bad graphics / Free non 3D benchmarks?

[Karlsbad]

Hey is there a benchmark I can get for free that will tax my system that isn't primarily graphics?

My PC is suddenly(starting yesterday) rebooting immediately when I start games(the same games I've been playing on it for 6 months), and for a while its increasingly done stuff that seems like the built by ATI 9700 pro AIW is going bad, primarily it won't reset the gamma when I leave games with increasing frequency and it has rebooted more and more when I switch from windowed mode to full screen, and (this doesn't seem like it blatantly implicates the graphics card), it hangs on the windows splash screen, only to boot fine the next time(always just one splash screen hang) more and more often. Then yesterday morning after it had been off for several hours, (I turn it off at night)I guess this is not posting, when I turned it on I got no video at all(the monitor went into standby), the power lights on the case stayed on, it gave no beep codes(which I know work because I put a geforce 2 in it and when I put the 9700 pro back in I left the power connector off it), and the keyboard lights and mouse flashed like they always do and stayed on. It's never done the immediate reboot or not posted(if thats what it is) before yesterday, the fans are all working, and the temp inside the case is no higher than usual. After it refused to post(again, if thats what that was) like 3 times I pulled the case out to start poking around and tried it once more before opening the case, it came on and stayed on just fine for hours(but I wasn't gaming, though I did watch some TV on it for about 2 hours). All the connections look and feel fine and its failed to post a few times since but it doesn't seem like its related to heat, at least not the heat inside my case.

The video card has always delivered good image quality, but never good frame rates, I've always had stuttering issues and I've never gotten over 13,9000 on 3dmark2001SE. One thing thats always concerned me is the bios is set to auto VCORE but the Asus probe says its 1.59 consistently. I would suspect the suspicious Audigy 2 if it didn't happen so frequently when I switch to full screen.

So anyway I'm ready to be convinced that its the video card, but I thought it would be a good idea to see if I can tax the system without making it reboot, while not using 3D.

I called Asus and they said its probably not the video card, and I called ATI and they said I should send the video card back(but I have to submit a request on their website) . Lol Asus told me to try flashing the bios which I did, which didn't help of course, I really think thats like when your code doesn't work and theres some issue in the compiler and you start to think you might have a virus. I have an old geforce 2 but I cant even play any of the games I play on it or I'd put that in and try a trial and error, only it doesn't do this enough to make that simple to do. I'm not getting any beep codes other than 'no errors found during post' when it boots successfully. I've restarted it 10 times now with no issues(though I'm not convinced that problem is fixed of course) on restart but it still reboots immediately in games.

Asus p4pe bios 1007
Radeon 9700 pro AIW cat 3.8
2.4c
2 * 512 mb kingston ddr 333
WD 160JB special edition
Toshiba DVD/RW
Thermaltake Xaser III V2000A
audigy 2
Antec True 480 PS

Committed to excellence, willing to make do with high average, able to get by on mediocrity in a pinch.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Karlsbad on 12/03/03 07:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Karlsbad]

bump. AAH help.

Committed to excellence, willing to make do with high average, able to get by on mediocrity in a pinch.

 

[Karlsbad]

The bios flash or the card reseating seems to have fixed the posting and rebooting, but performance still sucks.

Committed to excellence, willing to make do with high average, able to get by on mediocrity in a pinch.

 

[Crashman]

Did you load the chipset driver from the motherboard CD? What Catalyst driver are you using?

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Karlsbad]

Long since loaded chipset drivers and repeatedly verfied installation. I say long since cause I can't remember how I verified it, but I remember going "did that work", then checking and rechecking and re rechecking the mobo manual. Using cat 3.8, haven't upgraded to 3.9 since none of them in the last 6 months have changed anything.

Committed to excellence, willing to make do with high average, able to get by on mediocrity in a pinch.