My Current rig (see below) was recently upgraded w/ the 6800 Ultra and the new Sound Blaster from a 5900 Ultra and SB Audigy. About a month ago I upgraded the case and the 2 new HDs. Regards to the system in general Im running XP Home fully updated w/ newest drivers and updates, BIOS has also been updated to the latest and the system in general is routinely kept up. Currently problem I have been having is minor compared to what it use to be.
What's happening is I am getting slight ghosting behind only SOME text usually only at the end of a sentence or a word I can see on the monitor a slight ghosting as if the text has acceleration trails but the color pretty much matches the background but just discolored ever so slightly and not exactly a ghost of the letter itself. Now this is minor and not much of a problem for me but might be tied to what problems I am having. This problem occured even before the last 2 major upgrades I listed.
Secondly after performing the latest upgrades (6800U and SB Audigy2) at the time just before I had 4 HDs 2 SATAs and 2 PATAs (old HDs I was just to lazy to pull out at the time). I booted up the system and was getting artifacts all over the place even in the POST screens. This has happened before sometime ago as well and I thought it was my 5900U flaking out and at that time I threw in an old Geforce4 Ti4600 I had laying around and all was well. A week later I tried the 5900U and the artifacts were gone again for a while (but the ghost image on text still remained)... Back to current system - after seeing this I started to check other parts of the PC - ended up rewiring the 6800U to have its own 2 seperate power cords and at this point had to rewire the 2 HD and 2 ROM drives + the SB Audigy to all run off the other cord (using multiple splitters) - powered up and still getting the artifacts just not as bad.
Checked the BIOS and found out apparently the system was underpowered namely in the 5v and 12v - after pacing around and pondering I remembered the drive bay control panel that came w/ the PSU and that it was still in the old case (its ugly and didnt want it in the new case) so as a test I hooked it up and part of the problems were solved. While in BIOS I readjusted the voltages and got them all just a little above the 3.3v 5.0v and 12.0v they were suppose to be (according to ABIT EQ atm 3.3V 5.03V 12.10V)
So after seeing this I knew I needed the Controller for the PSU - I dismantled the board from the drive cage and mounted it on the top of the PSU. Booted up and artifacts were all gone and appears all is stable. Now the new problem I am noticing while putting the 6800U thru my own torture tests. I run 3dMark03 and on certain tests my UPS starts w/ a long beep and the overload light is on. System is still going but the UPS is just wailing along until the scene changes on the computer. Noticed this on the Trolls Lair, Nature, and Pixel Shader 2.0 Test but once its over all is well again. Doom3 seems to run fine @ 1600x1200 w/ Ultra Settings I havent ran into a part yet that causes this overload problem... now prior to upgrade when I was running the 5900U I noticed this problem only 1 other place and that was in certain parts of UT2K4 and that was on Assault Map (Robot Factory I think) then the base is blowing up but soon as the explosion subsided it stopped - and this even happened when the PSU control panel was still disconnected.
Regarding the UPS everything in whats listed below is running through the UPS except the Speakers
(I have a theory on the ghost on text... I took my PC and Monitor to a LAN Party about 3-4 months ago... I have a small compact truck so I had the Monitor face down in the bed riding on a cushion of plush towels and tied down. Well on the trip home apparently more tired then I thought I hit the exit doing about 75mph and this is a steep loop exit so I had to punch the brakes or take a trip through the woods. Well the tie downs gave out and the monitor slid about and slammed the side of the bed...HARD. I drove for about 1-2 miles after that before I got the nerve to stop and check the monitor and it appeared to be fine... small scratches on the plastic casing - screen is recessed slightly so no damage to it directly - BUT - I think maybe I damaged or shifted the aperture grille inside possibly. Im not sure exactly how to check this though.)
Any thoughts or ideas on any of the problems stated would truly be helpful. And sorry this is so damn long.
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APC BACK-UPS LS 500 (Clear)
Antec P-160WF Case (2x120mm case fans w/ blue LEDs)
Antec TrueControl 550W
P4 2.8c GHz 800Mhz FSB w/ 512K Cache and HTT
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Pure Copper CPU Cooler
ABIT IC7-G
1GB Kingston HyperX (PC3200)
WD Raptor 74GB 10KRPM SATA (WD740GD)
WD 250GB 7200RPM SATA (WD2500JD)
Sony Black 16X DVD-ROM Drive
Plextor Plexwriter 40/12/40A
eVGA 6800 Ultra
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Pro
Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Ethernet Adapter
Logitech Elite Pro Keyboard (USB)
Logitech MX500 (USB)
Nostromo n52 (USB)
Sony 21" G520
Klipsch 4.1 Speakers
Netgear WGT624 108Mbps Wireless Firewall and Router
Efficient Networks Speedstream DSL Modem
HP Laserjet 1200SE
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What's happening is I am getting slight ghosting behind only SOME text usually only at the end of a sentence or a word I can see on the monitor a slight ghosting as if the text has acceleration trails but the color pretty much matches the background but just discolored ever so slightly and not exactly a ghost of the letter itself. Now this is minor and not much of a problem for me but might be tied to what problems I am having. This problem occured even before the last 2 major upgrades I listed.
