Games STICKING BADLY~ BRAND NEW PC/Geforce 6800 ~Please HELP!

Hiya Everybody ~

I hope you can help me. I'm BEYOND frustration!! I just dropped almost a grand on this system and I used the AWESOME suggestions that you guys provided me! (Thanks again! You ROCK!!! ) So I totally did NOT expect to still have these problems!!! It's BRAND NEW!!! I'm HEART BROKEN!!!

All my games ... Like Sims 2 and Children of the Nile are STICKING BADLY!!! I mean like it HANGS for almost 5 seconds every 3 seconds or so! Sometimes it sticks every longer!! It's HORRID!!! WHY??? I thought this video card was supposed to be da chit!! I thought these frustrating days were over!!

I just got the system so maybe I have not opened it all the way up! PLEASE HELP ME!!! Maybe I should adjust some settings?? Or am I screwed?? I've been waiting over FIVE years to get a computer that will make me smile and enjoy my games instead of "just dealing with it" kinda of crap. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO upset I am ALMOST in TEARS!!!

I appreciate ANY advice you can offer!! Here's my specs:

Turbo X-Infinity 420W Case
AMD™ Athlon™ XP-3200+ Processor (Barton 512K L2 Cache)
ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE NVIDIA nForce-2 ULTRA 400FSB SATA AGP8X W/ USB2, LAN, IEEE, & AUDIO
1GB (512MBx2) PC3200 DDR400 Memory (Corsair_XMS)
80GB 7200 RPM ATA 100 HARD DRIVE
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 128MB 8XAGP
CD-RW 52X32X52
3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

 

Hi,
com down, I know its hard after spending that kind of bucks but we need to take one thing at a time and try and figuare this out. You have a very nice system that should work very good with those games.
When you installed the os did it go with out any problems?
Are you monitoring the temps and what are they?
Does the computer have problems doing other things or is it just games?

This may take a bit but we can help you

Rick

 

Thanks, Rick! I really do appreciate your understanding and I will calm down. I guess I really did freak there for a moment. But OMG if I told you what I went through with this system already ...UGH!! I had it built and the company drove me CRAZY and already had to send it back once... GRRR!!

But anyway...

No problems when I installed XP ~
The Temps are: MB = 82 F and CPU = 111 F (is that too hot?? I don't know anything about that...)
And yes it seems to be just with games ...I noticed it was a bit slow installing them too ...but that could be just me ...maybe my expectations are too high.

I don't know a lot about PC's but I've taught myself quite a bit and I'm a fast learner and not afraid to get into the guts of things. So no worries. I just want to be sure I made the right choices and that it SHOULD work better than this. I was hoping for speed and KICKASS graphics!! I'm a BIG gamer!

I set the refresh rate on the monitor to 85 ...should I change it again??

And what should the benchmark be?? What's good?? Mine was around 6200??? My last PC was a 1300 so there IS a difference there...

Again ...thank YOU so much for all your help!! Maybe I need to open up some things in the BIOS?? Whatever you think ...we'll try it! I have a lot of patience so no worries there!! Thanks tons for doing this for me too!!


YOU ROCK!!

 

Actually...


I'm noticing it's taking about 10 seconds or so to "catch up" when downloading something ...instead of going straight into the download ...it stays blank for almost 10 seconds ...which is weird ...that's slow compared to what it used to be like on even the crappy pc ...it would just go straight into the download....

But again ..maybe I'm just freaking...

 

Your temps look good if its around idle, like when your just cruising the net or something. If your playing games they can get higher ,thats ok and we will check more on that later.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1247.html

The link above is for memtest86, it creates a bootable floppy to test your ram. Run it for 8 hours or so. I usually recomend just 3 passes for a quick test but being your os installed no problem I think a greater test is in order. Any errors and then thats a problem but we'll see before moving on to the next test.

Rick

PS you did a great job listing your specs

 

Rick~


Okies! Thanks! I will run it tonight and let you know in the morning what happens ....

...btw ...You ROCK!! (tee hee) ::wink wink::

Talk to ya later!

 

this sounds more like a driver issue to me ... are you sure you installed the mobos driver correctly in order?

(OS>service pack>mobo driver>directx>graphics driver>everything else)

 

Yes Pyrate has a good point the mobo drivers are important, make sure you installed them. Check the m$ web site for all crital updates especially direct x 9 but hold off on sp2

Rick

 

Hi

Sorry you are having problems with your card. This definitly sounds like you do not have correct drivers installed. These are the newest ones you want.
http://www.techspot.com/drivers/index/file/information/3750

If you have installed graphics drivers already, to go add/remove programs, and look for nvida drivers. Only uninstall the video drivers. Then restart. Get drivercleaner from the MG home page. run the program to get rid of any left overs from the driver. Then restart, and install the drivers i provided above.

