problem playing games

[ironzombie99]

I have a Radeon 9600pro, running Win XP Pro, and I have a KDS 17" CRT monitor. I dont know what is wrong but I just tried to play games today and problems are arising. Either the monitor will show frequency out of sync or display will become distorted and the game will freeze. When i tried to play KOTOR the screen went black and the monitor self test comes up, the music becomes distorted and acts like the computer is frozen.

The display is perfect under normal situations like surfing the web and playing movies or word processing.

A few weeks back my computer was hit by lightning forceing me to replace the motherboard and processor. Everything else seemed ok but I am wondering now. I mainly use my computer to play games and this is disturbing.

Games worked fine before I had to make the replacements to fix my computer. I have the latest video drivers for my card and I also updated the driver for the monitor. 1

[ironzombie99]

I was wrong bout the video drivers to i updated them. Now I have recieved two more different problems.

In photoshop:
Monitor profile appears to de defective. Please run your monitor calibration software.
--I was just using photoshop the other night and this error didnt show up.

KOTOR:
VPU recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands.
--This happens about 30 seconds into gameplay. It will minimize to desktop and the error will show then I am able to reenter the game but again the dame thing happens in about 30 seconds. On the third time the ghame freezes.

What is going on with my computer?

[pam123]

You're faced with trying components you didn't replace, one by one, in a known working computer.
That's the only way to pinpoint the problem after a lightning strike.
What didn't fry immeadiately could still be damaged.

[ironzombie99]

Interesting enough older games like AOE2 plays fine but when I try to play 3D games then theres a problem. Could there be a certain setting that is not correct? I have done the test in dxdiag and everything checks out fine.

[pam123]

Interesting enough older games like AOE2 plays fine but when I try to play 3D games then theres a problem. Could there be a certain setting that is not correct? I have done the test in dxdiag and everything checks out fine.



When you look at smartgart what do you see ?
Anything greyed out ?
Have you run dxdiag ?
When you replaced the mobo did you do it with a clean install of the OS and mobo drivers ?

edit : If your card is acting flakey you really should try it in another rig.

[ironzombie99]

When you look at smartgart what do you see ?
Nothing is greyed out in thios list and everything is selected on.

Have you run dxdiag ?
Yes. When it first starts up it says there shows that last time you ran this program there was a problem with direct 3d. But I ran the test for direct 3d and it works.

When you replaced the mobo did you do it with a clean install of the OS and mobo drivers ?
No. The mobo is the exact same model that I had.

[pam123]

When you look at smartgart what do you see ?
Nothing is greyed out in thios list and everything is selected on.

Have you run dxdiag ?
Yes. When it first starts up it says there shows that last time you ran this program there was a problem with direct 3d. But I ran the test for direct 3d and it works.

When you replaced the mobo did you do it with a clean install of the OS and mobo drivers ?
No. The mobo is the exact same model that I had.


The fact that nothing is greyed out means that the AGP driver is installed so that's fine and you don't need to reinstall mobo drivers or anything like that.
The dxdiag does suggest trouble of some sort.
What part of dxdiag did the card fail ?
What happens when you reinstall DX 9 ?
Photoshop and 3D games will all stress the card and that's when it seems to loose either the display settings or it's 3D capabilities.
Under other circumstances this would be the sign of a card that was slowly dieing.
In your case it may be the sign of a damaged one.
Don't run out and buy another card ( unless you have a BestBuy with a 30 day policy in your area ) till you've tested your own in another rig.
Anyone who has ever had the video go haywire only to find out that the sound card was the cause knows that strange things happened.

[ironzombie99]

When dxdiag is scanning the system when you first start it is when it pops up. I havnt tried to reintall direct x 9. Also it couldnt be sound card cause I dont have one, its onboard. The video card is the only expansion card, everything else is onboard.

[pam123]

Okay.
By the process of elimination everything points to the card.
It doesn't point to the drives, the memory, or the monitor .
If you have a surge protector or a UPS is it under warranty ?
Lightning strikes are one of the few "accidents" for which you may be able to get someone else to pay for your replacements.
I don't know what your warranty will cover but read through it.

[Smidget]

You did uninstall mobo drivers (and other hardware affected by the lightning right?)