The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: willhoff on March 07, 2011, 04:25:02 pm
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Hi, I'm using my brother's computer to type this. Some background first: When Tralek was at the Sederan Drach Quest, he walked up to everyone in Audira and all the lag caused my computer to freeze. I relogged and when I came back my screen was still frozen (like a screeny of where I was at in Audira) and it looked like my screen was a water color print that some kid had splashed water on. Visuals were all mixed and rainbowed and whacked.
Anyways, I logged on with Griff and he was fine. So, I relogged with Tralek and he seemed fine too.
Problem is that later I was trying to look on the internet and yahoo and such and now I can't retrieve my "favorite" sites and can't access sites in my cookies or visit other sites. I'm getting blue-screen-dos error messages saying I need to reinstall or check the installation of new software or hardware. Norton says its shutting down windows. Some of my icons on my desktop look like they have acid sheath cast on them. I'm really not sure how extensive the problem is right now. Its kinda hit and miss what I can look at and what I can't. I'm not even sure my problems are related to the Audiran Freeze but I'm guessing it is. I suspect my video driver got eaten, but I'm no Tech.
Any suggestions might help me. I'll post back when I know more or to respond to questions. I'm probably gona have to call Norton to do a virus scan, but I'd love to save the $100 they charge for that :)
Appreciate any help,
Davidhoff
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Update: Here's what the blue-doss-error message screen says:
~~~beginning of error message ~~~
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If the screen appears again follow these steps:
Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the Stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacture for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.
Check with you hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as cashing or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to disable or remove components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Start-up Options and then select safe mode.
Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x0000008e (0xc0000005, 0x805515a1, 0xa983f1c4, 0x00000000)
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or tech support group for further assistance.
~~~ end of error message ~~~
Don't know if this helps any of you with my problem..but that's what it says. So, I got that message when I just tried to start my computer, and then I had to hit the kill button to turn off my computer.
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Not to ask the stupid question, but do you in fact have adequate disk space (whether or not you should have more than is reported)?
Install anything that needed drivers recently? What operating system are you running, can you boot to safe mode, etc?
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The STOP 0x0000008e error is usually indicative of a hardware problem. You may be looking at failed/failing memory, but given your description of the visual effects on your desktop and in-game, I'd actually guess that you may be looking at a failed/failing video card. About all you can do there is replace it and hope that's the problem.
It might be worthwhile to take your computer to a technician and have it more thoroughly diagnosed that what can be accomplished on forums.
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Thanks Dorg and Acacea for the responses. Let me see if I can get into safe mode and check the disk space available. I have not installed any new software or hardware on this computer except for Layo updates ;) .
If I was to go buy a new video card, what card would you suggest I get that would be compatible with Layo? Also, is the video card something you just plug in the hard drive, or is it something more difficult?
Will get back when I know more.
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Ok, I'm hitting F8 when at my desktop but its not going into safe mode. I can access my Control Panel, but couldn't find where to look for disk space status. I guess I could look to see what video card I have currently installed, but not really sure where to look for that either. Knowing what I currently have as a video card might help in figuring what to replace it with. Oh, and to answer Acacea's question I'm running Windows XP for operating.
Thanks
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You can go to "My Computer" and either hover on or right click the drive that says C: to see how much free space out of whatever total you have. If you right click you will need to click "Properties".
The F8 to safe mode actually needs to be done while the computer is starting. You have a pretty slim window of time to do it - if you are looking at the "Windows XP" loading splash thing you missed it; it's like the last thing before you see the logo. If you're watching the text scroll by while it's booting up you'll see it go by... depending on the PC it could be like playing Whack-A-Mole. You don't need to be in safe mode to check your disk space, or to see what kind of card you have.
For info on your video card, click Start, then Run, and type "dxdiag" without the quotes when the box comes up. A diagnostic tool will come up, and if you click the "Display" tab it should at least tell you exactly what you have even if it doesn't tell you anything else useful.
Because forum Q&A is a lot of "try this" "didn't work" "what about this" "didn't work" "download this tool and tell me what it says" and the like, if you have trouble digging around you are probably better off taking Dorg's advice about having someone physically look at it... Most people are like "do you have another card? Try swapping it!" or "try taking out a stick of ram and running a memory test on each" or something. Most forum people (me anyway, not necessarily Dorg) are just trial and error people. ...With search-fu.
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Most forum people (me anyway, not necessarily Dorg) are just trial and error people. ...With search-fu.
Nah...Trial and error is still the best way ultimately, unless something shows very clear signs right up front. :)
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If I was to go buy a new video card, what card would you suggest I get that would be compatible with Layo? Also, is the video card something you just plug in the hard drive, or is it something more difficult?
Good question there. Since Neverwinter is so old, backwards compatibility can be a real pain. I recently tried upgrading my nvidia GTX 220 card to a newer GTX 400+ model and it worked WONDERFULLY... on all games except my one-true-love Neverwinter. (and by Neverwinter, I mean LAYO) The frame rate was ATROCIOUS! (300+) Reinstalling drivers, tweaking the settings, etc just would not work and when I checked out the forums of Nvidia, ( Neverwinter Nights - MASSIVE FPS drop - NVIDIA Forums (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=178961)) I found that all their GTX 400 series cards had some problem recognizing cloaks and bowstrings. I kid you not, everything went smoothly until somebody wearing a cloak or drawing a bow came up and it was so choppy you'd think it was running on an Commadore 64. This issue had been persistent for many months/years, so it seemed Nvidia wasn't going to fix it anytime soon. For Neverwinter, avoid Nvidia GTX 400 series like the plague!
