I remember I forgot to reformat my external to NTFS when I bought it. Prevented me from copying over an Adobe iso I had.
I just now got around to installing the ICH9 intel chipset driver and the latest NVIDIA forceware in hopes it would fix my games freezing issue…
Except I didn’t actually install them. Upon downloading them, I noticed the ICH9 driver was released in July of 07, and the latest forceware is from Dec 07. I built this computer in late January, so I already have those drivers.
Is there anything else I could try? Or do I just have to wait for new drivers and hope that fixes the issue?
And just to restate and clarify that issue… My games don’t just freeze up randomly. It is determined when I boot my PC whether or not I’m going to have game freezes. If I get a “good boot,” I can play as many games as I want no problems. If I restart and get a “bad boot” then the first game I try to play will freeze as soon as a level loads. The randomness occurs at boot. Sometimes I get good boots, sometimes bad. I haven’t rebooted in the past 4 days or so because this one is “good” heh. If I restart, it might be bad and then I’d have to restart several times til I got another good one.
Anyone build a HTPC recently. Probably gonna be building one in a few months and looking to see what others have.
Hrm. Flashed your bios recently?
Haven’t flashed it at all. Should I? I haven’t flashed a BIOS in probably 5 years. I remember it being a risky PITA.
It’s usually pretty safe these days. I’m not necessarily sure it’ll help, but it sounds like you could have mobo issues which drivers might not be able to fix. Especially if you bad boots are occuring outside the operating system.
Here is my motherboard (I do indeed have rev 2.1) and drivers: http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=2634
When I built the comp in January, I downloaded and installed the chipset and the audio drivers. Looking at that list, there is a newer chipset driver than my current one. I often read you should install chipset drivers before anything else on a fresh install… does that mean it is wise/unwise to install new chipset drivers after everything else has already been done?
And here is the BIOS page: http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2634
Since I have rev 2.1 of the mobo, I already have the second-most recent BIOS (F10). I’m not sure bothering with the upgrade to F11 would make any difference.
Hmm. Technically you are supposed to install the chipset drivers first. But it’s never made a difference for me.
Could just be faulty hardware in this case. Have you run any memory tests as well?
^Yeah I’ve ran memtest 86 and all was well. The Vista problem and error report app thinks the issue is with my video drivers or the ICH9 drivers. And like I said I have the latest forceware. I went poking around in the device manager to see what all ICH9 entails. I thought it was the raid chip on the mobo. My mistake, that is the ICH9R.
The ICH9, actually, seems to be everything lol. ICH9 USB controller, ICH9 PXI Express ports, ICH9 SMBus, and ICH9 SATA ports.
The fact that my issues started the night I hooked up an external SATA hard drive might not have been coincidence. If something is wrong with my ICH9 driver, maybe something went screwy when I added a new SATA drive.
Guess I’ll install those latest chipset drivers and see what happens.
ARGH. It is in FAT32. What a pain in the ass… Why is this a problem on Fat32 file systems? Is there some drawback to NTFS? Thanks for the quick reply!
are they laraldo? i didn’t know that. my bads.
umm…
don’t go with that brand…
as a general rule i tell people…
ATI - go with Sapphire
Nvidia - go with EVGA, XFX, or BFG
Ok noobish question. If I get a dx10 card, will having a computer with XP hinder the card in any way besides merely not supporting dx10? I want to get a new rig but I hate vista to death and want to go with the tried and true, but if I’m not getting good performance out of a new 400$ GPU I will suck it up and get vista with it.
^ No. I think the only real difference is in the shader engine, which goes to version 4 and is freaking gorgeous. There’s only a handful of games that are compatible, so you can likely wait.
Speaking of Shader Engine 4…
I’ve been getting into amateur game and graphics programming and so far it’s a blast. Some of it’s frustratingly hard, but it’s fun to see your hard work pay off when you can actually display something pretty on the screen.
My question is a good tutorial to learn the basics of C++ and C# programming for games? A good book recommendations? Any good courses can take without having to meet 1001 prerequisites and enroll in a Comp. Sci degree?
So far, Ive been messing around with Microsoft Visual Studio (C++, C# and VB) and the Dark GDK game creation kit which is surprisingly very good, user friendly and easy to learn. I also have messed around with the Microsoft SDK for the Xbox 360, but that’s scripted in C# a language that I don’t really know. I barely know the basics of C++ and C# still confuses me, but still being able to easily make 360 games and having so much support at my disposal makes it a good program, too.
Anyone have experience with those? I wanna learn to make basic games and start working on a couple of designs I have in my head.
Tahnks! :tup:
As Manx said, there shouldn’t be any hinderance except no DX10. Currently, there’s almost no reason to run DX10 anyway. Only a handful of games use it. Google comparison screen shots between the games running in DX9 and DX10: Crysis, Bioshock, etc. If you can spot any worthwhile differences, then you have bigger things to worry about than PCs. 
So a lack of DX10 support, at the moment, is no big deal whatsoever.
However, before you write Vista off as crap-doodle, check out the Vista/XP thread here: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=148923 Just look over the first six pages or so. My posts (as well as some other people’s) dispell a lot of the Vista myths, and I outline reasons to go with Vista or XP. XP is certainly still a fine option for some people. If you are getting a new computer though, I think Vista would be a more sensible choice.
It’s not necessarily a problem on FAT32. It’s just the fact that when FAT and FAT32 was devised, no one thought that files could ever be bigger than 4GB. Only benefit I could see right now with sticking with FAT32 for your hard drive is cross-platform readibility. FAT32 partitions can be read by MacOS, Windows, and Linux, IIRC.
NTFS is probably your best bet if you have Windows machines around you that are post-Win2000. Off the top of my head, immediate benefits: ability to hold higher file sizes ( :wgrin: ), and the ability to name files longer than eight characters.
Someone can correct me, but I’m about 95% sure all of that’s right.
Anyone have some advice on an AGP videocard I could get for myself? I bought one a while ago for a PC I ended up giving to a relative, but I’m wondering what the most powerful/appropriate card I could get for my current setup would be like. Currently, my processor is an AMD 2.6 ghz dual core, I have about 2 gigs of ram, and I have like an ATI 2200 HD card or something like that. (I can verify when I get home.) I was just thinking maybe I could get something more powerful, but I know that most good cards are PCI Express when I search for them. Thanks
final cut heres a link to tom’s hardware where they break down some of the best AGPs at different price points. http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/03/the_best_gaming_graphics/page5.html
awesome, thank you. Everything I came across was pretty dated.
many have been having problems with x-fi soundcards on vista. the damn card almost blew my eardrums 2x with random static. just warning anyone thnking of getting one.
if you’re using xp though, i got my xtreme music for $60. sound quality like ear-orgasm.