Tech Support Please?

[Doobie Dan]

NEIN! having parents who will pay for it does! or having a spouse that will let you buy one

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What about that place in between?    Buy whatever the hell you want.

PS to all you others - never let your spouse pay the bills

[Sustained]

But...so expensive!

Anyway, before this degenerates into a spam-fest, I'd like to pose yet another point:

I don't think it's my gfx card after all.

See, I checked it again right after a crash, and it wasn't exactly scolding. Plus, while it doesn't have a fan, I believe it has something smart and fancy called passive cooling. Nothing I understand, but anyway...

I'm pretty darn sure it's a hardware problem, since my PC acts exactly the way Rad4Christ said, numlock being frozen on. I'm gonna try out "Memtest86" and see if it might be bad RAM. Still, if anyone is able to recognize this problem, I still desperately need help. Now I can't even play NS anymore

In addition, if anyone has a Geforce FX5200, I'd like to know the optimal settings for the little bugger. That fixed my ability to play Lineage 2 before.

[SwiftSpear]

In addition, if anyone has a Geforce FX5200, I'd like to know the optimal settings for the little bugger. That fixed my ability to play Lineage 2 before.

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I had the card and it crashed out on me.  The fan stopped, I got crashes to black and other general 'games suck' type errors, stuck a 4 pin fan under the bugger (which worked) until I got a soundcard which required me to find another solution.  Used that as an excuse to buy an Radeon 9800 pro.  

Optimally you want the most recent drivers, and the most recent version of direct X, and a running fan on your heat sink.  'Passive cooling' should stop your card from frying and doing damage to itself, but it doesn't mean that the card is magically kept at a temperature where it can't cause errors on the machine.

[lolfighter]

Depends on the card and the cooling. Remember that the earliest iMacs (if not all of them) had no fans at all? "Passive" cooling, if I interpret it right, is just a heatsink. It is of course not as effective as a fan & heatsink combo, but electronics become hot to the touch long before they start malfunctioning. I dunno what you mean with "not exactly scalding", but if it doesn't feel that hot, then it probably isn't your video card.

[SwiftSpear]

Depends on the card and the cooling. Remember that the earliest iMacs (if not all of them) had no fans at all? "Passive" cooling, if I interpret it right, is just a heatsink. It is of course not as effective as a fan & heatsink combo, but electronics become hot to the touch long before they start malfunctioning. I dunno what you mean with "not exactly scalding", but if it doesn't feel that hot, then it probably isn't your video card.

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5200 FX's come with a fan and a heatsink (combo) the fans are nitorious for going out in no time at all, expecially if they get dusty.  The heatsink generally keeps the card from frying once the fan goes out, but it still gives you problems if you try to run Vcard taxing games...  Its acctually one of the most common computer issues, video card cooling systems frying...

[Sustained]

No fan on mine. It must be some odd 3rd party manufactured stuff that screwed me over. I'm shopping for a Radeon 9800 pro these days, I dearly hope it's the video card that's the problem  :ph34r:

[SwiftSpear]

No fan on mine. It must be some odd 3rd party manufactured stuff that screwed me over. I'm shopping for a Radeon 9800 pro these days, I dearly hope it's the video card that's the problem  :ph34r:

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The card didn't come with a fan at all?

Ok, NM what I said then, it if the VCard isn't defective in some other way, it shouldn't be overheating in its default state.  My FX5200 came with a fan and the fan stopped running, and THAT caused the card to overheat.  It isn't a massive heat sourse the 5200, if they put a proper heatsink on it, it should be able to run cool enough...  The heatsink that came with mine was pitiful, and thus it needed the fan to keep cool.

The 9800 pro is a great card anyways, I can't in any way discourage the purchase of that card, it has been a godsend to me.