I got the exact same artifacts when I put the 9600 into this secondary PC. So I'm sure it's the card causing the problem.

This motherboard on the secondary PC is AGP 4x. I can put my X800XL (AGP 4x/8x) in this one to test it, right?

More bad news.

The 9600 worked fine with no drivers installed, but once I installed the latest and restarted, I got to the desktop and the screen instantly corrupts into stripes and colors. I've seen it before with corrupted and damaged cards.

I tried in a vain attempt to plug my good card back in, but I get the same results (i.e. no post).

Is it safe to assume that the graphics card is the problem, and that I should buy a new one?

Swapped out video cards and it booted just fine.

Damn it.

I just downgraded from an X800XL to a 9600XT.

I cleared the CMOS so all my BIOS settings reverted. I haven't gotten them exactly right yet, and the bootup sequence is really strange. Stuff I've never seen before.

And I have to uninstall / reinstall new catalysts for this card. Any suggestions as to which drivers are best for this old card?

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

It's not your PSU

What makes you so sure of that? I don't mean that in a mean way; it's meant literally. I want to know as much as I can about what led you to conclude that it definitely isn't the PSU, so I can know that for myself in the future.

I just got a second opinion who said it's unlikely to be the PSU, since anything at all comes on. Does this seem likely?

I came home from work last night to find my PC not giving a video signal. The fans were still running, but no video and no response from the mouse or keyboard. I pressed the reset button, but it refused to boot. When I press the power button everything spins up like normal, but nothing happens after that. I pulled my D-Bracket out of my "big box o' stuff" and plugged it in, then tried again. I get a series of flashing lights, then the system hangs with three green LEDs and one red in the bottom-right corner, which according to the Basic Troubleshooting Guide means "Testing Real Time Clock". I don't know what that is or what it means.

I tried removing the battery to clear the CMOS, but that didn't have any effect. I'm not sure it would even help my situation.

I have checked the motherboard for any visible damage such as burn marks, bulging capacitors, etc. but have found nothing. I checked and reseated every connection in the entire PC.

Unfortunately I do not have another system available with which I could swap out and test parts. I used to have a couple friends whose PCs I could borrow, but I recently moved and have no such contacts around here.

I have this old PC here which has a PSU I thought I could use, but it turns out it doesn't have the extra connector for a P4. I had unplugged some things before I found this out, so I plugged them back in and tried booting. I got a series of scary-sounding beeps, then I turned it back off. I tried again and no beeps, but now my D-Bracket says I'm freezing at "initializing video interface".

Is my mobo fried? Is this fixable? What should I do?

Here's my specs, as best I can remember. I kept a .txt file with the exact description on my main hard drive, but obviously I can't currently access it:

P4 2.8e @ 3.01GHz, HT enabled
2x512MB OZ PC3700 DDR466, matched pair, 2.5-3-3-5
MSI 865PE Neo2 PFISR, not overclocked, BIOS version 3.8 (I think)
Enermax Noisetaker 470W PSU
Seagate 200GB SATA HDD
WinXP Pro SP2 + latest updates


Thanks in advance for any help.

First-Class:
Räikkönen
Massa
Alonso
Hamilton
Kovalainen
Kubica
Vettel

Almost:
Heidfeld
Button
Rosberg
Sutil

Decent pedaller:
Webber
Trulli
Glock
Nakajima
Piquet
Bourdais

Should retire:
Barrichello
Fisichella
Coulthard

Piquet and Bourdais are slowly slipping into the bottom category. Hopefully they can finish their seasons well.

Quote from f4sttr@ck :

more drivel

Christ, every time you post you reinforce my point. Sad really.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

GT40 is American.

No it wasn't. It was designed and built in Britain.

From Wikipedia:
To form the development team, Ford also hired the ex-Aston Martin team manager John Wyer. Ford Motor Co. engineer Roy Lunn was sent to England. [...] Broadley, Lunn and Wyer began working on the new car at Lola Factory in Bromley. At the end of 1963 the team moved to Slough, England near Heathrow airport. [...] The first chassis built by Abbey Panels of Coventry was delivered on March 16, 1963.

Last edited by Lateralus, Fri 22 Aug 2008, 03:23.

Quote from f4sttr@ck :

blah blah blah worthless trash

This is coming from someone who can't even spell the name of his home state correctly. You are a walking stereotype of a dumbassed American. Please, just stop posting. Go sit in the corner with your dunce hat on.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

saying the whole country are Alonso sheeps is insulting

I agree, but no one here has said that.

