Another spec thread Created 19 years ago2005-02-20 13:09:14 UTC by Seventh-Monkey

satch, you can't just give up on all that, that's insane

Have you formatted, or is it definitely a hardware problem? I'm sure m0p or someone or I could lend a hand.

It won't run Half-Life, what is the error? Can't diagnose without a symptom.

AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz
512MB RAM
GeForce 3 Ti 200
40GB HD

intal peintum 2.1 3000 ghz!11

My cascade is done! Running at -89C and getting 5.1GHz on my P4EE. I'm only using a Baker evap for now, but I will be finishing work on my own evaporator when I get time.

p4
1.6 ghz
512 ram
128 video card

Games: HL, HL2, Doom3, FarCry, Civ3, Age of empires, etc...

I'm sure m0p or someone or I could lend a hand.

Thanks. I am having one of my friends taking the computer home for the weekend so he can troubleshoot it for me. I really suspect it's a software problem (probably the drivers), but I simply cannot solve the issue. I tried all different combinations of driver versions (between the motherboard drivers and the Radeon Catalyst drivers), but the problem just changes a bit.

My friend has seven computers and eight LCD monitors (he's a doctor also, and his wife is a surgeon), and he loves fixing other people's computers. So I am hoping he might find a solution for my problem.

But first, let me list my computer's complete spec and symptom of the problem.

---

I just built my new PC two weeks ago, and everything seems to be running smoothly...until I loaded the first game: Far Cry.

The game installed without a glitch, but soon after I start playing it, the screen would black out for fraction of a second, then turn blue for about 250 ms, and then the system reboots. This happens everytime I play Far Cry, but the rebooting occurs at different parts of the game (but I never get too far). It usually happens about 1 to 5 minutes into the game.

The rebooting also occurs with my 3D OpenGL screensaver (Helios), but never with any other program. The browser (FireFox) never triggers the reboot, and neither do Paint Shop Pro or any other 2D graphics program.

From what I've read so far, some people who had the problem found a resolution by updating the motherboard driver and the graphics card driver (which I have done already). Some people suspect it's a power issue, but I have plenty of juice from my PSU.

Here is a complete spec list:

ASUS nForce2 A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard
Athlon XP 3200+ Barton
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB 8X AGP
Antec PSU with 430 W
Kingston PC3200 DDR (512 MB)x2
Seagate SATA HDD 200 GB
Windows XP Professional Edition (with SP1)

I've already tried all the potential solutions this morning, and the game still isn't running. But instead of having the blank blue screen (with no message) and rebooting, the game just freezes. I guess that's somewhat more graceful, but then I was forced to do a hard reboot everytime. Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't do it, and I couldn't get to the Windows Task Manager.

I tried setting the AGP voltage to 1.6 V, and then to 1.7 V, but the game still freezes. I tried rolling back the Catalyst driver to version 3.4 (from year 2003), but same thing happens. I doubled checked any IRQ conflicts, but there isn't any conflict with the Radeon card.

The next thing I can try is disabling some of the on-board devices, but I need the audio because I don't have a separate sound card.

---

If anyone is interested, here is the link (http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic22675.html) to the original techspot post.

Increasing the AGP voltage WILL NOT help anything. Reset yer BIOS with the CMOS jumper, to clear anything you have setup. It could be anything from a dead HDD, to a dead CPU or GPU. Try disabling all onboard devices, monitor temperatures of your graphics and CPU. 9800's overheat like mad!

I've reset all the BIOS settings to default, and the problem only occurs during 3D applications now. The HDD and CPU work fine, because I never encounter problem with anything besides 3D apps.

The CPU temperature (reported by SpeedFan) is between 45 to 48 Celsius--not too hot at all. I don't know how to measure the temperature of the GPU, but I know the on-board fan works fine. I've seen it spinning while the computer is running.

I wouldn't be too surprised if it's a heating issue with the Radeon card, but that means I'll have to buy a separate fan for it. However, I have to say that even after turning the computer on for a few minutes, the 3D program still causes the computer to reboot. It seems like the computer really hasn't had a lot of time to overheat. I am talking about just a few minutes running Far Cry. I don't think I was able to run Far Cry for more than five minutes.

