I give up, i need some help...

[pickxx]

I bought a graphics card and i got it and i opened my case excited like a kid at x-mas, and i popped the card into the previously empty slot. I closed everything and i started it up. I got all excited and windows kicked up and i loaded the game i had bought in hopes of playing endlessly. Everything worked fine till i booted up the game. Screen went black...well i guess it was mostly black with a flicker or two of what was going on behind it. As soon as the computer wanted ANYTHING to be rendered in 3D my card crapped out and i had to reboot.

I tryed many games, i tryed Rhino, i tryed anything i could think of and they all failed once the need for anything in 3D. I figured i needed new drivers, no big deal i went on the company website and got the drivers. I DL'd them and installed. No change.

I am not a computer guru by any means but i am not without experiance either. I have an alright computer and i was hoping to upgrade the pieces i could before a major overhaul of the Mobo, Processor, and whatnot.

I have a Athlon XP1700, 512MB RAM, and some Mobo i dont know. I have a Compaq Presario and i tryed what i know to look it up and cant find it. I would like to install an MSI FX5600 VTDR128.

I can't figure out why it wont work. is there something inheirently wrong with my computer? card? my instalation?

I completely uninstalled the card and tryed to reinstall it, and even after that the same thing happens. I also had trouble with some of the software bundled with it. my computer would recognize the card and loaded 90% of the software for it but one disk would pause about half way through and then i would have to reboot.

I took a midrange 64MB card from a friend that was his old one to use for games. (yes, i am aware that its not the greatest card but it was free and i am not playing FarCry here...) I am forced to use lower res. and crappy options to play. its not bad but it could be WAY better.

I would think it might be the card but it works fine if i just surf the internet or do something that doesn't require it to do any rendering.

I am so lost, maybe its a quick fix i dont know about, maybe something about my Mobo can't handle the card, maybe the card is bad, maybe something else....i dont know.

I tryed to give as much info as i could, i dont mean to be anoying its just that i am so lost.
thanks for any help you can give

 

[mrface]

first off, what what the card you got and what was the card you replaced?

and give some more system specs, thanx.

"This Steel ain't stainless, Your bloodstains are all over this steel."
<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Messianic Maniac.}=-</A>
<font color=green>{FLM}</font color=green>

 

[pickxx]

I replaced the onboard graphics, i only recently have wanted to play games and with only a need to surf, type things, and things like that i didn't want to have a card.

I dont know the specs, i would gladly copy and paste anything i could find. but i looked at system info, and the properties of the "my computer" icon on my desktop and nothing is jumping out at me like what Mobo i have. I dont know what else you want to know. I know it makes me sound anoying and stupid but i can't help what i dont know....sorry

I know its Generic RAM, and i have no idea on the mobo, i know i have a AMD 1700 running at 1.47GHz.
What else do you want to know? i can try to find it out for you.
Thanks

 

[pickxx]

I know this situation for most of the people i am asking help from it odd. not knowing the very fine details of my computer but i am 21 and i got this coputer when i was 18 and starting college. Soon (2-3months) i will be getting a new computer that will be much better and i will know all of the componants in it much better.
Sorry for being a pain i am just kinda stuck.

 

[Slava]

Dude, collect your thoughts. Speak coherently. It is not what you know or don’t know it is the way you are trying to describe the problem. It is very confusing.

First, was your previous on-board card ATI or nVIDIA?

If you did not have an expansion video card but instead you had a on-board video device built into your motherboard then you need to DISABLE that old video device for the new one to work properly.

Go into your BIOS (you will have to do some homework and find out what key to press at PC boot-up to enter BIOS setup). Once in BIOS browse the pages till you find an entry that refers to On-board video or On-board graphics or something to that effect and choose the Disabled or Disable option. Again, was the built-in card you just disabled ATI or nVIDIA?

If you are replacing your ATI card with nVIDIA (or vice versa), have you removed/uninstalled your old video card drivers before installing the new card?

