Help, my computer is dead!

Arthur Dent · 08-19-2002, 05:45 PM

My home PC died on me yesterday, and I'm not sure why.

Had an All-In-Wonder card. Everything worked fine for several months. Then, PC refused to play games and would freeze up on multimedia clips. Anything from the opening of the games to a short .mov file would cause the computer to freeze and SOMETIMES reboot. When it did reboot, WinXP blamed it on the video card.

The errors happened more and more frequently, so I figure the card was burning out. On Sunday, it refused to work for more than 2 minutes at a time, or until I tried to open anything with pictures.

So, I pulled out the All-In-Wonder, and put in my old Voodoo Stealth, hoping to at least be able to get internet and word processing working. No luck. Same errors. Just as fast.

So, not sure what's going on. A-I-W is an AGP card. The Stealth is PCI, so I know it's not the slot.

Anybody got any ideas?

Don't know if it's worth spending a $100 on a new card just to try getting it working.

barch97 · 08-19-2002, 05:51 PM

Did you remove all the ATI software or just pull the card?

I chose not to install XP after consulting ATI's website and finding that they don't have XP drivers for my all-in-wonder card. They said it would work but, as a video card only and with the drivers supplied by microsoft with XP.

I'm wondering if their (ATI's) drivers interfere with XP somehow...

Arpikarhu · 08-19-2002, 05:56 PM

sounds like a drive conflict. try downloading updated xp drivers for your card

Arthur Dent · 08-19-2002, 05:56 PM

Just pulled the card. Should have automatically disabled the installed drivers, as far as I know.

It was working fine for a few months after installing XP with the latest drivers I downloaded from ATI's site, which they say are compatible with XP. But, I could never get "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" or "AvsP 2" to work with it.

I only want to get it working for internet and Microsoft Office. I'm buying a new one for myself and wanted to get this one working until I get the new one.

barch97 · 08-19-2002, 09:15 PM

Mine's an old 16 meg all-in-wonder. I'm guessing yours is probably a little newer than that. I'd check with ATI though. See if they have any info/updates.

Sorry, I couldn't be more help.

Arthur Dent · 08-19-2002, 09:20 PM

64 MB card. The 8500. It's listed on XP's compatability list as compatible. And the ATI driver's page lists XP as one of the compatible systems.

Thanks for trying anyway.

AdolescentMasturbator · 08-19-2002, 09:24 PM

Do you have a Built by ATI card? Or is an oem or built by various other companies. Really if you are going to buy an ATI card make sure it was made by ATI. Because the drivers from ATI may not work so well.

Kid Afrika · 08-19-2002, 10:51 PM

My AIW card doesn't work with XP, even with the updated drivers from ATI. The tv tuner part just doesn't work. Never got as far as to try games on it, but I can't imagine they would work if the TV didn't.

What's weird about your situation is that you say it was working for a long time and then just quit. Seems to me something had to have changed. Did you try going back to a restore point when it was working, before you removed the card?

One thing for sure, ATI drivers for XP are marginal at best. Especially with older cards.

AdolescentMasturbator · 08-20-2002, 12:39 AM

ATI has made their drivers better but they're still not perfect.

Arthur Dent · 08-20-2002, 01:17 AM

OK, I updated the drivers at one point in an attempt ot get the games working. It was OK for a while, but I guess the instability grew gradually. I just put the ATI card back in and loaded the oldest set of drivers I have for the card form the original CD. So, I got it to work, but only in the lowest possible resolution setting. Any attempt to change to even one notch higher causes the computer to reboot stuck on the lowest setting.

Just weird. Guess ATI really isn't so good for XP.

Kid Afrika · 08-20-2002, 12:34 PM

AD, have you changed the refresh rate on your monitor? Do you have the proper drivers installed for your monitor?

Only being able to select one resolution seems like you either still have the wrong video card driver or your monitor driver is wrong.

Your problem may be deeper rooted than just drivers, I am just tyring to tell you what I would check if I was having these problems.

Hummercash · 08-20-2002, 06:15 PM

Quote:I am just tyring to tell you what I would check if I was having these problems.

but Audrey doesn't have these problems :-D

.//chris

Kid Afrika · 08-20-2002, 09:58 PM

the Audrey sucks for posting. It's too hard to type fast on that little keyboard and keep it pointed at the IrDA port the whole time.

Hummercash · 08-20-2002, 11:37 PM

I FINALLY flashed my audrey with THIS bad boy. Now I have Audrey in the kitchen so I can check mail and surf net while I eat ;p

.//chris

Kid Afrika · 08-21-2002, 02:42 PM

nice find. I'm gonna try that this weekend. Did you have to use your CF reader to do it? Or can you download the image directly to the audrey?

Arthur Dent · 08-21-2002, 03:05 PM

Thanks for all the help. Got it working finally.

Stripped out all the video drivers and started over. Don't know why, but it worked. Still can't run the games, but I can get online and into Office, so I'm happy. Must have been some kind of conflict or something.

Hummercash · 08-21-2002, 03:59 PM

kid, i used my new firewire cf reader Smile

but you can do it using voyager... instructions HERE.

.//chris