I was able to change the behavior of the problem (instead of rebooting, it just freezes) just by changing the version of the Radeon Catalyst driver. That makes me believe it could be just a software issue.

I don't really have much on-board devices besides the 5-1 audio and the Ethernet card.

...thats the same problem I had when I tryed to put that card into my machine. it just needs a updated driver, let me see if I can find the link to the page.

and I would still have that radeon but I returned it becasue I thought that if the drivers it shiped with were bad then the card must not be all that good, and so I got my 5500 for $30 more then the Radeon(which I had goten from big sale.)

I tried the latest driver (Catalyst 5.3). I have the newest driver for the NVidia nForce2 chipset driver for my motherboard as well (the GART and the rest). No luck.

I'd suggest you try the Omega drivers and check for BIOS updates for a start.

I thought the Omega drivers are for NVidia cards only. I have a Radeon 9800 Pro.

they work for ATi too. tried them for my 9800 Pro but saw no increase in fps for any game so switched back to the 5.2 drivers.

but some people gain a lot of fps by using them

In about a month:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (939 Socket)
Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT (AGP)
160GB Hard Drive
Acer 19" LCD
512MB Corsair XMS 2-3-3-6 (PC3200) x2
ABIT AV8 Mobo

Right now:

try the Omega drivers and check for BIOS updates

My BIOS is updated to the latest already. I'll try the Omega driver when I get my computer back next week. Thanks guys.

satchmo, don't get a new fan for card, just cut a blow hole in the side of it, there are plenty of tuts out there.

SariBous, the drivers aren't 'sold' as being dramatic FPS improvers. They've got little tweaks, but they're more configurable. I far prefer them ? plus it means I can discard the abysmalities of the Control Center and its horrific memory usage.

Plus, satch, I've got a 9800 Pro too :).

In fact, with the Omega drivers, you might try underclocking your card; if it works then, it could be a graphics card problem. Then again, since it's only happened since you installed Far Cry... strange.

Have you tried the classic case-off desk fan-blowing-in setup to try and eliminate/identify possible heat problems?

Yeah i know that, but I gained nothing using them, fps even went down in Doom3. so i switched back. but I have the drivers w/o the damn Catalyst control center.

Btw, am I the only one why can't play HL2?
it takes forever to load and is almost unplayable (15 fps in trainstation)

The odd thing is that it worked before, but since the infamous Bot update in CSS, it stutters everywhere.

Try the Omega drivers? They have actually made quite a difference in places for me (10fps).

Yeah, i can try them...Again..

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (clocked at 2.04Ghz)
Abit K8 Motherboard (something like that)
1gb RAM, expensive, cant remember the exact specs
ATi Radeon X800T 256Mb AGP
LG VD/ CD-RW 52/32/52x
160Gb HDD, cant remember the maker
17" generic TFT monitor, runs good with no tearing etc
Soundblaster.. something
Subwoofer/Surround system without appropriate leads o/

Other gadgets:

Wireless keyboard/mouse
Wacom tablet
Lexmark crappo printer
Scanner

3dMark 05 - 4900 odd, up to 5000 (it varies)
3dmark 03 - 10000 odd.

My mouse owns you all

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2142,CONTENTID=8070

A mouse cannot own. Maybe strangle, but not own.

Aha ? Riley, does Source/the mouse support using those buttons in-game? I was thinking of getting a similar one.

Wow all of your computers suck besides masterofpuppets

Amd Athlon 4000+
2 gigs of pc 3200
ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
DFI LanParty mobo
21" monitor
400 gb hdd

Well, you're resurrecting a thread that's almost six months old. Of course the specs appear inferior now. Just wait a year, and your computer listed above would be considered below average too.

and I don't believe having 2 GB of memory really improves performance in today's game. If you have to sacrifice dual-channel mode, the performance might even degrade.

3200 isn't that fast either, faster than my 2700 but not really that fast

Wow, your computer really sucks.

no keyboard
no mouse
no Power Supply
no cooling
no CD or DVD drives/burners
no audio card
no LAN card

I just found out that my brother, who has never played any games, is running an Athlon XP 3000+. He just runs Word and Excel.

