The Technology Help Corner.

RelexCryo

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Oct 21, 2008
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I cannot play games, I keep getting AMDKMDAP errors, and black screens. I have repeatedly cleaned my drivers using Driver Sweeper, and don't know what the problem is. I have

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @3.00 ghz with Yorkfield 45nm technology
RAM: 4.00 GB dual-channel DDR3 @ 666Mhz
Graphics: Syncmaster (1680X1050 @60Mhz)
ATI Radeon 4870 X2 with crossfire disabled for some reason

I cannot open Catalyst, I get errors. I cannot play games, they freeze and give me errors. This setup lasted for years, I don't know why my computer is suddenly failing like this.
 

The Nossa

Regular Member
Jan 25, 2011
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Processor: Intel i7 950 @3.07GHz
Graphics Card: HD 5870
RAM Amount: 12 GB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Alienware

I'm looking into Crossfiring my graphics card with another HD 5870. I'm interested in the benefits of Crossfiring; any/all advice is apprciated.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Mar 21, 2010
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RelexCryo said:
I cannot play games, I keep getting AMDKMDAP errors, and black screens. I have repeatedly cleaned my drivers using Driver Sweeper, and don't know what the problem is. I have

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @3.00 ghz with Yorkfield 45nm technology
RAM: 4.00 GB dual-channel DDR3 @ 666Mhz
Graphics: Syncmaster (1680X1050 @60Mhz)
ATI Radeon 4870 X2 with crossfire disabled for some reason

I cannot open Catalyst, I get errors. I cannot play games, they freeze and give me errors. This setup lasted for years, I don't know why my computer is suddenly failing like this.
I'd uninstall the drivers completely, shut down the box, pull the card, give it a quick eyeball to make sure there's no obvious damage, reslot the card, boot up, reinstall with the latest drivers and see how that goes.
 

RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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The Nossa said:
Processor: Intel i7 950 @3.07GHz
Graphics Card: HD 5870
RAM Amount: 12 GB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Alienware

I'm looking into Crossfiring my graphics card with another HD 5870. I'm interested in the benefits of Crossfiring; any/all advice is apprciated.
Well, first off, is your motherboard crossfire capable and does your PSU have enough power AND extra 6-pin connectors to support another GPU card? Also, can your current HD 5870 support a crossfire bridge (it should but you never know)?

If the answer is 'no' to any of those then it's gonna take some upgrading and replacement to get crossfire working.


If I remember correctly, crossfire will give you around 80% improved performance over a single GPU on average, with some games getting up near 90% while other games just don't get along with crossfire at all. The downside is that when games don't get along with crossfire it can take a while for a patch (developer) or crossfire profile (AMD) to get released to take care of the problem(s).
 

The Nossa

Regular Member
Jan 25, 2011
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RhombusHatesYou said:
The Nossa said:
Processor: Intel i7 950 @3.07GHz
Graphics Card: HD 5870
RAM Amount: 12 GB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Alienware

I'm looking into Crossfiring my graphics card with another HD 5870. I'm interested in the benefits of Crossfiring; any/all advice is apprciated.
Well, first off, is your motherboard crossfire capable and does your PSU have enough power AND extra 6-pin connectors to support another GPU card? Also, can your current HD 5870 support a crossfire bridge (it should but you never know)?

If the answer is 'no' to any of those then it's gonna take some upgrading and replacement to get crossfire working.


If I remember correctly, crossfire will give you around 80% improved performance over a single GPU on average, with some games getting up near 90% while other games just don't get along with crossfire at all. The downside is that when games don't get along with crossfire it can take a while for a patch (developer) or crossfire profile (AMD) to get released to take care of the problem(s).
My MB and system both support Crossfire and have the space/energy :) And the HD 5870 supports crossfire bridging (One of those cards that has 15 stickers on the box pointing out it's ready to crossfire with the 5830, 5850 and 5870) That sounds like a more then acceptable power increase; and frankly I don't purchase new releases as my backlog is too large as is *and it's cheaper to buy games when they're older ;)* How exactly will VRAM work? Will it double (to 2048) or stick to the current (1024Mb) one game *Cough GTA IV* requires just so much VRAM

Thank you very much for your help for far :)
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Mar 21, 2010
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The Nossa said:
Just as an aside, VRAM is a very specific type of graphics focused RAM that was phased out a lonnnng time ago.


