Help ironing out some new build niggles please!

[flay]

just completed my first ever build, much of it new but not all of it, and it looks like this:

antec 900 mk.2
psu - tagan BZ900w
cpu - amd 7750 black
ram - 4gb ddr2 ocz reaper 800mhz
hsf - ocz vendetta 2
mobo - asus m3a79-t deluxe
gpu - asus HD 4850
monitor - samsung syncmaster 22"
hdds - two WD caviar blacks 640gb in RAID 0
os - vista 64bit

I chucked it all together, and it powered on fine, it posted, i installed vista and voila I'm typing this post on it right now. however, something doesnt seem right.
When I try to play Trials 2 (by redlynx) it tells me, ahem:
"your graphics card is missing critical features... you need directx 9 compatible graphics adapter with pixel shader 2.0 support."

Seeing as I religiously played this game on my older machine, I'm fairly confident this one should run it. Yet i cant get it to open because of this error. I installed the latest directx 9.0c update from windows update, but it made no difference.

So i thought, mebbe its just this game, I'll try TF2. That loads up the valve splash screen, then goes black, and 'crashes' back to desktop. I used the inverted commas, because the machine doesnt crash, its as though its just minimized, but the game is gone and wont load.
It popped up a lack of memory warning once or twice, which I dont get, as I have 4gb, and my paging file is set to 10gb. surely 14gb combined is enough!!!!
I have also installed the latest catalyst driver from ATi, yet that seems to ahve made no difference.


Could anyone suggest a possbile solution to look into? I assumed the pc hadn't recognised the gfx card properly, but its got the latest drivers and hardware monitor states it as "working properly". Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm all out of ideas.

(oh, one last thing, internet explorere had a few tantrums, wouldn't let me sign into Tom's, and it won't let me save any favourites either!)

 

[Proximon]

Make sure the MB drivers are all up to date. Check ASUS for those.

It sounds a bit like a bad card, but you should eliminate a few things first.

 

[theAnimal]

Your page file shouldn't be 10GB. Did you change any of its settings or leave it Windows managed?

 

[flay]

Thanks for the replies guys.

yeh, i think my mobo drivers are up to date, I'll double check in a minute. I'm beginning to think I may have somehow got a bad card, the fan on it is spinning, and its displaying my monitor fine at 1650x1080, yet the ATi overdrive utility always fails no matter what core and mem clocks I set it too. It description on overclockers.co.uk says its rated for 625 mhz and memory of 1986mhz, yet if I set it to those in overdrive, it just says failed, without the activity meter for the card moving at all.

Theanimal: Yes, i changed my pagefile. I was under the impression that if you set its min and max values to the same it prevented fragmentation. Windows paging file recommended size is 6gb, so surely having more than the recommended size won't be a problem?

 

[flay]

Had a look at few more things.

My memory is set to unganged mode, is this correct (I think it is) or should I set it to ganged?

had a lookt at my bios, could any of these PCI-E settings be to blame?
-gfx dual slot configuration = auto
-gfx2 dual slot configuration = auto
-peer to peer among gfx/gfx2 = disabled
-GPP Slots Power Limit, W= 25 (this is the one I'm thinking may be an issue)

does the last valeu mean my pci-e is limited to 25W? If so, could this mean that my gfx card has enough power to spin the fans etc, but isnt actually functioning, and thus dies when I load a game?

thanks!

 

[flay]

anyone? please! I'm at a complete loss!

 

[theAnimal]

Theanimal: Yes, i changed my pagefile. I was under the impression that if you set its min and max values to the same it prevented fragmentation. Windows paging file recommended size is 6gb, so surely having more than the recommended size won't be a problem?

The best thing to do with the pagefile is nothing, let Windows handle it. The pagefile is randomly accessed, fragmentation does not matter.

 

[theAnimal]

Had a look at few more things.

My memory is set to unganged mode, is this correct (I think it is) or should I set it to ganged?

had a lookt at my bios, could any of these PCI-E settings be to blame?
-gfx dual slot configuration = auto
-gfx2 dual slot configuration = auto
-peer to peer among gfx/gfx2 = disabled
-GPP Slots Power Limit, W= 25 (this is the one I'm thinking may be an issue)

does the last valeu mean my pci-e is limited to 25W? If so, could this mean that my gfx card has enough power to spin the fans etc, but isnt actually functioning, and thus dies when I load a game?

thanks!

What does your manual or BIOS say about GPP Slots Power Limit?

 

[flay]

Thanks for the help theAnimal, its genuinely appreciated. I'll reset the page file to defaults and reboot and let you know if it helps.

As for the bios, my mobo manual says:
"GPP Slots Power Limit, W [25]
Change the value or type the desired value. The values range from 0 to 255"

Do you think this could be part of the issue.

 

[theAnimal]

Thanks for the help theAnimal, its genuinely appreciated. I'll reset the page file to defaults and reboot and let you know if it helps.

As for the bios, my mobo manual says:
"GPP Slots Power Limit, W [25]
Change the value or type the desired value. The values range from 0 to 255"

Do you think this could be part of the issue.

Try it at 75.

 

[flay]

okies, will do that now.

I just restarted with the system managed pagefile. It hasnt made a difference, steam games still just vanish after the splash screen and it returns to desktop. its allocated about 7gb to the paging file atm.

will alter the GPP slot and report back. thanks!

 

[flay]

Try it at 75.

set it to 75. Steam games still crash after splash. Trials 2 still says lacking critical support in the form of directx 9.0 and pixel shader 2.0

*sigh*. I'm going to uninstall and reinstall all the latest drivers again just in case it didnt work right the first time.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Is the GPU correctly identified in Windows? Do you have an exclamation mark next to the GPU in Device Manager?

 

[flay]

Is the GPU correctly identified in Windows? Do you have an exclamation mark next to the GPU in Device Manager?

Hmmm, there's nothing next to Display Adapter, is that what you mean? Or should there be a seperate GPU entry, (this is only my 2nd day with Vista), becuase there isn't. Display Adapter, if I expand it, says ATI Radeon 4800 Series, and GPU-Z is showing info about my gfx card, such as temps and things.

Just had a look at this windows index thingy, everything has 5.9 (except cpu at 5.6), yet my Graphics, and Gaming Graphics scores are both 1.0. Everytime I look at the window is says new hardware has been detected, I need to refresh my score. So I click refresh and the progress bar comes up, and after a minute or two its done - BUT everytime I still have a score of 1.0, and it STILL says I have new hardware detected, refresh required!

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Windows isn't detecting your GPU correctly. I had the same problem with a build over the weekend. I had to use Driver Cleaner to uninstall the old drivers and install the new Catalyst 9.1 drivers. My computer now works correctly and the windows experience shows correct values without the "new hardware detected" message.

 

[flay]

aha, so there is a (possible) solution, I must have somehow spannered up the drivers in my first attempt! Is driver cleaner some sort of program, or do you mean I should use the ATi uninstall feature and remove them that way?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Driver Cleaner is a separate program. You uninstall the driver using the ATI software, restart, then run Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of the old drivers. At that point you can restart and install the new drivers. Google Driver Cleaner for download info.

 

[flay]

Is there a preference over whether I use the two part Driver and then CCC driver, or just the one combined catalyst software suite driver?

Also, don't suppose there's anyway to get Driver Cleaner for free??? *looks hopeful*

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I always just install the combined software suite.

 

[flay]

It took two attempts, but its now working!!! yayness!!

Thanks so much guys, your input saved me hours of hair pulling, I had just assumed that as I had already updated to the latest drivers that it wasn't the issue. many thanks again.