Please Help

[lordszone]

Hi guys
i have this problem, i dont know which hardware is causing it. i will tell u the things that happens frequently, but first my pc specs:
AMD 64bit 3000+ Socket 754
MSI k8n neo3-f
1 Gb DDR 400 Kingston
ATI Radeon 9700pro
600W Magna Powersupply
80 Gb Maxtor HDD (IDE Cable)
Viewsonic PS790
Now for the problem:
first of all my vga card has a compatibility problems with many pcs, like i have ran it on 8 different pcs and it worked only on four pcs, note that it is not 100% compatible with them as well, as far as i think. when i run games, my pc hangs or restarts after few minutes. and recently when not playing any games, glitches come on the screen, like u cant see anything once they are on the screen. i have tried different psu's,and RAMs, but no luck. Can anyone tell me whats wrong and how can i rectify this problem. Hope to hear from u soon. Thanks.

 

[Gary_Busey]

What are your CPU and GPU temps?

 

[badge]

Hi guys
i have this problem, i dont know which hardware is causing it. i will tell u the things that happens frequently, but first my pc specs:
AMD 64bit 3000+ Socket 754
MSI k8n neo3-f
1 Gb DDR 400 Kingston
ATI Radeon 9700pro
600W Magna Powersupply
80 Gb Maxtor HDD (IDE Cable)
Viewsonic PS790
Now for the problem:
first of all my vga card has a compatibility problems with many pcs, like i have ran it on 8 different pcs and it worked only on four pcs, note that it is not 100% compatible with them as well, as far as i think. when i run games, my pc hangs or restarts after few minutes. and recently when not playing any games, glitches come on the screen, like u cant see anything once they are on the screen. i have tried different psu's,and RAMs, but no luck. Can anyone tell me whats wrong and how can i rectify this problem. Hope to hear from u soon. Thanks.

Sounds like you have tried everything you know to fix the problem. You might try a different video card if available. Also, that 80g IDE Maxtor HD may be going out. Is the HD old? Does it make any noise?

 

[Slava]

Also, that 80g IDE Maxtor HD may be going out. Is the HD old? Does it make any noise?

I was gonna say the same thing but a bad hard drive will not cause graphical glitches.

Most likely

1. His video card is overheating - use the PC with an open and see if the problem goes away; OR

2. The video card drivers were not installed properly (whenever he tried it on different machines, including his own). There is NO good reason why his video card would be incompatible with so many different computers - go to the ATI web site and read the proper steps to take in order to remove old drivers and install new ones.

 

[lordszone]

as far as my vga card over heat is concerned, i would like to add that i have 5 case fans installed, and my temps are as follows:
CPU 47 degrees
System 67 degrees
PLease note that these temperatures are noted when the computer is not under any heavy load. i used nvidia's ntune software to check the temps. Can u suggest a proper program which can tell the temperature of all my components, like vga card, cpu, motherboard, hdd, and etc. and please can u tell me as well if my powersupply is sufficient or not. i have tried running my vga card under low temperatures as well, but no luck. and as for the installation of drivers are concerned, the following steps are which i do when installing new drivers:
uninstall old drivers
restart my pc
install new drivers, and
restart my pc again
thanks for quick replies, hope that u guys can find a solution to my problem.

 

[lordszone]

one more thing that i forgot to add on my previous post is that i have tried two more vga cards on my pc:
1) the old Geforce Riva TNT2 16mb vga card
2) Geforce fx5700le
and they both worked perfectly, without a single problem.

 

[badge]

I was going to mention update drivers, but then like you I saw where he put the card in four or more computers that failed. Now I'm thinking He may have downlooaded the latest drivers, but He has an older 9700. That card requires a different driver than say, my 1800xt. You never know.

 

[lordszone]

i would like to tell u that i have tried around 7 different drivers from old to the latest ones. but no luck. so what do u suggest me to do now.

 

[badge]

one more thing that i forgot to add on my previous post is that i have tried two more vga cards on my pc:
1) the old Geforce Riva TNT2 16mb vga card
2) Geforce fx5700le
and they both worked perfectly, without a single problem.

So the problem is with the 9700 and/or the power supplying it, etc.? BTW, DO you have the latest driver for the 9700 series installed? Have you removed any old drivers?

 

[badge]

i would like to tell u that i have tried around 7 different drivers from old to the latest ones. but no luck. so what do u suggest me to do now.

If the 9700 failed in about four of eight computers, I'd say the card has a problem. Are you overclocking it when it fails?

 

[lordszone]

it is running on stock settings, though my motherboard has a DOT technology which automatically overclocks my cpu as far as i know.