Anyway, each card in a Crossfire set up uses it's own RAM... so while it's not shared per se (not that I recall anyway) it's effectively doubled.
 

RelexCryo

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Oct 21, 2008
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RhombusHatesYou said:
RelexCryo said:
I cannot play games, I keep getting AMDKMDAP errors, and black screens. I have repeatedly cleaned my drivers using Driver Sweeper, and don't know what the problem is. I have

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @3.00 ghz with Yorkfield 45nm technology
RAM: 4.00 GB dual-channel DDR3 @ 666Mhz
Graphics: Syncmaster (1680X1050 @60Mhz)
ATI Radeon 4870 X2 with crossfire disabled for some reason

I cannot open Catalyst, I get errors. I cannot play games, they freeze and give me errors. This setup lasted for years, I don't know why my computer is suddenly failing like this.
I'd uninstall the drivers completely, shut down the box, pull the card, give it a quick eyeball to make sure there's no obvious damage, reslot the card, boot up, reinstall with the latest drivers and see how that goes.
Thanks for the info, much appreciated.
 

Jonluw

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May 23, 2010
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I seem to be having some problems with my internet connection.
Whenever I connect to a network, I can only stay connected for about 10-20 minutes at a time: after a while, the internet connection always becomes "limited".

I downloaded a new WLAN driver (the one marked "(new)") from here http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=4077 but for some reason, Windows (8) can't open the .zip.

"Cannot complete the compressed (zipped) folders extraction wizard.
The compressed folder is empty"

Is the message I'm getting.

I have also noticed that the two times I tried downloading the .zip, I ended up with files with different sizes.
The first one was 51,000 KB and the second was 16,000 KB.

Anyone got any ideas on either how to get my computer to stay connected to the internet properly, or how to make the .zip work?
 
Aug 1, 2010
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I didn't know where else to ask, so I figured I'd go for it.

From what I can tell, I have a decent laptop. I may be wrong, but here is my info:

I'm on a Dell XPS L501X running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 740QM
Cores: 4
Threads: 8
RAM: 6.00 GB DDR3
System Type: 64 bit
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M


Whenever I run games, from Fallout 3 to DayZ to World of Tanks to Supreme Commander to Minecraft, they run completely smooth at 50 or 60 FPS on ANY setting for about 3 minutes.

At that point, it nosedives. Drops to maybe 10 FPS if even that. Doesn't matter what quality or resolution I set it to. Maximum or Minimum. My FPS don't go above 9 or 10.

This makes no sense to me for numerous reasons.

I have friends with less powerful laptops that can run these things no problem, every bit of research I've done has seemed to imply all my hardware is pretty decent, etc.

I have turned off Windows Indexing as I heard that can slow things down. I have all the latest updates and drivers. I have killed as many background programs as physically possible. I have run several different Anti-Virus and Malware programs just in case. The problem persists.

Can anyone help in any way? Advice? Comments? Insults? Anything?
 

RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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Sir Thomas Sean Connery said:
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M
Ugh... You're gaming on a multimedia GPU... a mobile rated multimedia GPU. I'm surprised you can get the 3 minutes of good performance in the first place.

Have you noticed anything going on when this happens, such as your laptop becoming extremely hot?
 

RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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Jonluw said:
I downloaded a new WLAN driver (the one marked "(new)") from here http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=4077 but for some reason, Windows (8) can't open the .zip.

"Cannot complete the compressed (zipped) folders extraction wizard.
The compressed folder is empty"

Is the message I'm getting.

I have also noticed that the two times I tried downloading the .zip, I ended up with files with different sizes.
The first one was 51,000 KB and the second was 16,000 KB.

Go back to the file listing and look up the size the actual file is (hint: it's 216.5MB).

The reason you're having problems is that you're not downloading the entire program.
 
Aug 1, 2010
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RhombusHatesYou said:
Sir Thomas Sean Connery said:
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M
Ugh... You're gaming on a multimedia GPU... a mobile rated multimedia GPU. I'm surprised you can get the 3 minutes of good performance in the first place.

Have you noticed anything going on when this happens, such as your laptop becoming extremely hot?
Sorry, I know software, but I'm a bit undereducated when it comes to hardware. What exactly does it mean to have a multimedia GPU? That it's built to run movies and music the like? And mobile rated? Are you saying I have a graphics card rated for a phone???

And yes, it does get quite hot on the underside whenever I do something intensive.

