Graphix Problem I think!!

[old.Noita]

Right... first things first, I know VERY little about the hardware and configurations thereof that sit happily away under my computer desk at home. I admit it ok... I do however have a problem that I would like some educated answer to please cos Im getting a bit concerned.

First of all this is my system as far as I know.

AMD Athlon chip (Fastest AMD chip commercially available) the man in the shop said, so Im sorry dont know the numbers and so on. But I think its a 1.8 or something.

512 Ram
nVidia GForce 2 card, sorry dont know how much memory it has on it. IM BLONDE OK!!! But I do have the detonator drivers and the latest Windows XP display drivers (so maybe Im not THAT blonde) Both sets of drivers installed AFTER my problems began in an attempt to cure it.

Cable internet connection.

Problem:

Recently, when I have logged in to the game and am just about to move my avatar, (and this has happened b4 patch 1.5 so I dont think its anything to do with that). My game freezes and locks and I get a screen full of vertical lines. All I can do is switch off my pc and reboot. Sometimes this happens once and then the next time i enter the game all is fine, however sometimes this happens up to 20 damn times and takes me 30 mins or so just to log in

Usually this just happened after log in, however...it is now happening randomly, regardless of if Ive just logged in or have been playing an hour or two!!

Im getting a bit concerned now as its caused me to die twice in recent days, and I am reluctant to trust my PC enough to grp with anyone in case they get grief because of my technical problems.

Hope you more technically aware people can help me out here.

By the way... this doesnt seem to be happening when I generally surf the net or when I play Morrowind or NWN.

Thanks in advance.

 

[old.dittytwo]

mmm have you reinstalled the drivers recently or ahve you managed to get the latests one from the nvida website see other thread (here)

or it might be the motherboard drivers, do you know what motherboard you have and if it has a via chipset.. as this does sound like the classic via chipset with graphics problem...

 

[Danya]

Does it tend to happen after you've had the computer on for a bit? If so it may have got full of dust and be overheating. Might be worth opening it up and blowing as much dust out of it as possible, compressed air is quite handy, but just blowing it will also do the job.

 

[old.Noita]

Thanks for your reply

Well I got all the latest drivers both the Windows XP Display drivers AND the 40.41 detonator drivers for my PC AFTER this problem started, cos I thought it might help a bit, it hasnt and the problem still exists and seems to be getting a little worse.

As far as the other stuff......... umm wha?

Sorry I didnt understand ANY of the last bit. If you can be bothered can you explain to me what this is, how I can find out and so on. Please be as Janet and John simple as you like, the more so the better. I cannot overemphasise enough....I turn the box on, I double click on the Icons of the programmes I need to use (Im much better with the software on the machine than the stuff inside it you see) and off I go.

Sorry for being vague `

Danyan: Thanks for the tip about dusting, I'll give that a go now of course. I work from home quite a lot and run many different software applications here and my PC is on for say 16 hours a day, I have experienced no other problems like this except when running DAoC. As I said b4... sometimes I log in and load my avatar and no problems for 3, 4 or 5 hours then BANG all of a sudden its horizontal lines and a reboot. Other times, I spark up DAoC and load my avatar and within seconds I have lines and it takes 20 or 30 reboots to be able to play.

 

[VidX]

Hmm... interesting.

Nice problem.

Ok, what Dannyn says could be the most likely cause. But before you open the PC and check for dust, you might want to check to see if opening the case will have an impact on any warranty you have. If it does, I would bring the PC back to the shop and have them check it out.

If there is no warranty or opening the case won't affect it, then run the PC for a while, playing Morrowind or DAOC for about half an hour. Then turn the PC off and immediately open the case and check the temperature of the heatsink on the processor and also the temperature of the graphics card.

If either of these are feeling a bit warm more than you can stand to touch for example) then you might have a heating problem, causing the graphical errors.

Check to see if there is any dust buildup around the CPU, and if there are any case fans (if there are at the front of the case they should be blowing into the case, and at the back of the case should be blowing out) and if there is dust buildup on these.

As Danyan says, compressed air is the best thing for removing the dust from around the CPU and the graphics card (Well, anywhere on the motherboard and components anyway) but if you don't have any you can remove it if you are very carfeul by using your fingers.

The only other cause of the problem, as Dittytwo has said, might be the display drivers. You said you have the detonator drivers, do you know which version? Download the latest ones from the nVidia Drivers Page. Choose Graphics Driver-> Detonator 40-> Windows XP/2000 to download the latest. Then uninstall your current drivers (might need to go into Device Manager (Right click My Computer, then click Manage, select Device Manager) and change the driver for the Video Card to Standard VGA Adapter then uninstall any nVidia Detonator drivers from Add/Remove Programs).

