Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) Computer problem

Fei_Hung

You did not read my post carefully as it seems.
I am not asking you to distrust anyone.
Just do this for me and test your MEMORY cards not your video card at all.

In the old days, there was a virus that could overdrive your CRT and burn the HT transformer we call the Flyback.
The cards during such an assault never get harmed. That problem was due to upgrading cards without upgrading monitors.

Unless you have short-circuited your video card by dropping a conductor on it while power is on, there is no reason for it to go out of order.

Now try to do as I told you with your memory cards.
Memory cards.
Not your video memory.
The mother board memory, there is nothing to lose here, so try it out please.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />
I must disagree with you, I read your post with care, however you must not fully understand me, the computer underwent a full array of diagnostic testing, and it seems the video card is faulty, so I still pose the same question. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

What was your previous one??

I had almost suspected that. It was a kind of feeling. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

My previous one was GEforce2 MX 400 64M or smth, so I don't know whether to go for another Nvidia chip(set) or for ATI? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/alien.gif" alt="" />

Mine is a Geforce 4 mmx 460 (one of the first vesions of the geforce4). All works great.

go nividia <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> no ATI <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/down.gif" alt="" />

my tip:
buy an Radion 9500 Pro
they are the best you can get for price / quality
soon there will be a radion 9600 PRO, but it's more expensive then the 9500 pro AND is a bit SLOWER then the 9500 Pro.
soo be fast to get one <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

er, they have a 9800 out already <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />, and no 9600 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />?

sh*t happens, fei hung. happened quite a lot of times 2 me as well. fried my mobo for demented reason. seemed that the mobo manufacturer opted 2 use inferior capacitors which actually have lower values than specified so when pushed, they blew.

about the graphic card, i'm sorry 2 hear that. a friend had his fried as well. his prob was more obvious though. the passive heatsink dropped & w/o proper dissipation of heat, the GPU went 2 heaven/hell. i have NVidia geforce 4 mx440se & it uses passive heatsink. yep, that means no fan installed. u'll be surprised if u play the computer for 2 hours & check the heat on the GPU is pretty high. just touch the heatsink & u'll know. AMD isn't the only hot processor.

so 4 the rest of u whose GPU is on passive heatsink, go & install a fan on it. u can salvage from your old processor fan (pentium mmx, amd k6-2) & screw it on the GPU heatsink. it's so easy, provided u know what u're doing.

DAD's right about tropical weather that makes heat problem even more dire.

who can figure out those markething tricks?
the radion 9500/9600 Pro are budgetversions of the 9700/9800 pro ones.

the same featers but mostely with a lower clockspeed.

the biggest marketing trick was from the geoforce4 versions.
you had the geoforce4 Mx and the geoforce4 ones.

everybody with a geoforce 4 MX thought that they had a geoforce 4 chipset, but the thruth is they have an modified geoforce2 ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />
soo the geoforce 3 wich was an older card is faster then the "new" geoforce4 MX version.
soo be careful with the names manufactures give to there cards <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mage.gif" alt="" />

Ati is now having troubles with giving a name to the new budget version of their video card. OK, the new normal card (not the budget version) is getting the number 9900. And the most recently video card is called the 9600, so the new budget card should be called 9700, but this number is already used for the Radeon 9700.

about bean's gripes on manufacturers' ruse 2 sell earlier chipsets when they claim it's new, well it isn't new. some 3rd party manufacturers do that. so it's best 2 get from reliable manufacturers & if u still don't trust them much, u can always use benchmark softwares(sisoft sandra, onion's 3dmark) that can detect the chipset which the markings are hidden from view by the passive heatsink.

heck, might as well throw in another friendly warning especially for asian consumers: be wary of shops that sweet talk u 2 buy stuf from them. some shitty ones will have u eat from their hands & once they get your money, u better pray nothing breaks. there are shops that do not believe in consumer rights.

wish i can throw elemental hail on them ice holes.

Well, I did get a new video card. Its MSI geforce 4 Ti 4200 VDD 8X 128DDR, and I like the way it performs and the price was right, plus I got a truckload of additional software in the bundle: Ghost Recon, Morrowind, Duke Nukem MP <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />, and some utilities. Everything works very well, I just wanted to say thanks to all who helped me figure out a solution and those who had input. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

so your game works now i take it?? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Everything works just fine, I am going to benchmark my card against the ATI counterpart and then overclock it!

ah. it works, for a good price, and good games, and your computer is good now, congrats! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif" alt="" />

aha !
i think we found the real reason of the burning out of your previos vidcard <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

No, I swear I didn't touch my old vid card. But this time I am getting a watter cooling system for my comp, so CPU and GPU will be overclocked for sure.

that sound nice, a water cooling set.
can you use 1 set for your cpu and GPU ?