So I'm in the hunt for a new video card. I recently bought an ATI Radeon HD 6870 which was a great card while it worked but it has failed after half a year and I'm kind of leaning towards going back to the NVidia line. What NVidia Geforce card is roughly equivalent to a Radeon HD 6870? Also, what are people's opinions on best bang for buck among video cards right now regardless of brand?
[Question] Video card questions
- Thread starter Azurephoenix
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Geforce GTX560 Ti is what I have in my rig. It's probably your best bang for the buck right now. It's pretty much the most powerful budget card you can get. It plays every game I own on ultra settings, including crysis 2.
Edit: linky
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
Edit: linky
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604
figmentPez
Staff member
$250 is a "budget" card now? I know there are cards that cost a lot more out there, but I've never spent more than $200 on a video card, and those have all been pretty mid-range cards.
That card looks awesome but the price is a little outside of what I'm looking to pay (want to try and keep it below $200). If I am able to save some money elsewhere on the system I may contribute it to the video card budget so I can get one in that bracket.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
Their most recent graphics cards by bang-for-buck article.
EDIT: Looks like you're a tad out of luck for something equivalent or better than a 6870 for less than $200. The 460Ti is quite solid though, for $150.
Their most recent graphics cards by bang-for-buck article.
EDIT: Looks like you're a tad out of luck for something equivalent or better than a 6870 for less than $200. The 460Ti is quite solid though, for $150.
In that price range, you will either have to choose between cards a generation or two behind (the NVIDIA 4xx series) or for something current, but weak. It looks like you are pretty much limiting yourself to the Radeon 7770, GTX 450/460, a sale-priced GTX 560Ti, a sale-priced Radeon 6930, or the Radeon 6850.
You said you wanted to avoid the Radeons for right now, so those are out. That leaves you with the choice of 4xx/5xx chips. The best one for you based on price range is probably the GTX 560, which can be had for about $150 if you look really hard. Avoid the 560SE cards. Make sure the card you are looking for has at least 336 processor cores. Another one to consider would be the GTX 465, which will be a bit slower but can be had for just over $100.
To get anything better performance-wise, you will either have to increase your budget or take another look at the Radeons...or consider buying used.
--Patrick
You said you wanted to avoid the Radeons for right now, so those are out. That leaves you with the choice of 4xx/5xx chips. The best one for you based on price range is probably the GTX 560, which can be had for about $150 if you look really hard. Avoid the 560SE cards. Make sure the card you are looking for has at least 336 processor cores. Another one to consider would be the GTX 465, which will be a bit slower but can be had for just over $100.
To get anything better performance-wise, you will either have to increase your budget or take another look at the Radeons...or consider buying used.
--Patrick
Thanks so much for all the tips guys, this will definitely help me when I make my final decision.
Now to pick your brains a bit more though. It would seem that my current system has some other component failing and failing hard. I'm suspecting the hard drive now as I just tried to reinstall windows again and it won't get very far into the install and it certainly comes nowhere close to booting up now. Can a failing hard drive cause BSOD's? That would explain a lot including the massive boot sector fragmentation I was always getting. Logically if it is the drive, if I put a new one in it should install windows fine and boot up properly? I'm at my wits end diagnosing what's wrong with this thing. I'm acutally suspecting the Radeon video card I have is fine now that the computer is still screwed up with an older (but 100% functioning) video card in it.
Now to pick your brains a bit more though. It would seem that my current system has some other component failing and failing hard. I'm suspecting the hard drive now as I just tried to reinstall windows again and it won't get very far into the install and it certainly comes nowhere close to booting up now. Can a failing hard drive cause BSOD's? That would explain a lot including the massive boot sector fragmentation I was always getting. Logically if it is the drive, if I put a new one in it should install windows fine and boot up properly? I'm at my wits end diagnosing what's wrong with this thing. I'm acutally suspecting the Radeon video card I have is fine now that the computer is still screwed up with an older (but 100% functioning) video card in it.