FYI when ever a windosw prompt comes up asking you to install drivers for new hardware, just cancle out of that. You will install manually.



cooked

[edit]

Here are the newest nvidia drivers for the chipeset. Do the same above, but for the motherboard.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_udp_winxp_5.10

 

Do you have the minimum watts req to run the card?

 

The 6800nu will run a 300w psu. I think enchanted is fine there. Only the 6800Ultra requires the massive 480W psu.



cooked

 

yeah but AMDs dont even run on a 300w PSU, im just saying because my 6800GT OC req min of 380W and i was scratching 410w with my antec; had to upgrade to x-connect ultra mod 500w, my pc didnt feel like posting

 

I had a 2000+ running a 200W. It was bare min but it ran. I had my 2400 on a 300W just fine with a FX5200 ultra.

I have a very simular setup to enchanted. I have a 480W psu, and im only pulling 360W.



cooked

 

Hiya!

Okies ~ Well I THOUGHT I had the correct drivers installed already but I may be wrong ....so I will download the GREAT links you provided Cooked and I will try THOSE. Now I don't think I installed them in order though ...originally. Does that make a big difference?? But I'm on my way to download the new ones just to be sure...


I think I have the right power supply ...I have 420 ???


PLEASE explain something to me ...I just ran the 3dmark03 and got 6550 for the end score. Now I don't know squat about FPS but I'm assuming that LOW numbers are BAD ... when I ran this program I averaged around 40 and even hit somewhere around 111 a few times.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3398664

BUT

When I ran 3Dmark05 I got a score of 2408 and most of the time my FPS was between 1 and 5 but stayed mostly at ONE and only hitting 15 ONE time! What is UP with that????? And OMG was the damn thing running SLOW and YUCKY!! Kinda like my games except it wasn't sticking like they do! What does THAT all mean??

I'm disappointed that I'm not giggling with this PC but I have confidence that you guys will get me as close to that point as possible so I'll hold off the freak show I will become if this doesn't get better. LoL!

Ok so I will go download those drivers and then install them and let you know. I'll do the memory test when I go to bed tonight. Be back in a bit. And again ..THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

You guys are yet again ... Da Chit!!

 

Truthfully it doesn't make that much of a difference. When i reinstalled windows, i first installed the motherboard, then video, drivers, then directX, and then the updates from Microsoft. I just think that it is important that you install your motherboard drivers in the beginning so you can log on to the net if you use on board LAN.

The benchmarks you ran seem about right, but are a little on the low side. This could be caused by the drivers. I would say you should hit 7000 in 03. Now for 05: 3DMark05 is for testing your system for games that will be coming out in like 2 years. Future graphicly demanding games. Really the only cards that run it great are the 6800 ultra, or ATI's equivalent. With the newest drivers, i was able to score a 2600. So the drivers should give you a boost there.

Also in the games you mentioned. Sims2 was very laggy from the release. It was uttering on my system too. I know a patch was released, that fixed much of the graphics problems. Check around on the games makers websites for updates, and patches for you games. Some games, might not support the newer cards yet. (i.e) I have a game called Farcry. It was running like crap because the game didn't recognize my card. I installed the latest patch, which was designed for recognizing the newer cards, and now it runs flawlessly!

Please keep that in mind too.

Hope it all works for you.



cooked

 

Hiya Cooked ~ ( and Rick too ...along with everybody else!)



Ok ~ I didn't run the memory test because I was too exhausted to hunt down a blank floppy so I will do it later. But I DID download those drivers and run driver cleaner.

I did NOT have the correct graphic card drivers but I DID have the correct motherboard drivers. I noticed a difference. I haven't run Sims 2 yet but I did run Children of the Nile and it's NOT skipping or sticking!!! WhoooooHooooo!! Thank you! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!

Now I ran the benchmarks again and now I got a 2461 in 05 and a 6581 in 03. Whny are they STILL low???

Oh and about my refresh rate ...is that right?? At 85 mhz??

Lemme know! Thanks so much for all the help!! You kick ass!!

 

i get 2456 in 05 and 6072 in 03 ... so i think your scores sound about right

 

Thanks Pyrate!! Okies then I won't worry too much. So everything is going as it should?? Are there any settings I should tweak in the BIOS do you thinK?

Thanks!

 

Glad its working better, I would just play the games and see how it goes you should be good now.

Rick

 

http://www.bfgtech.com/tech_redux.html go to faq on the left corner, scroll down untill you see the large box with all the bios settings, works with all 6800s