Overly Chatty Penguins

The Ready Room => Off Topic => Topic started by: Niteowl on August 25, 2004, 02:56:55 PM

Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 25, 2004, 02:56:55 PM: dont' know what happened. by my monitor, when doing anything except gaming (thank god), that is, browsing the intarweb, any sorta windows app. system will freeze very briefly, monitor will go blank, , then come back on, like it's resetting itself. this happens usually in response to a mouse movement, or window resizing, but WHEN it responds to aforementioned stimuli is random. i lose no data or anything after doing that.

some fixes i've tried
-shutting off steam and trillian
-did a trojan sweep with SwatIt (are there better programs out there?)
-ran AdAware
-ran SpyBot
-ran anti-virus (AVG)
-check power management, nothing weird there. all the options are off.
-de-install and reinstall the latest video driver
-check fragmentation, the puter tells me i don't need no stinking defragging done.

anything else i can try? i notice some of the 2D stuff in NS is sometimes totally borked.. like teh textures in bast (from time to time) or the CONSOLE text!

arrghh.. would a new video card fix it?! do you think my video card is fried? i got a .. wait for it.. GeForce 2 64 meg 440MMX (yeah, i know yer drooling).

if anyone nkows why this might be happeneing, i'd much appreciate.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Isamil on August 25, 2004, 03:22:50 PM: Do you have Windows ME?
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 25, 2004, 03:44:34 PM: windows 2000 pro. this started happening sometime last week. nothing untoward, or that i can think of, started it.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Dark on August 25, 2004, 03:57:19 PM: i know you don't want to do this owlie but if nothing works you should buy a new monitor

i wish i knew something you could try <_<
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 25, 2004, 04:18:41 PM: it can't be the monitor, because then my NS would freeze too. my monitor, AFAIK, doesn't know if i'im running 2D or 3D, nor does it care. but my card does. is my card fried?

my monitor is a Samsung 900NF.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: GrayDuck on August 25, 2004, 04:34:10 PM: Hmmmm.....

Owl's angling for a new video card.
HL2 gets released soon.

coincidence?
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 25, 2004, 04:51:31 PM: Quote
Hmmmm.....

Owl's angling for a new video card.
HL2 gets released soon.

coincidence?
[snapback]27385[/snapback]

YOU DONT" GO AND TELL MRS. OWLIE THAT GRAYDUCK!! :o
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Satiagraha on August 25, 2004, 04:57:24 PM: I agree, sounds like a vid card problem. There's nothing wrong with purchasing a new video card if you current one is broken, right? And besides, if you're going to buy a new one, it may as well be a good one :p
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Dark on August 25, 2004, 05:34:44 PM: Quote
it can't be the monitor, because then my NS would freeze too. my monitor, AFAIK, doesn't know if i'im running 2D or 3D, nor does it care. but my card does. is my card fried?

my monitor is a Samsung 900NF.
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well like i stated i had no sure fire solution for you :(
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Malevolent on August 25, 2004, 06:58:20 PM: Time for a new video card. And if Mrs. Owlie doesn't want you spending too much on one, there are a lot of good cards that are cheap. :p
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: SgtFury on August 26, 2004, 07:52:34 AM: Sounds a good idea to me too, Ati 9600XT `s are pretty good for the price to quality ratio, But then I`m biased to my own card :D
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: lolfighter on August 26, 2004, 08:07:48 AM: Whenever you suspect a part is fried or faulty, try to borrow a spare or something and swap the suspected part out to see if that's really the problem.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 26, 2004, 09:12:43 AM: i'm prolly just gonig to get a very very very old card that works, and see if that's the problem.

ok, thanks for the info everyone, now it's time for a hardware lesson from you hardware geeks.

please help me with these two series:

Nvidia
GeForce 2 MX, normal, Ti
GeForce 3 MX, normal, Ti
Geforce 4 MX, normal, Ti
Geforce FX5200
Geforce FX5500
Geforce FX5600

these ones i don't know where they are ranked
GeForce 6800 GT, ultra/GeForce PCX5900/GeForce PCX5750
..

ATI
...
Radeon 9200
Radeon 9250
Radeon 9300
Radeon 9600, SE, pro, XT
Radeon 9800, SE, pro, XT
x800 pro, XT
...

ok? help me fill in the ellipses!
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: lolfighter on August 26, 2004, 09:42:29 AM: It's GeForce MX, MMX is a processor technology you nub. :p
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: That Annoying Kid on August 26, 2004, 11:33:33 AM: Quote
dont' know what happened. by my monitor, when doing anything except gaming (thank god), that is, browsing the intarweb, any sorta windows app. system will freeze very briefly, monitor will go blank, , then come back on, like it's resetting itself.

OLO zerwalter has that exact same problem, and it happens to him ingame [the monitor going black for about a second that is]
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Malevolent on August 26, 2004, 05:12:30 PM: Well the 6800GT is at least $399 USD, and so is the X800 Pro. Don't know how much the 9800 Pro costs, but it is less. I also hear you might as well not get any card in the FX series, so your best bet would be a 9600 or 9800 variant for an affordable price.

