Nikodemus
Saturday, 3rd June 2006, 23:16
Starting with current PC specs:
Mobo: ASUS P4PE
CPU: Pentium 4, 2.4gHz@533
RAM: 2 x 512 MB Apacer, PC2700 (bought together)
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon 9700
PSU: 300w
HD: 120g Seagate Barracuda, 200g Maxtor. Both ATA 133 drives (i.e. not SATA or anything fancier than that)
Sound: SB Live!
and then I've got a shitty cheap TV tuner card, a DVD-drive and that's about it. Oh and it's in a case as well, but I guess even Rebel would be able to figure as much.
- no new hardware for over a year.
- nothing new connected (well, a mouse but that's been plugged in for a few weeks without problems).
- no new drivers installed the past 3~4 weeks.
- computer sitting in the same place as always.
- haven't had any problems with graphics, performance or crashes recently.
Then all of a sudden yesterday after having the machine booted up and running fine for a few hours, the graphics in WoW went completely nuts. Major distortion, textures going nuts strecthing left and right etc. No slowdown, though, framerate remained normal. I immediately cut the power.
Opened the case and tried to power up quickly. All fans running fine (CPU, graphics adapter, PSU and case fan).
Expecting it could have something to do with overheating, I got the graphics adapter out and cleaned out the fan, took off the CPU cooler and removed all the dust from that as well and applied new coolant paste (or whatever it's called in english). Then went through the case and got rid of the worst bit of dust, including from PSU fan etc.
Put it all back together. Lower the room temperature (i.e. leaving the window open for a bit), set up the PC out in the middle of the room instead of down in the cramped corner below the desk. Leave the side off the case and boot up again ... no change, graphics distorted already from the Windows XP boot screen.
So I've been trying all sort of stuff ... taking the machine apart and putting it back together, cleaning the entire thing from dust in the process. Tried running with one stick of RAM, with the other ... tried removing all the different devices one at a time (sound card, drives, TV tuner...), tried booting up with minimum devices installed and so on. No change.
The graphics are not distorted on the very first boot screens (the ones with the memory count and disk checks). But they are in the BIOS (graphical thingiemingie) and in windows and any applications. It's not all the time, though. I can boot up the machine, having it running for a bit and suddenly it cleans up and is looking fine for 5 minutes, then the graphics go nuts again.
Tried downclocking the graphics adapter, no change.
Asking around and checking sites/forums, it seems a lot of people have had their Sapphire 9700s go nuts and die on them after having it for a year or two, so I'm guessing that's what's happening :/
So ... first of all, if I've missed something obvious or there's something I ought to try out, let me know please :D
Otherwise, it's time to either get a new graphics adapter or even a proper upgrade of most the system. Unfortunately I'm completely out of the loop, so after looking at the site I usually order my hardware from I'm not even sure if they're selling hardware or spare parts for spaceships.
And I unfortunately don't have fortunes lying around to spend on computer upgrades, so I'm on quite a budget.
First off; would it be possible to buy a decent new(ish) graphics adapter that would be compatible with my semi-ancient system? I'm sort of worried that I'll just end up with some expensive power-wonder running at 50% of it's potential because of a bottleneck elsewhere (CPU/RAM/mobo/whatev)
If not ...
~650 euro tops, preferably not much over ~500 tbh.
New graphics, mobo, CPU, RAM.
My soundcard should be fine and I don't need more hd space, so unless my old drives would be much of a bottleneck, I don't see any reason to buy new ones. Edit: and I guess the PSU would have to go as well since 300w wouldn't cut it?
Meant for gaming. Preferably Intel, but will go AMD if there's money to save :D
What the hell to buy?
Mobo: ASUS P4PE
CPU: Pentium 4, 2.4gHz@533
RAM: 2 x 512 MB Apacer, PC2700 (bought together)
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon 9700
PSU: 300w
HD: 120g Seagate Barracuda, 200g Maxtor. Both ATA 133 drives (i.e. not SATA or anything fancier than that)
Sound: SB Live!
and then I've got a shitty cheap TV tuner card, a DVD-drive and that's about it. Oh and it's in a case as well, but I guess even Rebel would be able to figure as much.
- no new hardware for over a year.
- nothing new connected (well, a mouse but that's been plugged in for a few weeks without problems).
- no new drivers installed the past 3~4 weeks.
- computer sitting in the same place as always.
- haven't had any problems with graphics, performance or crashes recently.
Then all of a sudden yesterday after having the machine booted up and running fine for a few hours, the graphics in WoW went completely nuts. Major distortion, textures going nuts strecthing left and right etc. No slowdown, though, framerate remained normal. I immediately cut the power.
Opened the case and tried to power up quickly. All fans running fine (CPU, graphics adapter, PSU and case fan).
Expecting it could have something to do with overheating, I got the graphics adapter out and cleaned out the fan, took off the CPU cooler and removed all the dust from that as well and applied new coolant paste (or whatever it's called in english). Then went through the case and got rid of the worst bit of dust, including from PSU fan etc.
Put it all back together. Lower the room temperature (i.e. leaving the window open for a bit), set up the PC out in the middle of the room instead of down in the cramped corner below the desk. Leave the side off the case and boot up again ... no change, graphics distorted already from the Windows XP boot screen.
So I've been trying all sort of stuff ... taking the machine apart and putting it back together, cleaning the entire thing from dust in the process. Tried running with one stick of RAM, with the other ... tried removing all the different devices one at a time (sound card, drives, TV tuner...), tried booting up with minimum devices installed and so on. No change.
The graphics are not distorted on the very first boot screens (the ones with the memory count and disk checks). But they are in the BIOS (graphical thingiemingie) and in windows and any applications. It's not all the time, though. I can boot up the machine, having it running for a bit and suddenly it cleans up and is looking fine for 5 minutes, then the graphics go nuts again.
Tried downclocking the graphics adapter, no change.
Asking around and checking sites/forums, it seems a lot of people have had their Sapphire 9700s go nuts and die on them after having it for a year or two, so I'm guessing that's what's happening :/
So ... first of all, if I've missed something obvious or there's something I ought to try out, let me know please :D
Otherwise, it's time to either get a new graphics adapter or even a proper upgrade of most the system. Unfortunately I'm completely out of the loop, so after looking at the site I usually order my hardware from I'm not even sure if they're selling hardware or spare parts for spaceships.
And I unfortunately don't have fortunes lying around to spend on computer upgrades, so I'm on quite a budget.
First off; would it be possible to buy a decent new(ish) graphics adapter that would be compatible with my semi-ancient system? I'm sort of worried that I'll just end up with some expensive power-wonder running at 50% of it's potential because of a bottleneck elsewhere (CPU/RAM/mobo/whatev)
If not ...
~650 euro tops, preferably not much over ~500 tbh.
New graphics, mobo, CPU, RAM.
My soundcard should be fine and I don't need more hd space, so unless my old drives would be much of a bottleneck, I don't see any reason to buy new ones. Edit: and I guess the PSU would have to go as well since 300w wouldn't cut it?
Meant for gaming. Preferably Intel, but will go AMD if there's money to save :D
What the hell to buy?