Use your windows disk to run chkdsk. It should tell you if there are bad sectors on the hard drive.
Here's a guide: http://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=6565
There are sooooooo many things that could cause a BSOD, hard drive failure being one of them.
Run the chkdsk and get back to us if it doesn't say that you have any bad sectors.
Seeing as it wouldn't allow you to install windows, that may point to the hard drive, but it could also be RAM issues, or general motherboard failures that could have caused it to crash during the installation.
Here's a guide: http://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=6565
There are sooooooo many things that could cause a BSOD, hard drive failure being one of them.
Run the chkdsk and get back to us if it doesn't say that you have any bad sectors.
Seeing as it wouldn't allow you to install windows, that may point to the hard drive, but it could also be RAM issues, or general motherboard failures that could have caused it to crash during the installation.
I know BSOD's can be caused by a ridiculous amount of things... but the error that came up most frequently was the irql_not_less_or_equal one. It got progressively worse until the system was almost unusable. After that I reinstalled windows 7 which seemed to fix the problem for a day or two... and now I can't even successfully reinstall the OS. I'm sure this is a hardware problem as a clean install of the OS should have eliminated any potential software/driver/registry glitches causing the irql_not_less_or_equal error.
The crash happened mostly during Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Typically I would get to wave 7-9 and then the screen would flash gibberish coloured pixels for a half second and then BSOD. I also had this error regularly occur playing Team Fortress and Skyrim (though it took longer to occur and didn't seem as condition dependent).
I've run a myriad of RAM tests and those have all checked out okay so I "think" I'm fine with that. I can put in some older RAM that know is functional though to eliminate that potential problem. It could be some nebulous motherboard issue but I have no way of diagnosing that for sure.
I'll run chkdisk but that will only report bad sectors right? If it's some other I/O problem or some intermittent electrical gremlin it could still pass the test but not work properly right? Gah... I hate troubleshooting this stuff.
I think I will try installing to a new hard drive I just picked up as well... if that doesn't work it should definitely point to something other than the hard drives.
The crash happened mostly during Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Typically I would get to wave 7-9 and then the screen would flash gibberish coloured pixels for a half second and then BSOD. I also had this error regularly occur playing Team Fortress and Skyrim (though it took longer to occur and didn't seem as condition dependent).
I've run a myriad of RAM tests and those have all checked out okay so I "think" I'm fine with that. I can put in some older RAM that know is functional though to eliminate that potential problem. It could be some nebulous motherboard issue but I have no way of diagnosing that for sure.
I'll run chkdisk but that will only report bad sectors right? If it's some other I/O problem or some intermittent electrical gremlin it could still pass the test but not work properly right? Gah... I hate troubleshooting this stuff.
I think I will try installing to a new hard drive I just picked up as well... if that doesn't work it should definitely point to something other than the hard drives.
When you run the chkdsk, you'll get something similar to this on the screen:
If the area where I put the red box is anything other than zero, it means portions of your hard drive are bornked and that is most likely your culprit.
Also, if it gets a read error when trying to complete the check disk, that would also mean that there are unreadable sectors on the hard drive, or possibly even physical damage to the disk which can happen from any number of things, such as the read arm getting too close and scratching the disk.
If it was happening when you were playing mass effect, it may have been that some of the damaged sectors are where the game is installed.
If it turns out that your drive is hunky dory, it would point to a motherboard issue (seeing as you've already checked the RAM).
That again could be any number of things from the CPU to power issues, to motherboard or bios issues.
You may want to see if your bios is up to date and if it is not, flash the bios with the updated one. I was getting the BSOD only when playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution and a bios update fixed the problem.
For the record, DE:HR is the most poorly coded game I think I've ever played. Even now that it actually works, the framerate occasionally chugs on a system that can run Crysis 2 at max DX11 settings.
If the area where I put the red box is anything other than zero, it means portions of your hard drive are bornked and that is most likely your culprit.
