Sos
<div class="IPBDescription">My HP Computer Sucks...</div> Ok, here we go:
Win XP [EDIT]Media Center[/EDIT]
P4 2.8 Ghz HT
Radeon 9200
My computer won't stop crashing. It just plain refuses to work correctley. It's crashed at least SIX TIMES in the past 20 minutes. I just updated my WinXP Catalyst drivers from 3.8 to 4.3, and this caused absolute chugging hell, Internet Explorer wasn't even running smoothly.
After this, I figured the drivers were crack, so I downladed the 3.6 drivers, after reading they'd fix random FPS drops in Half-Life on the ATI site, which I was getting. So, starts up, get similar chugging. The computer decides to crash itself at random points along it's path. First time, right after entering my login password, second time was after I had successfully logged in, I started up Internet Exploder, and poof. Third time, which was the farthest I got... The chugging stopped (as has stopped as of now), so I thought Windows might've pulled some ownage error detection and found out what was wrong and fixed it. NS starts up, poof, startup screen. By now I'm really getting angry, so I go into Properties -> Desktop, and go to Advnaced Options to see what was going on. I see a tab that lets me change monitor refresh rates, and had a box 'Hide Refresh Rates Monitor Is Not Capable Of' checked. I figured, 'Oooh, that's nice, maybe I'll bump that up while I'm here... K, 85Hz, Apply...' and poof. After that, I just go straight to my SMARGART section. As I had thought when my HL crashed, for some reason, it set my AGP speed to 8x even though I have a 4x slot (this setting was on when the computer was new, and I had to turn it off before to stop it from crashing :\). So I'm like, OK, Restart, and seems to start going fine. So I'm thinking, 'OK, finally, work...', login, and poof. Restart. Go again, and am instead just like, 'OK, something's wrong, maybe someone knows, lemme check the NS boards...' There were a few more crashes thrown in somewhere, but I was too angry to remember them. If anyone knows anything... Help! <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Win XP [EDIT]Media Center[/EDIT]
P4 2.8 Ghz HT
Radeon 9200
My computer won't stop crashing. It just plain refuses to work correctley. It's crashed at least SIX TIMES in the past 20 minutes. I just updated my WinXP Catalyst drivers from 3.8 to 4.3, and this caused absolute chugging hell, Internet Explorer wasn't even running smoothly.
After this, I figured the drivers were crack, so I downladed the 3.6 drivers, after reading they'd fix random FPS drops in Half-Life on the ATI site, which I was getting. So, starts up, get similar chugging. The computer decides to crash itself at random points along it's path. First time, right after entering my login password, second time was after I had successfully logged in, I started up Internet Exploder, and poof. Third time, which was the farthest I got... The chugging stopped (as has stopped as of now), so I thought Windows might've pulled some ownage error detection and found out what was wrong and fixed it. NS starts up, poof, startup screen. By now I'm really getting angry, so I go into Properties -> Desktop, and go to Advnaced Options to see what was going on. I see a tab that lets me change monitor refresh rates, and had a box 'Hide Refresh Rates Monitor Is Not Capable Of' checked. I figured, 'Oooh, that's nice, maybe I'll bump that up while I'm here... K, 85Hz, Apply...' and poof. After that, I just go straight to my SMARGART section. As I had thought when my HL crashed, for some reason, it set my AGP speed to 8x even though I have a 4x slot (this setting was on when the computer was new, and I had to turn it off before to stop it from crashing :\). So I'm like, OK, Restart, and seems to start going fine. So I'm thinking, 'OK, finally, work...', login, and poof. Restart. Go again, and am instead just like, 'OK, something's wrong, maybe someone knows, lemme check the NS boards...' There were a few more crashes thrown in somewhere, but I was too angry to remember them. If anyone knows anything... Help! <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Comments
If not make sure that the drivers are completely gone then reinstall them. There are some programs for this for ati cards i'm sure, but they escape me at the moment.
BTW, why are you using media centre edition?
Wasn't my money to spend...
How long have you owned it without the crashing problem?
List everything you've done to it prior to the crashing.
Sounds like it's either heat or RAM (or both).
As a easy troubleshoot, leave it off for a couple hours and try restarting it. Track how much time passes before another crash.
[EDIT]... Crash... ****. Why did I update my drivers? And it definentley feels like my computer is constantly out of memory... ****. [/EDIT]
[EDIT PART II: MS ERROR REPORTING]
Analysis Information
Thank you for submitting an error report. The error was likely caused by:
ATI Graphics Driver
ATI Graphics Driver was created by ATI® Technologies, Inc.. Please contact ATI® Technologies, Inc. in order to find out if a solution or an updated version of ATI Graphics Driver is available. For more information, see the ATI® Technologies, Inc. Web site.
... Perfect... [/EDIT]
[EDIT PART III: GG, ATI]
I don't know why, but the drivers re-set themselves to go in Fast-Write 8x AGP mode. I'm resetting them again, maybe the original reset didn't work due to crashing :\ [/EDIT]
Did you put the graphics card in yourself? If so, what's the brand of card?
Not all video cards are happy with the ATI (or Nvidia) drivers if they're from outside manufacturers. Try searching for drivers for the applicable brand. And make sure you completely removed all previous driver information. Reinstalling could be helpful also. Try starting up in SAFE MODE to see if you still have issues.
Also, I'm not sure if you meant the AGP setting was being reset in SMARTGART or in BIOS. Check your BIOS and see if they match. Also check your aperture setting. Should be either 64 or 128.
Worst advice ever.
Anyway, the problem might be that you installed your new drivers over your old drivers. When I did that, I got a whole bunch of problems. Windows wouldn't detect DirectDraw or Direct3D ability and such. Try uninstalling your drivers and getting <a href='http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/' target='_blank'>Driver Cleaner</a>, then running it in Safe Mode to clear out your drivers completely. After that, reinstall the latest Catalyst drivers.