video card low video performance

[brown29]

Hi, for some reason my video card is producing low video performance. I recently had to repair my windows xp operating system because my computer just kept turning its self off and now I have this problem.

It is mainly just affecting the rate of frames when browsing the internet and is slow compared to when my system was working fine. I think it is a legacy video card and is external to the motherboard.

Is there anyway to check without looking inside my computer?

Any help or advice would be grateful, thanks.

[ski]

Is the system still turning off?

[brown29]

hi mate, not at the moment so I hope that’s the last time. I sent off the report to Microsoft and I got a message back saying it was a driver but didn’t know which one.

First I tried “last known configuration” but that didn’t work. After tried to restore my computer to an earlier time but it wouldn’t let me, so I used the repair function on the windows xp cd.

So after that everything seems to be ok apart from the video card which is very slow as I tested it over at pc pit stop.

One thing that might help though, when I was repairing the os, the following message came up:

The file “VIAAGP1.SYS on VIAAGP filter driver disk is needed”

But I didn’t know what that was so I had to press cancel to proceed with the installation.

Thanks, Caine

[RazorDX]

That would be why. That is either your chipset's AGP driver. Without it, your graphics cards hardware acceleration is pretty much crippled.

[brown29]

here is a report of my system, as you can tell its not my machine as its pretty new and i also keep it in top shape i.e defrag, erase temp file, ad aware etc>

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name LUCKY-4286B9AB4
User Name bronk

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 3148 MHz (15 x 210)

Motherboard Name Asus P4V8X-X (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN)

Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8763 Apollo PT800

System Memory 512 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)

BIOS Type Asus AMI (08/12/04)

Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)

Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter ATI Rage 6 (R100) (ATI Radeon DDR)
3D Accelerator ATI Rage 6 (R100)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB0350 Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card

Storage:
IDE Controller VIA Bus Master IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller VIA Serial ATA RAID Controll Floppy Drive
Floppy disk drive

Disk Drive Maxtor 6Y120L0 (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Disk Drive IOMEGA ZIP 250
Optical Drive PHILIPS PBDV1640P
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 58000 MB (51524 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 59231 MB (36393 MB free)
Total Size 114.5 GB (85.9 GB free)

[brown29]

Originally Posted by RazorDX That would be why. That is either your chipset's AGP driver. Without it, your graphics cards hardware acceleration is pretty much crippled.

Can you tell me where to find the correct driver?

Caine

[RazorDX]

Use the motherboard's driver disk to install your chipset's AGP bus drivers.

[brown29]

will try that now, thanks. hope this works, the refesh rate is like a really slow win95 machine

Caine

[brown29]

Thanks man, yes that worked..................cant thank you enough and if anything happens like angain i will know what to do.

Kind Regards, Caine

[brown29]

****, thought everything was ok for a minute, but when I installed the drivers my computer started to switch its self off again.

It did this 3 times and then it said it had corrupted bios. Now I can’t even get the computer to start up.

When I turn the computer on all that happens is that the monitor display light just flashes as if the monitor is on and the computer is not. Also there doesn’t seem to be any hard drive activity.

I put a brand new hard drive replaying my existing one hoping to install windows xp on it just to try and access the internet but to no avail. The same thing happens. The monitor doesn’t turn on, but just the flashing light on the monitor just goes on and off, and there is no hard drive activity apart from the hard drive light which just sticks on.

The video card is not onboard so I cant just take it out and switch it on, on the motherboard.

I just need some advice now and the best way to tackle this problem.

On a final thought, if it is the video card, why would this start happing now as iv hap this for 6 months with no problems.

Please help, caine

[ski]

If the fans run, then shut down the system, and remove the video card.
Then, restart, and if the system now gives a beeping pattern, then install a different video card.

If that does not help or the fans do no run, then either the power supply or the MB may be bad.

[brown29]

Originally Posted by ski If the fans run, then shut down the system, and remove the video card. Then, restart, and if the system now gives a beeping pattern, then install a different video card. If that does not help or the fans do no run, then either the power supply or the MB may be bad.

Hi mate, right I took the video card out of the pc and powered up the computer, there were no beeps and the hard drive still seemed to hang at first. After a few attempts the os then began to load up as normal although I couldn’t see anything as I had removed the video card.

So I thought well, yeah its deffo the video card. So then I went to watch some tv for about 2 hours then, well now before going to bed I thought id see if the hard drive would still boot and it wouldn’t, so I put the card back in just to try and for about 5 or 6 goes the operating system and now finally booted back up hence me writing this message.

I very much doubt the problem is fixed but how strange, seams to have a mind of its own, I guess im writing this message because where do I go from here?

I doubt tomorrow when I turn my computer on it will work at all………..

Although there is one suggestion, about 6 mouths ago I installed a new mother board but kept the existing processor. When I re aligned it, I did not apply that heat sink coolant that your meant to do, and just left the existent coolant when I attached the mobo. Because of this would the computers cpu get too hot and keep shutting down the computer? Iv got asus prob and that doesn’t seem to give me any alarm that my processor is too hot, so im not so sure. Anyway this is the temp at the moment:

CPU TEMP: 38 C/98 F
MB TEMP 35 C / 95 F
CPU FAN 3426

And the status is ok, this is only a thought though, but if any one has any suggestions of what steps to take next in this strange situation I would be very grateful.

Caine

[glc]

That's a very acceptable CPU temperature.

I think your video card is failing - or you have a weak power supply. If the video card has a heatsink and fan on it, blow the dust out of it thoroughly and make sure the fan works.

[brown29]

Originally Posted by glc That's a very acceptable CPU temperature. I think your video card is failing - or you have a weak power supply. If the video card has a heatsink and fan on it, blow the dust out of it thoroughly and make sure the fan works.

yes mate the video card has a fan, and thats the first thing i did when takening it out.

My computer has started today, and microsoft sent me this report back, not that it any use:

Error caused by a device driver

Thank you for sending an error report to Microsoft.

Error report summary

Error type : Windows stop error (A message appears on a blue screen with error code information)
Solution available? : No (see Next steps)
What does this error mean? : Windows has encountered an error from which it cannot recover and needs to restart
Cause : Unknown device driver
Computer symptoms : A message appears on a blue screen with error code information (for example: e.g. 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)
Additional steps for you to take : Important: Please continue to send error reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

Information about this error

You received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused the Windows operating system to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error." A stop error requires you to restart your computer.

Next steps

We have analyzed your error report and at this time are unable to determine the exact cause of the error. However, Microsoft will continue to analyze this error report to try to determine the specific cause of the error. If we are able to find the cause and correct it, and you encounter the same problem, you will receive an updated response that includes instructions for resolving the problem.

[glc]

It almost has to be the Via chipset driver - or the Radeon video driver - or their interaction (version conflict).

[brown29]

Originally Posted by glc It almost has to be the Via chipset driver - or the Radeon video driver - or their interaction (version conflict).

Yes it must be, but saying that iv downloaded all the lastest drivers from the asus website for the mortherboard etc and updated to the latest bios and everything seems ok.

Iv had no problems yet and iv being runing my machine now for most of the day so fingers crossed.

Il just see what happens so hopefuly that will be the end of it.

Regards, Caine