FAO Losty

FUBAR · March 13, 2007, 02:40:38 PM

Quoting: Losty

time for shiney new gfx card, and then send it back to them instantly if the symptoms are still there ( 7 day cooling off period... distance selling malarky)

Thats what I was thinking...

Quoting: Losty

but would suggest that you DON'T buy it off overclockers just incase... as I have heard that they suck ass big style for giving you an RMA

Losty · March 13, 2007, 02:41:29 PM

hmm

google for the 7600Gs, and see what prices

same with egay, or ask nick69...

FUBAR · March 13, 2007, 03:11:24 PM

Still using OCUK as a research tool...

There is always the option of going for an ATI card... So, what is going to be the actual difference between these 2 cards?

The slightly cheaper Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS SILENT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (£176.24)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-030-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-030-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

And this:

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ3 Turbo 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (AGP) - Retail (H1950PRQT512DDA-R) (£158.61)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-069-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-069-HT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403

FUBAR · March 13, 2007, 03:12:02 PM

Will it matter that my motherboard has nVidia stuff on it? also would switching the major brands have a safeguard if something in my setup is objecting to the nVidia Card? is that likely or even possible?

Losty · March 13, 2007, 05:50:19 PM

i ran ati cards on nvidia chipsets with no problems

the only thing you would need to do is to properly uninstall all nvidia gfx drivers...

and the difference between those 2 cards wouldnt be that much....
however, i do think thats too much money for a gfx card, esp as you aren't 100% sure whether that would fix it

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/powercolor_radeon_x1950_pro_agp_review/page5.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/powercolor_radeon_x1950_pro_agp_review/page5.asp

FUBAR · March 13, 2007, 08:50:38 PM

Quoting: Losty

i ran ati cards on nvidia chipsets with no problems

Hmm...

I might go for that ATI one you know, its cheaper than I was looking at. I'll have a look around, if it doesn't fix it I will have to consider whether I send it back or keep searching...

FUBAR · March 15, 2007, 08:18:15 PM

Right, the New GFX card arrived today, so I promptly installed it after dinner to have a bit of a play... I made a small faux-pa when uninstalling all the old nVidia drivers as I wiped my nVidia chipset drivers for the Motherboard too then wondered what had gone wrong when my internet connection vanished! LOL

promptly fixed that little problem & got down to some gaming...

I ramped all the detail settings up so everything looks cool and I was happy
After about 45 mins... it crashed to desktop... and I wasn't happy

So I decided to try Losty's idea about the soundcard so pulled it out of the machine & tried again, about 2 hours later... Crashed to desktop.

Now, i'm not that annoyed about buying the card cos I kinda wanted one anyway (hehe) but I am pissed off its still crashing, so... here's a summary so far:

The Old GFX Card appears to be fine and wasn't overheating.
The CPU isn't overheating & the heatsink is attached fine.
Its not the Power supply because i'm using a 2nd one.
Its no the soundcard because it still crashed with it unplugged.
Its not the RAM because use of memcheck86 confirmed all is working fine there.
Its not the RAM Timings which are custom because I reset them to auto and it made no difference (apart from being noticeable slower!)
Its physically impossible for it to be any of the Optical drives, the floppy drive(

) or the stand alone Fan Controller.

Which leaves 3 things:
The Motherboard (dodgy AGP socket??? is that possible???)
The Hard Drive
Software Conflicts?

FUBAR · March 15, 2007, 08:20:44 PM

Losty, I also have a request for this power supply...

My old one doesn't have the required PCI-E 6 Pin power connector for the new card that this one does...

wanna sell it?

ianjpage · March 16, 2007, 04:28:31 AM

Hmm bugger

Incursus · March 16, 2007, 04:57:27 AM

Quoting: FUBAR

Its not the RAM because use of memcheck86 confirmed all is working fine there

Take out a RAM stick anyway.

I've only skimed the thread so if you've done this already sorry

55starchief · March 16, 2007, 04:59:50 AM

I would still go with either windows install error or a hard drive mate. try uninstalling a couple of programs preferable large ones and reinstall in a different order. That should move the game on the HD then test again

Pod · March 16, 2007, 05:50:03 AM

Latest BIOS?

I'd try resetting all the bios settings to default. Ideally underclocking both CPU and memory if possible. Run BF2 in as low a resolution and settings as possible with the case side off.

Ideally, you'd want a spare hard disk. Format it. Install Windows, updates,drivers etc. Install BF2 and patches and then try playing it.