Also, if it gets a read error when trying to complete the check disk, that would also mean that there are unreadable sectors on the hard drive, or possibly even physical damage to the disk which can happen from any number of things, such as the read arm getting too close and scratching the disk.
If it was happening when you were playing mass effect, it may have been that some of the damaged sectors are where the game is installed.
If it turns out that your drive is hunky dory, it would point to a motherboard issue (seeing as you've already checked the RAM).
That again could be any number of things from the CPU to power issues, to motherboard or bios issues.
You may want to see if your bios is up to date and if it is not, flash the bios with the updated one. I was getting the BSOD only when playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution and a bios update fixed the problem.
For the record, DE:HR is the most poorly coded game I think I've ever played. Even now that it actually works, the framerate occasionally chugs on a system that can run Crysis 2 at max DX11 settings.
Dunno. At first I was going to suggest you check your cables (loose cables can cause a false 'failed HDD' symptom), but when you got to the part about gibberish colo(u)red pixels, that suggests to me that you are more likely having an overheating problem of some sort.
If the computer can run all day long in safe mode or at the (non-Aero) desktop but it dies only after you switch the GPU into 3D mode (games or Aero desktop), then it's probably something related to the GPU. If it happens after a certain amount of time no matter what you're doing, it's probably either RAM or CPU. If you've already ruled out RAM, then you might check to see if either of the CPU/GPU fans are obstructed or the HSFs are plugged with crap...especially if this is something that keeps getting shorter and shorter over time.
--Patrick
If the computer can run all day long in safe mode or at the (non-Aero) desktop but it dies only after you switch the GPU into 3D mode (games or Aero desktop), then it's probably something related to the GPU. If it happens after a certain amount of time no matter what you're doing, it's probably either RAM or CPU. If you've already ruled out RAM, then you might check to see if either of the CPU/GPU fans are obstructed or the HSFs are plugged with crap...especially if this is something that keeps getting shorter and shorter over time.
--Patrick
Well... I learned one thing, and that's that my old Nvidia Geforce 8800GT card is shot. I pulled apart my computer so I could see the post codes displayed as the computer was booting up and I noticed that it would sometimes freeze up on 2b... which was a video related code. I put my HD Radeon back in and the windows install completed. I now have a bare bones windows 7 install on the system and I'm not updating at the moment (no internet access) so I can try and rule out problems.
Bowielee, I ran chkdsk and it came back with no bad sectors or problems of any kind (plus I was able to install windows finally) so I think the hard drive is okay.
PatrThom... your overheating theory is intriguing. My interior is fairly dusty so I'm going to give everything a thorough cleaning including all heat sinks, fans and heat pipes to try and eliminate overheating problems. You know... I WAS getting a glitch a while back while running two Geforce 8800 GT's in SLI where my sound card would massively overheat and crash the system... but I fixed that by moving the cards around a bit (and isolating the sound card with cardboard... yay me). I even bought a new sound card to try and rule that problem out. Hmmm..must inspect some more things.
Thanks for all the advice guys... I really want to save this computer if I can.
Bowielee, I ran chkdsk and it came back with no bad sectors or problems of any kind (plus I was able to install windows finally) so I think the hard drive is okay.
PatrThom... your overheating theory is intriguing. My interior is fairly dusty so I'm going to give everything a thorough cleaning including all heat sinks, fans and heat pipes to try and eliminate overheating problems. You know... I WAS getting a glitch a while back while running two Geforce 8800 GT's in SLI where my sound card would massively overheat and crash the system... but I fixed that by moving the cards around a bit (and isolating the sound card with cardboard... yay me). I even bought a new sound card to try and rule that problem out. Hmmm..must inspect some more things.
Thanks for all the advice guys... I really want to save this computer if I can.
***Update***
So I ended up buying a new video card for this computer I'm trying to save. So far the system seems stable.
I'm actually thinking that PatrThom is onto something with the possible overheating problems as this computer really is low on fans to move air... I'm going to have to come up with some interesting solutions I think.
