Hey guys

Kabatra

Active Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
286
Well, as some of the members of eGO may have noticed, the last couple days I haven't been seen in-game much at all. This is due to an issue with my video card, which is progressively getting worse. I started noticing problems last week, but wrote it off as just some system "hiccups". You know, some graphical tearing here and there, and an increase in video lags on servers that, up until this point, I had no issue with.

The problems have been getting worse though, and lately I'm not even able to load games that were no trouble for me just weeks ago. So...I had a friend come over who's a little more tech savvy than I am, and he ran some diagnostic tests for me. His tests confirmed what I feared may have been the issue, especially as of recent, considering my video quality even in my standard Windows desktop seemed to drop...my video card is dying. It's had a long life, and I suppose I've kind of pushed it and probably taken some time off it's life due to the fact that I constantly run games above it's hardware specs, and hadn't had any problems...until now.

Normally I would just cough up the money to buy a new video card, were this a desktop. Unfortunately, I play on a laptop (a 2 year old HP Pavilion, to be more precise) and putting in a new video card isn't quite an option. Believe it or not, even though I work as an IT tech, I'm not too good when it comes to Laptops/Notebook xD. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that new card can be put in, but the process as well as the parts, is kind of costly. That being said, I'm not going to be in-game again anytime soon. I'm going to save up for a little while, and buy a desktop.

I plan to still frequent the site every day, until my video card completely dies and I no longer have any display function to work with. I have a responsibility to the community to uphold, in at least helping to process new member applications. If I could do more, I would...and I'm sorry that I'm so limited in my capabilities to the community right now. This happened at a very inopportune time, both in lack of funds to get up and running in-game any time in the near future, as well as the fact that I was recently recruited into the Recruiter Division.

To my Recruiter Division fellows, I'm sorry that I can't be in-game with you guys any time soon, showing the support and team-work we're so well known for. I promise to continue doing the best I can on the website in the Recruitment Office, for as long as my video card will allow me to. To everyone else in the community, I hope that I can get everything sorted out soon, and hopefully have enough money for a new rig sooner rather than later, so that I can join you all in-game once more and share in the responsibility of admining our servers. I love you all so dearly, you are truely the greatest community on the entire internet. Remember, that I will still be with you on the forums for as long as I can be, so feel free to shoot me a PM any time you need to talk.

Josh/Elioch
 
We all know this is an excuse to avoid me pistoling you in DUST yes I haven't forgotten my mission =X
 
Good luck with all that, man. I happen to be running a laptop with an on-board video card and have been looking for ways to upgrade as it's the only thing about my system that's lacking. Get back as soon as you can, we'll still be here.
 
Yeah, a system restore was pretty much the first thing my boy Cory and I tried, with no luck. Also, I've tried the stock drivers for my ATi Mobility Radeon 9600 as well as the Omega drivers. The Omega drivers still help somewhat, but most of my games (steam, and non-steam) wont load anymore. The sad thing too, is that ATi doesn't provide support for that graphic's card on the HP Pavillion zx5190us. I spent days on Google trying to find info, and read so much about problems with my specific card and laptop >.<.

Although, to be fair to my card....constantly overclocking it, as well as running tons of games that required 128MB VRAM when my card was only pushing 64MB VRAM...well, it was likely my own fault it died so fast. But yeah...I'm positive it's the video card now. Like I said, my friend ran some diagnostic tool (not sure what it was =s) that reports on the status of various hardware components. Apparently my video card isn't operating at it's optimum capacity anymore.

Oh well...it's been time for me to buy a new computer for a while anyway. Hopefully I'll have something by Christmas. As it stands, I should have known something was wrong when I could only play on Dust2 even though, before I left, I was able to play all Ins servers lol...and even Dust2 started to get bad for me =s.
 
Although the process is the same for basically all video cards, I figured I'd point you to a nice tutorial (found here) instead. The guide will basically walk you through the process, as well as explain a little bit about what's actually taking place when you do certain steps. Note that some video card ("embedded" cards, which are actually a part of your motherboard and not a card in-and-of itself) can't be overclocked at all. It's also highly recommended that you be careful if you're planning on overclocking a laptop GPU...you might wind up in the same boat I'm currently in >.<.

You'll want to use Google in conjunction with this guide, so that you can do a little personal research on the safe overclocking limits for your specific card (as different cards, and even different desktop configurations can have varying limits). Hope you find what you're looking for Epic. I know some of that tutorial is a bit heavy with technical speak,but you should be able to get the gist of what's being done and why, even if you don't have a strong tech background.
 
I never overclock because I trust that the company of my card (Nvidia) knows how to put the settings at a safe level so that the card should have longetivity =)
 
Well, I normally wouldn't overclock either, but it's the only way I was able to play some games (Battlefield 2 and 2142, Insurgency, Zombie Panic: Source) at all lol. Unfortunately, I wound up playing those games just a bit too much it seems >.<. My next computer is going to have 256Mb VRAM lol...forget this 64Mb crap.
 
Lol, thanks BmX and glad to see you back. Dunno how many more days I'm going to be active on the forums, as my display (just sitting idle) has been getting dark/grainy the last 2 days =s. Oh well, I guess this is my sign that it's time to get a new rig...not like only being able to play Dust2 wasn't sign enough, lol. I wanted to get on BAR and BAS so bad =(. I'll keep you all informed...still working with the wife on negotiations for the budget of my new rig, lol. Once I have that set in stone, I'll begin work on building it, and let ya'll know what the final product's gonna be when I know xD.
 

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