In fact I already had a bad taste in my mouth over Nvidia's previous troubles running other true loves, Piranha Bytes' Gothic I & II. Somewhere between the OpenGL days of early 2000's and the new era of DirectX monopoly they just dropped all backwards support for these awesome games on both their old 220gtx series and again on the 400+ GTX series, rendering the games utterly unplayable. I can understand a lapse of a few months of non-support, but we Gothic fans had been petitioning Nvidia to fix their compatibility with this series for almost THREE YEARS. I kid you not, the top issue in their support forum was Gothic I & II not working, had over 150 THOUSAND views, 17+ pages worth of people asking them to fix it for over 3 years. The reps at Nvidia just kept saying, "fixed in next update" and the fixes never came. We stayed up all night, in the kitchen, by the telephone, watching the driveway till 3 am in the morning and the fixes never came! The only real support came from Russian hackers who spoke very very little English but still posted DLLs and hacked EXEs to patch the problems, which worked on a handful of chipsets, but most of us were stuck on the "in the next update" or "um, this forum isn't *technically* run by Nvidia (though we're the only tech forum for Nvidia in existence, and we have Nvidia reps who work for us post to it)" Three years of disappointment and you'd think I learned my lesson, eh? I figured the 430gtx would solve the issue but no dice... and somehow the 430gtx couldn't handle Neverwinter, which was just fine on my old 230gtx.
I quickly returned the card to Best Buy and swapped it out for my new ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5670 card and could not be happier with my purchase. First of all it was the most powerful PCI Express card I could find that still had a standard installation, no extra cables to link to the power supply, no dual-linking cards for better performance (though I could if I wanted to), just plug it into the PCIexpress slot and install the drivers and its done.
It still has a few issues of course, like I still have to turn off shiny water for Neverwinter, and the default resolution settings for Dawn of Discovery were a pain to see through until I calibrated by resolution manually. But unlike Nvidia's forum where my only allies were Russian hackers, ATI simply told me how to get around my issues. I love my card as it was in the 100 dollar range and still allows a playable max-settings of Crisis I, still lets me just use a PCIexpress port with no added fuzz and blows the tar out of GTA IV and Fallout 3 with medium-high shadows at 1600x900. Definitely worth the 110+tax I paid for it half a year ago.
Now I know my issue with Nvidia was an isolated issue and that there are plenty of you on here that were lucky enough to purchase decent chipsets instead of the two stinkers I've dealt with, but I make it a personal issue to warn people about how Nvidia treated me and the millions of Gothic & Neverwinter fans worldwide. Even if it was just an issue of how these cards interacted with our official Nvidia-ready motherboards. (my motherboard has the NVIDIA GeForce 9100 integrated video card for emergencies, and its marketing boasts optimal support for other Nvidia cards) They told us "in the next update" for about 3 years on two titles, and the other one they just said "hey man, it's an old game! whatta you expect?".
I wouldn't mind them peeing in my RPG-Cheerios quite so much if they hadn't shelled out big money to put their personal logo in the splash screens of said titles! They gave me a personal guarantee of "Best played with Nvidia!" on those games, and they totally dropped support in less than 6 years of paying for that advertisement. If a video game graphics company is going to use their money and their influence to vandalize my favorite games' splash-screen with their personal guarantee that it will not only work, but work better than any other brand in the world, they better well deliver as promised! That's 8 seconds of my life wasted by their splash screens every time I started up those games, only to have it go choppity choppity click whirr boom, pixelflux on me, to be frustratingly restarted again and again and again, fuming as I stare at their accursed emblem as its actively mocking me. Laughing at me. Waving a fistful of dollars and splashing a high quality cognac into my face, paid for with my own blood sweat and tears. It's because of that I shall never forgive this evil corporate entity known to mortal men as Nvidia, and possibly Cthulu Ktaga to others.
In their defense, I never did get far enough to see the Gothic I & II Nvidia splash screens, so at least I retained those 8 seconds. All I ever got was just one quick glimpse of the Nameless hero, pleading for mercy as the necro-pixels devoured his countenance faster than orcs to an all-meat buffet. And then nothing. The poor little guy deserved better.
And so do you! Avoid Nvidia like the plague, get an AMD/ATI! Or anything else for that matter. I will never forgive them, ever. They crossed a line that they shouldn't have crossed and can never come back from. It's like, Yoko and Ringo, baby.
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Back to topic *wheeze* sorry about that man.
In any case, my biggest advice to you when shopping video cards is to first compile a list of your favorite games from greatest to least, Neverwinter at the top of course. (and by Neverwinter, I mean Layo) Then visit the tech support forums of every one of those games and take a look at which cards have the most persistent, unfixed issues for your favorite titles, especially those cards you're considering. Also note how long those issues have persisted, and what kind of response the card manufacturers' support forums have offered. I don't mind bugs that are fixed promptly, no manufacturer is perfect. Cross reference the forums of your favorite games with the cards you have an eye on. The frame-rates and the GHZ and VRAM are secondary to the results and the reliability of the product. It can have all the frame-rate in the world, but if the card and your motherboard and the driver support for it aren't a good fit, it can go bloody yonkers. And above all purchase from somebody with a good return policy, and as soon as you install that card, make a weekend to test-drive your games library to avoid any pitfalls that can spoil your purchase. If it doesn't work, don't be afraid to scratch, bite and claw your way to an exchange, quick as you can under the return policy and bearing full documentation of your receipt in triplicate.
