Curse

Chthon · Dec 07, 2007, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram Schtein

Where exactly is the heatsink found? And are there any special do's or don'ts associated with cleaning the dust out of [the heat sink]?

1. Any time you are going to be touching the insides of your PC, you should first (a) ground yourself by touching a heavy metal doorknob or other grounded object, and (b) unplug it. These steps are to reduce the risks of accidentally frying a component with a static electricity discharge. (Pika Pika Pika Pi... oh crap!)

2. If you've got a heatsink/fan setup like the one pictured here, you can remove the fan to clean the heatsink, then reattach it just using a screwdriver.

3. I find that pledge grab-it's do an excellent job of picking up dust off PC components, and you can slip the corners/edges into hard-to-reach recesses without much fear of damaging things.

4. Do NOT remove the heatsink unless/until you know what you are doing. If you decide to replace you thermal goop, post here and folks will help you with step-by-step directions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram Schtein

I mean there were actually COBWEBS inside the machine. Anyway, I ran GW for four hours last night and it ran better than it has since I bought it. I don't know if the cleaning had anything to do with this, but, the FPS was higher than normal. I was running around 23-27. Last night I was running anywhere from 31-50 depending on what was happening in the game.

Cobwebs?! Yeah, sounds like it needed a cleaning. It's possible that your processor and/or GPU might have been downclocking itself in an effort to avoid overheating, and now, without the cobwebs, it's running at full speed for the first time in a while. You might check your BIOS/manual to see if your CPU and/or GPU has that feature.

Ram Schtein · Dec 10, 2007, 02:01 PM // 14:01

Okay...I broke down and took my computer to best buy and they hooked it up and looked at it for free.

I was told to uninstall my vid card software and virus/spyware software...then reinstall both with vid card being first. Did that.

I was then able to download the newest drivers for my vid card (which it wasn't allowing me to do before because apparently it wasn't running properly). BUT...now whenever I reboot my computer I get an error message for MOM.exe. It says "application has failed to initialize properly." then parentheses and a bunch of numbers.

The thing is I know that my vid card is not working properly but the game worked fine all weekend. The only difference is that instead of being full screen I can see the blue borders from windows xp and the taskbar around the outside which makes everything seem just a little smaller. Is this bad?

I'm seriously considering buying a new vid card and being done with this one. Too many problems. If I do, I'm thinking nVidia. Which nVidia card would be powerful enough to run ALL GW chapters without costing an arm and a leg?

Ram Schtein · Dec 10, 2007, 04:24 PM // 16:24

Okay...I spoke with an ATI technician this morning and he thinks we can fix the error message and get this card working properly. Something about the order in which software and updates were installed. IF it works I may be postponing the search for a new video card for a while.

Does my current card (Radeon 9550 XL with 256 mb) have enough juice to run nightfall and eye of the north. If it does, then I just need to worry about my system's ram. If it doesn't, then I may indeed be looking for that new card.

Ram Schtein · Dec 12, 2007, 01:26 PM // 13:26

I know that this hasn't been responded to in a couple of days and I'm sorry to resurrect a dead thread.

I wanted to thank everyone who offered suggestions. I uninstalled all vid card software, the .NET Framework, and my anti-virus program. I re-installed everything in a certain order and got my updates for drivers. The funny thing was that I wasn't supposed to get the latest updates. ATI told me to get updates from a couple of months prior.

Anyway...I still get the blue border and taskbar around the screen. Is this due to settings being lowered? Anyway, in the grand scheme of things it has run very well since Friday.

thx again

jjdefan · Dec 12, 2007, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram Schtein

Anyway...I still get the blue border and taskbar around the screen. Is this due to settings being lowered?

This could be as simple as you just need to hit the maximize button on the game window. It's the middle button in the very upper right corner of the window. It could be in windowed mode but stretched to to look like full screen. One other thing you could look at is the monitors settings. They are the ones you set using the buttons on the edge of the monitor case, not the settings you see by right clicking on the desktop (those are adapter settings). Using the buttons on the monitor you can adjust screen position and size and a host of other settings.