Just when you thought you were in graphics Heaven.

[Fozzer]

...just when you thought you were in Heaven...
...your lovely n-Vidia Ge-Force 4 Ti 2400 64 Mb DDR AGP graphics card decides to go belly-up... :'(..!
My monitor was showing all sort of hiccups, random colourful flashing, and spots on the screen, (a bit like the acne on your face)... :-[..!
It had been doing this for a week or more until this morning, when after racing down stairs in my 'jamas, and switching the computer on, I was confronted with a flash and a puff of smoke and a strong smell of burning from my graphics card, (I have a desktop arrangement with the lid off, so I can instantly spot nasty things happening)... :o..!
After realising it was not a magic Genie appearing in my 'puter case, within 3 seconds a couple of chips, (voltage regulators?), unsoldered themselves, with the heat from the card due to a fault, and dropped off, (not my 'jamas!)... ::)..
(I burnt my finger removing the card, ouch..).
I replaced it with my trusty 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 PCI graphics card, (good old 3DFX), which got me going again for a while... ;)..!
I then popped off to the local computer supermarket, (PC World), and replaced it with a n-Vidia  5600 FX 128 Meg DDR AGP card, (more memory), looks cool, I thought...(bad move)... >:(..!
Popped it in the AGP slot in the 'puter, which didn't recognise it as an AGP card, neither did the drivers which came with it, and the manual showed a completely different card altogether.... >:(.. >:(..!
"Stuff this", I thought, (as you do)...
So... Back to the 'puter mall, slapped it on the counter, (the card :-X..!), as you do when you've just bought something which is completly naff, and doesn't work like it says on the box....
Exlained all the the problems to the "computer expert" behind the counter.
"Sorry, Sir", he says dreamily, (like they do).... :)..!
"Right", I says, "how about replacing it with another lovely Ge-Force 4 Ti 2400 64 Mb DDR super-dooper card, because apart from the recent explosion, my other one has worked fine"... ;)..?
"..and you can stuff this one where the sun don't shine..."... >:(...!
"Suit you, Sir, will do...", he says, with a big smile...!
So..
After kicking him in the nuts, (as you do), for selling me a load of duff kit in the first place, and costing me loads of money in petrol replacing it, I duly raced back home.
Popped my lovely NEW n-Vidia Ge-Force 4 Ti 2400 64 Mb DDR card into my AGP slot, (which is quite painless!), I fired up my puter, installed the drivers, no problemo, big smile... ...!
All back to normal again, all the sliders at the max in FS 2004, (or FS9 as some call it)... ::)..!
Sorted...
...I just hope that this card lasts longer than the guarantee expiriry date, (which of course it wont, 'cos they put a timer on them which times out in 11 months 30 days 59 minutes and 59 seconds..)... ???..!
..then after the inevitable explosion we go through this bleedin' rigmarole all over again... ..!
LOL...LOL...LOL...!

Cheers all...
Paul.

By the way, the lubbly-jubbly, super-dooper, n-Vidia Ge-Force 4 Ti 2400 64 Mb DDR graphics card now costs a mere

[eno]

All I have to say is PAH!!

Oh to be able to upgrade from my ancient (4yr old) intel celeron 500 and the what can only be discribed as puney ATI Technologies, Inc. 3D RAGE PRO AGP 2X with 8MB of memory. I'll just soldier on here, unable to upgrade even that cos theres no AGP slots. By the time I manage to upgrade anyting FS2004 will be a meer memory.

/me goes off sobbing into graphics hell.

[bm]

After kicking him in the nuts, (as you do), for selling me a load of duff kit in the first place, and costing me loads of money in petrol replacing it, I duly raced back home.
Popped my lovely NEW n-Vidia Ge-Force 4 Ti 2400 64 Mb DDR card into my AGP slot, (which is quite painless!), I fired up my puter, installed the drivers, no problemo, big smile... ...!

Poor old Fozzer............... Glad your back in 3d heaven again! (no less then the Dumb old PCworld guy deserved!)


PS. Just to make you quite angry........ installing your motherboard drivers might have solved the problem with the FX5600........... (Runs away before fozzer jumps on his motorbike and gives chase with a few Hells angels......)

[Fozzer]

Poor old Fozzer............... Glad your back in 3d heaven again! (no less then the Dumb old PCworld guy deserved!)


