Trouble with my computer
Tuesday, August 31st, 2004 - 2:44pm
OK, I've been having some random system crashes during games for the past week. There are only 2 things I have changed about my computer in that time. 1) I updated the drivers for my Asus made 9800 Pro 2) I updated windows xp. After the crash Windows says the problem is the ATI driver... where can I get an older driver, the one that worked beautifully?
|Steam|
You can get tons of drivers at www.guru3d.com
They have drivers for Nvidia and ATi, official and unofficial drivers aswell.
RogueHunterDK
I''d go to
http://downloads.driverheaven.net/index.htm
and get the Omega drivers. People that have trouble with official drivers have very good luck with Omega''s set.
Make sure you get the driver cleaner as well.
Follow the driver cleaner directions to the letter, then install the Omega set instead.
Blog: justinmwhitaker
Twitter: justinmwhitaker
If I remember right, doesn''t Windows XP let you rollback your drivers? Might be able to roll back and find an archived driver using Google. I''ve also had similar issues concerning DirectX and City of Heroes. Try reinstalling Directx 9.0c and see if that fixes it.
"In heaven all the interesting people are missing." -Friedrich Nietzsche
"Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the
universe together." -Carl Zwanzig
Mateo,
I did all of that... and the same damn thing is still happening... and now it''s saying that my c: drive is corrupted. So I ran chkdsk and ""fixed"" it, then I defraged it. I haven''t tried anything this morning but I''m about to. Does anyone have any suggestions?
|Steam|
Here''s a crazy question... did these problems start happening *immediately* after you made those changes, or are the problems more recent and those are just the last couple changes you made? If it''s the latter, then perhaps drivers and windows updates aren''t the culprit; maybe your HDD''s going south. HDD''s fail more than anything else, by far. If this is the case, back up your important stuff ASAP before it gets worse. Maybe try swapping another drive in there and see how it goes. Maybe go for a RAID 1, the peace of mind is wonderful -- trust me
I called it, just sayin'.
I can''t help you but I can sympathise if that makes you feel better. I just had to reformat/re-install xp in order to get windows to accept my brand new 9800 PRO
I second this. When the officials cause problems, run with the Omegas. They tend to stabilize things out. Odds are, the crashes are caused by a driver conflict. Check your device manager to make sure none of your devices are ''broken''.
Also try some of the driver removal tools to clean up the ATI Cat installs. These go through and pull all the reg entries and such from your Windows install.
Steam|Google+|BF3|BC2
See, Bagga, this makes me nervous... because I DID just move and in this move my GF dropped my computer. It broke the case, but it booted alright, so I am hoping that that is not the reason behind the trouble. These are the most recent changes. Man, I really hope my HD is not going bad, because I am not in a position to replace it right now...
|Steam|
I recently had to replace my HD when it went bad. Well, actually, I cleaned my computer, spraying it out with one of those air cans, immediately after, the drive started flaking out, inconsistently. A week later and I was dataless. Get as much data off as you possibly can immediately. Have a friend burn you a knoppix CD, hook up some external storage and get your important stuff off before doing any more ""fixing"" - DON''T defrag or Scandisk again till you do this.
Unless you keep your data separate, in which case, no big deal.
Steam: duckilama
T.Rex is more impressive than a cockroach, but that doesn't mean it aged better. - CheezePavillion
wait you or someone physically dropped your PC hard enough that it broke the case?
you could have anynumber of problems arise from this..
A short could be occuring every now and then depending on heat or fan activity etc...
I''m assuming you dissasembled it completely and inspected every part for signs of physical damage?
reseated the CPU, Ram, Powersupply cables etc...
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
The next step is to drop your g/f on the ground and see what breaks for comparison...
