random stuttering during a song when my PC was idling too. What would even cause that?
Also I can't figure out how to get speed fan to make my fans speed up, I can see options for an increase in speed but I don't hear a difference.
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okay, now I got a virtual memory low error and my computer slowed down dramatically before locking up completely. I then restarted and my computer was still doing the same shit. Seems better now but I have no idea why I'm getting these problems, I should probably re-test my ram or something.
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The virtual memory low message typically comes up when you are literally out of both physical memory and swap space.
When was the last time you did a malware scan?
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not too long ago, but it's been a while. I'll admit, my hard drives are really too full (like, 95% so) and I'm assuming that doesn't really help things.
going to run one now and a virus scan, I honestly feel a little stupid now that you mention those could be causing this...
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A full hard drive could contribute to that, but the catalyst is always that you're running out of physical RAM, as it won't utilize much virtual memory unless you run out of the real stuff.
It doesn't necessarily have to be malware, by the way. It could just be an overly enthusiastic program that you have running in the background. If you can pin a particular culprit with task manager, you should be able to disable it from startup using msconfig (i.e. Start -> Run -> msconfig).
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My computer is screwy. The power can go out multiple times and it restarts perfectly, yet when I turn it off illegitimately (hitting the case button so it goes through the processes) I turn it back on and it's telling me I had a BSOD.
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Wow, that is messed up... Time for a new computer?
Also, the word in that case would be "legitimately" lol.
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it wasn't a blue screen of death on start up, but my OS said I was recovering from a serious problem and it later mentioned something about a blue screen.
Also I can't figure out why my PC has all these fussy moments. Sometimes I can run a game great (Witcher 2 with the steam overlay will sometimes run really smooth, other times it runs like hell) and I JUST got off of CS:S and I was getting a shit framerate in some areas (20 was my lowest FPS at some random parts, but I did have some random shit set too high and I was running an emulator).
Just had another freeze after exiting L4D2, dicking around on chrome, and trying to launch itunes. Haven't had any major problems in a while, so maybe I'm just paranoid at this point.
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Real quick random question, what wireless card would you recommend? My shitty dongle seems to be dying and I'll probably need a new one soon.
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Had a BSOD during a short play of Skyrim, googled it and it seems others have had this problem so I hope it's just a Skyrim bug and not something possibly worse.
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New games tend to put more strain on the newest features of the drivers. I'd wait through a couple of driver releases before getting too concerned.
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unrelated, but now Chrome won't stop freezing up. It was shockwave that kept crashing, and I googled up a little how to that's supposedly supposed to fix that, but chrome will still freeze up and go unresponsive on me without warning.
Really getting sick of all these PC problems. It's been acting goofy recently and I almost installed a virus that looked like a chrome update. Also chrome has been acting like hell, constantly freezing up now and forcing me to close it, allowing pop ups to happen, showing me tons of adds despite me using ABP. I don't know why either, it used to run completely fine and block almost all adds and pop ups, now it does none of that. I would use FF, but it runs like complete shit all the time for some reason. I ran combofix and it did some things, going to run spybot now just to cover all my bases. Really, is there something big I'm missing that's causing all this stupid stuff to happen?
I also finally ran Latency, I feel like a moron for putting that off for so long, here is a screencap of the results. http://i.imgur.com/y9pAK.jpg
Also I'm never buying another geforce mobo, a tiny fan on mine has its own power cord nick the fan and make the most annoying sound I've ever heard.
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(http://i.imgur.com/kZkws.png)
How big a deal is this anyway?
Also, if combofix actually fixed some shit, you're in trouble. Anything that fixes is bad news :/
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Also I'm never buying another geforce mobo, a tiny fan on mine has its own power cord nick the fan and make the most annoying sound I've ever heard.
Wait a sec, did you mention this beforehand? nForce motherboards, especially newer ones, tend to be unreliable. My dad's last one (based on a 750i) had severe noise on the bus that made his system basically unusable. My friend has a nForce 6 motherboard that support up to 8GB of RAM, but if you put 4GB or more in the onboard NIC will freak out and crash the system when it gets initialized.
I've pretty much been recommending non-nVidia everything until they get their idiotic hardware issues straightened out. My biggest problem with ATI in the past mostly consisted of bad drivers, but at least that can be fixed (and AMD did really help that situation in recent years -- quality control has gone up drastically since AMD took over). If you have bad hardware, there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it.
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No, but now I know. Evidently it's the casing of this small fan on my mobo that's been rattling. I've tightened the power corn and used some scotch tape on it and it seems quite for now.
Also while restarting my PC sort of messed up. I had to run my PC with my GPU off to see why the fan was making so much noise, and when I slapped everything together I got the error " Warning! now system is in safe mode. Please reset CPU or memory frequency in the CMOS set up" so I reset my CMOS and it seemed to restart somewhat fine (still had to hit a button to get to landing, but after that it seemed to work fine).
Also I have no idea if combofix got rid of anything (I ran it out of fear basically, and I hadn't done a virus search in a while) and I have no clue what that latency table is saying bobbias.
I wanna overclock :3c