Anyone spot a problem here?

F

Fazzar

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
290
A good friend of mine built a new rig to get better performance in an MMO he plays with me. Now he gets worse performance than before and crashes a lot. Anyone see any compatibility issues with the parts below or any known issues with any of these components?

PSU Antec EA650 Watt
Mobo ASUS M3A78-EM
CPU AMD phenom 9600 black
CPU heatsink/fan Arctic Cooling A64 Freezer
RAM 2x 2gig G.Skill DDR2 1066
GPU Asus EAH4850 TOP (ati 4850 512meg)
HD Samsung Spinpoint HD642JJ (640GB SATA 3.0Gb/s)


Thanks in advance. I'd really like to help him out somehow.
 
Yep, he reinstalled the game client. Also started with Vista 64 bit, then reformatted and went back to XP and gets the exact same performance and crashing issues.

One specific symptom is that is takes a very long time for any in-game settings to take. For example, he can change the game resolutions and it will take nearly a minute for that setting to change. Almost like one piece of hardware doesn't like another. But unfortunately, I don't know enough about hardware to help him.
 
The Phenom 9600 series had that TLB bug didn't it? See if there's any setting in the BIOs that turns on/off the TLB fix and set it to the opposite of what was set.
 
Just a quick peek at this thread and instantly I saw AMD Phenom and suddenly had a Homer Simpson "DOH!!!" moment... seems it's already been covered. :D
 
Oh and just for the hell of it:
[Testing the RAM]
Download Memtest+ v2.01, unzip it, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP install CD. Let Memtest+ run for at least three hours on each stick of RAM separately as well as test the RAM together. Go for a full 24 hours if you want to be completely sure that the RAM is not a problem. If you start seeing errors, than your RAM is defective or you have incorrect settings for the RAM.

[Testing the Hard drive]
Download the CD image of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, burn the ISO file to a CD, and then boot from it, just like you would do with the XP/Vista install CD. Test the hard drive and see if any problems are found. DFT will run on most manufacturers' hard drives. Alternatively, you can use Seagate's SeaTools for DOS to test a Seagate or Maxtor drive. For a Western Digital drive, you could use Data Lifeguard Tools for DOS to test a Western Digital drive.
 
couldn't hurt to make sure all the drivers are up to date, right?
 
Thanks all.

The memtest was done, everything checked out there.

All drivers were updated.

So... "Phenom 9600 series had that TLB bug". I'll look into this. Hopefully this is it, it certainly describes his issue of 'hanging'.
 
the TLB bug wont effect a game, its mainly an issue if your using VMs =p

now have you thought it could be the PSU?

these new parts must draw more power then the last set !
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
the TLB bug wont effect a game, its mainly an issue if your using VMs =p

now have you thought it could be the PSU?

these new parts must draw more power then the last set !
Click to expand...

Those parts will come nowhere near taxing that EA650. You could, however, try another PSU, in case that one is faulty.
 
Danny Bui said:
The Phenom 9600 series had that TLB bug didn't it? See if there's any setting in the BIOs that turns on/off the TLB fix and set it to the opposite of what was set.
Click to expand...

I don't see how the TLB bug would cause the problem the original poster's friend is having with his rig. Of course enabling or disabling the fix in BIOS would prove either way if that was the source of the problem or not.
 
My friend toggled the TLB bug fix setting both ways and didn't seem to make any difference. Will look into the Power Supply next.

He can run other games fine, but he can no longer run Vanguard well. Vanguard will tax a system pretty heavily because of it's requirements... but his new build actually runs it worse than his older computer. We'll keep digging.
 
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