 

[sojrner]

I was going to mention update drivers, but then like you I saw where he put the card in four or more computers that failed. Now I'm thinking He may have downlooaded the latest drivers, but He has an older 9700. That card requires a different driver than say, my 1800xt. You never know.

I have a second system w/ the 9700pro and it runs the same version of catalyst that my 1900 runs. No issues.

@ the OP: I am w/ Gary_Busey and others, I lean towards a heat issue first and then maybe bad driver install. Run w/ a house fan pointing right in the case (side door open) and see if that fixes it. (suggested above) If that fixes it then you need to re-think the airflow in the case. Otherwise you should try removing all drivers, including ntune (it may be setting the agp bus clock too high) and reinstall only what you need like the mobo drivers (not ntune and oc software) and video drivers.

 

[lordszone]

the problem is that when i connect the vga card to my computer and start it, once the desktop is shown, glitches starts to come, and they fill the whole screen quickly. so i becomes impossible for me to see anything.

 

[badge]

it is running on stock settings, though my motherboard has a DOT technology which automatically overclocks my cpu as far as i know.

I meant overclocking the video card. Anyway, do what Sorjurn suggested and uninstall the nVida program. I will tell you I had a computer doing the same sort of thing. It was the video card dying.

 

[lordszone]

can u be more specific on what do i unistall. Do u mean that i reinstall my windows and only install the necessary drivers that are required to run my vga card?

 

[badge]

can u be more specific on what do i unistall. Do u mean that i reinstall my windows and only install the necessary drivers that are required to run my vga card?

Who said uninstall windows? If your cardfails in four of eight computers you should look for an alternative. Card.

Any Nvida video drivers, uninstall those. If you are monitoring your cards performance with an Nvidia program...I would lose that Nvidia program too.

 

[sojrner]

well, that would certainly do it. The only drivers you should need outside of windows sp2 is the mobo drivers (again, not ntun or overclock software... just drivers) and video card drivers. All else can wait.

You do not really need to wipe windows, but that is the best way to be sure no driver bugs are there. Otherwise just uninstall all drivers and related oc software and reinstall just the mobo and card drivers. (many reboots to do that of course )

if that does not fix it, then you may have a dead card or a dead mobo (agp slot).

 

[Jippo]

Just a note, that the last time I have seen this weird behavior like glitches appearing on the screen, I would say that there is a possibility of bad video memory, I cannot say why it works in other machines with no problems. I would say that it’s the video memory... bad video card.

 

[lordszone]

thanks for your advise, i will try it and tell u the results in a moment.

 

[lordszone]

now the problem occured is that the glitches come in the bios screen as well now. Things are getting worse now . Any suggestions now. One more thing, can u please tell me which software do u use to check the temperature of your hardwares, like vga card, cpu, motherboard, hdd and powersupply consumption.

 

[Slava]

I lean towards a heat issue first and then maybe bad driver install

I think you lean correctly. You wrote above that your system temps are 67C. Dude, that's TOO high. CPU at 47C is okay (even when idle) but system?

You know, of course, what it means. Right? It means that your ambient temperature in the PC case is 67C when the machine is idle :!: Can you imagine how hot it gets when you load it a bit? When your video card fan grabs 80C air to try and cool your card.... ahem... well... you guessed it.

Also, if when you said "system temp" you actually meant your PWM temp, then the situation is even worse. The system shutdown threshold temp for PWM is usually 75C. So, if your PWM shows 67C at idle your PC will shut down or lock up or crash under any (even moderate) load. If your motherboard has a PWM fan, see if it works.

The fact that you have 5 system fans means nothing. They could be weak, not spinning fast enough or they could be oriented incorrectly (like instead of blowing hot air out they could be oriented as intake fans or they could be blowing at each other disrupting airflow, or you could have cables and other things in the way of airflow which defeats the purpose altogether.)

 

[badge]

The system temps is too high especially with the five or six case fans. But how do you explain the card fails to run correctly in four other computers? Don't lose any sleep over it .

 

[lordszone]

the same things happen. in one pc, i tried, the problem was that when i ran that pc, it used to restart and an error message generated by windows used to come which said that it was a hardware faliure.

 

[lordszone]

anyways, what do u suggest now? what should i do? and please tell me a software that detects the system temp, i u know of one.

 

[badge]

the same things happen. in one pc, i tried, the problem was that when i ran that pc, it used to restart and an error message generated by windows used to come which said that it was a hardware faliure.

Yes. Happened to me too. My card was having a heart attack. If that card is crashing another system too, it's the card causing you all the problems. I think you can safely say, it's dying.