going to break my gfx card in half :-P

looking for a new one

from WinCustomize Forums
well i'm finally getting tired of how my system has been acting, which i am pretty sure, like 90% sure, it's because of my video card. i think it has have some kind of compatibility issue with my motherboard, or monitor, or both.. so i am looking to get a new one. anything good, comparable to Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256mb 8xAGP? (that's what i have right now) ~ prefer Nvidia - run WB5 so something that will run that well. am willing to go with ATI - not sure what is about the same though..... any suggestions would be great.

(i've already updated everything possible, BIOS, chipsets, video drivers, even a driver for my monitor - and contacted my motherboard company too and they suggested i send my board in since the updates didnt' help it but i told them no lol cuz i need my computer) - my computer is freezing more now - not sure if that is from the vid card or if my hard drive is going bad - but i used to get random restarts, and it was after i put the card in, which i have been dealing with for some time now cuz i'm too cheap to get a new one lol but am going to now...
16,064 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What happens if you boot into safe mode? (that will bypass your video drivers an run in VGA)
Or if your mobo has onboard graphics, you could pull your video card and run from the onboard graphics and see if your problem is resolved.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It may be you are experiencing power problems if the random restarts became common after installing what is a hungrier card than some older systems are used to. Maybe think about upgrading the power supply if its getting a bit old or is anything around or below 300watt.

I wouldn't dump the graphics card just yet, if it really does turn out to be your motherboard then a new graphics card is probably only going to replicate the same problem. Well possibly it would, I certainly wouldn't think of buying another as a solution unless you really knew for sure it was a known issue between the motherboard and graphics card.

Finally, it could be a cooling related problem too, I'd check on those temperatures, if everything is running fairly hot already, then the addition of a hot graphics card could be pushing things over the stability edge.

If you can give more details on things like, the temperatures inside the case, cpu, hdd's etc and power info it might highlight the cause.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I believe that is an AGP 2.0 interface card.

You may want to check the MoBo specs and BIOS specs to see if there is a conflict, such as no backward compatibility support.

Specifically, check to see if the BIOS offers AGP configuration for the 2.0 specification, and check the requirements for voltage and amperage on the card - then verify that the MoBo AGP slot can provide the correct support. 

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I believe that is an AGP 2.0 interface card.


It's definetly AGP 8x http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6200.html

"Support for AGP 8X including Fast Writes and sideband addressing"
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
silly me, here's the specs *wasn't thinking last night lol* :

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1.8 GHz)
1GB RAM (2x512 - have run MemTest before - nothing showed up bad)
120 GB HDD (main) - 40 GB HDD (back-up: music/movies/etc)
mobo: Chaintech VIF4 - can run AGP 4x/8x
GFX: BFG Nvidia Geforce 6200 OC 256 MB 8x AGP
(note: used to have a BFG Asylum Nvidia Geforce4 MX 4000 128 MB 8x AGP - didn't have any problems at all with it)
3x case fans, both mem sticks have heatsink covers on them, 1x pci fan (has empty pci slot between fan & gfx card), cpu is cool enough to touch heatsink even when computer has been running for a while - it never gets even slightly warm inside, it is nice and cool.
power supply: Ultra X-Connect 500w (2 months old)

i know my motherboard is 2.0 spec because the other card worked 100% no problems.

on another note, my computer froze up last night while i was sleeping... so i took the side off this morning while it was still frozen, and i felt my 2 hard drives, my backup one had a slight vibration to it, like it was still running, while my main hard drive there was nothing i felt at all...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ok probably not heat or psu related then

Is anything being recorded into the event viewer? You can launch that by putting " eventvwr.exe " into the run bar in start menu.

and have you disabled the auto reset option so you can see any information on a bluescreen if you're getting those at all? It doesn't sound like its memory related if mem checks are ok but I've found that memory problems often can be highlighted in the blue screen of death info. Right click mycomputer, advanced, startup and recovery and make sure write an event to the system log is ticked and no tick in restart automatically.

I checked out your motherboard, doesn't seem to be anything obvious about it that would cause problems. Don't you just hate pissy problems you cant track down? They drive me nuts. I'd would seem odd that there is a problem between mobo and gfx as chaintech sell them on their site. I noticed the motherboard does have onboard gfx though and onboard audio, both notorious for bringing incompatibilities. Are theese enabled/disabled using jumpers on the mobo? I'd try disabling on mobo if thats an option rather than just using the bios.

I'd also kick the drivers into touch from Chaintech and get the latest directly from VIA http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2&Type=1
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well, i have all latest drivers from Chaintech and directly from VIA (the people at chaintech told me to update through the via site) - yea it is a pretty strange problem. the on board video has been disabled since i was using graphic cards - i knew to disable it. and since i had reinstalled windows i wasn't getting any restarts, and yes, i had it set to show the blue screen of death instead of restarting automatically. haven't had them since formating.

i took my video card out today, uninstalled all drivers, and re-enabled the on-board video, so that's what i'm running now. *i can't do the fancy wb5 themes though... so sad* so i'll run it with this and see if anything happens. and then get a new vid card.. i guess my stuff just isn't playing nicely lol

i'm not quite sure what to look for in event viewer... there's some application hung stuff (like when aol decides to hang when closing or when explorer decides to stop responding, those events recorded) but i can't see anything that is going along with the freezing.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds like you've done pretty much everything I'd of done. Can't really say what to look for in the system log, you'd probably know it if you saw it was related to your restarts. Since nothing like that is appearing I'd be utterly pissed off and taking the GFX card back to the store with a scowling look on my face.