Also you should get a diagnostic like Dorg said first, because it might not just be the video card ;) Have you tried reformatting the machine recently? Air-in-a-can the insides and make sure the fans are ventilating properly? Sometimes overheating issues can cause these kinds of memory failures, other times its something as simple as a loose chip or cable. The computer spirits work in mysterious, binary ways.
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On a good note, Layo is a server game so you don't need that computer to play with your characters although you won't be able to recover your in-game notes because those files are stored on the computer played on when written I'm pretty sure.
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Heya, so earlier today I emailed the IT guy at my school.. Hehehe. I am trying to paraphrase what he told me. I am not familiar with all of what he is saying but I am sure you are. He said since he can't visually see the problem, he isn't quite sure but here are his thoughts:
1. First of all, he said it might be the memory issue. What you can do is pull out each memory stick and test each one at a time to see if your computer works ok. By elimination, you can see if your memory is faulty or not.
2. If you think it's your video card, he said to go buy another cheapo to test. Or, if you have a spare, just plug it in to see if your computer will run.
3. If the memory is fine, and the spare video card still doesn't solve the problem, and you don't have anything important on your system, try reinstalling and see if that fixes the problem. He thinks potentially a virus/spyware has corrupted some Windows file and therefore causing your system to not boot properly.
Okay, now hand over that $100 consulting fee. Hahaha. ;)
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Pretty funny there xsweetpeaxs..what's your paypal account info? :rolleyes:
Thanks everyone for the help. I think the problem is worse now, my computer wont stay on for more than a couple minutes (in regular mode) with out going to blue screen (then all I can do is hit the kill switch).
I was able to go to safe mode (thanks Acacea). I have 38GB free of 74GB total on my computer. So memory seems to be ok. My display/video driver seems to be a "ialmrnt5.dll" (version 6.14) in regular mode or its a "vga.dll" (version 5.01) in safe mode. I also opened the machine up and cleaned the dust inside and out...it was pretty messy.
Even in safe mode I have these lines of green dashes running across the bottom of my screen, so makes me think its still a video issue.
I have gotten more blue screens too. Various error messages were 8e (using just the last digits), 24, 50, f4 and 0a. Some of the blue screes said "bad pool header" or "IROL not less or equal" or "page fault in non paged area" or "a process or thread critical to system operation has exited or terminated".
So, now I'm worried it might something more serious than just the video card. Maybe like xsweetpeaxs said, virus/spy ware corrupted my windows somehow. *sighs* I think I'm going to call up Norton tomorrow and have one of their techs remotely access my computer and diagnose it. They've been pretty good in the past. Or, I might try to buy a video card and install and see what happens, not sure yet what I'll do.
I called the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they said that once you start getting the "blue screens" the best thing to do is system reinstall, which he says basically makes your computer like you got it from the factory. I'm thinking those guys are really lazy and dont want to spend the time diagnosing...I don't trust them. I'm also bummed about having to reinstall all my favorite programs, haks, cookies, etc. and I'm worried about losing files.
So, I'm gona sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again for the help everyone.
Davidhoff
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Or you can ask your sweet, loving, generous brother to buy you a new computer. ;)
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To me the latest bit of info from your last post, David, sounds like your Graphics Card's internal memory chips (Video RAM), has come to the end of it's days. This always causes crashes and stranger than strange graphics on every occasion (color lines, weird looking symbols, textures in game getting messed up real bad, etc).
The way to solve it, is simple. Get a new graphics card :)
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In defense of the geek squad guys. A system reinstall on your computer is usually the most cost effective way to fix issues. It cleans up any bugs, viruses or program issues with one fix. IF they tried to figure out the exact cause of the problem it could take many hours going through all your programs and inspecting your hardware. vice one hour to do a system reinstall on your computer.
So would you like to pay for one hour of service for them to do a system reinstall or an unknown amount of hours for them to diagnose it?
To me it sounds like a video card issue but with you not being able to access your favorites makes me question that a bit. As your favorites has nothing to do with your video card.
Now if you tell us the make and model of your computer I'll see what I can do in figuring out what the issue is. I'm thinking I may be able to talk you through on fixing it yourself. I'm home all day today and will keep an eye out for your reply.
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I'm with Chazzler, video memory or an overheating video processor is my call.
Sure fire way to test without costing you a cent is to check if you have onboard (a second video output on the mainboard), pull your current video card, reattach your cable to the onboard and boot up, see if that fixes your issue. If it does, you've isolated the vid card. Good luck.
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I just had to buy a asus engt240 1 gig ddr3 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121353&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleKWLessCA&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleKWLessCA-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA). neverwinter nights works perfect on it.
I would have bought something more powerful, but since it's the third card this year I have to bring this comp to the hardware store to get the mobo checked up. But with the work I have at the moment, I just can't.
Anyhow short story, the video card I just linked you, works for nwn and many other things. The drivers that comes with it might need to be updated. I updated mine and I have no issues with zebra horses, purple shadows or shiny humanoid walking in the street.
