New Graphics Card Problem

Grimlock

I got a graphics card for a relative from komplett last week and installed it on their machine yesterday but it's got a wierd problem.
No games work on it, they simply freeze as the game starts up.
It's a XFX GeforceFX5500, not exactly high end I know but enough to run Sims 2.
I've tried installing the newest drivers from Nvidia, then the drivers that came with it (un-installing the other drivers first, I've read the Nvidia cards can be trouble if ya don't), I've re-installed older games that did work before (on the on-board card) and should be very easy for the card to Handle, Q3 Arena & Half life. But nothing, each of them crashes the machine.
But the display is perfect and it plays dvds fine.
The machine is running Win XP, AMD 1500 with 384MB ram.

Anybody got any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

jozi

Anybody got any ideas?

Not really im affraid.

Have you checked the cp isnt overclocked and is unstable?

I changed from radeon to nvidia and them a second nvidia card and had no such problems running UT2K4
Windows reinstal always works but not a nice way to solve things.

Jozi

toffo

Is the old card still listed in dev mgr?. May need to check safe mode for the old card.

Grimlock

Have already re-installed the os. No difference.
The games, except Sims2, ran fine before the install but won't run now.
Neither the cpu nor the gpu are overclocked, no reason to overclock either, it's just a family pc for a bit of casual gaming.

Have changed graphics cards in my own PC multiple times with no such problems. I'm lost.....

Never though to check the dev manager.
Will try that tonite.

jozi

Could it be a bios setting thats causing it?
I know my mobo combined with certain gfx cards and a agp aparture size of 128 or 64 mb causes instability.
Did you try different gfx driver old & new?

Jozi

Doodee

Also could be the AGP Bus Speed. i.e. 2x 4x 8x

I have had problems before with a Radeon 9500pro and MsartGart/Bios settings (Smart Gart was setting the AGP Speed to something different to the bios) and Games used to Crash after a few mins of running. I would also get anomalies on the screen sometimes.
Resolved the issue by turning off smartgart (ATI's way of changing AGP speed from Device properties).

Try running 3dMark etc and see if its able to run any of the tests. if it is then you know it isn't the card at fault. but if it can't it could well be a fault with the card itself.

Ardent

What the story with your RAM? Have you got two sticks installed in a pair?

If you have two sticks, take one out and see does that fix the problem (worked for me).

Grimlock

Yeah the RAM is wierd, got a 256 and a 128 MB stick in it,
will try taking one out.

As for the AGP settings could well be...

agh there's so many things that it could be, this i sproving to be a really headache.

Thanks for the help.
Any further suggestions are still appriciated.

kmb

I think sims 2 needs a 2000 cpu to run it.Maybe the other games also need a stronger cpu.

Check the specs.

Regds
kieran

Grimlock

Thanks for the show of faith!
The specs for Sims2 is 800Mhz which the machine comfortably surpasses, and as I said it will play nothing now even games like Quake 3 and Half life which require a much lower processor speed than Sims2.

kmb

Have you checked your direct x?

Type dxdiag in the run command box and enter.

Have you tried graphics card in another machine?

regds kieran

Fester3282

Have you checked that the card in running in AGP mode: Under Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced, you should see a TAB called GeForce FX 5500. In here, Adapter Information should read: Adpater Type: AGP (4x or 8x). If it's PCI, Get your motherboard driver and install it.

Regards

Brian

Grimlock

Fester I think you've got it right!
The motherboard can only go as high as X4 while the card itself is X8,
Tried my graphics card in the machine and it caused the same problem.
Is it possible to drop the graphics card down to X4, if so how?

Thanks for the help.

padraigf

Just drop the card in. It'll automatically run at 4x, no settings involved.
I'd say you need to download a program called "Driver Cleaner". Google it. Get it and follow all of the instructions to the letter and I imagine your problem will be solved. Good luck

duridian

It isn't an ECS K7S5A motherboard by any chance? One of these nearly broke my heart some time back when I put a Ti4600 card into it. Turned out that it wouldn't work with even a moderately powerful AGP card if there were two sticks of ram installed in the SDRAM slots. Solution was either to use just one stick of SDRAM or use the DDR slots instead (the board could use either type)

Grimlock

thanks for the advice i'll give it a try tonite.
I've tried starting unreal tournament in safe mode, it works fine in a window, but when I try to maximize it bang....nothin.
Will let ye know how I get on.
Thanks again for all the help.

padraigf

AFAIK, unreal tournament doesnt even use the graphics card in safe mode. It does software rendering with the CPU.