Second, when PhukFace asked you what card you have you SHOULD have been able to answer. Look, I mean no offense but you are about to become a college graduate, surely you can read the name of the card off the BOX it came in. If it did not come in a box you can still read the name and model off the label or off one of the chips on the card itself.

You said you would like to install MSI FX5600 VTDR128. Is this the card you referred to when you said you “popped the card into the previously empty slot”? What do you have in the other (occupied) slots? Is there ANOTHER video card in there somewhere by any chance? If so it should be removed.

Finally, you will find a lot of relevant information which will be helpful in analyzing your situation in my post above called “Enhancing system performance”. It covers a broad range of issues, but it will help you get started and, among other things, explain how to change BIOS settings, etc.

Good luck. And keep in mind that unless you come to us with some useable information about your problem no amount of begging and whining is going to help us help you.

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[pickxx]

Alright, i was unclear apparently and i will break it down a little easier to read.
My card wont work properly. The card is an MSI FX5600 128 VTDR128 a Nvidia card. I dont know what my motherboard is because i have a generic Compaq Presario and i dont know where i can locate that info on my computer (i have looked but i can't find it.)

The slot i was refering to was the AGP slot, my motherboard only has one AGP slot and it was empty before this. i have several other slots below it that are PCI slots that are filled with various things. (Modem, ethernet card, USB 2.0 card) I am using a different card then the one i would like to use. That card is a ABIT Siluro GF4 MX.
I tryed to install the better card without having used the crappy one i have in now. I remember trying to remove/uninstall all old video drivers when i was first trying to install my new card. I tryed to remove all drivers and tryed to install the most current drivers for my new card from the company website.

I have read your posting and i have done most of what is on there that is related to this. I haven't used the spyware software since my problem isn't boosting speed from ym GPU, its getting ANY speed from it. I do apologize for comming off asking for help without giving information. I am trying to give you everything i know.

I can't use technical language to describe my problem because i am not that informed. All i know is that the card works until i start anything that requests it to use 3D rendering. Games or graphic design applications. My screen goes black and i have to reboot.

Truely i wish i could describe it better, or give tons of info. It would be to my own advantage to post it to help you guys help me out. If you could tell me how to look up my mobo, or a place i can look up compadibility, or anything i am more then willing to help you out but i feel that most of you would view me as a neusance and ignore me.
Either way thanx for atleast reading this.

 

[ChipDeath]

You'll probably have a proprietary Compaq motherboard, so not many people here would be familiar with it, but just in case could you look on the motherboard and see if there's any writing? Usually around/between the PCI/AGP slots is where manufacturers would put names/models.

I would hazard a guess at your Power supply simply not being able to cope with the extra load of the more powerful graphics card. The bad news is that larger OEMs (Compaq, Dell) sometimes re-wire their Power supplies, meaning a new ATX power supply might not work, or possibly blow up your computer.

it <i>might</i> be simply an overheating issue. The FX cards can be a bit on the hot side... Although if that was the case I would expect it to work at first and then die. Try taking the side/top off your computer and pointing a House fan at the innards & see if that helps. if it does, then you have an overheating problem and need to improve the airflow through your case, by adding extra exhaust & intake fans.

Aside from that, the best thing I can think of is for you to download something like Motherboard Monitor 5 (use google), and hope it can read temperatures and voltages from your motherboard. You could then use it to monitor your voltage levels and log them to a file, so you could see if they drop just before a crash (a sign of an underpowered power supply). MBM5 can be a little fiddly to configure though, if you aren't familiar with hardware stuff.


---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

 

[Slava]

You'll probably have a proprietary Compaq motherboard...

Agreed on all counts. Also, who knows what AGP version Compaq used in their mobo 4 years ago? Could it be that his AGP voltage is other than 1.5?

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[ChipDeath]

Maybe, maybe not - I would expect a OEM system shipped in the Athlon XP era to have 4x AGP at least, but even if this was not the case I would expect it to not work <i>at all</i>, not just when you try to switch to 3d stuff.

