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PimpDaddy
04-19-2003, 04:09 AM
O.K. This is weird.
I've been playing ut2003 for 6 months now without a whole lot of problems, but within the last week, after I play 2 or 3 games, I'm in the middle of a game and it goes all wacky....unstable....like the screen bounces around a little. I'm getting a good ping (80 - 100) but I also get a little lag at the same time the screen is going wacky. I have to exit all the way to my desktop to refresh and restart ut2003 to re-enter the game. I'm good for about 2 more games and it starts all over again :bandhead: :bandhead: I don't think I've messed with my nvidia ge force4 video card because I don't know how too :WTF: :WTF: Has this happened to anyone else, or does anyone have a clue what might be going on??

SALvation
04-19-2003, 04:27 AM
Is your video card overclocked? Does it have the latest drivers?

FUS1ON
04-19-2003, 04:50 AM
It kinda sounds like it could be a heat problem. You might also check your machine for dustbunnies, It is Easter ya know. :P

ME BIGGD01
04-19-2003, 07:07 AM
well in the previous 2 posts, i would of mentioned the same thing.

Death-Dude
04-20-2003, 03:31 AM
Originally posted by OUTLAWS SHOGUN@Apr 18 2003, 10:50 PM
It kinda sounds like it could be a heat problem. You might also check your machine for dustbunnies, It is Easter ya know. :P
That's how it struck me, hearing how you described it. MBM (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/) will help you see if that is indeed the problem. Give it a try, if that isn't the problem, give us some more hardware and driver info and we'll try to solve it.

Morpheus
04-20-2003, 03:37 AM
Check; make sure you're not running kazaa or any other download programs that freeze you up once they start. Happened to me and i couldn't figure it out. :mad: :rofl:

PimpDaddy
04-20-2003, 04:08 AM
Originally posted by Death-Dude+Apr 19 2003, 11:31 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Death-Dude @ Apr 19 2003, 11:31 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--OUTLAWS SHOGUN@Apr 18 2003, 10:50 PM
It kinda sounds like it could be a heat problem. You might also check your machine for dustbunnies, It is Easter ya know.* :P
That&#39;s how it struck me, hearing how you described it. MBM (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/) will help you see if that is indeed the problem. Give it a try, if that isn&#39;t the problem, give us some more hardware and driver info and we&#39;ll try to solve it. [/b][/quote]
Went to mbm and live wire... that is just a tad over my head and I didn&#39;t download anything &#39;cause i&#39;m not sure if i can get it working. This is my system if you can read anything into it.....

Operating System System Model
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600) Alienware Corporation System Name System Version

Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2050 megahertz Intel Pentium 4 Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P4B266 REV 2.xx
8 kilobyte primary memory cache Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache BIOS: AwardSoftware,Inc.ASUSp4B266

Drives Memory Modules
100.03 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
70.11 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Intel 82801BA ultra ATA Controller
Display... NVidia GeForce4 Ti 4400

DirectX 9.0

WDC WD1000JB-32CWE0 (100.03 GB) [Hard drive] -- drive 0 384 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot &#39;DIMM 1&#39; has 256 MB
Slot &#39;DIMM 2&#39; has 128 MB
Slot &#39;DIMM 3&#39; is Empty
Local Drive Volumes

c: (on drive 0) 100.03 GB 70.11 GB free

FUS1ON
04-20-2003, 04:15 AM
You really ought to open your case and check for dust in your CPU heatsink, Videocard GPU heatsink and power supply. Since you said that it was working fine and then the problem came on lately, I suspect it needs a good cleaning.

JIMINATOR
04-20-2003, 04:27 AM
you have a pretty powerful system there, it should be able to handle things without issue.
Go and get a can of compressed air and spray out everything. That includes the powersupply,
fans in the front and rear of the case, fans on the cpu and graphics card.
You will be surprised at the ton of dust that will get blown out.
Use compressed air, and not some type of blower, it is a little pricy, but it is the best.
If that doesn&#39;t help, you can try reseating the cards and memory. Pull them out a little
and rock them back in. Be sure the back of the video card is all the way in,
otherwise you may not get any video.
After that, there are the software/driver problems, ie, anything installed recently
(that includes stuff from the internet, you may want to try a spyware remover mentioned
in other recent threads...)
Good luck, and let us know what happens.

chaotic42
04-20-2003, 04:54 AM
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Scan your computer with that, also do a good scandisk. That&#39;s all I can add to the list.

