My PC is kaput :-((((

[Iain]

Recently i have been getting poor frame rates on all the games i play (GTR / Hiden and dangerous 2 / Battlefield 2 )

At first i noticed my PSU was very hot... so i added a fan

it made it worse... so i thought.... hmm 200w PSU i need more power

so i got more power and nada still the same problem, just a lot cooler

so i tried alternative gfx card drivers.... nada

i tried my dads gfx card... nada

i have reinstalled windows and then tried formatting... nada

so i am pretty certain its a hardware problem!

can anyone spot anything that is causing probs in my system spec

intel 3.0 ghz processer
1gb DDR ram
asus p4s800 MX mother board
ATI RADEON 9800 pro 128mb ram (dads gfx card = Nvidia geforce6 6600 25gmb ram (yes i did remember drivers))
200GB maxtor HDD
Netgear something or other wireless card
soundblaster audigy LS soundcard

need any more infos and i will do my best, cuz i need help, me and my old man are baffled at my PC problems! frame rates start off ok and are dropping to maybe 10

anyone know anything about the mobo in particualar? i think it might be needing an upgrade -> more money oh no

also would flashing the BIOS be worth the risk?



Any help will be greatly appriciated

[Mike Wrightson]

Really the only things you haven't tried swapping are the motherboard, RAM and CPU.  I'd be looking at trying some different RAM first, then it looks like a motherboard

[Iain]

i switched the RAM modules over just to see if the first 512mb was dodgey.... it wasnt

i can rob my dads ram tommorow as he leaves for his hols in a few hours

i can also put my HDD in his PC to test if it is my data causing a prob i suppose

i dont want to have to rob his mobo tho, argh big job!

cheers, its nice to ask for help, as you can see what i am yet to think of

thanks muchly!

[Iain]

im going to swap the CPU fan later... i checked the BIOS 60 degress... oh bugger

[Dave 'Gizmo' Gymer]

60 isn't that hot really.

If you get normal performance in Windows apps and it's just games which struggle, that would suggest that perhaps it could be the graphics card which has a cooling problem, rather than the CPU.

[popabawa]

Iain, that's a really weird problem....

Couple of observations, dunno if this will help though!

Your PSU (200w) seems quite underpowered for a modern rig, sounds like you might have fixed that, wasn't quite sure. And, generally PSU's do get hot 

Generally, if it's the gfx card that's overheating in games it'll generally cause a CTD (crash to desktop) rather than a slowing down in frame rates. Anyway, you've tried another card so it's not that.

I'd guess at a gfx driver issue but you say you've tried that as well!

Hmmm. I'd suggest reformatting the HD, unplugging all your peripherals (just leaving keyboard, mouse & monitor) and just re-install Windows and the stock gfx card drivers and one game that you had a problem with and try it again and we'll see if we can narrow it down further.

Good luck!

Pops.

[fozzmeister]

60 isn't that hot really.

actually 60 degrees is over what is reasonable for a few CPU's and is hotter than desirable on most
http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=maxtemp.shtml

[[ZiP]Tyf]

Sounds crap!

M8 of mine had similar problems with a 3.2 P4. We at the start thought it was the cpu temps as well and psu etc., but after he changed the mobo to a different chipset one all the problems were solved. I noticed the P4s800-mx has onboard graphics... Make sure that is turned off in bios. In a way you have to retrace your steps and see what has been changed lately. The onboard graphics setting for instance will probably have been correct already . Flashing your bios will generally not help with these problems, why would it have worked before then?

Since you've changed card, memory and psu already, there's not a lot left, hehe! Personally don't believe in hdd problems being the cause, unless you see loads of hdd activity when the fps slows down . Best bet is the mobo I think  :'(

This one solved the problems for my m8: Asus P4P800-E Deluxe, 865PE (Sound, LAN, SATA-RAID , 1394) for about 70 pounds or so .

Not wanting to be a smarty pants by the way Iain, but if you can afford it and you use your pc mainly for gaming, go with a new AMD mobo/cpu. PM me if you want some more info m8, I've been advising my clanm8s throughout the years and generally speaking it helped them, lol!

T

[Iain]

robbed my sisters processor.... and that was problem solved!


now i must spend more money :-(((

[Rob Bywater "Kerb Crawlers"]

i can rob my dads ram tommorow as he leaves for his hols in a few hours

Hey hey, party at Iains house! 

Cheers

Rob