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Wow, really thanks for all the help everyone! Special thanks to Masterjack for offering to spend time to walk me through. I'm not quite sure what cbnicholson was saying about reattaching the cable to the onboard, but it does sound like the easiest test. Unfortunately, I'm limited in my familiarity with these terms and the internal workings of my comp.
I think what I'm going to do is go by Best Buy and buy a new video card and plug it in and see what happens (I'm sure there's more to it than that, but I'll figure that out).
I'll post back with my results. If this doesn't work then I'll go from there I guess.
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Bassically what cb is talking about is you should check to see if you see an other connector that looks exactly the same as the one on your video card and plug your monitor cable on that one. Then take your video card out and boot your computer. If there's an other video connector on your computer it's because your mother board came with an on-board video chip.
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Ok, here's where I'm at: I bought a Radeon HD 5550 video card (not exactly the one that Lon said to get, but they were sold out of the 5670's).
I followed the instructions to install it. I went into Safe mode (because I have to), and unistalled the previous drivers for my old video card using the add/remove programs (I think I removed the right one). I disabled my old video adapter using the windows device manager ( I hope I disabled the right ones). Then I opened the computer and looked for a place to put the new card. The only card slot that looked like the right fit was already occupied by an existing card that I never use. So, I took that one out and put the new 5550 in its place. I'm still not sure what that old card I removed was for; it had a plug-in extension that was a bit larger and it was white not blue; so didn't seem to be for the monitor. But that one is out now and the 5550 in its place.
Then they said to put the CD in to load the drivers...that's where I'm stuck. If I use safe mode, I get part-way through the installation process and it stops and says there's an error "failed to detect load detection driver". Not sure what this means, but I'm guessing that being in Safe Mode is causing me problems because not all my drivers or what not are being accessed. *sighs* Then if I try to use the CD and load the drivers in Regular Mode, I get part way through the process and I get (you guessed it) Blue Screen! and the computer is locked so I have to shut it down.
So, I'm really a tiny bit frustrated now. I worried that old driver I pulled out is necessary some how, or maybe I unistalled or removed the wrong programs earlier on. I'm really not sure. Think I'm going to look for a practice dummy to go whack at for a while.
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Nope I don't think so. Since the video card is out, it's more likely that your problem lies with corrupted ram. Have you tried to take out the ram and only leave one stick at a time in? Alternatively if you're not sure you have taken all the nvidia driver out there's freeware utility that deals with uninstalling unused drivers. You might want to download those on your bro's comp and then transfer it to your comp.
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Somehow I "think" I managed to download the drivers for the new video card in Safe Mode. I think this because when I boot up in Regular Mode, now the pixel setting has changed (all my icons look tiny, etc). I also checked to see what driver was active in the System Display tab, and it said ADI something (I think thats the name of the driver I installed). But, I only get so far in Regular Mode and I get Blue Screened. So, looks like even with the new video card in I'm still having problems. *stretches back and grunts*
One thing I might mention. For a while now, before I had all these problems, I would always get some error message when I started my computer. I have been just exiting out of those hoping they were bogus. The error messages would say something like "Error with System 32". Well, I'm pretty sure C:system32 is the file location of the video drivers. Also, when I boot up in Safe Mode, for about 15 seconds I get a black screen with line after line of System 32/driver...bla bla bla script. Then it goes to my desk top. Not really sure how this plays into any of this, but maybe there's something wrong with my System32 files? Heck I don't know. I'm pretty lost what to do now. Its looking like a full system restart may be my only option...but I really dont want to lose all my information and add ons. *sighs*
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Oh and to HB..thanks for the response. I don't know where to look for my RAM, let alone how to pull it out stick by stick. Maybe you explain to me like I'm a 3-year old how to find and remove sticks of RAM? Thanks
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Alright here's it is.
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/Emcha_Audio/insideacomputer-1.jpg)
Depending on the model of your mother board you may have less or more long strips or ram. What you need to do is usually there are two push pins on each side of the strip for each ram stick. You nee to push on these to take the stick out.
This is what a common ram stick looks like
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a69/Emcha_Audio/aRamstick.jpg)
Now all you have to do is take your sticks out but leave one in. Usually the one closest to your cpu is the first slot, which is where you should leave it.
So all you have to do, is to remove the sticks but leave one in, close the computer casing and reboot the computer into normal mode. Work a bit if the computer goes into BSOD again check the message if you can and write it down. If it does and you still have the same message as before then take that stick out and try an other one. You should of course test all of them out to be sure you got the culprit.
Be careful to always keep one hand on the casing or your power supply so that you don't discharge static on your motherboard. And don't work in your computer over a carpet.
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Well, I removed the one of two memory sticks and I'm able to get onto Layo forums for the first time! I'm not going to call this a success yet, because I know how things go. But I will say its progress.
I still got an error report when I logged in (not a blue screen). It said the system has detected a serious error or something like that.
It could be I'll get shut down at any time now...but right now its working.
Thanks HB...thanks alot. Let me mess around with a few things and see how long I can stay on. BRB *grins*
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The system will usually tell you upon a reboot when it restarted or was able to get through a problem on your system. The details of what it tells you can help you determine what it was.
If things are working for the moment, try to download this (http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/) to make sure all the drivers for your nvidia are removed. Don't select the check box for the nvidia chipset drivers.