Since it sounds like the problem goes away when the GFX card is taken out, can safely assume that is part of the problem but you are still no closer to discovering what the exact reason is, and therefore still in a risky position when buying a new GFX card that may or may not replicate the problem.

Since your MX card worked fine, and I know thats a DX7 card, the problem could be related to DX9 which I'd assume you have now. Worth investigating?

Can you borrow a card from a friend to see if the problem re-occurs? two cards with the same problem and you'll know its not the GFX card but either a software problem or the motherboard.

Other than that I'm stumped.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well i was at office max and they had some vid cards there - i picked up a new one, it was only $99. so now i'm running an ATI Radeon 9200 128mb agp 8x. i'm rather surprised with the performance - all i've used are nvidia. haven't had the funny boot screen issue either - no funky colors flashing. and wb5 works perfectly with the card also. time to sell my old nvidia card. (i've had it too long to return to the store) and didn't have any freezing when i had taken my nvidia card out. think i fixed my issue
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Glad you sorted it out, i know how frustrating it is, i bought 6600GT AGP, card and the bugger kept locking up, after MANY driver changes, PSU upgrade , motherboard upgrade,cpu upgrade, removal and lapping of GPU cooler ( non of this worked ) I eventually just stuck a horizontally mounted 80mm fan underneath it and...Whammo, i havent had a problem since , i think theres an overheating problem with the bridging chip in the early AGP 6 series cards.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Funny...I switched to nVidia GeForce 5500 from the ATI Radeon 9200 and saw significant speed increase and smoother graphics. I had switched cards to overcome (get this) a conflict with ZoneAlarm: on a clean install of XP SP2 and after updating @ WinUpdate, I installed my ZoneAlarm firewall and rebooted. At restart, I get nothing but a blank-black screen and an instant reboot. After a few emails to MS and ATI, I get the impression that a constant stream is needed with the AGP port and ZoneAlarm wanted to read it but couldn't interrupt the port long enough to satisfy itself. As for ZoneAlarm, if it wants to be that particular...begone! Now I get to Beta test this nifty Windows OneCareLive for a year free. If this is what they are going to ship with Vista, I give MS a thumbs-up.

Sometimes, you just get a bad card. Sometimes its the software.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My 6600 GT PCI-Express runs fine with only two case fans. One 120 mm on the front of the case and another 120 mm on the back.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah it would do, for two reasons, 1: The fault was only in the AGP versions of the card , ( the PCI-E cards have no bridging chip)
and 2: It was only in the early versions of the cards, the problem seems to have since been resolved.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Not an answer to your problems but on a related topic: I was thinking of upgrading my GeForce4 4200Ti video card but then discovered that the new ones use PCI-e rather than PCI slots so I'd need an entirely new motherboard! Might as well start again from scratch with a new system as far as I can tell then.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No, a lot of the new cards come in two flavours, either the new PCI-E format ( which would require a new mobo), OR they also come in the AGP version which just plugs into the AGP slot on your mobo as normal, altho the new cards generally will require their own 4 pin molex power supply from your PSU.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kevin: If you're gonna go and buy a new mobo cuz you dont have AGP, skip it and go with the PCIe. You'll spend the bucks for it though.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Hmm, I thought all my slots were PCI...but if there *is* an AGP one that would be good I shall poke around inside it when I get home. After installing a new master disc drive last month I'm feeling almost competent about doing it!
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The AGP slot looks a lot like the PCI slot, however it is going to positioned slightly further away from the back of your computer:


(space)-----
-----
-----
-----

the first series of dashes being the AGP, the others PCI. The left side of the comment box being the back of your Computer Box.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks! What do you know: I appear to have 4 PCI slots and judging by what's attached to the back of them I have my SoundBlaster Card and telephone modem pluggged into two of them. My video card (the monitor cable hanging onto it was a big clue) already seems to be in the AGP slot, so it should be a straight swap job for a new card. I presume an AGPX4/X8 spec card is backwards compatible if not at the higher transfer rate? 


I feel almost ready to apply for my computer geek membership card. Shiny!

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The 4x/8x should be no problem, but make sure you get the right voltage 1.5 or 3. Your motherboard manufacturor should be able to tell you what your mobo is equipped for voltage-wise. Yes you should be set to upgrade easily.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I feel almost ready to apply for my computer geek membership card. Shiny!


If the Geek Squad is anything like the one near my home, don't ask them anything, they know only that they need to sell you more STUFF, and the more the better. I had to show the geek squad how to make this light scribe DVD writer print. (See where it says "file"? See where it says "print"?) Anyway, happy upgrading!