;)

PimpDaddy
04-20-2003, 11:16 PM
Originally posted by JIMINATOR@Apr 20 2003, 12:27 AM
you have a pretty powerful system there, it should be able to handle things without issue.
Go and get a can of compressed air and spray out everything. That includes the powersupply,
fans in the front and rear of the case, fans on the cpu and graphics card.
You will be surprised at the ton of dust that will get blown out.
Use compressed air, and not some type of blower, it is a little pricy, but it is the best.
If that doesn&#39;t help, you can try reseating the cards and memory. Pull them out a little
and rock them back in. Be sure the back of the video card is all the way in,
otherwise you may not get any video.
After that, there are the software/driver problems, ie, anything installed recently
(that includes stuff from the internet, you may want to try a spyware remover mentioned
in other recent threads...)
Good luck, and let us know what happens.
&#036;tinger Posted on Apr 19 2003, 11:37 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check; make sure you&#39;re not running kazaa or any other download programs that freeze you up once they start. Happened to me and i couldn&#39;t figure it out. Turned off Kazaa

chaotic42 Posted on Apr 20 2003, 12:54 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Scan your computer with that, also do a good scandisk. That&#39;s all I can add to the list.
Bought Spyware and ran it (Cleaned up 257 - That is 257 Spyware programs &#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;) Still have to run scan disk.....I did do a defrag (first time in 6 or 7 months - I know that is too long.

SALvation Posted on Apr 19 2003, 12:27 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is your video card overclocked? Does it have the latest drivers? I&#39;ve never touched the clocking on my video card so I don&#39;t think its that....and I&#39;ve downloaded Direct X vers. 9.0

Tomorrow I&#39;ll buy the can o&#39; air and give the &#39;puter a good air duech (doosh) and reseat the cards and memory because I did pull the side panel and there is a hell of a lot of dust in there. It&#39;s sounding more and more like the heat problem. I do keep my computer running all the time....maybe I should turn it off when not in use ??

Thanks for all your help everyone....I&#39;ll let ya know what happens tomorrow.....Pimp

JIMINATOR
04-21-2003, 02:09 AM
There is a lot of debate on that subject, ie: saving wear & tear vs expansion
vhen the system is turned on and gets warm.
Leaving it on 24/7 should be fine.
The alienware will have a lot of fans though, and they all build up dust.
you will be surprised....

PimpDaddy
04-22-2003, 04:02 AM
Originally posted by PimpDaddy@Apr 20 2003, 07:16 PM

Use compressed air, and not some type of blower, it is a little pricy, but it is the best.
If that doesn&#39;t help, you can try reseating the cards and memory. Pull them out a little
and rock them back in. Be sure the back of the video card is all the way in,
otherwise you may not get any video.
After that, there are the software/driver problems, ie, anything installed recently
(that includes stuff from the internet, you may want to try a spyware remover mentioned
in other recent threads...)
Good luck, and let us know what happens.
&#036;tinger Posted on Apr 19 2003, 11:37 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check; make sure you&#39;re not running kazaa or any other download programs that freeze you up once they start. Happened to me and i couldn&#39;t figure it out. Turned off Kazaa

chaotic42 Posted on Apr 20 2003, 12:54 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Scan your computer with that, also do a good scandisk. That&#39;s all I can add to the list.
Bought Spyware and ran it (Cleaned up 257 - That is 257 Spyware programs &#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;) Still have to run scan disk.....I did do a defrag (first time in 6 or 7 months - I know that is too long.

