Hello all, I'm new to these forums hoping to use your expertise to help me with a problem I'm having with my new computer.
The specs of my computer are as follows
CPU MODEL: PC Pentium IV
CPU SPEED: 3000+
MEMORY: 512+MB
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2
SOUNDCARD: Acer Labs Magic Series (On board motherboard)
VIDEOCARD: Gigabyte 256 Mb Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro
Ok here’s the problem/s:
I recently bought the new computer box while using the same LG CRT 775N monitor which is approximately 5 years old. When I first bought the computer, I initially had only the original windows XP without the service pack 2 installed and I was initially using the onboard VGA on the motherboard as opposed to the current radeon video card which I later bought.
After first purchasing the computer I wanted to play games such as Warcraft 3, Starcraft and Sims 2, but my hopes and dreams were cut short on the day I bought the computer. Without having the video card installed, when opening up the games, the whole computer would crash on the start-up screen or just after starting the game. There were basically two types of crashes: 1) the monitor would either turn completely black and turn off, and the sound would stop or 2) The game screen would freeze in the same frame and the sound would stop. In either case pressing alt-tab or ctrl-alt-del does nothing; the computer is essentially dead forcing me to reset the computer. However different things happen depending on how long after the initial crash I turn off and reset the computer:
If, once the game freezes, I turn off and restart the computer straight away, the computer re-crashes on the first black screen where it shows your hard drives and the f8 to enter the bios. However, the only things usually showing on this screen are the yellow energy star in the top right hand corner, and the ie symbol in the top left corner, however it has turned yellow? Alternatively some of the writing which is usually shown on this screen (ie primary and secondary drives) are shown but the writing may stop mid sentence and the rest of the screen be black. If I wait approximately 2 mins before restarting the computer after the crash, the computer will load up until the windows xp screen loads up with the blue loading bar at the bottom, and then the screen will freeze (ie blue loading bar stops moving) and the whole computer will crash here. If I wait approximately 5 mins or greater until after the initial crash, the computer will be fine and load up successfully. Also, recently if I attempt to restart the computer at any time during use it will freeze up similar to the afore mentioned.
After encountering these problems on my brand new computer and talking to different people and reading forums with similar problems I decided that action was required to be taken. I first installed service pack 2, with no success in stopping errors and then decided to buy the radeon video card mentioned above. At first I thought that this had solved the problem. I could actually play the games for a given period of time (ie 10mins – 30 mins) without any lock ups, as opposed to the game locking up on the title screen. However after the time period, the same problem would occur, the computer would crash in a very similar manner mentioned in the previous paragraphs. Yet the games were more prone to crashing if I pressed alt-tab to get back to windows during the game, or clicked on the menu of the game. I think with all games, if u press alt-tab during a game the screen turns black while it gets back to windows, well my screen just stays black and dies. Also, only recently, the monitor has been flashing black for 2 secs here and there during windows use. And before I attached the new video card I sometimes got the message following message after restarting the computer before windows loads up
Out of frequency
HF: 27.8 khz
VF: 53.0 Hz
Operating freq
HF: 30-70khz
VF: 50-160 HZ
This hasn’t appeared since I bought the video card and the manufacturer of the monitor says this is video card related
I’ve tried different things to rectify the game crashes and I’ll mention the things I can remember I’ve checked.
-The main thing is that I thought the computer/video card was overheating. If I put a desk fan next to the computer it seems to relieve the problem, in that the games can be played for a longer period of time without crashing. This prompted me to put arctic silver grease on the cpu and buy a zalman vf700 alcu fan for the video card. However using these and removing the desk fan does not solve the problem to any extent. Even so, all along the temperatures in the video cards and cpu are not that large. I can touch the chips during gameplay which are only warm, and the measured temps have never been more than 50 deg celcius during gameplay (besides games like starcraft shouldn’t be punishing my machine).