PS. Just to make you quite angry........ installing your motherboard drivers might have solved the problem with the FX5600........... (Runs away before fozzer jumps on his motorbike and gives chase with a few Hells angels......)

Hi Birdy... ...!
Tried all that mate, (I'm up to my ears in all the driver CD's for my system..plus the downloaded up-dates)..!
My system insisted in running in VGA mode, 640X480X16 after fitting the FX 5600 card in the AGP slot...can you imagine anything worse than that in the 21st. century...LOL...LOL...LOL..!
I even took the card to my trusty PC Retail shop to get them to check it for me, (bless 'em), they had the same exactly tha same problems...
..so much for flippin' FX 5600 cards... ...!

The n-Vidia Ge-Force 4 Ti cards seem pretty good at running all the latest "stuff"... ...!
..until they explode after 11 months, 30 days, etc, etc.... ...!
LOL...!

..sorted now tho'.... ...!
...cool... ...!

Cheers mate...!
Paul.

[4_Series_Scania]

..so much for flippin' FX 5600 cards... >:(...!

Hi Paul,

Sry to hear you'd had problems with that darn FX card....

My FX is a bit of a git , if for whatever reason, Windows has dropped its mobo drivers, the card goes into invisible mode.....  ::)

Thankfully for me, a quick re-install of the  mobo & AGP drivers then Direct X and finally the nvidia drivers sorts it out nicely. (Under XP, I just create a "restore point" with the fresh drivers and everythings dandy when XP the anti-crash O.S. crashes.....   ::) )

Take that museum piece (which sadly, in pc terms is now what it is!) 4200 back and get a Direct X9 capable card sir - the FX5600 was a fair swap for the 4200, shame it did'nt work.....  :-/

Mine works more than just fine.....  8)

Try 3D mark 2001 - After loads of test's and configuration, I realised my new "uber fast pc" was'nt running as fast as it could....   :-[
First I scored 8500 which was no better than my old p4 1.8!  >:( then updated my FX5600 with Asus optimised drivers and got this...



Then did some more twiddles.......



With the exception of CFS3  :'( everything I own runs superbly! And I've got DX9 hardware support, something you'll miss should  a future sim require it....

[Fozzer]

Hi Paul... ...!
My lubbly-jubbly Ge-Force card runs happily with Direct X 9.0b...and it's so reliable, ...until 11 months, 30 days, etc, etc,...LOL...!
I'm using 45.23 drivers at the mo'...
My 3D Mark 2000 results with it are pretty cool as well.
(It all depends on your settings, don't it..?)...LOL...!
My frame rates in FS 2004 with EVERYTHING wound up to the max, is 35+ FPS, locked at 35 FPS... ...!

The FX 5600 card looked very much inferior, and most of its memory chips seem to be missing, (a bit like an old S3 Verge 4 Mb card!), to the 2400 Titanium card with its massive heat sinks and fan...!

Cheers Mate... ...!
...keep truckin'... ...!

Paul...

[4_Series_Scania]

My frame rates in FS 2004 with EVERYTHING wound up to the max, is 35+ FPS, locked at 35 FPS... ...!

The FX 5600 card looked very much inferior, and most of its memory chips seem to be missing, (a bit like an old S3 Verge 4 Mb card!),

Fair enough, I'd be happy with 35fps.....  ::) then again, you using Anti-Alaising?

That GFX card certainly sounds like somebody (probably the saturday lad) swapped his old S3 for the FX and you ended up with the scrap.....

Keepin on truckin, a bit too much to be honest!  :(

Don't let me keep you from that 35FPS fun, all this posting means we ain't flying, so I read.......  ;)  :)

[Hagar]

Seems to me these new-fangled GeForce cards ain't all they're cracked up to be. I remember you bragging about getting the one that blew up not too long ago.

I replaced it with my trusty 3DFX Voodoo 3 3000 PCI graphics card, (good old 3DFX), which got me going again for a while... ..!

Too right. They don't make 'em like that any more. Can't get the wood you know.
Meanwhile I'm still quite happy with my old Voodoo5. It must be well over 3 years old & I use it all day every day. Never had any of the problems I read about every day in the forums either.

[congo]

Fozzer, your AGP bus is probly set to 4x, and with the 64mb TI4200, I suspect that is correct for THAT card.

Does the 5600 run at 8x AGP only?