Once that is done, then you can install your ATI drivers.
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Ok HB I think you did it! Muchas Gracias! Wow, I can't tell you how thankful I am for your help and everyone else that helped me brainstorm this thing!
Alright, I just restarted my computer and I didn't see the error message this time...which is really really good. I still get that Systyem 32 error message, but I've been getting that for like over a year or so..so no biggy there.
I have to say I'm not really liking this new video card, the Radeon HD 5550. I logged on to layo and played Griff a bit. It looked about the same, but it was almost too clean and newish. It seemed more like I was playing a Playstation game than what I had before. My brother called it "Atari-ish". Hard to explain, but the creatures seemed to be more planted or added to the background than before.
So, if the RAM was my issue/problem, then I guess I'd like to go back to my old video card. I guess I can retrace my steps but I'm really afraid to screw things up. I can figure how to take out the 5550 from the card slot and put the other back ok. I'm a bit worried about adding back the old driver and "activating" the old adapters. So some advice on that would be nice before I go in with my chainsaw.
Also, I still have one of my RAM sticks out. I guess I'll need to go buy another RAM stick. Do I need to transfer data from the old memory stick to the new one? What's the process for when I switch out memory sticks like that?
I can't say how much you guys have helped me, especially HB *nods*. Thanks again! I respectfully await any replies *grins*
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Don't worry about the data , mate.
The data is stored on the hard drive , the RAM only stores temporal data, so it only serves to make faster the processes on your PC, so worry not about it. just make yourself sure, the new memory you got is exactly the same type of the one you removed
Once you got that , your pc should be the same as before.
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*salutes the captain* Aye Aye...will do. So I'm going to work on it tonight as is, then tomorrow I'll return the 5550 driver and pick up a new memory stick. Then try to activate my old video card. Thanks so much.
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Actually Lance is pretty much right, but if you want to avoid any trouble, I'd buy a kit of ram. It's multiple sticks sold together. They have been tested and are supposed to be identical, to prevent problems and ensure the same reliability and performance. Bring one of your old sticks with you so they can actually compare what you have so they give you something that works on your motherboard.
Once you get that, just take the old stick out and place the new ones.
As for installing the drivers here's the order.
Uninstall the ATI drivers.
Run the driver cleaner to make sure the drivers are fully uninstalled.
Close the computer.
Take out the ATI card
Place in your old card
Boot the computer
Then insert the driver disk and install the display drivers
Reboot the computer.
As for the new too clean thing. You have an HD card and depending on which connector you plugged if you LCD screen is HD then you are playing in HD quality which would give you polished feel compared to a non HD card. Better quality is usually desired :D
Happy to have helped. Keep us updated plz.
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I wouldn't mind them peeing in my RPG-Cheerios quite so much if they hadn't shelled out big money to put their personal logo in the splash screens of said titles! They gave me a personal guarantee of "Best played with Nvidia!" on those games, and they totally dropped support in less than 6 years of paying for that advertisement. If a video game graphics company is going to use their money and their influence to vandalize my favorite games' splash-screen with their personal guarantee that it will not only work, but work better than any other brand in the world, they better well deliver as promised! That's 8 seconds of my life wasted by their splash screens every time I started up those games, only to have it go choppity choppity click whirr boom, pixelflux on me, to be frustratingly restarted again and again and again, fuming as I stare at their accursed emblem as its actively mocking me. Laughing at me. Waving a fistful of dollars and splashing a high quality cognac into my face, paid for with my own blood sweat and tears. It's because of that I shall never forgive this evil corporate entity known to mortal men as Nvidia, and possibly Cthulu Ktaga to others.
Lol I can see you've had quite a bad deal. Just so you know, usually if a game has a videocard chipset splash screens two things happens. The game ows money to the said company as they are using a copyright, second the game has been made to work with that chipset particularly (coded with that chipset on their workstations. Then later on tested with other chipsets for compatibility). I've never heard of a chipset company (aka Nvidia or Ati) paying for their logo to appear on a game splash screen. Of course usually you can press escape to skip those :p
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I'd buy a kit of ram
So, you think I should replace both of my two sticks of RAM, instead of just the one I pulled out?
Uninstall the ATI drivers.
Run the driver cleaner to make sure the drivers are fully uninstalled.
Close the computer.
Take out the ATI card
Place in your old card
Boot the computer
Then insert the driver disk and install the display drivers
Reboot the computer.
Ok, I never really took out the old video driver (the driver that my monitor cord attached to). I removed another card that had a female plug, but wasn't pluged into any cord..only sitting in the card slot. But I guess I'll put that card back since it might have been serving some purpose.
When you say insert the driver disk and install the display drivers, I guess you mean I have to hunt for my original driver CD's (back from 2004)? I think I may have them, but I was hoping I could just click some buttons on the computer to reactivate the old drivers?
Thanks again HB
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No need to hunt for the old drivers, you can download a driver software for your Nvidia card from Nvidia's webpage here's (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-266.58-whql-driver.html) a direct link to their newest driver that works with all of their GeForce revisions.
And don't worry about being afraid of zebra horses, metallic humanoids and so forth, that was a problem with a few revisions of the Old drivers they had (but which were then, new-er than the ones that were found on many Original CD's that came with the older cards), and the the problems have been fixed a long time ago.
Hoping it helps!