Next reboot your PC, and when Windows loads, run the install for the new nVidia drivers, install them, let the PC reboot, and then try DAOC again.

(N.B. ALWAYS remove any existing drivers before installing new ones, don't just simply run a setup/install drivers on top of existing ones. It's like, well, runnning the Upgrade from Windows 95 to XP setup... YUCK! Severe issues )

Apart from this I cannot think of anything that might be causing the issue as XP uses the right version of the DirectX drivers for DAOC. You might also want to run the Windows Update to update Windows while you are at it (careful though, Service Pack 1 went on the Windows Update yesterday and is nearly a 140mb download, plus there will be other fixes).

See if this helps. If not, I'll see if I can come up with something else.

 

[old.Noita]

Thank you Usp

Tho I think I'll stick to dusting and if it continues, and isnt a downloadable solved problem, I will give my little man in the computer shop a ring

Just for fun tho, can someone explain what dittytwo was saying about the motherboard stuff. Im all intrigued now If there is a problem with via chipsets and motherboards resulting in gfx card failure, perhaps there is a known solution as well?

Thanks again all

 

[Danya]

A motherboard problem would have been apparent from when you bought your computer, if it's only started happening recently it's unlikely to be that. Motherboards have no moving parts, if you don't mistreat them, they don't tend to wear out.

 

[old.Noita]

Well.... I got the case open and I have done some dusting, wasnt too bad inside but was bad enough. Anyways, its a lot cleaner now in there and I'll go get some cleaning stuff asap. I hope this will have helped a little, and cant see it would have done any harm at least.

So I'll give it another go and see whats what.

Thanks all for the help so far, and btw I do have a via chip set, I just had a look when I was cleaning Oh and a nVidia GForce 2 Ti if that makes any difference.

 

[talen_sun]

A little tip about overheating...

When you take the case off to check for overheating, try this little tip....

Leave the case off the maching, and point a desk fan at the innards of the case about 1 to 2 feet away from it. Stick the fan on full, so that it a) Blows all the dust away! and b) give a constant stream of cool air flowing all over the motherboard, chip, GFX card etc.

Also, if there is LOTS of dust, pop down a local car shop (Halfords, and the like) and buy a can of compressed air. (Make sure you DO NOT get WD40!!) Use the can and blow all the dust away...

Anyway, if you find that the fan is stopping any overheating and crashing you may have, you may need to get a bigger heatsink and fan... if thats the case, check out this site...

www.overclockers.co.uk

They sell a large range of cooling equipment, and (afaik) they will fit the parts for you (if you get the machine to them) for free. Not sure if thats true or not as I tend to do everything myself...

Anyway, good luck...

 

[tris-]

what i dont understand is why do you need the XP display drivers AND the new detonators?

 

[ivan_tribbiani]

Noita on the sidenote get a REALLY good cooling system for your computer, AMD are prone to overheating. I had my motherboard burn out along with the Processor.

< its a little offtopic but i think its relevant >

Otherwise i choose AMD over Intel anyday <waits for a promo check from AMD >

 

[tris-]

AMD may well be faster (thats why they are good for us gamers) but pentiums perform better and have better instructiion sets for multimedia etc.. also they dont run at temperatures of a furnace.

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by old.Noita
Well.... I got the case open and I have done some dusting, wasnt too bad inside but was bad enough. Anyways, its a lot cleaner now in there and I'll go get some cleaning stuff asap. I hope this will have helped a little, and cant see it would have done any harm at least.
So I'll give it another go and see whats what.
Thanks all for the help so far, and btw I do have a via chip set, I just had a look when I was cleaning Oh and a nVidia GForce 2 Ti if that makes any difference.

sorry it took so long to reply been at work (well still am)
take a look at this thread here it basically tells you a,link to the via chipset drivers website
i had a very similar problem that these drivers solved

Dannyn (and to other people) this is a known problem with via chipsets and DAoC, although everything else game wise works fine?? still i know quite a lot of people that have solved the problem by installing the latest drivers for Via

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by n3wbie
AMD may well be faster (thats why they are good for us gamers) but pentiums perform better and have better instructiion sets for multimedia etc.. also they dont run at temperatures of a furnace.

