HIS HD X2600 XT AGP DirectX Problems

Vakl

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I have been having a lot of trouble getting my HIS HD X2600 XT AGP working correctly on my computer. I have tried many different things. The CD included with the video card would not even open on my computer. I downloaded various versions of the ATI drivers, various versions of the hotfix (not even sure what version I'm using now, someone just said "get this", and it's worked the best of all of them so far.)

Something newer like Spore or Perfect World runs mostly okay (but it does seem to hitch and freeze occasionally. Not freeze as in stop working, but just sit for some seconds.) Strangely, things like Spore's opening movie (that says Maxis at the end and such) runs badly. The video comes choppily and slowly, and the sound normally finishes well before the video can catch up.) Warcraft III hardly runs. Sometimes it gives a blue screen saying a problem is most likely going on with ati2dvag, something about there being an infinite loop, things like that. Other times, I can get Warcraft III to run, but it hitches worse than the other, newer games. It certainly runs nice when it moves, but it freezes for like 5-10 seconds in very short intervals.

Any idea what is wrong? Any idea, if nobody here knows, who I can talk to? It seems most 2600 XT AGP cards have trouble with DirectX, so, I'm not sure what to do. Is my power supply not enough for it? Something else possibly failing?



Specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0ghz)
Asus A7N8X-E
1gig ram (DDR-333...I believe...but I'm not 100% sure at the moment, if it matters, I can find the exact.)
200gig harddrive (main)
40gig harddrive
HIS HD X2600 XT AGP (with IceQ Turbo)
3 small extra fans
DVD burner drive
350W power supply (LC-B350ATX)
 

faster3200

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I don't want to be rude but your comp is VERY low end compared to what is required to play current games. Try running a program like fraps to get your fps. It is possible that what you are experiencing is just natural dips in frame rate as opposed to some sort of software conflict.
 

johnyeah

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Other than your video card, your system is really outdated for the new games (your video card isn't that great either). If you have time on your hands, backup your files and resinstall your system (it's actually the quickest way to troubleshoot).
 

Vakl

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Eh, I mean, I'm kindof aware that my computer is not the fastest ever. I built it almost 6 years ago I believe. However, as I'll explain, Warcraft III ran just fine before this new card. Now, newer games like Spore run smoother than Warcraft III. So, obviously, something is wrong, possibly in the DirectX catagory, as I had to install a hotfix to even get it going. Seems, maybe, it's having trouble with older DirectX, which is strange.

I also can't even update DirectX for some reason. I thought I would re-install DirectX to see if it would fix my problems through this whole thing, and so I had 9.0c, and I got rid of it, and tried to reload it with no success. I got 9.0b onto it though. I wonder if that is causing Spore any problems.

The thing is though is that my computer could run Warcraft III (with my older video card, which was a GeForce 2 MX 400) no problem. After all, it's Warcraft III. The graphics dipped slightly here and there, but usually just fine. Also, the game would load just fine.

However, now when I load up Warcraft III, it either takes forever to, and hitches horribly here and there, or it just gives me a blue screen saying "ati2dvag" is causing a problem.

So, yeah, maybe Spore is hitching because of my computer, but, certainly, Warcraft III ran better before this new video card. Granted, it moved a lot smoother when it actually moved with the new video card, but, the game works very poorly, if at all now, and it must be the DirectX or something (as this card requires a hotfix it seems) and I can't seem to find out why it doesn't work right now.

Plus, really, I was only looking to support things of Spore calibur. I don't need it to play Crysis or whatever because I have no interest in playing that. Just kinda wanted something to extend the life of my computer a little while longer. I still have a 30-day return thing on this, but I'm hoping I can get it working.

Could my PSU be causing the problems?
 

Vakl

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As I explained to the other person, my computer runs Warcraft III worse with the new card than the old card. That is, Warcraft III looks and moves smoother with the new one, but it either won't start up, or starts up and hitches horribly (a whole lot worse than when Spore hitches on my computer.) So, obviously, Spore can have an excuse for not running with 0% lag at all times, but Warcraft III should not run so much worse.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to backup my files, since I have a 200gb and a 40gb and both are pretty packed, so I'm not sure where I would move all this stuff because I don't have an external harddrive or anything, but if it comes to it, I suppose I could try to find a way and see what happens.
 

faster3200

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Hmm, sounds like a software issue based on what you posted. Based on what you are saying it seems like your driver isn't performing correctly (that's what ati2dvag is). I guess you could try uninstalling it and reinstalling it or a newer driver but it seems like you have already tried this. The best way to do this is to boot into safe mode to remove the driver then boot into normal Windows and install the driver.
 

Vakl

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I see. Heh. I'm hesitant to do anything because I can kindof get new games to work somewhat, and I'm worried I'll be left in a position where nothing works, but, sooner or later I'll have to try.

Think where, at least, Spore hitches here and there might be my power supply at all?
 

johnyeah

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If by "hitches" you mean small lag spikes, it might simply be the fact that your computer can't handle it (even though your graphics card may). Like I said previously, if you can somehow have a fresh install of windows, that'll be the best way to determine whether it's your system is outdated for the games you're trying to play (other than WC3) or it's some driver issues.