I plan to run some real 3D gaming tests on it in the next few weeks to see if it continues to crash or whether the problems have been alleviated. Thanks to all of you for your help.
So I ended up buying a new video card for this computer I'm trying to save. So far the system seems stable.
I'm actually thinking that PatrThom is onto something with the possible overheating problems as this computer really is low on fans to move air... I'm going to have to come up with some interesting solutions I think.
I plan to run some real 3D gaming tests on it in the next few weeks to see if it continues to crash or whether the problems have been alleviated. Thanks to all of you for your help.
So the video card didn't solve the hanging issues... drat.
Ugh, so after months of fiddling with this computer with no positive results I decided to revisit my RAM and ensure that it is working properly. I got the most recent version of Memtest86 and let it rip. Sure enough it consistently detects errors whenever test #5 rolls around... so there defintely seems to be a memory problem.
Here's the wrinkle though. I wanted to isolate which stick of RAM was faulty, so I pulled out two of them and ran the Memtest86 application with just the two 2GB sticks in. It came up free of errors after three complete passes. So I figured those two sticks were good. I then pulled one stick out and put an unknown stick in. Ran the test... three passes later it was all good. Okay so I figured that the last stick would trigger errors. Nope... it all passed. Confused and thinking maybe I didn't have the RAM seated properly I put all the sticks back in (4x2Gb) and ran the Memtest utility. Got the errors right away when test 5 rolled around again.
Is it possible that the RAM is good and that there is a problem with the actal slots in the motherboard? I'm going to put my old 4x1Gb sticks in and run Memtest to see if I get similar errors on test number 5. Man this is so frustrating. One other thing... the system seemed to run really fast and quite stable when I just had the 2x2Gb installed. I need to test this further...
Ugh, so after months of fiddling with this computer with no positive results I decided to revisit my RAM and ensure that it is working properly. I got the most recent version of Memtest86 and let it rip. Sure enough it consistently detects errors whenever test #5 rolls around... so there defintely seems to be a memory problem.
Here's the wrinkle though. I wanted to isolate which stick of RAM was faulty, so I pulled out two of them and ran the Memtest86 application with just the two 2GB sticks in. It came up free of errors after three complete passes. So I figured those two sticks were good. I then pulled one stick out and put an unknown stick in. Ran the test... three passes later it was all good. Okay so I figured that the last stick would trigger errors. Nope... it all passed. Confused and thinking maybe I didn't have the RAM seated properly I put all the sticks back in (4x2Gb) and ran the Memtest utility. Got the errors right away when test 5 rolled around again.
Is it possible that the RAM is good and that there is a problem with the actal slots in the motherboard? I'm going to put my old 4x1Gb sticks in and run Memtest to see if I get similar errors on test number 5. Man this is so frustrating. One other thing... the system seemed to run really fast and quite stable when I just had the 2x2Gb installed. I need to test this further...
Looks like this (new?) problem could be with your memory controller, then. Your motherboard manual may tell you how many banks of memory your processor/northbridge can support (usually with some sort of diagram/instructions* that says "If you install x number of modules, then install them according to these rules."). If so, there is a difference between types of memory modules (double-sided/banked or single-sided/banked). Memory controllers can only "push" so many total banks/chips of memory at a particular speed, so if you are exceeding this limit then that might explain why reducing the number of modules makes it work fine. Most motherboards will just downclock the memory if you go over their preferred number of banks, others will require more voltage or slower RAM timings.
The other possibility is that when you have it all installed at once, the chips heat each other up to the point where they fail (but not when there are only 2). Running 4x1GB might help isolate that possibility.
--Patrick
*Best non-PDF example I could find, sorry.
The other possibility is that when you have it all installed at once, the chips heat each other up to the point where they fail (but not when there are only 2). Running 4x1GB might help isolate that possibility.
--Patrick
*Best non-PDF example I could find, sorry.
