WTF, it disabled my GPU!

[King_Hrothgar]

Umm, this is wierd. I installed FC early yesterday morning and dispite some starforce problems it worked ok at first. However it eventually crashed and upon doing so, disabled my monitor and/or GPU. Booting up in safe mode and then returning to normal mode fixed this error. However about an hour ago the same thing happened, only this time going into safe mode failed to undo the changes. I attempted a system restore but all that did was kill FC, the error still persists. I attempted uninstalling my GPU drivers and reinstalling them and that did nothing either. However I can use normal windows mode with my GPU drivers uninstalled. The instant they are installed and activated, I loose monitor support. My GPU is an FX5700 128mb regular running at 8x AGP. Drivers were not the latest originally, I reinstalled them with the latest and that did not help. Thoughts (other than sueing Eagle Dynamics)?

 

Edit: oh yeah, system specs:

AMD XP2000+, WinXP SP2 (fully updated), FX5700 128MB, SB Live 5.1, 512MB DDR.

[GGTharos]

You can't sue anyone. This product is 'provided as is' and you use it at your own risk. Period.

 

Sounds like directX is being troublesome - try reinstalling DX.

 

Sounds like a Starforce bug to me.

[Nate--IRL--]

sound like a dead/damaged graphics card to me. same thing happend to 2 9800pros to me, each time i rma'd them

 

the third one im on now has lasted over a year..fingers crossed.

 

Nate

[GGTharos]

You are completely wrong; in fact, you have no case, period, in the USA or elsewhere. This isn't a case where LOMAC is massively destroying people's hardware. It's an isolated case and you can't really prove that LOMAC did it.

Regardless, the EULA counts, wether you actually do like it or not. Yes, in the USA. PLease study some law before you speak incorrectly.

 

It's also *NOT* like taking a car off the dealership parking lot with malfunctioning brakes, since the brakes must work by law, and endager people if they do not, while this piece of software does not share the same burdens.

 

You don't actually -know- wether you're looking at a software -ot- hardware bug ... for all you know, the card may be overheating; it uses no acceleration at all without the drivers more than likely so it doesn't consume much power (so not much heat generated) or anumber of other hardware faults are possible where diagnosis is not quick and clean (might even be something on the mobo ;) ) ...

[GGTharos]

Are you a lawyer?

 

If so, did you sleep in your classes?

 

And if you want help, maybe you should ask nicely. Some possibilities were already posted; did you investigate anything, or are you just hanging around here to run your mouth?

[Coffee999]

I certainly feel your pain, but you should keep a cool head. That's the only way people will help you.

 

I would back everything up and restore your HD. Start over. I might have nothing to do with 1.1.

[Ragtag]

Use 71.84 drivers because the latest nvidia drivers (71.89) does NOT work with lomac 1.02 or 1.1.

 

It's a driver problem and i believe Nvidia is aware of it.

[King_Hrothgar]

Are you a lawyer?

 

If so, did you sleep in your classes?

 

And if you want help, maybe you should ask nicely. Some possibilities were already posted; did you investigate anything, or are you just hanging around here to run your mouth?

 

You just can't leave it alone can you? Go away, I'm looking for some real suggestions on how to fix the problem not a legal debate which is truely moot as I have no intent of sueing and if the shit really hit the fan, all I have to do is pick up the phone and tell Visa not to pay the $35 which is not something I'm inclined to do just yet as I would like for FC to work. I KNOW it is a software problem as I have since tested the GPU in question in a different PC and it worked without any problem. Now would you please shut up and stop clogging up a serious thread with this drivel?

 

Oh BTW I did ask nicely, it didn't turn ugly until you showed up and hijacked the thread ;)

[Quirkitized]

I havent posted in awhile, but man. I gotta say, Death, you sure are, hmmm.... *special*.... LOL

[GGTharos]

You just can't leave it alone can you? Go away, I'm looking for some real suggestions on how to fix the problem not a legal debate which is truely moot as I have no intent of sueing and if the shit really hit the fan, all I have to do is pick up the phone and tell Visa not to pay the $35 which is not something I'm inclined to do just yet as I would like for FC to work ;). I KNOW it is a software problem as I have since tested the GPU in question in a different PC and it worked without any problem. Now would you please shut up and stop clogging up a serious thread with this drivel?

