quote:

however when it shifts to go to the safe mode selection screen, it then goes to just horizontal bars of static...........So I can't make a selection to get into safe mode.

That's not good.
Should definately not happen.

What monitor do you have?
If I recall correctly, it's a CRT.
Could that be causing the issues?

Well, just saying: do not rule it out!
Can you try a different monitor?

Peachy.....

tried booting from windows CD and it went into "set-up".....Would not F3 exit out, yet I noticed it had already deleted a number of files. Okay, so trapped....2 options, repair or replace....Try repair....It goes through its motions and wouldn't ya know it.....

Back to SP1, however it won't recognize window update, or half of my hardware, my desktop, folders, etc. "looking" like they're all intact, yet naturally most aren't recognized it going no where, things like favorites all still there......and naturally no restore points left.

SoooooOOOooOoOoo.....essentially a crippled version of windows and all the balance pretty much worthless windows not recognizing all of it, just bits and pieces.

Guessing now my only option is a complete reinstall....Naturally I'll try and get a new drive to do it on so I can pick through windows to get the 10's of thousands of links I've saved, on and on.........Yet I'm guessing there is no way to fix this past rebuilding it all.

Ah well....

K2

Get an AGP 8x Mobo and its fixed i bet.

You still did not explaine how you think of compensating for the fact an AGP 4x slot being over 2 times slower than AGP 8x

And even if you get it working "normaly" you still get a much lower FPS than normal.

Your card needs atleast 1.5GB per Second data transfer speed, and i really do not see how you want to get that out of your AGP 4x slot.

In your case its also verry well posible you fried the card since AGP 8x is 0.8 Volts and AGP 4x is 1.5 Volts.

Like i said a lot of cards are AGP 4x/8x Compatible and are not that fast that they need more bandwith than what the AGP 4x can offer (nVidia), but ATI made cards that are a lot faster like yours wich do need the bandwith of the AGP 8x slot and are therefor not designed to be compatible with AGP 4x, so its verry well posible you fried the card and the MoBo's Northbridge circuit.

Once more: AGP 8x Slots are Backwards Compatible with AGP 4x Cards, Not the other way around!


And if you think the GFX glitches and Sound are related, pull the Soundcard out to see if it solves it, might be a conflict where you need to move the Soundcard to a difrent slot.

quote:

Originally posted by NDS_Camp.:
Get an AGP 8x Mobo and its fixed i bet............

Okay, past you doing a search on google I'll explain again.....

8x AGP is backward compatible with 4x. What is not is 8x or 4x into 2x. There for some time has been no such thing as a pure 8x card. They are either 8x/4x or 4x......Nvidia advertises that, ATI advertises that, and they have to back it up to AGP standards....True/pure 8x cards will NOT fit into a 4x slot just like neither will fit into a 2x slot.


One last time......4x cards are NOT forward compatible with 8x slots or voltages......Just because it is more volts doesn't mean it is the other way around.

K2

nVidia never made "Pure" AGP 8x cards yes, there AGP 8x cards where still just with in the limmits of AGP 4x but fully compatible with AGP 8x and where/are supost to run slightly faster on that.

ATI did make true AGP 8x cards wich exeed the bandwith of AGP 4x, and really need more data tranfer speed than AGP 4x can offer.

An AGP 2x and AGP 4x Card can not be fitted in each others slots because they got a notch in a difrent place to prevent a AGP 4x card wich uses 1.5 volts to be fitted in a AGP 2x slot wich is 3.3 volts.

AGP 8x has the notch in the same place as AGP 4x or no notch at all and is fully compatible with Most AGP 4x cards, infact an AGP 8x slot is a lot of times labeled as AGP 8x/4x slot

My Geforce 3 Titanium 500 wich is AGP 4x works perfectly fine in my nForce 2 Ultra Motherboard wich is labeled as AGP 8x

Sticking a ATI Radeon HD card in a AGP 4x slot will most likly give you problems because these cards exeed 1GB per second transfer speed and Posibly might get fried from the 1.5 Voltage

And i did not need to google that stuff...