Your PSU wattage should be fine (details would be great), I used http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to check.

Chances are it's not your PSU that's causing these problems.
 

Vakl

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Yeah, I mean lag spikes. Some bigger than others.

The strange thing is though, too, is that when I'm running Spore, the intro movie scene (where it says Maxis, and such), in case you haven't played it, it's just your typical movie scene advertising a company. It lags, terribly, terribly on that. Worse than when I'm playing the game. It seems to hang often any time a cutscene likes to play, and then sound and music and video usually get off-sync somewhat (some parts do, some parts don't.) Movie scenes, especially that Maxis intro should run so very easily, but it seems to lag really bad, which is strange. Any idea why simple movie scenes like that would hitch so bad, while, through most of the actual gameplay of Spore, it runs smoother (but still hitches some)?

I do see your point of re-installing Windows though. I'm not sure how easy it would be to do that right now for a few reasons, one being my harddrives are near full.

Just to be sure you know which video card I got, it's this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161207

I didn't buy it from Newegg (as it was not refund-able, in case it refused to run on my computer, so I got it from TigerDirect.), but that's the same product.
 

johnyeah

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Either driver issues, or you might even have things running in the background when you're playing.

I had that problem with my old laptop (even when playing WC3), after I did a fresh reinstall, no more lag spikes.
 

Vakl

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I'm pretty aware of what's running in the background, and I've cut out a lot of processes that I don't need, so it shouldn't be that.
 

Vakl

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I figure I had done that the first time, but just in case, I'll try it again, using a driver cleaner in safe mode and such. I'll let you guys know how things go. If nothing works better, I can go back to this "half" working version, but it's only a temporary fix.

Just to make sure, did you have to download a hotfix to get DirectX to work? If so, which hotfix version do you have and use? Or, did just installing HIS's drivers work, and you didn't need a hotfix at all?

I used their drivers from the website first, but just in case, I'll try them again, just in case I used a slightly different version or maybe I didn't clean all old drivers off well enough or something.

You say "decently". What do you mean by that? Did it still not run how it should? Or are you just saying that to say it and it did work as it should?

Thanks for the help, and please feel free to give anymore advice you might have that could help even more.
 

Vakl

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Well, after a system restore, I'm back. I tried doing things that would clear out all drivers of video cards and such, so that I could try to install them more fresh. However, somehow, my Nvidia nForce ethernet driver got taken with it, so I just system restored.

I tried installing the latest 2600XT drivers from HIS's site. Didn't work for either thing. Tried a hotfix. Things didn't work too well. Spore opened, but after that, didn't get much of anywhere.

I'm at a loss. I've tried so many different driver versions and hotfixes and such and I have no idea what to do now. Do I just have to return it? I'd really like to find a way to get it to work.
 
I tried different drivers up the wall too. This is what I did that worked:

1.Reinstalled Windows XP
2.Installed HIS drivers from web site (will give you version when I get home)

That's all. No hotfixes, no patches, no directX nothing.
 

Vakl

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So, along with reinstalling Windows XP, did you format as well? Or did you just uninstall Windows XP?

Also, what games worked with it? And did they work perfectly fine? Can you give me examples of the games you played? Because Warcraft III (I believe needing at least DirectX 8.1) works a lot more terrible than Spore which probably needs some DirectX 9 of some sort? (I have 9.0b instead of 9.0c because it's having problems installing DirectX for no reason after this whole video card thing. It didn't have problems installing DirectX before.)

When you say it works, did it work 100%, or were there still some issues?

Also, what kind of build was this computer, just curious?
 
The machine's specs are visible in my hardware config.

Reinstalling windows XP requires that you format your hard drive.

All games played at least as well as they did on my x1650xt I had before. They were:
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Call of Duty 4
Crysis
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament 3
Half-life 2
Counterstrike: Source

The copy of windows I installed was WXP+SP2, so an upgrade of directx was not needed after installation.

The only issue I have found is that 3dmark 2001 SE BSOD's sometimes. Other than that, every game and benchmark is flawless.
 

Vakl

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Okay. Do you figure something like Warcraft III would run fine under these conditions too? Because, Spore mostly runs pretty smooth (except during some movie scenes, like the opening "Maxis" one, which is strange.) It just seems like it was having a tougher time with the older DirectX than the new one. I mean, you might have no idea about this, but I thought I'd ask in case. I think Warcraft III requires at least DirectX 8.1, so it's part of the DirectX 8 series then. Strangely, the DirectX tests run fine now, but I still can't get the games to work reliably.



So I assume, just to be sure they're the exact same ones, I'd go to their website, download the 8.50 drivers for the 2600 ones. The file name is a zip called "XP_8.501-080602a-064990E-ATI". Does that sound right to you?

Thanks for the help. Hopefully things will work. I figured I had to reformat when I reinstalled Windows XP, it's just been a while so I thought I would check.
 

Vakl

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By the way, what kind of reinstall? Reinstall of Warcraft III, or Windows XP? I assume you mean Windows XP (or, I suppose, whichever operating system you were running), but, just checking.
 

Vakl

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I'm just trying to really make sure I do things right, because I don't want to screw things up. I really want to be able to make this video card work perfectly on my computer.
 

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