 

Oh BTW I did ask nicely, it didn't turn ugly until you showed up ;)

 

 

You shouldn't turn ugly at all! ;)

 

Anyway, did you test it with FC on another PC, or standalone? (If you have the DL version then reluctance to do so is understandable)

 

Like I said, SF might be a major culprit here since it installs drivers, but there are other possibilities as well (some remote, some likely). Like I said, try reinstalling DX - have you tried that yet?

 

Also, did you clean up all the drivers before installing your GPU? If not, do so and reinstall them - you can google for tools like drivercleaner etc.

[King_Hrothgar]

This is what I've done so far: I have tested the FX5700 in a different PC and it is fine, I installed my old Radeon 9200 in the problematic PC and now it runs fine (except FPS in games blows :p ), I have tried multiple driver versions for the FX5700 without any success, I have also attempted a system restore without success. I have not reinstalled windows and will not do that except as an absolute last resort. I have the downloaded version of FC and since I've already lost one install of it when I did a system restore, I'm not going to use up any more doing beta testing on other PC's. Also this is not a problem with just LOMAC, it has currupted Windows XP itself. I *think* it may have screwed the refresh rate because at one point rather than giving me the "no signal" error on my monitor it said "invalid refresh rate: 255kHz" or something of that nature. I'm pretty sure my monitor won't do 255kHz. I'm pretty sure yours won't either :D. It could just be a fluke while I was tinkering with it but it might really be set that high for this particular card at the moment. Worth looking into though. Anyone know how to mess with default refresh rates for a graphics card that isn't physically installed?

[Nate--IRL--]

try to download a program called refreshlock, it will enable you to lock refresh rates in any mode.

 

edit link-> http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rl/

 

Also try unistalling the driver for the moniter (it is ussually a microdoft driver that will reinstall after reboot), it may be reporting incorrect refresh rates to the video card.

 

Nate

[GGTharos]

And in addition, make sure you install all graphics drivers - use drivercleaner :)

 

That sounds petty bizarre. And no, I haven't ehard of a monitor that does 225Hz refresh, either. (yet)

[King_Hrothgar]

Actually it wasn't 225Hz, it was 255kHz as in 255,000Hz. In either case its bizaar.

 

Nate, I tried that program just now but sadly it didn't help any. I'm starting to think that the only solution maybe a reinstall of windows. Not going to do it yet though. I think I'll run up to the gun range and blow away some pieces of paper before I blow my computer away. If only I were rich like elvis was, then I could shoot my PC's like he did to his TV's. :D

[GGTharos]

Have you tried reinstalling DX? This one's a big dangerous, as you have to blow it away first (you'll have to google for it) which may make your system unusable (not sure if sysrestore can fix it) and then you need to reinstall DX9.

 

Seriously, all those drivers need to be completely wiped out before you reinstall'em.

[SimFan]

That's a first.

 

I've never heard something like this (and I've been in the IT business for 25 years).

I despise SF 'protection', but I have no idea how that could 'kill' a G card.

And about FC itself: unless it would overwrite system drivers, there is no way it could do things even remotely as you describe.

My original LO 1.02 installation did some nasty stuff in-memory at times (freezes, Windows hang), but never caused hardware problems in over a year.

If FC (or any other sim) overheats the system (this is possible) it is a hardware problem for sure (and not FC related).

Any Sim will cause 100% CPU (=DirectX) when in-game. This can overheat the system if fan(s) fail, OC and simple GFX hardware failure...

You were talking about SF problems at first. Which one(s) ?

Other than the 'usual' messing with CD/DVD programs/drivers, I never heard of others.

[King_Hrothgar]

The problem was corrected with a reinstall of windows but I havn't tried FC again (basically afraid to). It was not overheating. I run plenty of sims and graphically demanding games. Never had anything overheat. It also wasn't a starforce problem. The starforce problem I had initially just required me to go to their website and do a full manual activation. Not a big deal but annoying.

[SimFan]

Proceed.

 

The way I would proceed is to install some other sims first and try those.

After that FC (I see no reason not to try it again).

If this strange occurance does happen again from the start (with FC) it would be clear it has to do with either SF or FC (however unlikely).

Are you sure it was no virus ?

BTW. In the many years I have been simming I never had any sim do strange things to my systems other than freezing up occasionaly.

Even F4 -back in 1998- was unable (and talking 'bout the very first version) to kill my system at the time :).

I've had some problems with protected CD's too, but nothing a different CD drive couldn't handle :).

Please keep us informed.

Good Luck.