What a waste of hardware.

AMD athlon XP +1600 1.4Ghz
NVidia GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
512Mb RAM
120GB HDD 7200rpm

I'm soon upgrading my FX55 for an A64 X2 4800+ and at some point, dual nVidia G70's Good thing about nForce chipsets is they are so ugpradable, all they need is a BIOS flash and new hardware works

I just found out that my brother, who has never played any games, is running an Athlon XP 3000+. He just runs Word and Excel.

Well isn't it alwayslike that satch? People who never use their comps for anything but word and solitaire always has high end comps. Annoying!

Satch, give it to me! Please!

I'm hoping to get a better rig than what I've got now.

Well isn't it alwayslike that satch? People who never use their comps for anything but word and solitaire always has high end comps. Annoying!

Yes.
"My dad bought me a amd64 3200+, 1024ram, 400gb hd, x800xt etc.." - 10 years old kid who only plays cs1.6/chick who only uses computers for MSN
We here in Finland like to say: "Pappa Betalar" (yes, it's swedish.)

5905 3Dmarks, 3dmark03. Need I say more?

Hehe, pappa betalar is a well known expression here too.

7550 @ 3dmark03 -dajuppi

(He is here at my place, mmkay? -jaardsi)

Its supports using the thumb buttons, the middle one, the 2 normal ones, I don't think it supports the scroll buttons or the proggie switcher

Hehe, pappa betalar is a well known expression here too.

so true.

The most annoying part is when you are at a friends house and discover that he has just got a new comp. When you ask him what GPU he has, he says: "I dunno". Then you look it up and it turns out to be an X850XT PE. you tell him this and he answers; "okay.. sooo, is it any good?"

I'm buying 512Mb RAM next month (or this). DDR is so damn cheap now, it's almost free

I'm buying 512Mb RAM next month (or this). DDR is so damn cheap now, it's almost free

Im going to buy 512ddr400 next month

DDR prices depend on the chips. I am using some old-skool Winbond BH-5 stuff, it's pretty expensive for old stuff, but very desirable. The newer stuff (Winbond UTT-BH) is ok, but dies really quickly. Old BH-5 is so goddamn strong, I've ran mine at 4.2v for 6 hours, and it hasn't been detrimental to the RAM's overclocking. Great stuff, but very very expensive, ?110 for 1GB.

Shame on you for reviving threads more than a year old. Die now.

Blame Seventh.

Ah, I still had my shitty rig when I last posted in this thread.

Orpheus: Your 2006 score is pretty much what I got for my machine.

MacBook Pro 1.1
Intel Core Duo 2.2Ghz (the Intel Core 2 Duo MBP's are out now, I want one)
1GiB RAM
ATi X1600 256MiB GDDR3
Can't remember the mobo.

A huge one.

'06 takes advantage of multiple core CPUs, as well as SM3. Now that Intel is brining out its four core CPUs sometime soon, maybe we'll start seeing some truly decent '06 scores.

As copied from my journal post when I got this computer. Mine =')

CD DRIVE 1: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)

CD DRIVE 2: (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD+-R+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)

CPU: (Sckt775)Intel(R) Pentium(R) D 930 Dual-Core CPU @ 3.0GHz 800FSB 2x2MB Cache 64-Bit

Cooling: CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit + 2 EXTRA CASE FANS

HDD: 200GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM

HDD2: 200GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8M Cache 7200RPM

MOUSE: Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse [+36]

MOTHERBOARD: ECS PA1 MVP(2.0) ATI RD400X CrossFire LGA775 1066FSB DDR2/667 Dual PCIE SATA RAID w/GbLAN+10/100LAN,USB2.0,2xIEEE1394,&7.1A
udio [+8]

MEMORY: 2GB (4x512MB) PC4200 DDR2 Dual Channel Memory [+90]

NETWORK: Intel Pro Gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card [+55]

POWERSUPPLY: NZXT PF-500 500Watt Power Supply [+39]

SOUND: Creative Labs SB Audigy SE [+30]

VIDEO: NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Card