Help! Major alert!

[dylbot]

I have posted about this before, but to no avail.
My nVidia GEForce 7950 does not work properly, and I have no idea why. It's not the card, because I have tried 2 of the same card, and the same problem resulted.
I have re installed the software, and have the latest drivers installed, but still, the graphics dont display properly.
I will post pictures up if anyone is interested or might have an idea, I'm up to just about anything. It won't even let me play Left 4 Dead 1 or 2, it just shuts down.
Please help!
PS, I'm not OCing my card, and I have Pentium 4 3 GHz and 512 MB of RAM.

 

[skolpo]

What's your power supply?

 

[magneezo]

I have posted about this before, but to no avail.
My nVidia GEForce 7950 does not work properly, and I have no idea why. It's not the card, because I have tried 2 of the same card, and the same problem resulted.
I have Pentium 4 3 GHz and 512 MB of RAM.

Upgrade the ram past 2 GB if at all possible.

 

[outlw6669]

FYI, both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 require a minimum of 1GB RAM.

It sounds like either something is failing, overheating or there is not enough power available.

-Please post the brand, model, wattage and +12V amperage of your PSU.

-Use Memtest and prime95 to ensure both your RAM and CPU are working properly.

-Check your idle and load temps for both the CPU and GPU, then post them back.
Also, get a can of compressed air and clean out all your heatsinks.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Could be power. Could be the dvi/vga cable cable. That would be the easiest and cheapest thing to test. Another family member or friend's gotta have a cable you can try.... 512 ram isn't enough these days.

 

[geofelt]

If you have only 512mb of ram, there is almost nothing left after allocating space for your video card buffers.
You need more ram. Period. Look for 2gb, preferably 4gb.

 

[dylbot]

Where do I get this RAM cheap >__>
I'm in Australia, and I'm willing to buy it online >__<
Thank you everyone, this has helped a lot!
I just got a new power cord, and new fans, and everything, but I'll look into all that stuff too.
By the way, the RAM is on the video card >__>

 

[geofelt]

Where do I get this RAM cheap >__>
I'm in Australia, and I'm willing to buy it online >__<
Thank you everyone, this has helped a lot!
I just got a new power cord, and new fans, and everything, but I'll look into all that stuff too.
By the way, the RAM is on the video card >__>

OH! How much ram do you have on the PC, not the video card?

I suggest you try a clean an install of your video driver. Here's how:

1) Download driversweeper to your desktop, or wherever you can find it easily.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D---Driver-Sweeper-(Setup)-download-1655.html

2) Download your new driver to the same place.
3) Add/remove programs, uninstall any Nvidia or ATI vga drivers and programs.
4) Boot into safe mode. Press F8 repeatedly while booting to enter safe mode. Your display resolution may be minimal.
5) Run driversweeper. Check the selection boxes for the removal of all nvidia vga drivers and ati drivers.
6) Rerun driversweeper. All such components should be gone.
7) Install the new driver from the desktop or saved location.

 

[dylbot]

I don't know how to check how much RAM my computer has, if you could tell me that would be great.
And I'll try the clean install this weekend, after I back everything up. I don't wanna risk losing everything e__e

 

[geofelt]

I don't know how to check how much RAM my computer has, if you could tell me that would be great.
And I'll try the clean install this weekend, after I back everything up. I don't wanna risk losing everything e__e

On start/computer, right click. Then click properties. Amount of ram and other info will be there; tell us what you see.

 

[dylbot]

It says Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz 2.99 GHz, 512 MB of RAM
:S

 

[geofelt]

It says Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz 2.99 GHz, 512 MB of RAM
:S

That tells me that you certainly need more ram, you should have 2gb, preferably 3 or 4gb.

 

[dylbot]

I bought 2GB of DDR RAM today, but it didnt fit. The box says DDR2 and the card inside my computer says DDR
Does that mean I need DDR1?

 

[Derbixrace]

yep you need DDR ram (DDR1)

 

[outlw6669]

That is correct, you will need standard DDR RAM.
Try and match the timings, voltage and speed with your current RAM.
You can locate this information using CPUz.

 

[geofelt]

1) Identify your motherboard. Download and run cpu-z.

2) For any ram you are considering, do your own homework.
Go to the ram vendor's web site, and access their configurator.
Corsair, Kingston, Patriot, OCZ and others have them.
Their compatibility list is more current than the motherboard vendor's QVL lists which rarely get updated.
Enter your mobo or PC, and get a list of compatible ram sticks.

Here are a few links:

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx

http://www.corsair.com/configurator/default.aspx

http://kingston.com/

http://conf.ocztechnology.com/index.php?c=1

http://www.patriotmemory.com/configurator/index.jsp

Cpu performance is not very sensitive to ram speeds.
If you look at real application and game benchmarks(vs. synthetic tests),
you will see negligible difference in performance between the slowest DDR2 and the fastest DDR3 ram.
Perhaps 1-2%. Not worth it to me.
Don't pay extra for faster ram or better timings unless you are a maximum overclocker.

 

[dylbot]

I now have 2 GB RAM, installed and everything.
Wooh. But I still have the tearing (severely), and when I googled it, it was talking about my refresh rate, and V-Sync. I turned V-Sync onto triple buffer and got the same result, and my monitors refresh rate is 60 hertz.
Whats going on D:

 

[skolpo]

What game are you playing? Is the problem as bad as it was before?

 

[magneezo]

I have posted about this before, but to no avail.
My nVidia GEForce 7950 does not work properly, and I have no idea why. It's not the card, because I have tried 2 of the same card, and the same problem resulted.
I have re installed the software, and have the latest drivers installed, but still, the graphics dont display properly.
I will post pictures up if anyone is interested or might have an idea, I'm up to just about anything. It won't even let me play Left 4 Dead 1 or 2, it just shuts down.
Please help!
PS, I'm not OCing my card, and I have Pentium 4 3 GHz and 512 MB of RAM.

Are you running a 7950 GT or 7950 GX2?
The GX2 is a dual core GPU board and could need special drivers.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Are you running a 7950 GT or 7950 GX2?
The GX2 is a dual core GPU board and could need special drivers.

The 7950GX2 uses the same drivers as all the other 7 series cards and is fully supported by the latest drivers from Nvidia, no special drivers are required.

 

[dylbot]

It's just GT.
Once I get this graphics problem sorted I just need to buy a DVD drive, my lens wore out in my old one. (I think).

 

[dylbot]

Now, I know thats not normal.
Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on with that?
Sorry about the size, I have a huge screen+huge resolution.
Would my monitor have anything to do with it?