Bear in mind I'm only talking about F1 here, not other motorsports. I'll ask again - is it any surprise that foreign F1 fans assume that a significant portion of the annual GP crowd are just bandwagoners when the attendance figures suddenly double in the span of just two or three years?

I'm not arguing that this conclusion is an accurate one, but surely you can at least see why they arrive at it. Hopefully it isn't true at all, and that F1's surging popularity in Spain is permanent and won't dissipate with Alonso's career ending.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

Maybe they werent "exploding" as you say but obviously financially viable otherwise they wouldnt have given us two venues.

You didn't answer the question, you're arguing semantics about exactly what 'exploded' means in that context. The venue has had a sell-out crowd for the past few years, whereas the decade before that it was barely half-full. Therefore your statement that any major motorsport event is full isn't true. With this trend so obvious to foreign fans tuning in on TV, is it any wonder why so many of them conclude that many are just Alonso-sheep who don't really care about F1?

There are plenty of real motorsport fans who don't care too much either way about Alonso, and that's great, but there are a depressing number of fans who don't care about or understand F1 but have simply jumped on the FA bandwagon. Those types are inevitably going to arouse derision from real F1 fans.

Quote from BurnOut69 :

Any major motorsport in Spain is a guaranteed full

Then why were half the seats empty in Barcelona for the GP in the mid- and late-90s, but as soon as Alonso came along in '01 and started to have success in '03, the venue suddenly exploded?

I'm sure you'll be happy with a new card, but you really should make absolutely sure that it's the problem before you spend money. Put it in another PC, specifically.

Quote from The Very End :

Well, I was reading the news on internett and it got my attention that Russia has chosen to step out from NATO.

In other news, it's 1944 and Nazi Germany has chosen to step out of the Allied forces.

That's your graphics card.

Did you install new graphics drivers recently, or change any video settings? It could be overheating. Did you move your PC recently? Has it been especially hot lately? What's the ambient temperature in your PC room? When's the last time you've cleared the dust from it? Is your graphics card's fan spinning, or is it jammed with dust?

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I think if they are going to replace Martin

I heard MB has already signed a contract with the BBC to continue as an F1 commentator. Could be wrong though.

Don't bother with that worthless piece of shit WMP. Get VLC Media Player, which includes a codec pack already.

You messed up your link.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/ED ... rock_1m_super_saloon.html

Regardless of how it's made or how many cool features it has, you're right that it looks ugly as hell.

Quote from duke_toaster :

No, it's lunchtime as opposed to the race finishing at the time most people are eating their breakfast.

Hmmm yeah. Singapore is seven hours ahead of London; I thought it was less than that. I think race start is 9PM, is that right?

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

... Why don't they save the electric bill, and just make it a daytime race?

Nighttime in that part of the world is primetime in Europe, so the potential viewing audience is much higher. Bernie likes money.

Quote from rjm1982 :

we were playing a game of football in the grass area next to us... Dale Earnhard Jr joined us about halfway through... had a beer and played a little ball

I don't really care for NASCAR at all, but that's really cool.

Quote from bbman :

But hey, some people like to play fortune teller...

Right, it makes the race more fun to predict beforehand what you think will happen. If you don't want to read people's opinions in an F1 discussion thread, why open the damn thing Mr. Complainy-pants?

1) If you got banned from every server, it wasn't "for no reason", it was for a very good one. Probably cheating.

2) Posting a whiny thread on this forum won't help you anyway. You have to contact the devs directly.

3) If you were cheating, you deserved it and you won't get a refund. In that case, go to hell.

Quote from bbman :

Yeah sorry, I got the wrong guy... I meant Lateralus...

Whenever I've started a race discussion thread, I've had race-specific things to talk about.

Quote from chanoman315 :

yes to CART (when it was cart ) and A1GP...

Pfft. I liked CART when it was in its heyday, but calling those races grands prix is an affront to real grand prix racing. F1 cars only.

Anyway, my point is that you don't need to get into the paddock to have a great time at an F1 race. In fact I'd rather not pay my way inside - I'll take a free opportunity to do so of course, but otherwise I'd rather sit outside next to the fence in the mud and rain, drinking beer and smoking weed with the rest of the real F1 fans. I've done it twice and it is truly fantastic.