Oh and on the RAM, if you have a 32-bit windows, which I think you might have, you don't need more than 4 giga bytes of the RAM, that's 4000MB, because a 32-bit operating system does not have the capacity to recognize more than 3,6gB of RAM at a time (yeah I know, it's stupid but that's the way it is).
A 64-bit operating system could handle more than the 3,6gB, but then again, judging by your remark of the graphics adapter cd's being from 2004, I'd still go with only 4gB of RAM, since many older Motherboards don't have the capacity to (either) handle very much RAM (probably would not boot if you'd have too "big" sticks plugged in).
The way to see if you have a 64-bit operating system or a 32-bit Windows, is simple.
Check the drive you have Windows installed on, (usually C:) and if you have only "Program Files", you have a 32-bit operating system. If you have "Program Files" And "Program Files x86", you have a 64-bit Windows. :)
Edit: Oh, and yeah, do take the removed RAM stick with you when going to the store to buy new one and ask them to give you a similar one, there's a multitude of different revisions of RAM being on the market, the good old days had SDRAM, now there's that, and DDR1, DDR2, DDR3 etc etc, all which are not compatible with each other... So having a example of what you really want with you, is a good bet to have :-)
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So, you think I should replace both of my two sticks of RAM, instead of just the one I pulled out?
Yes because putting mix match ram can actually have adverse effects on your computer. Having a kit of ram ensures that the ram are from the same lot and are identical.
Ok, I never really took out the old video driver (the driver that my monitor cord attached to). I removed another card that had a female plug, but wasn't pluged into any cord..only sitting in the card slot. But I guess I'll put that card back since it might have been serving some purpose.
So your old Video card (the nvidia one) is still in your computer? Or you just didn't uninstall the drivers?
I was talking about your old video card, I'm not sure what you took out but could find out if you write what the name on the card is.
When you say insert the driver disk and install the display drivers, I guess you mean I have to hunt for my original driver CD's (back from 2004)? I think I may have them, but I was hoping I could just click some buttons on the computer to reactivate the old drivers?
Thanks again HB
yeah I meant the original disk that came with your video card as it may have utilities that goes with the card. But like Chazzler said you can always download the legacy drivers from Nvidia.
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Thanks Chaz and HB.
I'm really not sure what make my old video card is/was, but I guess it could have been a Nvidia. Maybe based on something I wrote you can tell, but I think it was called "ialmrnt5.dll" when I looked on the display tab. I never removed what my monitor cord was originally plugged into. I looked at it and it seemed too internal to be messed with. I did remove a card from my computer that no cord was attached to, simply because that card was occupying the only slot that looked like a good fit for my Raedeon 5550 card. The card I removed was made by Silicon Image and has the following writing on it: ORION ADD2-N DUAL PAD x 16 Card. So, I'm not sure what the card was doing sitting there.
I found two old CD's which might contain the old video drivers. One is labeled "Dell Color Monitor User documentation" and has contents "HTML User Documentation Drivers (INF, ICM and CAT files). The second is labeled "Drivers and Utilities already installed on your computer" and has contents "Device drivers, diagnostics and utilities and online documentation". You think one of those will contain the video card drivers? Seems like it makes since to use the drivers that came with the computer if I can?
I checked the C: drive and all I have is "Program" files, and didn't see any Program x 86" files. I saw something called "I386". So, I guess I have a 32-bit system.
My computer had two RAM sticks in it and I pulled one of them out. Looking at the one out is says it has 512MB. So, with two I have 1024 RAM. Are you saying I should get a RAM kit and just put two new 512 sticks in, or you think I should try to fit more than two sticks on there?
Sorry if I'm confusing things, I'm trying to keep up with you guys. You've been alot of help and I wana try to get this right :p
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I'm starting to get tired so heading to bed for now. I was curious what the ialmrnt5.dll was and I found this (http://dll.paretologic.com/detail.php/ialmrnt5)on the web that describes it. It looks like the ialmrnt.5 is a microsoft display operating system and not a video card, but that's what was listed when I looked at my display tab on the control panel. I thought it was interesting that the article said that BLOD (blue screen of death) could result if this file was corrupted. So, I'm kind of confused now as to what was causing my BLOD's to come up, a corrupted ialmrnt.5 or corrupted RAM? I'm still thinking it was the RAM, because all seemed ok once I pulled that one stick out. So, tomorrow I'll try to put new RAM in and reinsall the drivers of the old card and hope that does it....thanks
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The card you removed that had nothing plugged into it(?) is a dvi expander card for you on board graphic chip. A dvi is a connector that allows screens that are compatible with HD to be used with HD graphics but it does not transport the sound portion that would normally go through A hdmi connector, like the one you have on a HD flat screen tv. Your New ATI card has a DVI connector, and if your screen has that same connector (dvi), you could then plug your new card on it and actually play and watch video in HD on your computer screen.
The ialmrnt5.dll is a driver for an integrated graphic chip from Intel.
You should be using a non integrated video card, like the one you bought, when you have the option to do so, you would get better graphics. If not it's your cpu and ram that is taxed to run your graphics which usually slows things down and also doesn't provide much quality for your graphics.
Now for the ram.
Are you able to tell me what mother board you have so I can check what kind of ram you can get. 1 gig of ram is low, very low and if your mother board support it, you could seriously take advantage of better ram (speed) and extra memory. It tends to help things run more smoothly. But for that we'd have to know what mother board you have. You can check the mother board it self usually the brand is written somewhere on it, or if you have your documentation it would be in there too.
