Sapphire HD3850 AGP Problems

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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Hi,

I am having problems with my graphics card. In most games it appears to be running in slow motion, although the FPS counter is at 50-120 FPS. It also sometimes freezes up in some games and restarts the PC. I am thinking that it could be a PSU problem as my PSU is pretty rubbish, I'm getting a new one soon anyway.

Asrock 775i65G
Sapphire HD3850 AGP 512MB
2GB Ram
OCZ Core Extreme 500W PSU
 
I think you should really be posting in a archaeological site ;).
It could indicate the system is just in need of a clean.
Download GPU-Z and Speedfan, install both and run them, they should tell you the CPU and graphics card temperatures.
The CPU should be at 40C or under with a fairly slow turning fan and the card should be at 50C or under, again with a fairly slow moving fan.
If the temperatures are higher or the fans are running at high speeds it's time for a cleanout.
 

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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I though I forgot something on the list :)

It,s a Pentium D 2.8GHZ. I am planning on upgrading though.

In TrackMania it goes into slowmo.
In OMSI it is either slowmo or works for a while then crashes - restarting the whole system and when back it is in slowmo (sometimes it works properly)
Some games are unaffected.
 

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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The GPU is at about 55C under load so I don't think there is a problem there. There is also practically no dust inside the PC at all. The CPU is at 42C. With my motherboard the fans can only be operating at full :(.
 

SuperGamerBoy

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Is that the temp at which it idle's? If yes, then what are your temps under load?
My father used to own an older pc with the exact same cpu, ram and gpu. It was very cool when idle(around 35° for cpu and 45°C for the gpu) but when under load, it would get very very hot [about 80 for cpu and 85 for gpu and sometimes it would go over 100°C(about 105°C) and shut down and restart]. He replaced the heatsink and fans and it is fine now. You could replace yours and try if you want but i think a good cleaning of your central processing unit should do the job. If you see no dust from outside the case, then that does not mean there is no dust inside and does your case have good airflow.
 

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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I have never seen the CPU over 60C or the GPU over 65C. I have already checked for dust. I have completely dismantled the whole PC and blown all dust off (there wasn't much). I think the problem is with some sort of clock/timer as when the problem happens countdowns (like the ones in the dual boot menu, also the timer in Geekbench is slower than real time) are in slow motion too.
 

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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I have now worked out that this is a driver issue as I had a blue screen saying something about the drivers (Driver_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL). I had a similar problem with an asus graphics card before just without the slowmo.

Can anyone suggest the best driver to use?
 
let me guess. your running windows 7?
if so you need to switch back to xp. your hardware doesnt support hpet (high precision events timer) its an inbuilt by intel hardware timer that windows vista and above use to time system events more accurately. specifically events in explorer. if your hardware doesnt support it, windows will bsod randomly when it asks for timings and fails to get the correct 1s.
this is likely the cause of irq no equal error.
as for the freeze up its your cpu bottlenecking that gfx card. my brother in law had the same issue trying to play games like crysis on his penny d system. his gfx card wasnt particularly strong but neither was the penny d's ability to multi task.
all you can do is try and overclock the cpu if you have the cooling. if you dont your looking a new system.
 

Tim-LR

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Jul 22, 2012
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I'm using XP Pro 64 Bit (I can't stand 7 or 8).

I worked out a way to kind of fix the slow motion effect. When it happens I take out the graphics card, boot the PC with built in graphics, then turn it off and put the graphics card back in. Afterwards everything is back to normal (until it happens again),