bibbibo

I have a computer running Windows XP Professional SP 2
The specs are as follows
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+ 2.4GHZ
2 GB Ram
Nvidia Geforce 6800 XT
2 x 250gb Sata Harddrives
500W PSU

Now, for my problem. At first, my monitors (I have a dual monitor setup) would shut off and not come back on, but my computer would still be running. I would have to hard reboot my computer to get my monitors to come back on. Then, lately, the problem has progressed. Now, not only do the monitors turn off, but the computer itself beeps really loudly, and continously, as if you had tried to boot the computer up without ram in it. If I try to reboot immediatly, the beeping still occurs and the monitors do not turn on. I know this sounds a lot like overheating of the cpu, but my cpu is at a steady 30-40 degrees celcius, constatly cooled by way of a liquid cooling system. (By the way, I use a program called speedfan which doesn't direcly tell me which of the temps it lists are cpu, I can only guess. It lists HD0: 31C, HD2: 31C, TEMP2: 30C, TEMP1: 25C, and TEMP3: 6C) I'm looking for any sign of hope that my computer isn't on it's way to a hole in the ground. Thanks.
-Jason

emosun

Welcome to tsf. Please post the voltages it says in speedfan , also the make and model power supply. If you have a water cooling setup and that 6800 uses regular ddr you might be having low voltage.

bibbibo

Well as of now, the computer doesn't boot up. It gets past the bootup screen, the monitors shut off, and the computer beeps until I turn the computer off. The 6800 uses ddr2. The Power supply is
ULTRA Computer Products
ATX Switching Power Supply
Model No: X-ULT500P

If this means anything, the computer has been running fine with this setup for 2+ years until now. Thanks.

bibbibo

Computer turns on now, here are the voltage readings from Speedfan

Vcore1: 1.49V
Vcore2: 2.59V
+3.3V: 3.14V
+5V: 3.92V
+12V: 12.03V
-12V: -3.80V
-4V: -0.83V
+5V: 4.73V
Vbat: 3.09V


I have absolutely no idea what any of that means mind you, lol. And it fluctuates here and there.

emosun

Well from the looks of it the 3.3v is low and so is the 5v. And if it varies alot then the psu is probly going. If the voltage is too low on your power supply then the cpu and other componets will stop working causing it to crash. Do you have another power supply you can try in the system?

bibbibo

I do not have another 500W power supply available, but could i perhaps test this theory by unplugging unnecessary hardware? (Only thing I have that is unnecessary are two dvd writers and a fan on the side of my case)

emosun

you could try but the if the power supply is a older "high performance" power supply then it still might give low voltages. cd drives and fans don't use much voltage at all.

bibbibo

Well, I do believe that I have cured my problem. I went and bought a 650 watt psu and the computer is running fine now, voltages are higher too. Now, one more question. I currently have installed a XFX PVT42KUDE3 GeForce 6800XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X graphics card.

Today I bought an Nvidia Geforce 7300 GT 512 MB AGP video card.

How much of an upgrade is that for video gaming? Lets say a game like Call of Duty 4?

Thanks

emosun

I'm very glad your pc runs good now with the new psu.

That wasn't much of a upgrade at all with the video card, infact that might have been a downgrade. For an agp setup I would recommend a radeon x1950 as its the fastest agp ever made, or a radeon HD 2600xt agp if you would like direct X 10.

bibbibo

Just to be sure, here are the detailed specs of both of my cards.


Installed:
Video memory - 256mb
Graphics Core 256-bit
RAMDACs 400MHz
Memory Bandwidth 22.4 GB/sec.
Fill Rate 2.4 Billion Texels/sec.
Vertices Per Second 300 Million
Pixels per Clock (peak) 8

New:
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
Core Clock 350MHz
Vertices 350 million/sec.
Video Memory 512MB
Memory Type DDR2
RAMDACs Dual 400MHz


The differences that are evident are that the new one has 350million vertices/sec while the old is 300 million /sec (whatever that means). The old one uses DDR3, while the new one is DDR2, and the old one has 400mhz ramdacs while the new one has dual 400mhz.

Now, if you still say that its a downgrade, i'll take your word for it, as I'm not that far advanced in my computer knowledge. Thanks for your help.

emosun

That 6800 is pretty powerful. The 7300 although is a mid to lowrange card while the 6800 is a older high performance card. What I would recommend is you take the 7300 back, and get the best you can get. In todays day in age when people say they have agp systems I always try to recommend the x1950 or 2600xt because there the best you can get. That 7300 is just like a midrange stop in between. If you can I would save up and get a a x1950 or a 2600xt. Your psu does now have plenty of power for either.

bibbibo

Hmmm, I've never been familiar with radeon, so I wouldn't know where to even begin to look (there are tons of cards with those numbers under radeon) But I will indeed return this card. If you could possible find a link to the two cards you are referring to, that would be excellent. Thank you.

emosun

The x1950 isn't available at newegg.co or tigerdirect.com anymore because everyone scooped them up lol. But here is a ebay link, if you don't want to bid on the card there are buy it now cards at the bottem of the page.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...agp&category0=

also the x1950 on a google shopping search

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...&um=1&ie=UTF-8

And heres a link for the 2600xt, its not the fastest agp card but it does have direct x 10 so you can play all the new and upcoming directx 10 games.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...059&CatId=2234

and a less expensive 2600 xt

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...645&CatId=2234

bibbibo

Oh geez, you had me all worked up thinking it was going to be like 300 dollars....the 2600xt is only 50 dollars more than the card i just bought! Well, thank you for all of your help, I am going to return this card tomorrow and then place an order for the 2600xt, considering I want to play the newest games coming out. Question though, will the 2600xt still support direct x 9 stuff?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ATI-Radeon-H...QQcmdZViewItem

That a good one?

emosun

Oh yeah, it will play both directx 9 and 10. If your going with the 2600 I would recommend the HIS 2600 with the dual slot pro ice q cooler. The dual slot cooler is more efficent then the single slot and the card is clocked a little higher. It's almost the same card I have except mines pci-e and I can say from experience that its a great card.

bibbibo

Alright, thank you so much for all of your help, I do appreciate it.

emosun

No problem, glad we got your first problem fixed and let us know what happens with the new card when you receive it.

bibbibo

So I got my new HIS Radeon HD 2600 XT IceQ Turbo Video Card in the mail today....

The hardware installation was really easy....the driver installation...not so much. Here's my problem. The card of course came with a CD for the drivers....outdated of course. (i never use the driver cd) I went to the HIS website to get the latest drivers, and wouldn't you know it, they aren't compatible with my graphics card. What now?

I also just found out that I need to update to windows vista for directx 10.......what a shame.

emosun

Yea it does suck that direct x 10 is a windows vista exclusive. As for the drivers did you try the cd? Also what does it say in your system properties, your motherboard might not reconnized the new card and it may just say generic videocard. If thats the case you need to update the bios the the latest version. then the drivers will see you have the card and should install.

bibbibo

After many many many restarts, the drivers from the HIS website finally installed. I must say, there is quite a large difference in the graphic capabilities of this PC now. While I still can't take Call of Duty 4 to the best settings, it does look really realistic now compared to my 6800xt. Thanks for your suggestion.


As for vista, I really hope they make it into a decent operating system soon, as I would really like to experience the DX10, but I am not willing to deal with the horror of vista for a third time for it.