If i where you i would contact NewEgg and ask them for a refund or for a verry good discount on a nice P4 Mobo with an AGP 8x slot (if you didnt frie the card already by sticking it in a 1.5 Volt slot instead of the 0.8 Volts its ment to take)
Some manufacturers still make/have Mainboards based on the Socket 478 Intel 865G.
Best chance would be ASRock for something like that new.

Thats all i got to say on this, hope you get it fixed.

Okay, this is going no where....

Read the AGP3.0 specs yourself, you CANNOT fry the board, the voltage is inconsequential regarding the cards.... http://www.docstoc.com/docs/26...troduction-to-AGP-8X

In any case it is now a mute point.....

K2

K2 - Does this happen on any other game? What wattage is your PSU?

Do you guys think it could be a PSU with too little power? Causing the card to stop functioning when lots is happening on the PC?

Just a thought, as it sounds like you have upgraded cards without upgrading your PSU a few times before...

quote:

Originally posted by LEBillfish:
Okay, this is going no where....

Read the AGP3.0 specs yourself, you CANNOT fry the board, the voltage is inconsequential regarding the cards.... http://www.docstoc.com/docs/26...troduction-to-AGP-8X

In any case it is now a mute point.....

K2

Thats a White Paper... not specs...

Here are the specs:

AGP V3.0 Interface Specification

http://download.intel.com/supp...desktop/sb/agp30.pdf

To keep it simple look at Page 73.

Please do note that your Motherboard is AGP 1.5(v) and your card is NOT Universal AGP 3.0, yours has only one Key slot in the interface connector... Universal AGP 3.0 spec has 2 key slots (3.3v and 1.5v) in the interface conector.

To make it a bit more clear, here is a picture of a Universal AGP 3.0 card:




And here is a picture of your AGP 3.0 card:

quote:

Originally posted by Xiolablu3:
K2 - Does this happen on any other game? What wattage is your PSU?

Do you guys think it could be a PSU with too little power? Causing the card to stop functioning when lots is happening on the PC?

Just a thought, as it sounds like you have upgraded cards without upgrading your PSU a few times before...

I was thinking this as well.

Hi has anybody heard how Billfishs APG card problem worked out

Well, just reinstalled enough to fly adding a new HDD with space....and first mission the sim 3/4 of the way through locked up/black screen/sound still going and cannot exit out.

Only happens online, and my PSU should handle it. Even tried some tests with some 3d strain test programs and though they taxed it it didn't lock up. So, will try some more settings, then think perhaps my Sound Card might be taxing it some...Either that or my CPU may be dying. I've noticed many others having this same issue with other sims. Powercolor no help they say it must be the sim poorly written for graphics.

In any case I'm finding it hard to believe the Cat drivers would be so bad......So perhaps tired CPU, or PSU, or weak sound card, or ATI sux.

K2

quote:

Originally posted by LEBillfish: ... and my PSU should handle it....

Not necessarily. The ATI HD2nnn series were the first of the really 'power hungry'cards. They need a PSU that has a lot of AMPS on the +12v rail.

If your PSU is as old as the rest of the system, it's quite possible that it IS the culprit. As a PSU ages, it starts producing less power, and it could well be that yours has degraded just enough to cause this issue. Especially if it was just marginal in relation to the power needs of the new card to start with.

What PSU are you using? If you can post the exact make and model, we could see what it's rated output is supposed to be. That may point to a solution.

Also, you DO need to be using the ATI HOTFIX drivers. There was never a 'true' HDnnnn AGP card. The HD2nnn and 3nnn series AGP cards are PCI-e cards modified by the various mfgr's to work in AGP. ATI never intended to produce an AGP card after the Xnnnn series.

You can get the CAT 9.7 Hotfix drivers here:
http://support.amd.com/us/kbar...talystAGPHotfix.aspx

Now, don't take this next bit personal. I know you aren't a dummy, but..

