Have been having trouble with older, non-DOS games for some time.

My present system I put together myself and the spec. includes a 500MHz AMD-K2 ver.2 with 384MB RAM and my graphics card is the Intel740 Adapter(8MB AGP).

I have recently upgraded my BIOS to the latest version, which has boosted the performance noticeably however when running games my system runs them at the same speed as my housemates system (350MHz CPU, 320MB RAM, same graphics card as myself). I also haven't got round to updating her system, system still uses the original BIOS and has no updated drivers.



Admittedly the systems aren't too disimilar, but surely I'd notice improved perfomance from my system.

I have performed tests on the RAM to make sure thats working groovily and it is. I have also downloaded and am using Everest Home edition utility to find out more information about my hardware. According to this utility my graphics card supports upto DirectX 6, however with the installation of XP SP2 I am currently running DX 9.0c.

Is this where my problem lies as I thought DX was backwards compatible?

Re: Games Help

Hi there Gingerikos.

Directx is backwards compatible , thats no prob , but the 500Mhz and 350 Mhz plus the 8mb vga is youre biggest prob , unless you only want to play really old games then its time for a major upgrade i'm afraid.

Re: Games Help

I do have a GeForce2 MX/MX 440, unfortunately recently this died and when connected to system it won't get past POST. I did change my powerpack as my other powerpack is meant for P3 boards or above (I think, has an extra 4pin power connector) and kept overheating my system which resulted in regular automatic re-boot.

However when I did change the powerpack, which has stopped the automatic re-boot problem, but this is when I started getting problems with my GeForce not working.

Unfortunately the 500MHz CPU is the best I have available at present.

Re: Games Help

Maybe the second psu isnt strong enough for the gf2 , have you tried the card in an other pc? And how strong are the psu's?

Re: Games Help

Sorry about all the info, but know nothing about electrics and psu's.

The psu I am using in my system has this spec. (taken from sticker on the psu)

AC Input:115/230V, 8/4A, 60/50Hz.
DC Output:250V
+3.3V : 15A / +5V : 25A / +12V : 7A / +5Vsb : 1A / -5V : 0.3A/-12V : 0.8A

The psu that overheated my system has this spec. but varies depending on the power input I think (have only included DC Output of 250V)
+3.3V : 18A / +5V : 25A / +12V : 12A / +5Vsb : 2A / -5V : 0.5A / -12V : 0.8A

Did originally use the gf2 in an earlier system that was almost identical to my housemates system and it worked without a problem, unfortunately the psu I was using in that system was donated to a friend as his psu had blown up and I don't know the spec for it.

I hope the information above is what you needed.

Re: Games Help

The second one is better then the first , but does it also say somewhere how many watt's they are?

Re: Games Help

The psu in my system doesn't say anything about wattage, but have had a quick peruse through google and seems to be 250W.

However with the second psu, the wattage varies from 200W - 500W (think this in input).
While what I think is the output wattage varies from a maximum of 125W - 250W.

Re: Games Help

200/250w should be enough for those specs , but maybe the psu is getting old and just not up to it any more.
It doesn't look like it's a prob with the card since it worked with a different psu.

Re: Games Help

Will try my other psu again but chances are will have problems with automatic re-boots again.

Cheers for all your help and will get back to you if old or new problems arise from the ashes.

Will definately be recommending this site to friends.

Talk to you later.

Re: Games Help

Cheers again.

Just changed the psu and am back up and running via my gf2.

Although now to see if the reboot problem occurs at all.

Talk to you later.

Re: Games Help

Try one of the free apps here:

http://www.pchelpforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=1035.0

to monitor the tempertures and voltages and see if that has anything to do with the re-boots , if they come back.