@PatrThom - This is the motherboard I have in the rig (it's a Dell computer but it's running one of these) http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_nforce_790i_sli_us.html
As far as I can tell I haven't exceeded any parameters on what this board should be able to handle (the 4x2Gb setup is supported). I can't remember the exact specs and timings on the RAM I bought... but they weren't anything special and should be okay with this motherboard (I guess I'll have to slog through the boring PDF I found showing all the guaranteed compatible memory modules).
Also, I can never truly rule heat out, but the RAM doesn't seem hot at all (it's right behind the largest fan).
I'm going to run Memtest86 with the 4 sticks of 1Gb RAM and see if I get any problems. I will also do some gaming tests with just the two sticks of 2Gb RAM to see if the system stays stable.
Another thing to note... when I first installed the 8GB RAM upgrade the computer was smoking fast and worked fantastic. This hanging problem has been building gradually over the last 3-4 months until the computer would have to be restarted 5-6 times just to get windows to load (and then it was a crapshoot as to when it would crash).
@Gared - The sticks of 2Gb RAM are all identical so there shouldn't be any problems with that (in theory lol).
As far as I can tell I haven't exceeded any parameters on what this board should be able to handle (the 4x2Gb setup is supported). I can't remember the exact specs and timings on the RAM I bought... but they weren't anything special and should be okay with this motherboard (I guess I'll have to slog through the boring PDF I found showing all the guaranteed compatible memory modules).
Also, I can never truly rule heat out, but the RAM doesn't seem hot at all (it's right behind the largest fan).
I'm going to run Memtest86 with the 4 sticks of 1Gb RAM and see if I get any problems. I will also do some gaming tests with just the two sticks of 2Gb RAM to see if the system stays stable.
Another thing to note... when I first installed the 8GB RAM upgrade the computer was smoking fast and worked fantastic. This hanging problem has been building gradually over the last 3-4 months until the computer would have to be restarted 5-6 times just to get windows to load (and then it was a crapshoot as to when it would crash).
@Gared - The sticks of 2Gb RAM are all identical so there shouldn't be any problems with that (in theory lol).
Alright, so here's what I learned last night.
I installed the 4 original sticks of 1Gb RAM (total of 4Gb memory) and ran Memtest86 for over 5 hours which was about 6 complete test loops. No problems were detected so I decided to boot up the computer and see how it would run. Well... it didn't run well. It restarted randomly a few times before I could even get to the login menu and the two times I was actually able to get into windows it froze up about 5 minutes in (with the computer just sitting there doing nothing).
Discouraged, I put two sticks of the 2Gb RAM in the computer in the appropriate dual channel positions and the computer works flawlessly. Games, windows updates, prime number stress tests... it works excellent with just the two sticks. Basically it seems that when the second dual channel slots are populated, the computer becomes totally unstable.
So what the heck does that mean? Is it fixable or is it likely that the motherboard/memory controller is damaged and I just have to live with 4Gb of RAM. It's not the end of the world... as this is just a backup rig anyway.
I installed the 4 original sticks of 1Gb RAM (total of 4Gb memory) and ran Memtest86 for over 5 hours which was about 6 complete test loops. No problems were detected so I decided to boot up the computer and see how it would run. Well... it didn't run well. It restarted randomly a few times before I could even get to the login menu and the two times I was actually able to get into windows it froze up about 5 minutes in (with the computer just sitting there doing nothing).
Discouraged, I put two sticks of the 2Gb RAM in the computer in the appropriate dual channel positions and the computer works flawlessly. Games, windows updates, prime number stress tests... it works excellent with just the two sticks. Basically it seems that when the second dual channel slots are populated, the computer becomes totally unstable.
So what the heck does that mean? Is it fixable or is it likely that the motherboard/memory controller is damaged and I just have to live with 4Gb of RAM. It's not the end of the world... as this is just a backup rig anyway.
Sorry to take so long, I admit that answering this got lost in the drama.
