Mother Technology hates me. But that's okay.. this is not.

I'll try and keep my post to the point.

Processor: Athlon 64 3200+ (Newcastle Core)
Motherboard: MSI K8T 800
Harddrive: WD 120GB
Power Supply: Enermax 350W
Graphics card: ATI OEM X800 Pro


I'm not a super duper computer person, but know more than the average Joe. I have a couple problems with my machine here, and I've finally gotten pissed off enough to actually do something about it. It's been a year since I bought it! =D

Note: I've tried just about EVERYTHING to fix these problems, but no avail. Don't be afraid to suggest the dumbest, "n00biest" mistakes that I could make. =D

The first problem is, my Athlon 64 doesn't seem to be as fast as it's supposed to be. Sure, it's fast enough, but I want what I paid for! =D Is there any program than I can use to measure my speed, much like 3DMark for the graphic cards? This is very vague, so I'll come back with more stats and numbers before I try and solve this problem...

The second problem is (I've tried just about EVERYTHING to solve this goddamn problem) that I get lower FPS than other X800 Pro users. This isn't just 30-40s, this is into the 100s. So when someone with a 9800 gets 100 fps while I stutter into the 30s and 40s in games such as CS: Source, you can imagine my frustration. C=|

Here's what I tried so far:

1. Clean reinstall of latest drivers (ATi): No improvement.

2. Clean reinstall of latest Omega drivers: No improvement.

3. Checked my PSU, rails etc. All seemed to be in perfect condition.

4. Did a 3DMark test, I forgot the score (Will retest soon), but it was the "average" score a X800 Pro user would get.

5. Performed tweaks at www.tweakguides.com, no improvement.

6. Nothing is overclocked.

I understand I don't exactly have a lot of information here, but feel free to ask for any information that you need! =D

Again, I could've made a STUPID STUPID mistake, so please suggest n00b solutions!

Thankyou for your time,

Toiletman.

 

I've tried DXDiag long time ago.. think it was the first thing I tried. No conflicts, no nothing.

 

Guess the **** what. Goddamnit, why the hell does nothing ever work out for me.

My PC crashed, I have to reformat, and lose everything AGAIN. I spend $2000 on this wonderful gaming PC and it refuses to run for me. I am so insanely pissed off and in outrageous disbelief that I'm not even pissed off anymore.

 

Sorry double post.-

 

Toiletman

I have been there also. Do yourself a favor so that this whole reformat issue won't happen again to you. If you have an extra HD in your system, you can use it to do full backups, even while Windows is running. The program is DriveImage 7.0 and is windows based. Symantec bought out the company a couple years back and offer it on their site. I have mine set to do full backups at 2:00 am every night. Total time on a 160 gig using 14 gigs runs 10 minutes. I keep a weeks worth at a time on my backup HD and when a software issue happens, etc. I can reinstall exactly what I had the day before in less then 15 minutes.

 

Ahhh, I don't have another HD lol. Although once I get my PC up and running, I'm going to buy a copy of Norton Ghost and go crazy.

I think this error might've been caused by a HD error. My HD is a SATA WD1200JD. Y'see, I had a look in my BIOS, and the only thing that was detected was my Pioneer DVD-R Drive, which was Secondary IDE Device. So basically it looked like this:

Primary IDE Master Device: None
Primary IDE Slave Device: None
Secondary IDE Master Device: PIONEER DVDRW blah blah
Secondary IDE Slave Device: None

However, that shouldn't matter because SATA should automatically detect (or something)...

Right now I'm concentrating on getting my PC up and running!

 

Okay... after a few days of incoherrent swearing, I decided to take it a shop. Long story short: It was fixed.

Not sure about the X800 problem yet, but that's probably fixed too.

 

It turns out it was the memory, and they replaced and fixed it for free. I even got a free version of windows with it lol!

 

I got a free version of Windows XP.

However, after all this crap mentioned above, I REALISED I'M STILL HAVING PROBLEMS! C_C *Super frustrated screaming ensues.*

Anyway... is there any more suggestions? I have the latest ATi Drivers, chipset drivers etc.

 

Okay, I installed the latest 5.3 ATi Catalyst drivers, using Driver Cleaner Pro. I then went into BIOS and Set the Apeture Size to 64MB, and turned FastWrite off.

 

I don't understand your question.. did you read my first post?

It is working, but it is not working as well as it should. That's my best answer to your question lol...

 

Okay, it seems like the problem REALLY isn't fixed. I just installed my CS: Source again and started playing, and the fps drops are still as horrible as ever! C=(

Strange thing is, when I lower all graphic options to the lowest, there is virtually no difference from when I play it with high settings.

I tried using AGP4x but no difference as well... I'm running out of options here. The last thing I want to do is send it back to ATi if it is a dud.

 

I had similar problems with my Pc late last year. Figured out that ATI catlyst that was absolutely reaming my pc. I thought "Hey, Yeah, lets get the latest catlyst drivers for my graphics card. Yeah what a great idea." What a mistake.

Eventually my pc got to the point where the more I messed with it, the worse it got. At one point my graphics were "De-evolving" I change one thing and my graphics went to 16bit colour, changed something else, they dropped back to 8bit, then 4 bit.

Aparently there are quite a few people out the having problems with catlyst. And the solution was....... Get an old version of catlyst that works and stick with it.

Hey, maybe that'll help. Maybe it won't. I hope it does though.

 

Y'see I also tried the Omega drivers but as usual, it did not improve things.. =( What older version do you recommend?