Okay I've got a few... interesting problems. I didn't quite know where to put this, since the problems usually just affect my games, but I think the problems themselves are somewhere in the OS.
Before anyone goes reading through the list I would like to ask something of any potential problem solvers who may read this. I have had bad experiences with other tech support forums because people will just read the first few sentences of only the first problem and completely forget about the other, which may be equally or even more serious. So please read ALL the problems before responding to even one. Thank you.
Problem 1: My computer will occasionally BSOD or freeze during games or while playing music with Windows Media Player.
-These problems started after I installed 2 Nvidia 8600 GT cards and tried getting them to run in SLI mode.
-It appears to happen somewhat at random. I can sometimes play music or games for hours and nothing happens, or it might crash after good 30 seconds.
Problem 2: My screen will sometimes flicker strange colors while playing games when SLI mode is engaged. I have a feeling this may have something to do with drivers or my power supply.
-The driver problem is something I apparently can't help.
Whenever I go to the Nvidia site to get the latest drivers for XP it insists on giving me the 2000 drivers. The update executable is labled XP, but when installing it says they're 2000 drivers and, sure enough, when I go looking for the files in the drivers folder they're under Win2k. If anyone can provide the actual XP drivers for me I think that would help.
-My power supply is also only a 450 watt, but it appears to run everything fine. For a while SLI mode actually worked perfectly; no flickering, no slow down, no nothing. It was great. I played Crysis for almost six hours straight because I was afraid it wouldn't work again tomorrow, which it obviously didn't.
Problem 3: Some of my RAM won't show up during POST. I've got 4 gigs and the post only picks up about 2.3. I'm aware that XP normally caps out at about 3.3 gigs and after that won't read any more. I have heard some people say that RAM on video cards might be given "preference" or something on some systems, but I would think that the POST would still display that.
-I truly have no idea what could be causing this problem. I've poked around in CMOS, BIOS and all the other pre-boot configuration areas and nothing there seems to help or even have all that much to do with RAM.
-Some poeple out there will swear their computer will read 4 gigs on their XP system. Good for you, but that's not me and it doesn't help at all. Even before this problem arose my computer would cap out around 3.3. My system is not one of the magical few that can read four. I don't percieve this as a problem, so please don't offer any solutions to it. There are bigger problems to deal with first.
Well, that's it for now. I hope this doesn't show up as a Great Wall of Text, I hate it when that happens. Thanks all.
Before anyone goes reading through the list I would like to ask something of any potential problem solvers who may read this. I have had bad experiences with other tech support forums because people will just read the first few sentences of only the first problem and completely forget about the other, which may be equally or even more serious. So please read ALL the problems before responding to even one. Thank you.
Problem 1: My computer will occasionally BSOD or freeze during games or while playing music with Windows Media Player.
-These problems started after I installed 2 Nvidia 8600 GT cards and tried getting them to run in SLI mode.
-It appears to happen somewhat at random. I can sometimes play music or games for hours and nothing happens, or it might crash after good 30 seconds.
Problem 2: My screen will sometimes flicker strange colors while playing games when SLI mode is engaged. I have a feeling this may have something to do with drivers or my power supply.
-The driver problem is something I apparently can't help.
Whenever I go to the Nvidia site to get the latest drivers for XP it insists on giving me the 2000 drivers. The update executable is labled XP, but when installing it says they're 2000 drivers and, sure enough, when I go looking for the files in the drivers folder they're under Win2k. If anyone can provide the actual XP drivers for me I think that would help.
-My power supply is also only a 450 watt, but it appears to run everything fine. For a while SLI mode actually worked perfectly; no flickering, no slow down, no nothing. It was great. I played Crysis for almost six hours straight because I was afraid it wouldn't work again tomorrow, which it obviously didn't.
Problem 3: Some of my RAM won't show up during POST. I've got 4 gigs and the post only picks up about 2.3. I'm aware that XP normally caps out at about 3.3 gigs and after that won't read any more. I have heard some people say that RAM on video cards might be given "preference" or something on some systems, but I would think that the POST would still display that.
-I truly have no idea what could be causing this problem. I've poked around in CMOS, BIOS and all the other pre-boot configuration areas and nothing there seems to help or even have all that much to do with RAM.
-Some poeple out there will swear their computer will read 4 gigs on their XP system. Good for you, but that's not me and it doesn't help at all. Even before this problem arose my computer would cap out around 3.3. My system is not one of the magical few that can read four. I don't percieve this as a problem, so please don't offer any solutions to it. There are bigger problems to deal with first.
Well, that's it for now. I hope this doesn't show up as a Great Wall of Text, I hate it when that happens. Thanks all.
