Won't boot. :(

[robbie]

So I've been talking about the main box for a while now and that I really need to upgrade it. Well, the other day I was playing WOW and while in the game I would get random freezing in the game. Ok... time to kill wow and maybe. I've found that it's just about maxing out my memory again. (1.9 gigs at times while running) I usually leave this up to a memory leak in the game as I've seen this kinda thing before in wow. So I kinda figured that's what it was. I haven't restarted this computer in a while and I figured it was about time anyways. A good reboot will do wonders sometimes.

I tell it to shut down... uggg... it's taking forever and of course popping up everything saying... end now? uggg... click yes... click it again... and again... frustrated (but you've all been there so I'm preaching to the choir on this) Finally... I say f it, and head up to bed. I figure it will eventually end everything and shut down on it's own.

Up in bed, I hear a knock on my door (whisper) Dad... Me not asleep say yeah sup sweetie (youngest daughter is with us for the summer) Dad... can I use the computer it's off? Sure thing sweetie.... I just shut it down cuz it needed a good reboot. Ok... off she goes and back I go to watching a show on tv. (wasn't asleep yet)

Few mins later... Knock knock... (whisper) Dad... the monitor won't come on... the computer lights come on and fans are spinning but it won't come on the monitor. Ok sweetie... I'll come down to check it out. Uggg... starting to think.. yeah... maybe a problem. I shut it down via the power switch... and leave it off for a few. Fire it back up... uggg... still no go. At this time I'm really starting to get tired and just wanna goto sleep. So I say sorry, looks like it has probs. No wow tonight.... uggg... ok dad. Thanks for looking. No problem kiddo, I'll tear into it tomorrow.

So after I get home from work, I go into the garage (ie Catbox studio's) and fire up wow on that pc. (one I'm typing on now) and make sure it will work for her. It starts up... np... just need to apply the patch. I tell her to use this one for a while while I work on that one.

Drag the main PC out and started digging aroud... wow... lots of dust... hmmmm... I really need to NOT leave the side cover off. Look at the cpu hsf and sure enough tons of dust. Uggg... I'm pretty good about keeping this stuff clean!! Must be because the side cover is off. Oh well... pull it all apart and even popped in another cpu thinking that the old one fried due to heat. Fire it up... same... uggg... Ok, disconnect everything (hdd and cd roms) still no go. Ok, time to pull the video card. Hit the power button and I get beeps. Woot!!! Good sign. Dig in my parts box for another AGP card, found one...... uggg... 16 meg? WTF!! Oh well.... good enough for testing. Pop it in, fire it up and wah la... post.

Now I'm looking on Amazon for an AGP card, wow... found a 1 gig card for like $40. So I think I can sink that kinda money into it to keep it going for a while, but yeah it's really time to build a new one.

[MUff1N]

My old system (P4 2.4GHz/845 mobo/AGP graphics) sounds like that one...
If I ever get around to upgrading it I'm replacing the mobo with a 775 socket & use my E6700 in it & my extra DDR2 800 I got with my 8800GTS.
But I'm going to wait till that mobo dies on me before I do that.

[cloasters]

Waiting until you actually need to buy replacement components? Something wrong there, sounds un-Consumerist, tsk.

[robbie]

I know I know George, see the thing that sucks is no one has an idea what the fool in the White House will do next, so when that happens people that have money tend to hold on to it.

[cloasters]

He's a very uncool presnit, wth thought he could be as bad as the previous tenant of that address? I guess it means that anybody that can be elected is bad, bad news?

[robbie]

I will give him credit for one thing, his constant bash on capitalism will probably work in my favor of keeping housing costs down so I can get a great deal on a home.

And remember George, GW is a god up against BO. Gas prices shot up GW had the power to make them go back down but didn't. Katrina happend and it was GW's fault. BO's got nothing on him.

[robbie]

Oh... and to update this thread,

I just ordered a Gigabyte agp 1 gig card for my main box. Paid $65 (a tad more than I wanted too) but It will be running back up to full steam (if not better) here by next week I'm sure. I got a cheap Azus card (256 m) from a buddy of mine at work and it's running on that right now, but can't really game all that great on it. Wow is sluggish at best. So here is to a faster card coming soon.

[cloasters]

Is your older beast still working OK? If so, maybe there's hope for all of us.

[robbie]

Originally Posted by cloasters

Is your older beast still working OK? If so, maybe there's hope for all of us.

Yep, I need to post pix. I got a new vid card. Not the boost that I thought but it does run a little better. I can play half life with more settings cranked up. When I get a few more bux I'm going to break down and upgrade the ram and just do 2 1 gig sticks as apposed to the 4 sticks of various ram I have in it now. (which I think is what is holding me back some)

[weldzilla]

robbie what vid card did you get?? you say you got various different memory,, uh well what is it. you have and old agp board uh what is it?
Come on help a guy out.

WZ

[robbie]

Originally Posted by weldzilla

robbie what vid card did you get?? you say you got various different memory,, uh well what is it. you have and old agp board uh what is it?
Come on help a guy out.

WZ

Weird, never saw this post. I got an ATI HD Radeon 4600 series with 1 gig of ram on it. Like I said, things seem a bit better but I now have probs with flash stuff on FF and IE. It's better on chrome but still a tad choppy. I've reloaded FF and I even reinstalled flash... to no avail.

As far as the mem goes, some of it is decent stuff (ugg I wanna say Corsair) I believe I have a couple of 512 sticks in there and a couple of 256 sticks... don't remember who makes um. I think I'll break down and just throw 2 1 gig sticks at it, I've seen them on Amazon for cheap, and we'll see how it OC's after better ram. Also I think that will kick it into dual channel mode as well, which should help with some speed.

[cloasters]

Left and Right are history. Perhaps we can agree that the PTB are bahstages of the worst degree?

[cloasters]

Powers That Be, in case you didn't know. Are they great folks, or what?