Relic

Open Steam itself, not HL2, but Steam. Click on "File/Settings/Messages", uncheck my games and news/updates. I found that when I had Steam sending me instant messages, it tends to do it while you're playing, which screwed my game up. Hopefully that fixes the problem for you.

I would have to suggest an eVGA 6600GT AGP, cheap, and will kick butt compared to your current card, plus the warranty cannot be beat. I had one of these cards(in my wife's system right now), overclocks like 90, plays pretty much everything, excellent bang for the buck.

Just out of curiousity, where did you get your copy of XP from, and why are you only running SP1 on your system? Doesn't have anything to do with Micro$haft Authentication, does it?

Yes, I can help, go to kraxz-r-uz.com, find the code, and continiue playing the game you just downloaded from an illegal site. I'm sure it will install multiple pr0n links on your system, and sign you up for all kinds of really cool mail. Heh heh heh, buy the freakin game dude, do you really think we're idjits? Get a grip. Moron, heh heh heh.

Originally posted by cormac: Quote: Hey Char, I finally found your answer to the parts. The little part is what the heatsink clip hooks onto to hold it down in place. You need to find a way to get it attached back in place so you can hook the clap under it. I found this picture of your motherboard showing both parts. http://www.chaintech.com.tw/tw/images/Products/Motherboard/9bia_L.jpg As I said, that's the Northbridge chipset cooler. The wee part is originally soldered to the mobo, for some reason(poor soldering job) the solder let go. Best to use two-sided thermal tape, or thermal epoxy to reintall it. I doubt Char wants to tackle re-soldering it to the mobo.

That heatsink is actually off the Northbridge chip, which does get hot and will make the system unstable. The small part is most likely the hold-down clamp for the one side of the heatsink, and was at one time soldered to the mobo. Obviously, for some reason, the solder has let go, and the heatsink fell off. The only option I can see is for you to get some thermal tape(two-sided), or some thermal epoxy, and get the heatsink back on the Northbridge before you fry your mobo, if it isn't fried already.

Originally posted by amy: Quote: okay, i reseated the CPU also now. no avail. however, it came out a little to easily, came out with the heat sink, did not seem to be seated properly. I've never seen a CPU come out without lifting the lever. however, when we tried to do clean install prior to this, the drive letters changed, and now the hard drives are not being detected, and we're having to go into the BIOS every restart to detect them. sheesh. amy Well, the CPU coming out with the heatsink does happen, it's not a good thing, but as long as none of the pins on the CPU are bent, it's not a problem. In your case(no pun intended), the new mobo/RAM/CPU means that you'll need to format those HDD's, unless you want to go back to your old system, retrieve the info you need, then format. You're kinda stuck there, especially if you're moving from an Intel system to an AMD system. The only suggestion I can offer you is to clear your CMOS, either by using the jumper on your mobo, or by pulling the battery. First you have to shut the computer down, then turn off the power switch on the back of the PSU, then unplug the PSU. Whether you're using the jumper, or pulling the battery, leave it on the "clear cmos" pins/keep the battery out for a good 10 minutes. This MAY do the trick for you, but I doubt it. The problem is that your boot drive holds all the info for drivers, including your mobo drivers, which are not compatible with your new mobo. One other possible option, which I'm not sure is available to you, I'm really not understanding how far you get when trying to reinstall XP, BUT, if you boot from the XP CD, you will be offered an option to use the "Recovery Console", that's the first time the "R" option is available, if you can get that far, enter the recovery console, then type in "fixmbr", that will re-write your master boot record.. Possibly, just possibly, this might get you back into Windoze, it's worth a shot.

hi hi ur game is broked relic

There ain't no free lunch. Far too many people click the "I Agree" button before reading what they are agreeing to. Is that a scam? Well, not if you read their terms of service, which you are "supposed" to do before agreeing to it. Yeah, it's shadey, but that doesn't make it illegal. Obviously, stupidity isn't illegal, people are being sucked in to this. ;(

From Canada, and it loads instantly for me.

Originally posted by gef4000 mx: Quote: Allright thank you for the check and that is a really great mobo For a couple bucks more: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152 A quickie pencil mod and it's an SLI board, did it to mine, piece of cake. Instructions here: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10736&page=1&pp=15 This still works on new boards.

No, that mobo won't work, it's Intel, and Intel mobo's don't work with AMD chips.