FUBAR · March 16, 2007, 08:16:20 AM

Quoting: Pod

I'd try resetting all the bios settings to default.

The only thing that isn't default in the BIOS is the RAM Timings, which I reset to Auto and it made no difference (apart from it being noticeable slower!)

I'm not keen on underclocking the CPU otherwise it pretty much defeats the point of me changing anything in the first place...

Pod · March 16, 2007, 08:44:16 AM

It doesn't need to be permanent.
The first step is finding out what is causing the problem. Once you've done that, you can then decide what to do about it.

Amey · March 16, 2007, 08:45:46 AM

Have had a chat with a guy (Allan) at work (He's a contractor and been in IT for about 30 years).
He believes it might be the motherboard nvidia drivers.

To prove this you need to do the following

Rightclick on My Computer, click on properties.
Click on the advanced tab and then click on settings for the Startup & Recovery.
Under the system failure part, untick automatically restart.

You will then need to wait for it to crash again. When it does, it should then bring up a blue screen error (fingers crossed)
From that error, we should then be able to work out where the issue is.
Allan believes it will be a ndisk4.dll error, but let us know if it does error or not

Losty · March 16, 2007, 09:19:43 AM

Quoting: FUBAR

Losty, I also have a request for this power supply...

My old one doesn't have the required PCI-E 6 Pin power connector for the new card that this one does...

wanna sell it?

might be able to barter over your "old" 6800 gfx card

Losty · March 16, 2007, 09:26:12 AM

just as a little "consolation"

with my old motherboard, which is "supposed" to run my ddr at 400mhz.. ( 2 x 200 in the bios)...it would go tits up after a while....
i decided to drop the memory timing down to 166 (333mhz) and it became as stable as a stable thing with stabilisers, then using the advanced options on my mobo.. ( now, you may be able to achieve this with the ntune program i linked earlier) i cranked it back up to 188, and as a result, noticed no differences at all in performance other than "omg its stable"

I never really mentioned this earlier. as I found that it would affected me almost exclusivly while on the desktop and never in game

Pod · March 16, 2007, 10:25:59 AM

Quoting: Losty

might be able to barter over your "old" 6800 gfx card

Oi, I wanted that.

Losty · March 16, 2007, 11:11:44 AM

you can have it Pod

the system i was looking using it in is only a 4x capable agp port

As for the psu Ryan, just keep it for now, as a long term loan

FUBAR · March 16, 2007, 11:51:15 AM

Quoting: Amey

To prove this you need to do the following

Rightclick on My Computer, click on properties.
Click on the advanced tab and then click on settings for the Startup & Recovery.
Under the system failure part, untick automatically restart.

You will then need to wait for it to crash again. When it does, it should then bring up a blue screen error (fingers crossed)
From that error, we should then be able to work out where the issue is.
Allan believes it will be a ndisk4.dll error, but let us know if it does error or not

I will do some more testing over the weekend

FUBAR · March 16, 2007, 11:52:59 AM

Quoting: Losty

with my old motherboard, which is "supposed" to run my ddr at 400mhz.. ( 2 x 200 in the bios)...it would go tits up after a while....
i decided to drop the memory timing down to 166 (333mhz) and it became as stable as a stable thing with stabilisers, then using the advanced options on my mobo.. ( now, you may be able to achieve this with the ntune program i linked earlier) i cranked it back up to 188, and as a result, noticed no differences at all in performance other than "omg its stable"

Hmm thats interesting, i'll have a look at that too, i'm getting to know this BIOS stuff quite a lot recently!

FUBAR · March 16, 2007, 11:53:58 AM

Quoting: Losty

As for the psu Ryan, just keep it for now, as a long term loan

Cheers m8

Pod · March 16, 2007, 11:59:54 AM

Quoting: Losty

i decided to drop the memory timing down to 166 (333mhz) and it became as stable as a stable thing with stabilisers

Hence my suggestion of running it underclocked.

Krankie

Losty · March 16, 2007, 05:00:05 PM

FUBAR · March 16, 2007, 09:10:58 PM

Quoting: FUBAR

Quoting: Amey
To prove this you need to do the following

Rightclick on My Computer, click on properties.
Click on the advanced tab and then click on settings for the Startup & Recovery.
Under the system failure part, untick automatically restart.

You will then need to wait for it to crash again. When it does, it should then bring up a blue screen error (fingers crossed)
From that error, we should then be able to work out where the issue is.
Allan believes it will be a ndisk4.dll error, but let us know if it does error or not

I have done this but have yet to experience a complete crash, CTDT once but thats it...