EDIT: The 6800 Ultra and X800 XT are $499 and up. Their prices can get high since their availability is low. If you look though, you could find one for the right price (though it might be a preorder especially in the X800 XT's case).
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 27, 2004, 01:01:32 AM: i'm thinking ATI 9600 SE. very lower middle of the road card.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: confused! on August 27, 2004, 10:12:50 AM: back when i had a pc this used to happen to me. as i recall, it was at least partially caused by the fan on the card being entirely full of dust. Usually an indication fo`rom the powers that be, the gods of dust bunnies, that it is time to buy a new card.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: sonic on August 27, 2004, 06:56:06 PM: Unclog all the owl droppings from it :p
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 29, 2004, 03:48:39 PM: i got a 9600SE.. it's ok, no real performance change, other than i can play the Pandora Tommorrow demo :/

i seem to get weird crashes now. i think it might be faulty ram or faulty HD.. hrm. oh well, i'll slug it out.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: GrayDuck on August 29, 2004, 03:59:18 PM: In my professional opinion, you need a new system.

That'll be $50.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: BobTheJanitor on August 29, 2004, 06:29:48 PM: Hah! I'll give you my professional opinion for our diagnostic fee cost, which is only $25. And I'll waive that fee if you buy the new system from me. Of course, if not then I'll need that money up front or you'll never see your precious computer again.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Satiagraha on August 29, 2004, 07:12:23 PM: Oh Noes! We've got a hostage situation here! Call in the Negotiator (http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood-Stage/5442/career/negotiator.jpg)!

Professional oppinions are overrated. How hard is it to learn to do it yourself (http://www.fabricattic.com/Do%20it%20yourself.jpg)?
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 29, 2004, 07:17:19 PM: ok i THINK the ram is borked as well. but i'm worrie dthat whatever would cause ram to go bad will cause my new ram to go bad as well. questino is, what sorta stuff screws up ram? i want to make sure when i buy new ram that it's not borked again.

i KNOW its bad ram since i've tested it with a ram tester, and have been having some errors that seem to be ram related (your .bsp differs from the one on the server, etc).

so. how do i find the type of ram i'm using to replace? i know it's ddr, that's it. and what sorta stuff messes up ram?

tia.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: BobTheJanitor on August 29, 2004, 07:19:17 PM: Bad mobo overpowering the RAM perhaps. Unlikely, but I've seen it sometimes.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Satiagraha on August 29, 2004, 07:27:26 PM: Make sure you haven't messed with your memory voltage levels. If you're trying to stabilize your system, it might be a good idea to reset your CMOS (bridge 2 jumpers on your mobo, see manual for location)
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Sancho on August 29, 2004, 08:02:15 PM: Actually, I've been having a very odd problem myself. Ever since I got a new motherboard/processor/RAM (same vid card) and reformatted my comp, any time that I right-click or try to delete, or copy/cut/paste a video file like .mpg or .avi (of any size), my monitor shuts off and turns back on real quick, like my monitor is changing video modes or something, and also windows makes a beep at me. Not that big of a deal, I can still delete or modify these files, its just kind of annoying and weird.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 30, 2004, 09:50:57 AM: Quote
Bad mobo overpowering the RAM perhaps. Unlikely, but I've seen it sometimes.
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hm, but the mb i bought was pretty solid. a very reputable MSI mb with good reviews.. so i shouldn't worry about that.. should i?

Quote
Make sure you haven't messed with your memory voltage levels. If you're trying to stabilize your system, it might be a good idea to reset your CMOS (bridge 2 jumpers on your mobo, see manual for location)
[snapback]27767[/snapback]

er, i haven't touched my memory voltage lvls, since i have no idea how to scew around with it. do i still need to reset my CMOS?
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: BobTheJanitor on August 30, 2004, 10:27:56 AM: Well resetting the CMOS shouldn't hurt anything anyway. If you did change anything, just readjust after you reset. And MSI is usually a good board, I think that's what I'm using. You might check and make sure you didn't get unlucky and get a board with leaky capacitors. ABIT's been the manufacturer with the worst problems in that area, but a lot of others have been affected to some degree. Just see if your capacitors have crusted deposits on top, or any sort of darkish fluid marks coming out near the bottom. Leaky caps has been a problem I've seen a lot lately. (due to a whole lot of bad ones being made based on a bad formula a couple years ago)
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 30, 2004, 11:34:04 AM: er.. which doohickey is the capacitor? and not a FLUX capacitor right?!? cuz then i'd have to put it in my Dolorian..
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: BobTheJanitor on August 30, 2004, 12:20:07 PM: The can looking things. Round little cylinder thingys. See here (http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews/msi6309/images/capacitor.jpg) for an example. They're the things all around, standing straight up. And here (http://home.iprimus.com.au/time/sf/epoxcaps2.jpg) is an example of what they look like when leaking.
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Niteowl on August 30, 2004, 01:23:24 PM: Quote
The can looking things. Round little cylinder thingys. See here (http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews/msi6309/images/capacitor.jpg) for an example. They're the things all around, standing straight up. And here (http://home.iprimus.com.au/time/sf/epoxcaps2.jpg) is an example of what they look like when leaking.
[snapback]27834[/snapback]

most EGGSCELLENT!! i'll take a looksee later!
Title: Owlie's Monitor Freezing Up Time To Time
Post by: Satiagraha on August 30, 2004, 07:10:51 PM: Haf Haf Haf. Leaky Capacitors

OGM MY MOBO IS TEH BLEEDZING!!1!!1