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General discussion

Can cheap power supply cause loop errors

Sep 2, 2004 6:37AM PDT

Soyo p4x400, via chipset, 512 corsair pc3200 running at 333, (personally I dont think via is true 400 mhz but it loops either way) ATI radeon 9500 pro, cheap 550 watt powers supply. (I cant remember the brand but the 250 that was in my k62 was significantly heavier)

I've tried drivers for both the video card and the motherboard, bios settings and rage 3d tweaker but nothing seems to affect it. It will loop on the destop in a game or when the screen is dark and the hd has spun down.

Discussion is locked

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ATI RAGE?
Sep 2, 2004 6:41AM PDT

That's a very very very old video card. But even the cheesiest 550W supply I've seen delivers 450 Watts with ease. I'll write it's more likely a heat issue or some part you recycled has begun to fail.

Bob

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Re: Rage?? The card? No. ATI 9500 Pro 128 MB.
Sep 2, 2004 6:53AM PDT

Rage 3D is the driver tweaker for ATI cards.

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Tweakers are best tossed out.
Sep 2, 2004 8:27AM PDT

When I see issues, I toss any overclocker/tweaker software out since I need boring and stable.

Bob

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(NT) (NT) I was just saying that I can't tweak out the problem.
Sep 2, 2004 8:43AM PDT
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Define "loop"
Sep 2, 2004 8:47AM PDT

Some mean the display is looping as in the screen rolls like a TV that's lost it's vertical sync. Some mean it reboots. The SOYO from memory will be harsh on owners since Microsoft doesn't install motherboard drivers and more.

Inspect the motherboard capacitors for crowned tops or leaking fluid.

Bob

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Re: Define "loop"
Sep 2, 2004 12:57PM PDT

Windows XP reports that "The video driver got stuck in an infinite loop" This generally results in a reboot, however not always. In games it will lock. then go dark and then come back on garbled. The sound returns but the computer is totally unresponsive. Sometimes I can get out of that by pressing the power button and it will shutdown. It used to reboot out of games sometimes but doesn't seem to do it anymore. On the desktop it seems to just lock then reboot after showing an instant of a garbled unreadable blue screen.
It seems to happen more in games, but can happen anytime. Little things like opening a console in a certain game or any random program on the desktop like IE can seem to set it off, or it can happen spontaneously.
It's been like this since I had it and I assumed it was driver related. My caps look ok.

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That's a software issue.
Sep 3, 2004 12:18AM PDT

My answer is "no, it's not the power supply."

I have seen this when people install just the Windows OS. Drivers for motherboard, USB, update the BIOS and what else? Sometimes they install the drivers from some CD that came with the products and those were rushed out the door as the ship date arrived...

I know you know this issue.

Bob

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Had a friend with Intel cpu
Sep 3, 2004 1:01AM PDT

and ATI AIW Radeon 9700 PRO. The problem was appaently caused by having "fast writes" enabled. ATI Tech support said to disable fast writes but really did not know why that worked at the time.

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I located my notes from ATI Tech support
Sep 3, 2004 1:13AM PDT

These are the things he had me do....and SMARTGART was at the top of list.

1. Disable Smartgart at Start/RUN/smartgart and press Enter.....it gives options. One of those options I tried also was to turn down the AGP to 4X. Another option was to Turn Off FastWrite in the Smartgart program. Do these last two first to see if the problem goes away and if it doesn't then use the DISABLE option instead to turn off the program completely.

2. Set the monitor to optimal instead of the HZ listed.

3. In the Bios, Increase AGP VOLTAGE by 0.1 increments and keep rebooting and increasing it by that much until you see the problem stop. Mine was set at 1.5 by default and I only had to kick it up to 1.7 before I noticed the problem quit.

4. Uncheck Enable Write Combining...this might be in Smartgart (I didn't mark on my notes where I was able to do this).

5. Reset the Bios temperature to a lower amount to see which audible comes on....or DISABLE all Bios temp settings.

6. As a last resort I was told to reset the system down to 533 instead of 800 in the Bios, but I never had to get that far before the problem was resolved.

Hope some of this helps....

TONI

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Thanx, friend. The way that you keep
Sep 3, 2004 1:20AM PDT

records is absolutely amazing. I only remembered the Fast Writes part. LOL

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BTW, all sites that mentioned the AGP
Sep 3, 2004 8:19AM PDT

voltage said to NOT go above 1.7 volts.

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(NT) (NT) mine is 1.6 after rechecking it just now...
Sep 3, 2004 8:58AM PDT
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Re: Ok As I said...
Sep 3, 2004 8:58PM PDT

I tried all available drivers for the mobo and video, but I'll check the stuff you said Toni. I hope I don't end up having an AGPX problem but I've had fast write both on and off.

Thanks.