Ahahahahahahahahahah
*ahem*
P4s have similar power output to athlons, they're bigger so a bit easier to cool though.
Faster = performs better, you contradict yourself there. Given equal MHz, Athlons perform better, however the P4 design allows higher MHz. Having said that, the P4 architecture is so badly engineered it's incredible they sell any, so many bad design decisions. Net result is Athlons are faster in almost all cases.
As for instruction set, there's almost no difference and certainly nothing an end user would notice.

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by old.dittytwo
Dannyn (and to other people) this is a known problem with via chipsets and DAoC, although everything else game wise works fine?? still i know quite a lot of people that have solved the problem by installing the latest drivers for Via

I run a VIA chipset and have had no problems at all with DAoC. *shrug*

 

[VidX]

There are some issues in XP (pre-SP1) that caused graphical problems which had nothing to do with graphics card drivers. These range from DirectX problems to simple .dll's.

One example is this MS Technet Question. It's to do with the ACPI settings in XP, and the main reason it shows up is if you are running one of XP's built in 3D screensavers and want to go into Suspend or Hibernate mode. It is not graphics adapter dependant (happens on all graphics cards) and it also causes an issue with some games on XP, most noticably GTA3 (Details here).

talen_sun: you are correct in saying that the desk fan blowing over your setup will give you an idea as to whether you need more cooling/bigger case/to re-arrange your cables.

/em has nightmares about Noita 'dusting' her PC's internals with a shammy and Mr. Sheen.

The Via chipset has ALOT of problems with ALOT of things, too many to actually put here (takes you to follow forums like Arstechnica to understand it all.

You should be ok though Noita, though the only thing you might want to try updating still would be the Via 4in1 drivers (download from here). This will update things like the AGP, PCI, USB and IDE interfaces, among other things. Read the page carefully and download the installation manual if needed.

 

[VidX]

Originally posted by Dannyn

Ahahahahahahahahahah
*ahem*
P4s have similar power output to athlons, they're bigger so a bit easier to cool though.
Faster = performs better, you contradict yourself there. Given equal MHz, Athlons perform better, however the P4 design allows higher MHz. Having said that, the P4 architecture is so badly engineered it's incredible they sell any, so many bad design decisions. Net result is Athlons are faster in almost all cases.
As for instruction set, there's almost no difference and certainly nothing an end user would notice.

Very true Dannyn, though for a home user the following is the most important: Taking into account the cost factor, spending the same amount of money on an Athlon system as you do on a P4 system, with the only changes spec changes being the Memory type and CPU speed, an Athlon will ALWAYS work out to be faster, due to them being cheaper to buy than their equal speed P4's.

 

[tris-]

Originally posted by Dannyn

Ahahahahahahahahahah
*ahem*
P4s have similar power output to athlons, they're bigger so a bit easier to cool though.
Faster = performs better, you contradict yourself there. Given equal MHz, Athlons perform better, however the P4 design allows higher MHz. Having said that, the P4 architecture is so badly engineered it's incredible they sell any, so many bad design decisions. Net result is Athlons are faster in almost all cases.
As for instruction set, there's almost no difference and certainly nothing an end user would notice.

i didnt contradict my self, faster doesnt mean better, faster means faster. What if you could make your car faster but at the expence had to take out a component and so that made it ratly and the doors fall of, its not better its just faster. They are cooler because they are thinner core than athlons.

 

[VidX]

Oh dear, /em feels another AMD vs Intel war is about to kick off

 

[tris-]

/em leaves the room, picking up various, valuable items on the way.

 

[VidX]

ROFLMAO

I just spent the past 20 minutes reading through the link in your sig n3wbie.

10 of those minutes were spent trying to pick myself up off the floor or hold my ribs in lol

 

[tris-]

fucking hilarious aint they, i read every single one last night, my fav is (something like)

something wrong with computer, she is havening problems, bah just re format

 

[tris-]

when i was on work exp i was with a guy like that, he wasnt meant to be on tech support but had to do it during lunch, he just used to type shit like "pick up monitor" i used to laugh before i realised he was serious

edit- hehe also my other favourite is

"would like to have acces on her laptop login access multi user acess for that laptop and"

 

[VidX]

lol yip, still reading them.

I'm on a helpdesk, and I keep getting funny looks from colleagues (/em replaces the name George with some colleagues' names) and it's bloody difficult to answer the phone when you're trying not to lol.

Best so far:

----

Helpdesk ticket: "Everytime she is on the phone and somebody else calls they get a busy signal"

Engineer: "Stuff That's Supposed to Happen, Part 1: You Only Get One Phone Line"

----

Helpdesk ticket: "her phone was constantley ringing"

Engineer: "Stuff That's Supposed to Happen, Part 2: So is Mine, but I'm Not Complaining.

