Asus x1650pro and my system?

H

huldu

Member
So a few days ago i bought a new gfx, asus x1650pro. My computer: Albatron PX845PEV (mobo), 2.53ghz intel cpu, 1.5gb ram. I used to have a radeon 9800 pro which i never had a problem with for years. However the fan mysteriously melted loose from the card and the card got burnt to death. I started using my old geforce 4800ti for a few weeks.

So back to the story, i got a asus x1650pro (agp). I slapped the gfx into the computer and booted up. Everything worked fine until i tried change my resolution/hz. The graphic got all weird and couldnt see a thing, windows never reset to default settings. I entered safe mode and deleted every sign of the old drivers. Went and downloaded the latest ati drivers which are 7.9, then i installed them. I rebooted the computer when prompted and when windows restarted i got some really weird looking graphics, like boxes all over the screen and i couldnt see a thing to be honest. Right after that i got a blue screen i couldnt even read thanks to the weird graphics.

At this time i was very angry and i went and downloaded older drivers, 7.3 which are working fine atm.

But this brings me to the *REAL* problem! When i reinstalled windows xp and during the win xp install i notice a HUGE performance loss and the loading time was insane. Windows xp used to take about 30 minutes to install (ive done it far too often). Now the install took around 2 hours, the exact same install i always used to do, but with the new gfx.

Well inside windows xp every loading seems to have increased alot, inside games etc it works great no performance loss or anything like it. But when loading applications, games etc you can really see something isnt right with the immense loading times. For example Civilization 4 (beyond the sword) used to take like 10-15 seconds at most to load with the radeon 9800. Now with the x1650 pro the loading takes almost 40 seconds!

Ive been trying to figure out what is wrong, ive contacted AMD/ATI but its not like im getting any constructive help from them. Im very angry atm with this graphic card and im even more frustrated since i have no idea whats wrong.

Tho i have a few ideas what *might* be wrong:

* Could it be that the new gfx uses too much power, leaving the other components like the mobo/hdd too little to run at good performance?
* Could there be some sort of conflict in the system? No warnings or anything in the device manager.

To be honest i have no idea what could be wrong... Im thinking strongly about returning the card since obviously something with it isnt working like it should.
 
Hi huldu, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!

It's almost impossible to track down the cause of a slow Windows XP installation - though I believe they're usually ~1 hour long..

So, to the chase:
  • Do you have any warning messages in the Event Viewer (system section)? (Control Panel | Admin Tools | Event Viewer)
  • What version of the drivers are you using now? 7.3 or 7.9?
    If you're using 7.3, you really should be using the latest. Chances are, that first crash was caused by setting either the frequency or the resolution too high for your monitor. Instead of using safe mode, you should use "VGA Mode" when you hit F8 to turn on your PC - it'll just reset your drivers and let you get into Windows like normal.
  • How many watts does your PSU support?
  • Install a CPU temp monitoring program, it's possible (and likely) that it's getting hot so it scales the frequency back.
Good luck!
 
A windows xp install (made by me) never took over 30 minutes. So yes i was quite surprised to see the insanely increased amount of time the install took with the new graphic card (asus x1650 pro agp). There are no warnings, i wish it was that simple really. I am using 7.3 drivers because those are the only ones that works currently. Using anything above that will result in a windows that gets corrupted graphics (long stripes across the screen and you cant see anything) + a nice little bluescreen ontop of that. Found out that it has nothing to do with the PSU in this case, if that was the case the computer wouldnt even work. It has nothing to do with temperature, i really wish it was that simple tho, i really do. From my understanding its a really poor graphic card, been reading alot about this crap over the month and im not the first one. What made me really angry today was when i installed World of Warcraft and the player models arent loading on the screen. I see only shadows nothing else. If im lucky the player models load after a few minutes one at a time, but theres no guarantee of that. Most of the time i run around with a shadow on the ground (my model doesnt load). Its getting really stupid. Havent found a solution for this fix but to contact ASUS and give them hell.

Addendum:

I give up wont let me edit the post, it was formatted but it just refuses to accept it...
 
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Sadly Asus makes great motherboards. But they make junk GFX cards. Also hate to say it but ATi has fallen far from grace since being acquired by AMD.

The best suggestion i can say is get a higher PSU. I know that most models come with only a 350Watt and that doesnt cut it. I got a 600Watt one in my Dell. I only did that cause my system was starting to show signs of trouble with power since i haev 3 HDD, 2 DVD Roms let alone the GFX card.

Personally if you can get a refund and get a different card i would. I have read some reports on this card and none of it has been good. Tis a shame really.
 
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