I don't always run Windows, but when I do, I use MSE. (Stay uninfected, my friends) - *Legion*, TMILUITW
Better to reign in P&C than serve in Everything Else. - Tanglebones
well, I didn''t drop it for one, Guru. But maybe you misunderstand, -or I explained myself poorly which is more likely- the plastic fascia on the front broke off. But it was a pretty solid drop and now I''m deathly afraid that''s what happened. I did reseat all the power cables and check the cards and all that.... but I left the cpu alone after it booted fine, thinking that if the socket was loose it was sitting in a good spot and working. What sucks is that my HD isn''t even a year old yet and I hope its not going bad.
|Steam|
That''s what warranties are for.
I don't always run Windows, but when I do, I use MSE. (Stay uninfected, my friends) - *Legion*, TMILUITW
Better to reign in P&C than serve in Everything Else. - Tanglebones
Have you tried putting the HD in another system. I''ve also replaced an HD in the past but later found out that one of the DMA channels on the motherboard had ""gone bad"".
Steam: duckilama
T.Rex is more impressive than a cockroach, but that doesn't mean it aged better. - CheezePavillion
I can''t try that ducki... I only have one computer... except for the laptop, which I don''t know how to hook my s-ata drive to...
|Steam|
Doh. Do you have a spare old drive you can hook up to the ailing PC? Just to make sure it''s the HD?
Or try connecting the SATA drive to another SATA ""port"" thingy - I''ve read(but have no experience) that the connectors on the motherboard are extremely frail for SATA drives and break easily. You might try a new cable and/or a different port-thingy.
Or just connect an old IDE drive if you have one(P-ATA?) and see if the system is stable. At least then you could maybe rule out certain factors.
I hate hardware problems, and HD problems seem like the worst to me. Good luck, man.
Steam: duckilama
T.Rex is more impressive than a cockroach, but that doesn't mean it aged better. - CheezePavillion
Ok, here''s another thing it may be. I just found the MSI Core Cell cd, the temperature monitoring thingey, and the northbridge temp is at a steady 54 degrees celsius. Now, what I''m thinking is that it hits 60 while I''m playing a game and reboots the system... anyone else think that makes sense?
|Steam|
That does make sense. I''ve read so many reivews that I can''t recall if MSI is one of them, but a certain motherboard manufacturer is notorious for having their temps read inaccurately and creating a problem like this.
But I don''t recall if it''s MSI or someone else. It is a known problem with whichever mobo manufacturer it is, so you might check the forums at MSI.
Steam: duckilama
T.Rex is more impressive than a cockroach, but that doesn't mean it aged better. - CheezePavillion
I believe it is MSI as well. I''ve owned 3 MSI boards and never had the problem; but from what I''ve read they often report inaccurate temperatures. All you need to do is disable the feature that reboots because of temperature.
I called it, just sayin'.
The strange thing is I''ve had this board for a year with no problems... I don''t know... I wish I could just get a new machine, it''s time to upgrade anyway...
|Steam|
Considering your PC was dropped no telling what it really could be.
Maybe your chip fan is slightly off now and causing it to get hotter than it once did.
Maybe get some thermal paste and reseat your chip fan. That would be an inexpensive thing to do and may save you some major pains espeicailly if the chip is getting hot.
I would also take the time to just check every cable and card at a minimum or even better do like gg said and pull it all out and put it all back in again just to make sure it is all seated properly.
And here''s something else! World of Warcraft runs beautifully! No random restarts at all... so maybe there''s nothing wrong with my comp... maybe its just not playing well with EA games or something... I don''t know...
|Steam|
Just out of curiousity, is your 9800Pro overclocked?
Steam: duckilama
T.Rex is more impressive than a cockroach, but that doesn't mean it aged better. - CheezePavillion
nope
|Steam|
I was just thinking-what sort of crash are we talking? Automatic restart, or system lock up, or blackscreen freeze?
What is the event viewer telling you? If you look in and it says ""Ati smart req"" its not a driver issue. That''s ATI''s software trying to manage a bad series of commands/instructions.
I have had a series of issues where the system locked, black screen, always midgame a while back, and it turned out to be solved (90%) by adding two new fans, rounded cables, pulling everythign out of the case and putting it back in.
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