You know, an answering service staffed by a dozen blind rhesus monkeys with simian hemorrhagic fever could do a better job screening calls than George does."

----

Helpdesk ticket: **** said she used to have a orgamic keyboard and would like to know if she could have it back. The one she has know hurts her to bad.

Engineer: Oh my. I'm pretty jaded to George's tickets, but this one made me burst out laughing. He's talking about an ergonomic keyboard, by the way. If *I* had an orgasmic keyboard, though, I wouldn't let ANYONE take it away.

 

[tris-]

"she cannot log in"

thats all the ticket fucking says, how is the the guy who fixes stuff supposed to know who she is, where she is and what she cant log in to

uke: uke:

if i was that guy, i would want a pay rise just for decoding his damn messages

 

[old.Noita]

Originally posted by vidx


/em has nightmares about Noita 'dusting' her PC's internals with a shammy and Mr. Sheen.

Bah! It was Pledge and a lint free cloth actually The shammy was damp and dropped water all over some green card thing inside, so I decided not to use it again!. On reboot (after the blue smoke went away a bit)........................

Just kidding hehehe... I was VERY careful and will go get some compressed air and some cleaning stuff from the shop today I promise

 

[tris-]

i cant see it being heat though, as it works after a few reboots? its gonna be just as hot, if not hotter after that

 

[old.Noita]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Well sadly I have to report that I did clean my PC inside quite thououghly. But the fault reappeared

So, I visited the via webby and followed the instructions regarding the download of their drivers, installed the driver package and ran DAoC, went fine for an hour or 2 then started crashing again

Now I can log in for like 1 min before I get those lines on my screen, my PC freezes and I have to reboot

This fault now seems quite serious, and it looks like Im not going to be able to play til it get fixed

Running Widows XP I cant seem to find anywhere on my video card settings page where I can run a self diagnostic test for my nVidia Gforce 2 Ti 64mb (see I did at least find that out ) Perhaps there isnt one? Or maybe I just cant find it, all I seem to get is a stupid Help page with default help questions NONE of which cover even remotely the fault on my system.

EDIT: Found the Direct X Diagnostics, ran all tests, no problems with any of the components in my system. According to Direct X anyway, my gfx card is in pretty good health. More confused than ever now

Incidentally....if it was a fault with the videocard hardware how would I be able to find out? Does this sound like it COULD be a fault with my videocard?

Answers on a BW postcard please

Thanks

 

[VidX]

hmm...


Try downloading and running 3DMark2001 from MadOnion.com and see if the PC freezes.... This is a very good intensive GFX/System benchmark. If the problem occurs when running the benchmark, it will likely be a system problem, if not, the only thing it could be is a problem with the gfx engine in the game. In the last patch I had an issue where the splashes from raindrops were actually big white blobs, but a re-install and fresh download of the patch fixed that.

 

[old.Noita]

Me again...hiya

Well thanks Usp, I went to Mad Onion got the tester, ran it and everything is ok, no freezes or lockups or crashes. Got a score of 3208 or something...checked on their webby, seems to be pretty much normal I want that game with the dragon tho, riding your own Dragon and nuking peasants has to be a helluva fun way to pass a Sunday afternoon

Anyway, bolstered by the clean bill of health, I launched DAoC...got to char selection screen and held my breath... looking good I thought... selected Noita, game loaded, Noita appeared on screen..., opening music came and went....sigh of relief....stepped forward towards the horse guy and CRASH!!!
Screen full of vertical lines...reboot. Ten reboots later I am unable to play. I even uninstalled the game, re installed and ran it with the same end result

Now, I have the latest 4-1 drivers for my via chipset thing, I have nVidia Detonator 40 drivers installed and runnning on my gfx card, I got the latest service pack for Windows xp (SP-1) or something...installed and to my knowledge running smoothly. I even uninstalled Direct X 8.1 and reinstalled it, as they recommend when you change your videocard drivers. I have cleaned the inside of my PC so a brain surgeon could quite happily set up shop in it!

I just dont know what more I can do

What confuses me most is that this didnt happen at all prior to patch 1.48 and has got steadily worse since. The sad thing is that sometimes, I can log in to the game and play for hours without any problems at all... then all of a sudden it will happen and then Im left to reboot over and over again. I think this would be easier to understand if I had a crap system but I dont, it may not be the Rolls Royce of games machines but its not too shabby either.

Frustratedly yours