[parlayit]

I'm currenly using an (MSI?) nVidia 64MB AGP GeForce3 Ti200 on my MSI 655 Max-LS motherboard... works fine most of the time... except for when I play games... I may be able to play for a few minutes, but usually it freezes.... not sure whether it's an internal error, or if I need to change my video card....

I don't play very graphics heavy games, so I don't think it's the card... I'll play Counter Strike, maybe Quake, Age of Empires, even Civilization... not sure what to check first before trying to buy another video card...

My motherboard can only take PCI and AGP... so obviously, I can't buy any PCI-Express cards...

Any suggestions on what kind of things to look for in a video card? Please help! I noticed "Memory Interface" while shopping at newegg.com, noticed 128-bit and 256-bit... big difference? Which does my video card have now? And does memory really play a big factor? I'll see some cards with 128MB of memory, but have really fast core and memory clocks, and others with 256MB/512MB with slower core and memory clocks...

I guess you can see the rest of the specs of my computer in my profile...

Edited by parlayit, 16 May 2006 - 05:38 PM.

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lets see if its a heat or power issue first...speedfan
This program monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. It can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures as well....get it here

http://www.tucows.com/preview/226226

[happyrock]

lets see if its a heat or power issue first...speedfan
This program monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. It can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures as well....get it here

http://www.tucows.com/preview/226226

[parlayit]

first... i tried running Counter Strike and as soon as I started to play a mission... it froze... prior to that, i saw a WMI error?

i looked at my events manager and noticed three errors before crashing.... it looks like this:

Faulting application wmiprvse.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x3032dc2c.


any idea what that is?


second, thanks for the speedfan program... but how do i use it and what am i looking for?

[happyrock]

to run speedfan
click on the icon on the desktop ...use printscreen or any other program that you like to get a picture of the speedfan window and post it back here

Edited by happyrck, 16 May 2006 - 09:57 PM.

[parlayit]

not really sure what i was looking for... but here's a screenshot...

i attached it... hope it works...

[happyrock]

you got the right thing...temps and voltages are good...try this

Right-click 'My Computer', select 'Manage', expand 'Services and Applications', click 'Services'.
Now in the right pane scroll down to 'Windows Management Instrumentation' (not 'driver extensions') and change from automatic to manual start (DONT DISABLE !!)
You will find it starts up of it's own accord after windows has loaded.


If that doesn't work:

Pick a restore point before you started having this problem and run system restore..keep in mind that anything you installed since the restore point that you go back to will need to be reinstalled.

[parlayit]

thanks for your replies... i tried what you said and here's what actually happened...

i browsed through the forum and found one of your replies to another problem... used my XP CD and repaired my computer... this actually fixed a problem I had been having with Explorer.exe and DrWatson... that's gone now....

then, i reinstalled Counterstrike... i checked the options and noticed that my options for the VIDEO were SOFTWARE, OPENGL AND D3D (or is 3D3?) either way.... the program defaulted to Software mode... when I tried changing it to OpenGL, it said that it was not supported... in the past, It would freeze if I had it on OpenGL mode... is this telling me that my card is old and slow...?? lol...

can i install OpenGL on a video card? time to buy a new card? thanks in advance for your opinion and help...

[happyrock]

Its time for a new card...get one with 256 onboard memory...find the requirements for the games you want to play and check with the gamers to get some recommendations for a video card