Please help! Hardware Problem!

[foodfightr]

I'll be real simple and to the point.

1. I had a P4 1.8 w/ 512ram with a geforce 4 ti-4600 (gainward). I had it running dual monitors. It ran FLAWLESSLY.

2. I gave my friend my geforce 4 ti-4600 *AND* both of the monitors. He installed it on his 2.2 Celeron 512ram.

3. We did a reformat and a clean install of XP PRO SP2. We did all the updates. Direct X 9.0c passes EVERY test in dxdiag. It also has the latest NVIDIA drivers installed.

4. (In any case when you play a game it defaults to one monitor.) But the problem is randomly it will assume a "standby" like state. It is unrecoverable and may only be fixed by a manual (physical) reboot.

Before the reformat we were able to play some unreal tournament before the problem randomly occured. After the reformat we were not able to get past the menus of warcraft frozen throne.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[mechBgon]

The best installation order would be

1) Windows

2) SP2

3) Intel motherboard driver package, assuming he has an Intel-chipset motherboard

4) video drivers last


Is that how you went, or did you go in a different order? Also, is the power supply adequate to the task? Any more specs you happen to remember from it?

 

[foodfightr]

First off, thank you *SO* much for your assitance. I appreciate it.

Funny you should mention that, that is the exact order in which it was installed. For step three we used the installation disc that came with the motherboard... VIA CHIPSET or something I believe?

His system worked fine with a geforce 4mx ... (I believe thats what he had, I could be wrong)

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm... One reason monitors will go into standby is if they're being force-fed a refresh rate that they can't handle. nVidia's video drivers do allow you to do an override of refresh rates, so maybe try this: go into the nVidia video-driver panels and find that, and force it to do 60Hz at the likely resolutions, and see if it makes a difference or not.

But you say it does it randomly. I know I'm an awful power-supply snob, but it makes me wonder if the PSU is riding the edge and can't quite keep its head above water when the GF4 Ti4600 is running 3D.

You might also update your VIA chipset drivers, couldn't hurt: link to the 4-in-1 "Hyperion" driver package Also, if you happen to know the brand and model of motherboard and what PCI cards (if any) it has, I might be able to research if there's an especially good PCI slot for, say, the sound card. If it has one. Good luck!

 

[foodfightr]

Can you please PM me with your email and tomorrow I'll get a copy of the invoice for when the computer was built?

Maybe that would provide you with the knowledge you'll need to help solve this issue.

Thanks a TON!

 

[Gurck]

If he has a Celeron, it's likely a prebuilt...? And most of those have onboard video... maybe a long shot, but it can't hurt to check and make sure onboard video, if he has it, is disabled, to avoid any conflicts.

 

[foodfightr]

Motherboard: ASRock X533
Power Supply: 300W

 

[Matthias99]

Yeccch..... ASRock MBs are pretty lousy -- and I'm not a huge fan of VIA chipsets (at least prior to the KT800).

I'm guessing power supply here, though. Replace with a name-brand unit (search for recommendations if needed) and try again.

 

[foodfightr]

Is there another set of drivers besides those on the asrock homepage that I should install for it?

 

[foodfightr]

Hoping mechBgon will take a look at this fourm.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: foodfightr
Hoping mechBgon will take a look at this fourm.

I do look at this forum once in a while...

Well I was hoping for some more-detailed specs than that. What brand and model is the 300W PSU, what-all is in the system (cards, drives, RAM brand/model, built-in pizza oven, etc). On the power-supply question, there are 300W units that are very good, and there are 300W units that are trash, and we generally judge by the reputation of the manufacturer.

I did PM you my email address so feel free to send me the invoice if you find it, or just post the specs here so others can help.

 

[foodfightr]

Ok, so I upgraded the power supply.

APOWER 450W
+3.3V 26amp
+5V 35amp
+12V 15amp
-12V .8amp
-6v .5amp
+5vSA 2amp (huh?)

It was free, I have yet to test the system with it in. I'll post my results tonight.

EDIT: PS where can I buy a USB powered pizza oven? haha *grin*

 

[Sideswipe001]

Another suggestion would be the BIOS of the motherboard. I doubt the video card is an AGP 8x card, but I do know my old VIA motherboard (KT-400 chipset) would lock up like mad with an 8x AGP card in it. I had similar things to what you describe, but with a Radeon 9700 Pro. If it's a motherboard compatability problem, sometimes flashing the BIOS to the newest version will fix things.

The power supply could easily have been the problem too. The oddest problems in the world are sometimes the result of a weak power supply.

 

[foodfightr]

Power supply installed, made it past the WARCRAFT III menus. (Which originally failed.) Attemping to play an hour long game to determine if the problem was FULLY fixed or not. We'll see I'll post the pass/fail result in an hour!

 

[foodfightr]

Ok... things get even more wierd.

1.) I load warcraft. It goes into the menus. I connect to online play. It downloads the latest patch. Then it automatically restarts the game with the latest patch installed. At this point I'm pretty happy because I wasn't able to get to the menus previously.

2.) When the game restarts I connect to online play. Play an hour long game. No problems. I assume at this point everything is perfect.

3.) I play a second game, 5 minutes in it freezes. (The game goes still). I reboot for a third attempt.

4.) When I load the game the monitors go back into the "standby" like state and I am unable to load the menus. Exactly how it was originally.

I did have this same problem with other games previously before the reformat (ex: unreal tournament 2004.)

Upon a reboot I did recieve this error though, for the first time since I've been having this problem:

Thank you for submitting an error report. An error occurred in:

NVIDIA Graphics Driver

Microsoft is currently not aware of a solution for the problem that you reported. Microsoft did not create, nor does it provide technical support for NVIDIA Graphics Driver. NVIDIA Graphics Driver was created by NVIDIA® Corporation. If you would like to find out if a solution is available, or obtain assistance and troubleshooting information contact NVIDIA® Corporation. For more information, see the NVIDIA® Corporation Web site.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/...rosoft_windows_xp.html

"When I try to play a game, my monitor goes to sleep/turns black but I can still hear the game running. How can I fix this?


This generally means that your graphics card is running the game at a refresh rate higher than what your monitor supports. To fix this, contact the maker of your monitor and install the latest Windows drivers for your monitor. If this does not solve your problem, click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and then click on the Display icon. Click on the Settings tab ->Advanced button -> click on the Adapter tab and try changing the refresh rate to 60Hz, or the adapter default using the resolution and color depth you generally play games in. "

 

[foodfightr]

The monitors both have correct drivers and are set to 60 Hertz refresh. In the next few minutes I'll be posting a screenshot of the device manager here:

http://www.godscandy.com/pcfix.gif (give it a minute)

I also tried setting the video card to over ride all refresh rates at 60hz and it still had the same problem.

 

[foodfightr]

Ideas?

 

[foodfightr]

Strangest thing... this morning I tried playing a game... or two.. or three... no problem.

Its so random!?