1. You DID install the motheroard drivers after the Windows re-install?

2. You do have MS's .NET FRAMEWORK installed?

I mentioned thse 2 because even the 'geekiest of the geeks' sometimes forget to do them.

Well it was my understanding the "hotfix" was for those cards that had the bios flashed wrong at the factory (reading 256Mb vs. 512)...However will give them a go, downloaded the latest 9.7.

As to the PSU it was a 550W unit...YET...only powers the board, now 3 7200rpm Eide HDD's (removed some), 1 CD-RW, 1 DVD read, 2 sticks of old pc2700 ram, AGP card, and now 2 PCI cards being an audigy 1, and a promess ide controller card.........All the fans are run by a second PSU, all of them........However, in testing the PSU before just before the OS screw up I swapped it out for the original Antec "True 430" 430W, 20a on the 12V PSU.....No difference, and I'm not switching them around again will just buy a new and bigger one if I need.

Side note, monitor is a 19" CRT.

Lastly, yes, my software load order with a new HDD is WITH ALL hardware disconnected (PCI cards, other HDDs, CD/DVDs, floppy drives, external devices except mouse, KB, AGP card);
1. West Dig. Data Lifeguard Tools to set up HDD.
2. Windows XP OS Disk install.
3. Intel MB software.
4. Windows update OS.
5. Add hardware 1 at a time, updating its software, and the OS each time.
6. Add new programs checking for OS updates as I go along.
7. Install Firewall and Anti-virus/spyware last.

Yes, I have MS NET Framework 3.5 installed.....I also have Solitaire, and this great program where nude men & women dance naked and do other naughty things on the screen for me .

K2

You say that it ONLY happens when you are online?

Can you can run missions in an off line campaign with no problem?

Ya know, I wonder if you are running into the old shared IRQ problem where the sound card and vid card are using the same IRQ?

Would it be possible for you to move the sound card to a different PCI slot? I know it's a long shot, but it might help.

This might be obvious so excuse me if you've already tried, but before you mentioned the partition was close to full with something like a gig of space left.

You also have the virtual memory set to 10,500 (10.5 gigs) So my guess is your system is bottle necking over a shortage in hard drive memory or there isn't enough hard disk space to create the needed virtual memory.

My system has 100Gb, and it starts to get buggy when i get close to 90 percent capacity.
So that would be where i would look.
Maybe free up some disk space or look at getting a larger hard drive. You probably want at least 10gb of free space, but every system is a little different. .

Okay,

Swapped drivers for latest 9.7 hotfix using driver sweeper to clean it up...Though it seemed to hang up when removing system32 files so removed and "saved" them manually.

As to the sound card it has been moved as part of the re-install....However, I'll check the addresses. What might be of value is replacing the card itself. It is an old Audigy(1), and IL2 is VERY sound card intensive.

As to the HDD space, that is resolved with the rebuild...The problem is the same after so was apparently not it.

Will let you know how it goes tonight.

K2

It's possible it's the sound card. Is it an Audegy SE? Those weren't one of Creative's better efforts.

What are you doing differently when you are online vs. offline? Are you running TS while online? If so, try running online without TS to see if that makes a difference. That may help isolate the problem.

Also, are you back to XP SP3, or did you stop at SP2?

Nope no TS or Ventrillo, that a rediculous affair so avoid it.....Only difference would be "being online". Though having cable past the traffic to HL/server is nothing different.

Went back to XP3, and it's perhaps a SE....More I think of it, and due to the lack of fans and such taxing the PSU, I am leaning more and more toward the sound card.

K2

Nothing to report, have only flown two missions though both in 4.08 unmodded without incident....If I fly a modded mission and have a crash, then I'm betting it is the sound card due to the significantly more taxing sounds.

K2

If that is Audigy SE then everythign is being run 'in software' emulation mode instead of hardware. This means your CPU ie being taxed more as well. Only Audigy 2ZS or X-Fi Extremegamer card and above would run everything in hardware. This Audigy SE card is no different from running 'onboard sound' because of this. Poor Creative didnt notify people of this. I know this because I had one of these thinsg for my old computer LOL !!! GRR