Out the window, I say..well help!

[Grin]

I'm about to do something drastical to my dear Kyro2.
Of course, I ain't entirely sure it's my Kyro2 causing my computer's problems..but it's a good guess.
Anyho, the problem is like this:

After a while playing a 3dgame like counter-strike , I get graphical glitches every few minutes. The screen kinda flashes with something errorish . After a while longer, these flashing glitches get more common. They happen perhaps every 5:th second. This is annoying, but not as annoying as what happens after another little while : the screen hangs for about 4 secs every other minute or so, while the graphical glitches flash by just like before. And when the screen hangs, the sound hangs for thouse for seconds too, meaning it gets caught in a loop. This is extremely aggrevating and I'd appreciate it if anyone has any clues about what might be causing this.
It's not the drivers, I don't think, 'cause I've changed them lots of times.
My specs :
ABit BH6 rev 1.02(latest bios)
256Mb RAM
P3-800@896 (112MHz fsb) (above problems persist when I run at normal speed)
Herc Prophet 4500 (kyro2) (normal speed, but it problems persist if I underclock)
WinXP

So, problem explanation shortened:
After ~50 mins : Graphic glitches flash by every few minutes
After ~1 hour 10 mins : Graphic glitches flash by moer frequently
After ~1 hour 30 mins :Screen hangs and sound hangs for about 4 secs every other minute (Graphic glitches persist)
After ~1 hour 35 mins : Screen and sound hangs more frequently (graphic glitches persist)

I haven't tried to play long enough to see if it dies in the end.
However : Thanks for any replies!


:|

 

[Grin]

No one with any ideas?

 

[Tates]

Buy a Radeon 8500 or GF3 Ti 200?

 

[dbal]

Does it happen in Windows enviroment as well? If yes did u ever think of a monitor defect-try another vid card and see what happens.....

 

[Grin]

I doubt it's my monitor..I don't remember having these problems with my voodoo3 .. :/
And I have only seen these glitches and lockups once ór twice in windows.
I'd hate to think my kyro2 is defect..but what else? My powersupply and/or mobo gives it too little power ?
I might go for a 8500 now that hercules have some cheap..I won't support nvidia.
But I like my kyro2...nice blue card and everything ..well.

 

[Grin]

Update on my problem:
Tried to install a scsi-controller card and a scsi-burner today..well, the burner wouldn't work (it caused windows to hang every time) so I removed it, but let the controller card be in the computer.
So when I tried to start my computer I got screen corruption at once in windows. The start meny smeared all over the screen, when I started icq the normally green and yellow flower was all black, and then windows shut down the computer.
When I removed the controller-card and restarted windows said :'Serious error ocurred last time windos ran, the display driver was unable to complete a drawframe' or something like it.
What the hell does my graph-card have to do with any scsi-devices??
This gets weirder and weirder. Like a computer with serious migraine-attacks from time to time-,,,any help for me??

 

[ttn1]

Have you suspected the power supply? I would check to make sure the fan on the power supply is running at
full speed. Weird thihngs happen when power supplies overheat.

How about the temperature of the graphics card. If it's overheating these would probably be symptoms.

Your last comment about adding other components making the problem worse really makes me think this is a
power issue. I would take out all unnecessary components and see if the problem persisits. If it does, I
would try a different power supply.

 

[Grin]

Yeah..I admit I have thought about this myself...how can I check if my powersupply runs at full 'speed' ?
I know my powersupply fan is severely clogged or something, becase most mornings when I start the computer it sounds like a dying tractor for about 40 minutes..whereafter it either stops entirely and just stutters, or goes to something like full speed.
I tried removing stuff before though...and the comp worked fine, even after long times in 3d-games...but then something happened and the errors returned eventhough I had two cards removed :/
I don't think my vid-card is overheteated,...cant' say though, since the heat-sink is glued on..but the heatsink is never very warm.
Eventhough I underclock my card though, the problems persist.

 

[ttn1]

Your power supply is definitely overheating. You can easily replace the power supply fan.
I had 2 computers that would lose their network connection every so often. Didn't seem
to be any reason for it, until I saw that the power supply fans were running very slowly.
I replaced the fans and they've worked fine every since.


You could also just replace the power supply, although that's much more expensive.

 

[Grin]

Arghh..here we go again..
I replaced the fan with a normally working one, and all was fine for three days. I played during those three days , too. Today though, the problems returned. I'm getting really wicked here 'cause I can't say what the problem is...I can say what the symptoms are though...eeevery time I play counter-strike
I'm thinking it might be my graphicscard-fan ? It sounds weird too sometimes, like it's hitting something..but mostly it seems to be doing ok. Can't think of anything else though..is it usual for graph-card fans to begin malfunction 'cause of dust or something ?

 

[Grin]

Ah, that might be it. I can't do anything 3d for more than 15 seconds, even when I remove my case cover and put my computer right beside my open window(when it's -4 and windy outside), and recently my harddrive has started working from time to time like it's trying to calculate the size of the universe by performing as many i/o operations as it can 'in the background' ; meaning I have no control over it and it usually starts when I run a game or direct connect, and seizes perhaps 98% of my computers attention, so to speak. Hallelujah why ám I even studying computer science? To get mental ?

EDIT : I would change my somewhat for the moment ironic avatar if I wasn't so sure my disk-station would melt or blow up or drown