-The refresh rate on the monitor and computer are 60Hz and I’m running at the lowest resolution 800x600 L
-I’ve disabled the sound card
-Ive done memtest86
-I’ve got all latest drivers
-Reinstalling the games and patches
-graphics tests in dxdiag
-ive done virus checks
I think that’s all I have to say. Ppl say I crap on too much but anyways…any guidance would be much appreciated…I’m a student and can’t afford to pay anyone AU$50 and hour so I am thankful to you all J
The specs of my computer are as follows
CPU MODEL: PC Pentium IV
CPU SPEED: 3000+
MEMORY: 512+MB
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2
SOUNDCARD: Acer Labs Magic Series (On board motherboard)
VIDEOCARD: Gigabyte 256 Mb Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro
Ok here’s the problem/s:
I recently bought the new computer box while using the same LG CRT 775N monitor which is approximately 5 years old. When I first bought the computer, I initially had only the original windows XP without the service pack 2 installed and I was initially using the onboard VGA on the motherboard as opposed to the current radeon video card which I later bought.
After first purchasing the computer I wanted to play games such as Warcraft 3, Starcraft and Sims 2, but my hopes and dreams were cut short on the day I bought the computer. Without having the video card installed, when opening up the games, the whole computer would crash on the start-up screen or just after starting the game. There were basically two types of crashes: 1) the monitor would either turn completely black and turn off, and the sound would stop or 2) The game screen would freeze in the same frame and the sound would stop. In either case pressing alt-tab or ctrl-alt-del does nothing; the computer is essentially dead forcing me to reset the computer. However different things happen depending on how long after the initial crash I turn off and reset the computer:
If, once the game freezes, I turn off and restart the computer straight away, the computer re-crashes on the first black screen where it shows your hard drives and the f8 to enter the bios. However, the only things usually showing on this screen are the yellow energy star in the top right hand corner, and the ie symbol in the top left corner, however it has turned yellow? Alternatively some of the writing which is usually shown on this screen (ie primary and secondary drives) are shown but the writing may stop mid sentence and the rest of the screen be black. If I wait approximately 2 mins before restarting the computer after the crash, the computer will load up until the windows xp screen loads up with the blue loading bar at the bottom, and then the screen will freeze (ie blue loading bar stops moving) and the whole computer will crash here. If I wait approximately 5 mins or greater until after the initial crash, the computer will be fine and load up successfully. Also, recently if I attempt to restart the computer at any time during use it will freeze up similar to the afore mentioned.
After encountering these problems on my brand new computer and talking to different people and reading forums with similar problems I decided that action was required to be taken. I first installed service pack 2, with no success in stopping errors and then decided to buy the radeon video card mentioned above. At first I thought that this had solved the problem. I could actually play the games for a given period of time (ie 10mins – 30 mins) without any lock ups, as opposed to the game locking up on the title screen. However after the time period, the same problem would occur, the computer would crash in a very similar manner mentioned in the previous paragraphs. Yet the games were more prone to crashing if I pressed alt-tab to get back to windows during the game, or clicked on the menu of the game. I think with all games, if u press alt-tab during a game the screen turns black while it gets back to windows, well my screen just stays black and dies. Also, only recently, the monitor has been flashing black for 2 secs here and there during windows use. And before I attached the new video card I sometimes got the message following message after restarting the computer before windows loads up
Out of frequency
HF: 27.8 khz
VF: 53.0 Hz
Operating freq
HF: 30-70khz
VF: 50-160 HZ
This hasn’t appeared since I bought the video card and the manufacturer of the monitor says this is video card related
I’ve tried different things to rectify the game crashes and I’ll mention the things I can remember I’ve checked.
-The main thing is that I thought the computer/video card was overheating. If I put a desk fan next to the computer it seems to relieve the problem, in that the games can be played for a longer period of time without crashing. This prompted me to put arctic silver grease on the cpu and buy a zalman vf700 alcu fan for the video card. However using these and removing the desk fan does not solve the problem to any extent. Even so, all along the temperatures in the video cards and cpu are not that large. I can touch the chips during gameplay which are only warm, and the measured temps have never been more than 50 deg celcius during gameplay (besides games like starcraft shouldn’t be punishing my machine).
-The refresh rate on the monitor and computer are 60Hz and I’m running at the lowest resolution 800x600 L
-I’ve disabled the sound card
-Ive done memtest86
-I’ve got all latest drivers
-Reinstalling the games and patches
-graphics tests in dxdiag
-ive done virus checks
I think that’s all I have to say. Ppl say I crap on too much but anyways…any guidance would be much appreciated…I’m a student and can’t afford to pay anyone AU$50 and hour so I am thankful to you all J