AFAIK putting a 3V(or is it 3.3? Don't remember) (AGP 1.0) AGP card into a motherboard which doesn't support it will blow the mobo up.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

 

[pickxx]

Well i have taken the side panel off and i think its somewhere on the other side of the room. I was getting sick of messing with it when i had to take the card out when i needed to check things, and now that i have a 2nd card switching them out so i can double check some of the settings and making sure my computer is adjusting to them.

I haven't tryed the house fan but i have tested to see if the air was comming out warm. even after playing an AVI on a loop for 12hours the air comming out felt very cool and not warm at all. The warmth of my CPU is warmer then the card and my CPU is fine....i will try to house fan because you never know.

is it possible to overheat in like 1-2seconds?

I just remembered that when this first happened i tryed Ctrl Alt Del to see if i could shut down the game because i thought the game was bad and not my card and it took me a couple of min but i got the game to "not respond" and so windows asked me if i wanted to close it. and the card went back to working fine.

If its power what can i do? I would prefer not to blow up my computer until i have a new one....5-6months away probably can i replace the power source at all or should i jus go get a card battery to offset the power needs?

From what i have experianced it would seem to make sense that its power. when it needs to use the GPU processor and onboard RAM it craps out...so it makes sense that a greater power need would screw everything up.
Thanx a lot for your ideas, i really really apretiate them. THANX!!!

 

[Slava]

Is there a female Molex connector on your FX5600? The Molex connector is the same type of power connector that goes from your power supply to your hard disk (do not confuse it with the IDE cable that goes from your motherboard to the hard disk). Did you plug the power cord into your FX5600? If you did and it still does not work check your power supply's label for power rating. If it is less than 300W this may be the cause of your problem.

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[pickxx]

The card came with no female connector. In the book it gives instructions on how to install the connector but the FX5600 doesn't have one but the FX5600 Ultra does. So i looked to see if i had one and i dont.

I just looked to see the Wattage, and it says 250....so i think i have found the problem. Mentally i remember looking before and i thought it was a 350.
So, how easily is it to change out a power supply? i dont want to [-peep-] everything up....Is it literally as simple as sliding one thing out, and sliding one back in? or are there BIOS changes and tons of cords to deal with that i will be confused by and end up hanging myself with them?

 

[Slava]

So, how easily is it to change out a power supply?

This question has already been answered in one of the posts above.

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[Vimp]

Even if a new power supply dosen't fit in your case, all is not lost. You can leave the powersupply just outside the case while everything is hooked up to it. Not recomended if you can avoid it since its kinda messy and easily susceptible to being damaged, but if thats your only option then you can always do that.

<font color=blue>_______________________________</font color=blue>
Canada
Asus A7N8X-X, Athelon XP 2500+ Barton,
Samsung 1gb DDR400, MSI GeforceFX5900 XT.
Aquamark=<b>36077</b> 3DMark03=<b>5322</b>

 

[Crashman]

Did you load the DRIVER for you new graphics card?

<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>

 

[Slava]

Did you load the DRIVER for you new graphics card?

If I read his posts right, he DID.

<font color=green>"The creative powers of English morphology are pathetic compared to what we find in other languages." (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct)</font color=green>

 

[pickxx]

Yes, i took out all video drivers and DL'd the newest version from the company and installed that.
I think i have solved the problem though. I have 250W of power from this Dumb Compaq P.O.S.
So now all i need is to find a good reliable 350-400W Power source so i can run things. I am not posative its the power but it makes sense that when my card kicks into high gear to process things and it draws more power that it craps out on me.....It makes sense to me but that may not be the way it works.

 

[ChipDeath]

before you start spending money, try the latest Nvidia Driver (from <A HREF="http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp" target="_new">here</A>). I get the impression you've only tried the ones from your card's manufacturer. Nvidia have probably released a newer version than the manufacturers are using, which might work better.

Also make sure you have the latest version of DirectX.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744