SALvation Posted on Apr 19 2003, 12:27 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is your video card overclocked? Does it have the latest drivers? I&#39;ve never touched the clocking on my video card so I don&#39;t think its that....and I&#39;ve downloaded Direct X vers. 9.0

Tomorrow I&#39;ll buy the can o&#39; air and give the &#39;puter a good air duech (doosh) and reseat the cards and memory because I did pull the side panel and there is a hell of a lot of dust in there. It&#39;s sounding more and more like the heat problem. I do keep my computer running all the time....maybe I should turn it off when not in use ??

Thanks for all your help everyone....I&#39;ll let ya know what happens tomorrow.....Pimp
&#036;hi*................Blasted out my dust bunnies (There was alot of dust). Went in to play about 4 games this time before I get the same problem. If I quit the game, go back to my desktop and restart ut2003 I can play a couple more games (15 minutes or so) and Video starts going eratic again. Is there some kind of Cache or something that builds up that I need to delete? .........getting a little frustrated.

Sirc
04-22-2003, 04:08 AM
This is almost exactly the same problem I had a while ago. It turned out my CPU fan and heat sink was packed with dust. I had to take it apart to clean it (but I didn&#39;t actually take my heat sink off because I didn&#39;t have any thermal compound to re-apply when I replaced it). Once I did that everthing worked fine again. I don&#39;t overclock anything either.

SALvation
04-22-2003, 04:11 AM
Do you have the latest drivers for your card? Since you downloaded DX9 you may have to upgrade the drivers.

PimpDaddy
04-23-2003, 03:46 AM
Originally posted by SALvation@Apr 22 2003, 12:11 AM
Do you have the latest drivers for your card? Since you downloaded DX9 you may have to upgrade the drivers.
Sal, Tonight I downloaded the most recent driver for my nvidiaGEforce 4400ti and even downloaded a little fix up program to clean out all the old drivers. I&#39;ve blown the dust bunnies, ran new spyware, closed programs running in the background and I still go unstable on about my second game. My resolution isn&#39;t even set very high. I&#39;m gonna call Alienware tomorrow to see wtf...... :WTF: :WTF: :WTF: :WTF:

Death-Dude
04-26-2003, 03:08 AM
Since you have support with them, by all means get them on the job, but the suggestions these guys have given are good things to get done. Excessive dust in the CPS HSF setup, the PS, or the vid card especially can do what happening to you, hence several folks suggested similar things. I rencently had a buddy who blew out his system, but not the PS, had the same things, and when the PS was suggested, he blew out a filthy ton o&#39; gunk, and the problem was banished. Let us know what Alien says.

PimpDaddy
04-26-2003, 03:20 AM
Originally posted by Death-Dude@Apr 25 2003, 11:08 PM
Since you have support with them, by all means get them on the job, but the suggestions these guys have given are good things to get done. Excessive dust in the CPS HSF setup, the PS, or the vid card especially can do what happening to you, hence several folks suggested similar things. I rencently had a buddy who blew out his system, but not the PS, had the same things, and when the PS was suggested, he blew out a filthy ton o&#39; gunk, and the problem was banished. Let us know what Alien says.
Called Alienware and I was 1 week too late&#33; My &#39;puter is a year and a week old. no more support. Anyway, I put another can of air through the innards, ran a defrag and scandisk and also updated my monitor drivers. I played last night problem free for the first time in a week :jammin: :jammin: With all of you guys helping by throwing out your suggestions, I think we got the problem handled. Thanks tons guys.......

Death-Dude
04-26-2003, 04:00 AM
"We&#39;re all in this together&#33;"

Harry Tuttle

JIMINATOR
04-26-2003, 04:24 AM
Originally posted by PimpDaddy@Apr 25 2003, 10:20 PM
Called Alienware and I was 1 week too late&#33; My &#39;puter is a year and a week old. no more support. Anyway, I put another can of air through the innards, ran a defrag and scandisk and also updated my monitor drivers. I played last night problem free for the first time in a week :jammin: :jammin: With all of you guys helping by throwing out your suggestions, I think we got the problem handled. Thanks tons guys.......
What&#39;s your address? We need to send a bill :P
Glad to see you up, computer problems suck...