Tech question

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 3:34 am

My comp has started freezing off late, likely due to the heat-wave we're experiencing here. But along with this my movieplayer has started acting up, displacing sound, chopping clips etc... think there's a connection and, if there is, what could it be?

Micahle · Post by **Micahle** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 5:03 am

Heat wave? So it's what, 15degrees C?

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 5:39 am

Most definately is a connection. If it's your video board that's over heating - you'll experience all those symptoms and more.

What I'd recommend is opening the case to your computer and blowing out all the dust that may have accumulated inside - especially on your video board.

If everything looks clean - then the next thing I'd be looking at is if your computer has proper ventillation - you may have to add fans internally, or even move it to a less enclosed area for better air flow. If you can't afford to buy a few fans - then you can try running the computer with the cover open - and point a fan to blow towards the inside of the now open case (beware touching the inside while it's powered up!!!!!).

Another possible solution - if you have one of those older video cards that doesn't have a fan on it - but instead has just a heat sink - then what you can do is buy a CPU fan with a metal attachment clip. You simply need to use some pliars to bend the clip so that it seats itself snuggly onto the heat sink - and that should help vent off extra heat.

Another suggestion - if you have the money to spare - would be to buy a liquid cooling system for your computer. Please note that you would have to ensure plenty of extra space in your computer case - and is most definately not something a novice tech would want to install!

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 6:08 am

Thanks

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 9:31 am

Yup what the speedbump said.
Tho I have never seen a heatsink on a video card yet that you could attach a fan to (not designed for) that would actually perform any cooling.

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 9:57 am

Several older versions of the Voodoo video card series had an oversized heat sink on it for venting off excess heat. As far as heat venting goes - they were very poorly designed because they relied on having numerous internal fans that could move large volumes of air across the sink.

To fix the issue - you could buy a CPU fan for like a 486x CPU which had a metal clip on it that you could bend just so - where it would slide into the ridges/prongs of the video card heat sink. It wasn't really designed to fit onto it that way - but if you did it right - the fan would sit on the heat sink securely enough where it wouldn't come lose, and would allow for much better venting than just internal air flow passing over the sink alone.

Until I did that - I experienced much the same symptoms - frequent lockups; video lag; system reboots etc.

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 11:55 am

Have you seen the new Uba PCI video cards that are coming with what they are calling a "silencer".

Its the same thing all over again. High end performance graphics card my arse. No fan, no glory.

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:15 pm

Currently - my video boards of choice - ATI and Nvidia series.. both have very good onboard fans designed to draw air across the heat sinks.. love them to death!

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:18 pm

Errrr?
Are there any other kind?

My personal preference is for the Asus Nvidia. They usually put decent fans on them to keep them cool.

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:35 pm

There's quite a few generic brands floating around out there - wouldn't touch them if you paid me.

On July 4th, I blew my Nvidia 6800 ultra.. purchased an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro to replace it. I must say - so far I have been very happy with the boards performance.

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:49 pm

Still struggling along with my Ultra 9999 and 6600GT here

I havn't bothered looking too closely at all the new PCI stuff out there yet. Not till I upgrade again, and with luck that will ne next year maybe.

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:52 pm

Mine was more of a necessity than an actual upgrade. Hoping that this system lasts till I can scrape up enough money to purchase a new mother board that supports PCI-E. Brother put a whopper of a system together - AMD 64 dual core - 2.2ghz w/ 4gb ram and dual hard drives (moboard supports raid) - and one of those new PCI-E Nvidia cards (7200 series I think?) Thing absolutely screams.. with all the graphic effects turned on to the max - he only lags in Lavastorm - spent over $4500 USD buying it and assembled it himself. /drool

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 12:59 pm

How strange.
My system is a little old now.
AMD 3200 64, running 1 Gig of low latency ram, with the huge ultra 9999 AGP card, 200gig Sata drive 8meg Cache.

It doesn't lag anywhere anytime. The only lag I get is from my Crap 512 connection.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 9:18 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_Jp6Px ... =1&t=t&f=b

Memories... of Bill Gates showing off Win98 (5?) and having it crash...

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Mon 31 Jul, 2006 10:47 pm

A veritable classic..

I think the only thing that's changed is the price of the software - and you now have more advanced crashes. LOL

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 8:17 am

Yah that was 98 crashing

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 5:52 pm

Because I've needed to upgrade for a while, here's what I plan on trying to 'fix' the problem with :p (Read: I wants the speed)

Motherboard: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3& ... odelmenu=1 (Cheap and easy to upgrade CPU on it)
CPU: Athlon64 3500+, 2.2 GHz, 512kb Cache, Venice, Socket 939, BOX (Could buy 3800+ for 33 pct increase in price, but doesn't seem worth it. Only play EQ and such)
RAM: Kingston 1024 MB DDR2, PC5400 DDR2-667 or Kingston 1024 MB DDR2, PC4200 DDR2-533. (The PC4200 are a bit cheaper and they have them where I plan to buy this stuff. The PC5400 aren't alot more expensive, but they dun expect to have them until sometime in Sept.)
Gfx: http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2 ... odelmenu=1 (Didn't feel I needed to upgrade this, but no AGP port on the new MBs)

All this for less than 500 US$. Which is cheap, when you're talking computers in Denmark.

Edit: Meant to ask... anyone see any troubles in the above? I'm a rookie with all these new ports and sockets, only started reading about them yesterday. Also, have they changed anything regarding PSUs and such? Remember the last time I upgraded, I had to buy a new tower+PSU to fit the MB in....

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 6:49 pm

Actually, might skip the VIA chipset on the motherboard and get :
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3& ... odelmenu=1
instead... seems it has a few other cool features... albeit for a 33 pct price increase :p

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 7:17 pm

/cry

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6814121199

Almost the same as the card I wanted

Sadness.

Turook · Post by **Turook** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 8:06 pm

Kingston 1024 MB DDR2, PC4200 DDR2-533

AVOID IT.

Saw the specs on the so called faster memory. Unless you are running a dual core yadd yadda, it is actually slower than the older 400Mhz stuff.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Tue 01 Aug, 2006 10:55 pm

Thought that was just the 800 Mhz stuff? Which ramps down to PC5400 if it's not in a dual core?

Ghengiss · Post by **Ghengiss** » Thu 03 Aug, 2006 6:23 pm

Only issue with dual core and 64 bit core is *BLING* Windows XP was not meant to support either. You need to get a patch to fix various issues which include frequent lockups, speed throttling issues and *gasp* software crashes.

Microsoft is too damn lazy to put out another patch. They're trying to push everyone to buy the new version of Windows, or to buy the 64 bit version which yet again - causes issues - because most hardware/software companies do not provide drivers that support a 64 bit mode.

In short - use Win 64 and lose the flexibility of the plug and pray drivers.. or use XP and have to deal with bandaid patch fixes.

Microsoft 4tw!

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Thu 03 Aug, 2006 7:05 pm

I remain faithful to Win2k until Vista comes out in a useable state :p And the fact that older OS can't fully use the power of the 64 bit core fits me quite well...means I'll have another reason to convince myself to buy Vista, when it comes

Mazia · Post by **Mazia** » Fri 04 Aug, 2006 10:23 am

Having to deal with w2k daily still where I am I hate it - so much better is the XP. Vista I am not convinced on - So long as I can turn off the shiny bullshit I will be happy.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Fri 04 Aug, 2006 5:23 pm

I've never once had an issue with Win2k I couldn't handle easily (and those have been very rare coming). WinXP however, I've had to deal with on numerous occasions, because people have been at a loss, as to what to do... understandable too, since half the things it does are completely and utterly braindead.

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