First of all, I am assuming that you are installing your memory according to the NVIDIA guidelines*, which is either filling all 4 slots or filling every other slot. That is, if you are only using 2 slots, they should run as follows:
CPU - RAM - empty - RAM - empty - 24pinPSU OR CPU - empty - RAM - empty - RAM - 24pinPSU.
If you were already doing this, then let's continue. You said you had no problem isolating the RAM sticks. To isolate the RAM slots, take two of your (working) RAM sticks and MemTest them in slots 0/2, then if they pass move them to 1/3 and run it again. If you run into no errors here then your system just can't handle the load of 4xRAM sticks and you are probably looking at a PSU issue (sagging power on either the 3.3V/5V rail), a motherboard issue (failed/weakened capacitors and/or power circuitry, or BIOS settings need to be dialed back), or an overheating issue (not enough ventilation). If you did hit errors, then you have probably identified a bad RAM channel/socket and then the choice is probably to either give up the extra RAM or swap for a new motherboard.
If anyone else would like to either confirm or contest the above, I'd be grateful.
--Patrick
*Pulled from a PDF on EVGA's website for the same board.
First of all, I am assuming that you are installing your memory according to the NVIDIA guidelines*, which is either filling all 4 slots or filling every other slot. That is, if you are only using 2 slots, they should run as follows:
CPU - RAM - empty - RAM - empty - 24pinPSU OR CPU - empty - RAM - empty - RAM - 24pinPSU.
If you were already doing this, then let's continue. You said you had no problem isolating the RAM sticks. To isolate the RAM slots, take two of your (working) RAM sticks and MemTest them in slots 0/2, then if they pass move them to 1/3 and run it again. If you run into no errors here then your system just can't handle the load of 4xRAM sticks and you are probably looking at a PSU issue (sagging power on either the 3.3V/5V rail), a motherboard issue (failed/weakened capacitors and/or power circuitry, or BIOS settings need to be dialed back), or an overheating issue (not enough ventilation). If you did hit errors, then you have probably identified a bad RAM channel/socket and then the choice is probably to either give up the extra RAM or swap for a new motherboard.
If anyone else would like to either confirm or contest the above, I'd be grateful.
--Patrick
*Pulled from a PDF on EVGA's website for the same board.
I agree with trying the 0/2 and then 1/3 slots. Do this with the 2GB sticks that you said were working just fine. If it fails just by switching those sticks that you know work to a new slot, it will tell you if one of those paired slots is borked.
The voltage should work out roughly the same unless you're running a different speed of memory between the 1GB and 2GB sticks, so I wouldn't think it would be an under-power issue.
The voltage should work out roughly the same unless you're running a different speed of memory between the 1GB and 2GB sticks, so I wouldn't think it would be an under-power issue.
Heh... Thanks guys 
.
The system seems to be running totally fine now that I'm just using two sticks of 2GB RAM for 4GB total. It seems like a motherboard/memory controller issue (shouldn't be overheating... the innards are cool and the power supply is a 1000 watt unit that isn't likely to be failing... though I can't totally rule that out).
Probably eventually will replace the guts with a new cpu, motherboard and power supply when I can get a really good deal cheap... but for now it's working out pretty well.
.The system seems to be running totally fine now that I'm just using two sticks of 2GB RAM for 4GB total. It seems like a motherboard/memory controller issue (shouldn't be overheating... the innards are cool and the power supply is a 1000 watt unit that isn't likely to be failing... though I can't totally rule that out).
Probably eventually will replace the guts with a new cpu, motherboard and power supply when I can get a really good deal cheap... but for now it's working out pretty well.
Well, thanks, now that you got yours up and running, my BRAND NEW motherboard is giving me the notorious Bad Checksum loop.
Apparently Gigabyte motherboards have a dual bios and some how one will override the other and it will constantly loop trying to restore the bios from itself.
I will never buy another gigabyte board again.
Apparently Gigabyte motherboards have a dual bios and some how one will override the other and it will constantly loop trying to restore the bios from itself.
I will never buy another gigabyte board again.