Secondly after performing the latest upgrades (6800U and SB Audigy2) at the time just before I had 4 HDs 2 SATAs and 2 PATAs (old HDs I was just to lazy to pull out at the time). I booted up the system and was getting artifacts all over the place even in the POST screens. This has happened before sometime ago as well and I thought it was my 5900U flaking out and at that time I threw in an old Geforce4 Ti4600 I had laying around and all was well. A week later I tried the 5900U and the artifacts were gone again for a while (but the ghost image on text still remained)... Back to current system - after seeing this I started to check other parts of the PC - ended up rewiring the 6800U to have its own 2 seperate power cords and at this point had to rewire the 2 HD and 2 ROM drives + the SB Audigy to all run off the other cord (using multiple splitters) - powered up and still getting the artifacts just not as bad.
Checked the BIOS and found out apparently the system was underpowered namely in the 5v and 12v - after pacing around and pondering I remembered the drive bay control panel that came w/ the PSU and that it was still in the old case (its ugly and didnt want it in the new case) so as a test I hooked it up and part of the problems were solved. While in BIOS I readjusted the voltages and got them all just a little above the 3.3v 5.0v and 12.0v they were suppose to be (according to ABIT EQ atm 3.3V 5.03V 12.10V)
So after seeing this I knew I needed the Controller for the PSU - I dismantled the board from the drive cage and mounted it on the top of the PSU. Booted up and artifacts were all gone and appears all is stable. Now the new problem I am noticing while putting the 6800U thru my own torture tests. I run 3dMark03 and on certain tests my UPS starts w/ a long beep and the overload light is on. System is still going but the UPS is just wailing along until the scene changes on the computer. Noticed this on the Trolls Lair, Nature, and Pixel Shader 2.0 Test but once its over all is well again. Doom3 seems to run fine @ 1600x1200 w/ Ultra Settings I havent ran into a part yet that causes this overload problem... now prior to upgrade when I was running the 5900U I noticed this problem only 1 other place and that was in certain parts of UT2K4 and that was on Assault Map (Robot Factory I think) then the base is blowing up but soon as the explosion subsided it stopped - and this even happened when the PSU control panel was still disconnected.
Regarding the UPS everything in whats listed below is running through the UPS except the Speakers
(I have a theory on the ghost on text... I took my PC and Monitor to a LAN Party about 3-4 months ago... I have a small compact truck so I had the Monitor face down in the bed riding on a cushion of plush towels and tied down. Well on the trip home apparently more tired then I thought I hit the exit doing about 75mph and this is a steep loop exit so I had to punch the brakes or take a trip through the woods. Well the tie downs gave out and the monitor slid about and slammed the side of the bed...HARD. I drove for about 1-2 miles after that before I got the nerve to stop and check the monitor and it appeared to be fine... small scratches on the plastic casing - screen is recessed slightly so no damage to it directly - BUT - I think maybe I damaged or shifted the aperture grille inside possibly. Im not sure exactly how to check this though.)
Any thoughts or ideas on any of the problems stated would truly be helpful. And sorry this is so damn long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APC BACK-UPS LS 500 (Clear)
Antec P-160WF Case (2x120mm case fans w/ blue LEDs)
Antec TrueControl 550W
P4 2.8c GHz 800Mhz FSB w/ 512K Cache and HTT
Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu Pure Copper CPU Cooler
ABIT IC7-G
1GB Kingston HyperX (PC3200)
WD Raptor 74GB 10KRPM SATA (WD740GD)
WD 250GB 7200RPM SATA (WD2500JD)
Sony Black 16X DVD-ROM Drive
Plextor Plexwriter 40/12/40A
eVGA 6800 Ultra
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Pro
Netgear WAG311 Dual Band Wireless PCI Ethernet Adapter
Logitech Elite Pro Keyboard (USB)
Logitech MX500 (USB)
Nostromo n52 (USB)
Sony 21" G520
Klipsch 4.1 Speakers
Netgear WGT624 108Mbps Wireless Firewall and Router
Efficient Networks Speedstream DSL Modem
HP Laserjet 1200SE
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