A little help??

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 04:47 AM

Ok, I recently upgraded from an NVidia GeForce FX5500 256MB to an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB (Sapphire), and I loved everything about the 9800 for the first month or so, then it got kinda nasty... I'm a hardcore Halo PC player, I love Halo... I have a P4 3.2 GHZ processor, 768 MB RAM, and the Radeon, along with a horrible power supply (250 antec lansing).. What I need help with is this: When I want to record or something, I can't even get a steady THIRTY fps while recording.. let alone 60 on the lowest resolution while not recording most of the time, but sometimes I can get up to 130 in a full server, if I'm lucky... When I first got the card it was fine.. I installed it correctly and everything, my friend had a similar problem with an update from a 9800 pro to a 9800 xt by switching bios... any way you guys can help me get my performance back?? I have overclocked, but my friend advised me to underclock it, i also have the latest catalyst drivers... Any help would be GREATLY appreciated...

*Edit* I also have two 120 GB Hard drives, and a 17 inch CRT Monitor, as well as a 140 watt sound system and a wireless keyboard/mouse, an updated sound card.. and 3 internal LED fans.

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 05:16 AM

Responses please?

Dyre Straits · Sep 26, 2005, 05:34 AM

Hi, and welcome to DH!

First of all, how long has it been since you did a Disk Check and Defrag?

Secondly, is it possible that Fast Writes got turned on during any of the update driver installations? You can try turning off Fast Writes to see if it makes a difference.

Thirdly, you said it yourself: You have a terrible PSU. You really need to get at least a 350 W or better. This seems to be especially true since you edited the post showing additional things connected to your PC.

Try taking care of the first two things to see if there's any difference.

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 05:39 AM

Uhm, If I try to defrag, my whole system freezes, and I have to press the reset button, I did a diskcheck about a week ago.. How would I check if "Fast Writes" are on.. And yes I know I need a new PSU really bad... my old 450 got blown in a storm..

Dyre Straits · Sep 26, 2005, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckyisasom

Uhm, If I try to defrag, my whole system freezes, and I have to press the reset button, I did a diskcheck about a week ago.. How would I check if "Fast Writes" are on.. And yes I know I need a new PSU really bad... my old 450 got blown in a storm..

Have you tried doing Defrag in Safemode? The fact that your system freezes trying to do this very essential maintenance is NOT a good sign.

Fast Writes is set to Enable or Disable in your system BIOS. Look for the setting somewhere in the area that controls your AGP settings. To get there, you need to enter the Setup for the BIOS during the start up of your computer. You can also check the setting in the ATi Control Panel or the ATi CCC under the SmartGart settings.

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 05:45 AM

Hrmm... I'll try defragmenting in safe mode... And I know it's not a good sign, my IE closes by itself with no sign of warning sometimes, I'm almost positive I have a virus of some sort, I'll keep you posted on whether the defrag in safe mode works...

Dyre Straits · Sep 26, 2005, 06:03 AM

OK. I'll be gone for awhile.

Good luck to you.

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 09:29 AM

It finished defragmenting, any other ideas??

Ferret_Style · Sep 26, 2005, 10:29 AM

power supply might not be able to supply enough power. I though for a 9800 it was recommened a 300 wat or more.. Buy a new one and try it out at the local computer store. If it does not help just return it

Dyre Straits · Sep 26, 2005, 01:58 PM

If you want to try to determine just whether the PSU is the culprit, try this: Shutdown the computer, disconnect the extra HDs and anything else that can be a big power drain....like that speaker system. Then, reboot, try your games with just the essentials connected.

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 03:57 PM

>.< I've tried, the PSU does run hot, but that's not it completely..

SexPistoL · Sep 26, 2005, 04:11 PM

Why under clock? If you DLoad ATT and run it as per the read me file, you should get up to 10% OC on it (hopefully) you will get a better performance out of the card

ReDGuiTaR · Sep 26, 2005, 06:24 PM

Hum since your current windows installation is messed up and your power supply a bit weak i would recommend that you get a new PSU and reformat the beast then after come back to tell us how it works . We cannot help much if everything is bad at first !

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 26, 2005, 06:43 PM

You already knew whats wrong, LOL

You need a 300W or better PSU to even think about useing a 9800 PRO.
But since you needing to buy one go above what you need and look for
400 - 450W.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReDGuiTaR

Hum since your current windows installation is messed up and your power supply a bit weak i would recommend that you get a new PSU and reformat the beast then after come back to tell us how it works . We cannot help much if everything is bad at first !

Yep It's hard tell what else has been messed up...

ckyisasom · Sep 26, 2005, 08:36 PM

Well you guys, I'll get one ASAP, thanks for the help. If that doesn't solve it, I'll make a new thread, I have no idea when I'll have the new one, but I'll try to get it soon!