Gigabyte has been bulletproof for me as well... with ASUS being the big offender for failures.
GasBandit
Staff member
I've had good and bad experiences with both Gigabyte and Asus. Had an asus board's bios die for no reason at home... had a gigabyte board catch fire at work. Yes, catch fire. Blown capacitor, it looked like... scorched everything all black. Moral of the story? 99% QC still means there's thousands of bad mobos out there, and with YOUR karma? You'se gonna get some.
I have personally only had troubles with 1 ASRock mobo, 1 IWill mobo, 1 PC Power & Cooling PSU, 1 NVIDIA GPU and 2 WD drives. The drives failed after 5 years and a tumble out of my car (and took a year after the fall to fail), the ASRock and IWill mobos took 6 yrs, the PCP&C PSU took 9 years (and they repaired it OOW), and the GPU took 6yrs.
Everything else has either been somebody's fault (hooking into 12v instead of 5v, for instance) or catastrophic (pets, spill, etc).
--PatricK
Everything else has either been somebody's fault (hooking into 12v instead of 5v, for instance) or catastrophic (pets, spill, etc).
--PatricK
***UPDATE***
Well, after all the things I had done to fix my computer I was still having system freeze ups, trouble booting up and recently developed a new intermittent symptom. The computer was freezing up while posting about 25% of the time. I thought that was kind of strange and I checked the version of the current bios and it had somehow reverted 4 versions back from where it should be. I just reflashed it today and the computer is running amazing. No freezeups. I've successfully rebooted 10 times in a row with no glitches. Virus scans and game stress tests have worked flawlessly. The only thing I need to still check is to install the last 4 gigs of RAM in it and see if it's still stable. I can't believe that it was the freaking bios causing all these glitches.
Just wanted to share that with you guys... for future reference in case others experience similar problems.
WOOT! I FIXED IT!!!
(and it only took over 3 months lol)
Well, after all the things I had done to fix my computer I was still having system freeze ups, trouble booting up and recently developed a new intermittent symptom. The computer was freezing up while posting about 25% of the time. I thought that was kind of strange and I checked the version of the current bios and it had somehow reverted 4 versions back from where it should be. I just reflashed it today and the computer is running amazing. No freezeups. I've successfully rebooted 10 times in a row with no glitches. Virus scans and game stress tests have worked flawlessly. The only thing I need to still check is to install the last 4 gigs of RAM in it and see if it's still stable. I can't believe that it was the freaking bios causing all these glitches.
Just wanted to share that with you guys... for future reference in case others experience similar problems.
WOOT! I FIXED IT!!!
(and it only took over 3 months lol)Heh... It was just really bothering me that I couldn't definitively nail down what was wrong with it
. Plus I didn't want to fork out the nearly $500 to gut it and replace the motherboard, cpu and power supply (which were the only things I hadn't completely ruled out).Solving problems can be fun! (sometimes)
There are still some unanswered questions. A BIOS can't just spontaneously revert itself. When you flash a BIOS, you completely replace the old one with the new one. There isn't an old one left hanging around to suddenly pop back in. So either the motherboard has a dual BIOS feature which was triggered, an older version was reflashed during a troubleshooting step (or completely by accident), or else the motherboard was somehow secretly replaced with another motherboard with an older BIOS.
--Patrick
--Patrick
I like the secretly replaced with another motherboard of the same type option.
I can't explain it... all I know is that I flashed the bios to the 1.0.6 version probably a year to a year and a half ago (and I know it was successful), and last night when I actually looked at the version number it was reading 1.0.2 which is super old. Maybe the motherboard has a dual bios backup? I haven't been able to confirm that.
All I know is that this thing is running seamlessly again.
I can't explain it... all I know is that I flashed the bios to the 1.0.6 version probably a year to a year and a half ago (and I know it was successful), and last night when I actually looked at the version number it was reading 1.0.2 which is super old. Maybe the motherboard has a dual bios backup? I haven't been able to confirm that.
All I know is that this thing is running seamlessly again.
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