Would a cooling plate of some kind improve performance dramatically?

Many thanks for responding.
 

RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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Sir Thomas Sean Connery said:
What exactly does it mean to have a multimedia GPU? That it's built to run movies and music the like?
Yeah, pretty much. They're low end cards designed for low resource usage... which is to say, not games.


And mobile rated?
Components designed for use with laptops, which are underpowered (and often smaller) versions of desktop hardware. Any hardware that's ID ends with an M is mobile rated.


And yes, it does get quite hot on the underside whenever I do something intensive.

Would a cooling plate of some kind improve performance dramatically?
Can't say for certain... how effective a cooling pad is depends as much on the design of the laptop as it does on the cooling pad.
 
Aug 1, 2010
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RhombusHatesYou said:
Sir Thomas Sean Connery said:
What exactly does it mean to have a multimedia GPU? That it's built to run movies and music the like?
Yeah, pretty much. They're low end cards designed for low resource usage... which is to say, not games.


And mobile rated?
Components designed for use with laptops, which are underpowered (and often smaller) versions of desktop hardware. Any hardware that's ID ends with an M is mobile rated.


And yes, it does get quite hot on the underside whenever I do something intensive.

Would a cooling plate of some kind improve performance dramatically?
Can't say for certain... how effective a cooling pad is depends as much on the design of the laptop as it does on the cooling pad.
Well thanks for the help.

I'll be more choosey the next time I'm picking out graphics cards.

I'll also pick up a cooling pad and see if that does anything.
 

Jonluw

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May 23, 2010
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RhombusHatesYou said:
Jonluw said:
I downloaded a new WLAN driver (the one marked "(new)") from here http://support.acer.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?modelId=4077 but for some reason, Windows (8) can't open the .zip.

"Cannot complete the compressed (zipped) folders extraction wizard.
The compressed folder is empty"

Is the message I'm getting.

I have also noticed that the two times I tried downloading the .zip, I ended up with files with different sizes.
The first one was 51,000 KB and the second was 16,000 KB.

Go back to the file listing and look up the size the actual file is (hint: it's 216.5MB).

The reason you're having problems is that you're not downloading the entire program.
Ah, yeah I should probably have updated this post.

I figured out the reason the drivers don't work is that my internet connection is too unstable to download them properly.
I also figured out that this was a documented problem with my particular model, and that a driver to fix it will be released tomorrow.

I guess I'll just have to download it on a different computer and use a usb to get it to this one.
 

Ziadaine_v1legacy

Flamboyant Homosexual
Apr 11, 2009
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Update:

I've started re-working this entire advice guide section. Instead of just being computer-related, it'll be stretching into the more common questions of the Advice Thread, from computers, forums, to health, mental awareness and underwear.




I lied about the underwear...
 

PuffinBox

New member
Aug 29, 2011
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I have no idea where else to so here it goes...

I've been trying to run the Witcher 2 and by all accounts I should run it at the very least, low spec at 30-40 fps but I cant seem to get it past 25 fps.

I have a Dell XPS 8300 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

CPU:Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz
Cores:4
Threads:8
RAM:12.0 GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6670

at time of writing:
I have my video driver updated
 

go-10

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Feb 3, 2010
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okay I'm having WAY too many problems with my PC and I think its time for an upgrade but I have no idea where to start :S
here's the thing I tried playing Darksiders 2 and the sun is ever present no matter where I am, I could be at the bottom of a dungeon and the sun just magically shines through walls :(
then I tried playing Tomb Raider, first if I play full screen the FPS drop to 6, so I said okay I'll play on Windowed mode, FPS go up to 35 and nothing seems to work right, the rain turns to walls with the water effect, everything moves super jaggy and that scene of the first fire and one match left, not really a problem since all fires are eternally on! even my torch never goes out even though Lara says its out. I can't bring myself to play like this, and I want to play Bioshock Infinite but I know its not going to play properly :( I can't even play Just Cause 2, basically all 3-D games run poorly or just run at plain and simply unplayable levels

Here's my current set up

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (4CPUS)~2.7GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 610

I play on a 1920x1080 22 inches LCD 3D monitor, dunno if that makes a difference
are any other specs needed for people to make a recommendation?

I was thinking of buying this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7662125&CatId=332 but it seems somewhat expensive, I basically want to be able to run Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, and Skyrim on Ultra settings without any issues