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Testing if it was the RAM is easy, just plug in the RAM stick you removed from your computer and start the PC up, if the problems re-occur, then it was your RAM.
If not, then it could have been the integrated graphics card's (Intel Graphics Card you have in your motherboard, not a removable one) drivers going haywire.
Do check this option if you haven't already, could save you money! And if you don't play games that require a lot of power from a PC, then you don't need to upgrade your RAM or whatnot. This all of course, if it was just the drivers...
(Phew, tech support on forums sure is tough!) :D
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Alright, shutting down and putting the RAM stick back in to see if I get BSOD. Also will check mother board stats (the manuals I have are pretty useless). Will post back soon.
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*Davidhoff using my brother's computer again* Ok, probably the first time I got a BSOD and was happy :o I put the old RAM stick back in and booted the comuter and after one minute I got BSOD...so, looks like it was faulty RAM, and not my video card.
I looked over my mother board to find the make. I know my computer is a Dell Optiplex 280. On the mother board I saw the words Dell. I also saw a black space with "Intel" written, along with the following codes:
FW82801FB
L422Q182
SL7AG
Intel '03
MALAY
Also saw something about Riptide and SmSc at other locations.
I also noticed I have two more open slots for RAM, so I could put a total of four sticks of RAM.
As far as what to do now, it looks like I should replace the old RAM with new sticks, at least two, maybe more depending on the cost. It also appears to be favorable to have a stand-alone video card like the ATI. Problem is I don't really like the HD graphics (call me old-school). I'm wondering if I can buy a non-HD video card that would work with NWN? Any suggestions? I don't think I want to go back to my original integrated video card (ialmrnt5.dll) because it is old and does tax my RAM.
Got to go to work now...will be back to see what is said...thanks again :D
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Alright I was able to get my hand on the pdf owners book of your computer. Good old Dell to put in all the info you need to upgrade your computers...:rolleyes:
Anyhow it seems from their website that this The Twin2X4096-6400C5 is a 4096MByte matched pair of DDR2 is a fully compatible upgrade ram and would quadruple the ram capacity you had in the first place. A good thing depending on what you do with your computer. Tiger direct sells it still for 87.99 bucks (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3228139&CatId=3412).
You could always get simply an other 1 gig as you had if that was fine for you, though. I'm pretty sure that the dealer near you should have replacement ram that fits the speed and type that you presently have, just bring the ram in with you so they can compare it.
Right now for the ATI you're not using the HD graphics as long as you don't have your screen plugged in into the card. From what you wrote, you were still using the on board chip as you didn't move the dongle (cable) from it's original position. What I'd try is to unplug that cable, and then plug in the dvi from the ATI card to your screen and make a comparison. You might be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately ATI doesn't do any non HD card anymore, been doing a search on the web and all that are sold even in the older cards are HD.
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(Phew, tech support on forums sure is tough!) :D
Ooh I find it quite refreshing compared to what I was doing over the phones with clients just 3 years ago :p
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Hmm, the 4GB RAM addition is tempting, but I think based on what Chaz was saying I have a 32-bit system (we did that test to see if "programs x 86" was on my C: drive and it wasn't) and the Tiger website you provided says the 4GB dual chips are not compatable with a 32-bit system...only 64-bit. So, maybe I'll just go get two new sticks of RAM like I have..maybe four depending on cost. You think I can get those at Best Buy or you think I need to find a DELL Dealer? Does DELL have dealers?
On the video card, when I put the ATI in I DID plug my dongle cable into the new ATI plug. That's why I'm getting the HD quality now. I guess I could try to plug it back into the old "integrated" port and see what happens, but that makes me think I would somehow be bypassing the ATI altogether? Unless the ATI will still be running my video, but without it plugged into the dongle cable I'll be bypassing the HD quality? *looks a bit confused*
Thanks so much...I'll be keeping around now. Hmm, maybe I'll go pull the memory stick out and plug the dongle into the integrated port and see what happens.
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No that's not true. I have 4 gigs of ram on my computer and I'm using a 32 bit version of xp. You just don't see the full 4 gigs. YOu will see 3.5 gigs out of the 4 gigs. But 4 gigs ram kits is the maximum that is supported by a 32 bit os.
When you go with a 64 bit Operating system you can go much higher than 4 gigs. A friend of mine has a server board that he uses as a desktop and he's really a maniac.. he has it fully loaded with 192 gigs of ram.. just for the kick of it. But if he was running a windows xp 32 bit system he would only see 3.5 gigs out of all that ram.
Anyhow, as for the ATI card, alright noted. Somehow in how you wrote it, I read it like you had not moved the cable. but unless you are using a cable that is dvi (that fits in the white connector) you're not getting HD yet. But like I said before, finding an ATI that isn't HD.. is going to be hard. Finding a V-card that doesn't do HD is going to be hard. But I'm sure there still is some, just haven't found them yet.
When you use the VGA connector (small blue female connector on your graphic card with 15 pin) You don't get HD, but you still are getting a much better quality than what you had on your on board graphic chip.
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So, what would the result be if I plugged the blue cable into the on-board card, with the ADI still connected to the motherboard (but no cable attched to it)?
