Video card upgrade, need advice

[oldguy]

Need advise, I'm looking at upgrading my video card, Ive been having trouble with the card thats in my machine, its a good card, but it sometimes frizzes or shuts down then the computer re boots, a windows error message pops up saying to update to the last drives for my card, I have done that, but still the same, doesn't make any dif if I roll back drivers.
Have been on a few forum sites, and most have said, that it is a driver problem, and don't know if there is a fix for it, I can't be ass'd looking for a solution, so just put a new card in.
Im thinking of an ATI X800 pro 256/256 but there are so many different models of that same card and the verying prices I don't know which is better.
Any help or advise appreciated.

Cheers John

Oh almost forgot, old skool motherboard uses AGP.

my card... ASUS V9570D

Nvidia GForce FX5700

256MB DDR interface 256 bit

[Romeo]

Power supply unit.

Tell us all the components in your system as well as the Wattage on your PSU, as the usual suspect in the exact problem you describe is a weak PSU. No point buying a new, more powerful graphics card if your current PSU wont be able to power it.

[oldguy]

Power supply unit.

Tell us all the components in your system as well as the Wattage on your PSU, as the usual suspect in the exact problem you describe is a weak PSU. No point buying a new, more powerful graphics card if your current PSU wont be able to power it.

PSU 520watt

MBoard Gigabyte GA-7N400 Dual channel DDR400

AGP 8X

CPU AMD Athlon 2400+ its running at 2.0Ghz

Ram 1.280

[boomer]

have you tried removing your old driver, then deleting any files left on the drive associated with the driver ( theres also some driver cleaners on some geek sites, search driver cleaner.. blah blah ), the n do a disk clean up and defrag...then reboot and reinstall new drivers? driverheaven has some good utils i think

failing that and your happy its ya gfx card do a search on pricespy and pick up the cheapest x800 if it'ss not for anything special.. i.e. gaming or video editing etc. They're all much of a muchness for everyday use. although there are better cards out there now and prolly cheaper too

i've got a spare x800 sat on teh shelf ive just ripped out cos i got a new mobo .. well i rebuilt my pc


* edit; heres a link to driver cleaners and driver updates for ya

[boomer]

Power supply unit.

Tell us all the components in your system as well as the Wattage on your PSU, as the usual suspect in the exact problem you describe is a weak PSU. No point buying a new, more powerful graphics card if your current PSU wont be able to power it.

theres tonnes of shit it could be.. ps being one but drivers get corrupt easily enough.. even his Ram or mobo.

old fella.. try testing ya ram is ok too.. leave one piece in, remove the rest and test 'em all that way

[oldguy]

have you tried removing your old driver, then deleting any files left on the drive associated with the driver ( theres also some driver cleaners on some geek sites, search driver cleaner.. blah blah ), the n do a disk clean up and defrag...then reboot and reinstall new drivers? driverheaven has some good utils i think

failing that and your happy its ya gfx card do a search on pricespy.com and pick up the cheapest x800 if it'ss not for anything special.. i.e. gaming or video editing etc. They're all much of a muchness for everyday use. although there are better cards out there now and prolly cheaper too

i've got a spare x800 sat on teh shelf ive just ripped out cos i got a new mobo .. well i rebuilt my pc

I do play alot of online games on this PC... HL2, DFBHD, CSS, DODS.

cheers boomer, will try that, I uninstall through add and remove and that never seems to remove all

[Ragingrob]

Hey don't have too much advice, but I have a Radeon proX800 256Mb and it runs really well , so that could be an option for ya!

[quallman1234]

Your CPU is a big bottleneck right there.

You probably wont see a great deal of improvment with a new GFX card.

Possibly get a XP3200+ Might help a little bit. But its probably time to swap the mobo and cpu.

Ch ching!

Oh right your having problems.

Use driver cleaner when installing new drivers.

[boomer]

I do play alot of online games on this PC... HL2, DFBHD, CSS, DODS.

cheers boomer, will try that, I uninstall through add and remove and that never seems to remove all

in that case go to computer lounge, mt eden, ask for Paul tell him Duncan sent ya and he'll do you a good deal on a decent card..and he'll look after you in future.


you using xp i take it? remove from add/remove programs then goto to teh display driver ( right click screen, properties, and unistall driver from there. Theres also an ati folder under c:/ati or c:/programs/ati/ that will have an unistall .exe you can use to remove the thing.

anyhows.. let me know how u get on and if u do decide to buy a new card buy mainstream mate with as much ram s poss

[boomer]

Your CPU is a big bottleneck right there.

You probably wont see a great deal of improvment with a new GFX card.

Possibly get a XP3200+ Might help a little bit. But its probably time to swap the mobo and cpu.

Ch ching!

not for playing teh games hes playin now; granted for newer stuff yeah but thats not his problem.. his problem is a fooked rig


* edit.. i see you've changed ya reply now

[Fub@r]

I do play alot of online games on this PC... HL2, DFBHD, CSS, DODS.

cheers boomer, will try that, I uninstall through add and remove and that never seems to remove all

I would advise a major upgrade and get yourself a PCI-e gfx card, they are dirt cheap if you want to game. But it will mean a whole system upgrade

I have a AMD64 3500 with 7800GTX and I want to upgrade as its not fast enought

For $750 you can build an Intel Core 2, 2 gig ram, mobo, case, 320gig SATA2 HDD, 8600GT, 20x DVD burner will run your games and make you a coffee without breaking a sweat

[Ragingrob]

On a side note, I'm selling my comp right now on trademe...

AMD 3200+
80Gig drive
1Gig ram
Radeon 256Mb card
DVD burner
Windows xp pro
17" screen + 15"screen
Two keyboards
20 Gig music
A few games here and there like CS etc, nfs most wanted, rugby 2006.
Lotsa software.

Selling for $600 ono

[oldguy]

Your CPU is a big bottleneck right there.

You probably wont see a great deal of improvment with a new GFX card.

Possibly get a XP3200+ Might help a little bit. But its probably time to swap the mobo and cpu.

Ch ching!

Oh right your having problems.

Use driver cleaner when installing new drivers.

I do have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ socket 939 was going to build another PC,
but then if so I would go with PCI-E

[Fub@r]

I do have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ socket 939 was going to build another PC,
but then if so I would go with PCI-E

If you got a cheap AGP card you can get a 939 board called an Asrock Dual Sata 2. Comes with both AGP and PCI-e slots, board is under $100. Its the board I got when I still had some life left in my AGP card and didn't want to buy a PCI-e card at that time but wanted to upgrade the CPU to AMD64.

You have a few options, its just a matter of how much you use your PC, do you want to play some of the games coming up and what you want to spend. Also if you have the knowledge use Pricespy and build your own PC and save yourself a small fortune

[oldguy]

I would advise a major upgrade and get yourself a PCI-e gfx card, they are dirt cheap if you want to game. But it will mean a whole system upgrade

I have a AMD64 3500 with 7800GTX and I want to upgrade as its not fast enought

For $750 you can build an Intel Core 2, 2 gig ram, mobo, case, 320gig SATA2 HDD, 8600GT, 20x DVD burner will run your games and make you a coffee without breaking a sweat

call me old fashion, but Im a fan of AMD would go with a dual-core CPU if I had the money to build a good PC, but then thats me, I also like Honda's so what would I know.

cheers for the advise anyway

John