Oh, I bought two new sticks from Best Buy, they each have 1GB of RAM, so at least I've upped my RAM by 1GB. So, I'll put those in now.
I guess if I want to go back to using my on-board card, how would I go about re-installing the drivers and adapters for that? I guess I could try to find one of my old start-up disks or I could maybe find a download on the web? That way I could get my $105 bucks back for the ADI :)
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Good you'll probably see a bit more smoothness and applications might load up a bit faster too.
Your ATI wouldn't work at all if you go by the on board card and you might even have some stability issue as your ATI would be active at the same time as the on board. One of the next things I was going to have you do if you chose to keep the ATI was to disable the on board chip in the bios. If you want to go back to the on board chip, you will have to download the right drivers (updated) and uninstall the ATI card to make sure there's no conflict.
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I think I might want to go that route...trying to reinstall my on-board. I wonder if it might be better to try to reinstall the drivers with the old CD's I have that came with the computer (2004). I've heard there can be problems with the "new" or "updated" drivers. Or do you think it would be better to do an online search for the updated drivers? I guess my search would be for drivers for the "ialmrnt5.dll"? You know I kind of recall when I was using the Uninstall function to get rid of my old driver, I think I removed something called "integra...." something or other..can't recall exactly.
Thanks for the help again and again and again
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I'd go with the newer, and then if you have problems you can always uninstall them and install the one from your cd's. Usually newer means that there's been bugs fixing and new integration of sharers and stuff like that.
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Great thanks HB. My problem is I don't know/remember what I had before :p
I guess I could look at my brother's computer...they should be identical *light bulb*. So, where exactly would I go to look to see what driver he has active? Then what site would you suggest I look on to download the new drivers?
Thanks again ;)
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Ok, I looked on my brother's computer to see what his set-up is. His is identical to the way mine "was".
If I go Control Panel there's a file for "Intel(R) GMA Driver", click on that I get a screen with some info and tabs. I select the "information" tab and then select "drivers" and it says "description: Intel Graphics Miniport Driver v. 6.14" located at "C/windows/system32/drivers/ialmrnt5.sys."
If I go RUN: dxdiag, and go to display, it says "Main Driver: ialmrnt5.dll"
If I go to Add/remove programs, I found the one that I removed off of my computer which was called "Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver"
So, with that info I wonder if you could tell me what driver I should be searching for and maybe a trused site to get the download?
Thanks
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Bah, can't figure how to uninstall the ATI. So, I downloaded that Clean Up wizard you sent me to see if I could get rid of it that way and I can't figure how to work that thing. *reaches down to the pull cord and gives his chainsaw a few pulls*
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In an attempt to get my old drivers back and to remove the ATI, I did a system restore to set the computer back to where it was on March 4. It appears that may have done the trick. I checked the Add/Remove feature and my old Intel driver was sitting there as an option (it was gone before I did the restore) and the ATI driver was not there (it was there before the restore). So, that's good. My graphics are back to the good ole non-hd state. So, all sounds pretty good. I did notice some lagginess or slight skipping when I played Tra n Griff a few moments ago, but that could just be a temporary server issue.
Thanks for all your help guys n girls. I'm gona keep monitoring my system to see how its working. I'm considering doing an update to my drivers to see if that speeds or smoothes things over...but for right now I think I'm ok.
Thanks again,
Davidhoff
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Hey there sorry for having dropped out of circulation. I'm glad you got things working again.
The system restore was a good move, but if you have problem with the ialmrnt5.dll I'd go here (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&SystemID=PLX_GX280&os=WW1&osl=EN) to get the latest version.
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Thanks HB for your help and everyone else. I appreciate the link to the site. I found some sites that indicated an update to the ialmrnt5.dll file, but I'm always sceptical about those downloads because of viruses and unwanted critters. I like the Dell site you provided. It gave an update for the intel "graphics controler" & "chipset" which I guess are important, but I'd hoped they would have provided an update to the ialmrnt5.dll file. Maybe I don't need to update my ialmrnt5.dll file if Dell doesn't reccommend it? Maybe its best to just update what they suggested? Thanks again for bleeding with me in this battle HB :)
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The update to the graphic controller & chipset are probably the update for the chipset drivers itself. They might have used the same name so you might not see a difference in the name of the driver. Check the version of it if you can.
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I think I'm going to go ahead and load the updates for the video (the graphics controller and chip set) even though I have no idea what they do :\\ Seems like a good idea to have it up to date.
There are many other downloads availiable that say either optional, recommended or urgent. Do you think I should go ahead and download all the recommended and urgent?
Also, what's your opinion about going to one of these "other" sites and downloading an update to my ialmrnt5.dll file? (Wow that's sad that I actualy remembered that file name by heart)
Thanks again HB
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I bet there are many sites that modify a germ-filled file into a package or whatnot by checking for Google's search results on their site, and then offer that file as an update.
The safest way to go is to use the original provider's site (in your case, Dell's).
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I tend to avoid a site that is not known (ie guru3d and other reputable site) or the original dealer/manufacturer of the items. They will usually want you to download a utility that will prove more headaches than anything because then you have to purchase a license to get it to work.
Anyhow, keeping your computer up to date is often the best way to avoid trouble further down the road.
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Agreed, well you all have taught me a bunch and I sincerely appreciate the time you spent to work me through this. Much thanks :)