Originally posted by Spunkz: Quote: My PSU: Antec 550w 0.8a min 24a max AMPs. Look bub,... That's far enough for me, kiss my azz, moron, you'll get no further help from me. BTW, your buddy is an idiot, and has no clue what he is doing, if he toasts your system, all the more power to the pair of you. What a pair of foching morons.

What kind/brand of PSU do you have, and how many watts is it putting out? The specs should be on the label on the side of your PSU. Specifically, how many amps are on the 12V rail? Have you tried a different PSU? As Cormac suggested, this could be a PSU issue. Also, having your buddy help out with: "discharged a capasitor or shorted something is not good, this is not how we go about trouble-shooting a system! No offence meant, but how experienced are you(and your buddy) when it comes to building systems? Many people can talk the talk, all the terms are available anywhere on the net, but not all can walk the walk. Do you understand what your system specs mean, and what each spec stands for? We're all here to help you learn, and there's nothing wrong with not knowing, there is something wrong with not understanding, and pretending you do. Personally, I think your bud has no clue, we just don't short out/discharge capacitors, you could get dead doing that, on top of frying a mobo.

I have no idea what MTG is. You are posting in caps, make sure your capslock is turned off before posting, posting in caps is considering "yelling", we don't like people that yell at us. We don't listen to people that yell at us. We tend to ignore people that yell at us, I'm making an exception in this case. Why the hell are you trying to install Windoze 95 on anything? Win95 is a POS. I'd rather run DoS 6.22 than Win95. If the system can't handle XP(which means it's due to be replaced anyhow), slap Win2000 on it, get the hell away from 95, it's a buggy piece of she-ite.

Have you updated your BIOS yet? Could be a glitch that's been fixed. Check out the ABIT forums, search for a thread about wrong voltage reporting. All monitoring programs read off the same monitors, so to me it sounds like a prob with your BIOS, 3 to 1 says it's the BIOS.

One thread/topic is enough. Multiple threads, like the multitude that you have already posted will get you ignored by forum veterans. Actions such as yours lead to other new posters doing the same thing, then the forum get filled with trash/bullshe-ite. If you want to bump your own thread, bump it by making another post in that thread. Do not bump the thread every ten minutes, you will only pizz people off, and you'll end up being reported to a mod. Have patience, someone will get to you with an answer, if you are NOT being pushy, and freaking ignorant. Thanks.

Could be your PSU that is the problem, sitting in the BIOS you're not using a whole lot of resources, once you get into Windoze, you're using a lot, which means more draw on your PSU. If it's weak, or underpowered for your system, you'll get voltage drops.

What brand of RAM?

Originally posted by Spunkz: Quote: rma it? what does that mean? If it's still under warranty, you RMA it, which means you get a Return Merchandise Authorization number, and send it back for a new one.

Dead mobo, RMA it.

Originally posted by mjng: Quote: Hi, Thanks for the replies. Its not a new video card and its not on-board. The motherboard is ASROCK K7S8XE 400FSB. The computer was working fine before I installed logitech quickcam. Even after installing the webcam it worked fine for a few days. But now even if I don't install it, the computer doesn't work!! Thanks again. mjng Do you have a friend's system you can try your card in? Sound like your card finally died. ;(

Ayup, memory it is, let us know what happens. Corsair rocks, I had to go with with OCZ for my last build, budget constraints, but the next one gets Corsair. Well, maybe, these DFI boards seem to prefer OCZ and Muskin. If my next build is Intel(read: "Conroe"), I'll be going with Corsair without a doubt.

Is this a new card you just installed in your system? If it is, what were you running before this card? Mobo name/model would be nice too, especially if it has onboard video.

Originally posted by themanager3066: Quote: right, i bought a 450w PSU from PC world today for £44.99, and it had enough connectors so that i didn't have to connect the graphics card to the HHD and i managed (after a little work) to put it in! however, when i started up it had no effect. after a few hours of proggressively worsening langauge, i went to the packard bell website put in the serial number for my computer and found that there was a BIOS update for my computer, i downaloaded it and made a CD with it, restarted my comp and used the prgram it had made on the CD, and hey presto now my computer runs games beautifully!!!!!!! i cannot thank you guys enough for the help, as i didn't really know what to do until u guys told me, and now i can enjoy my games fully, and have a strange blue light which comes out of the back of my comp due to the new PSU, which looks pretty smart, so thanks guys, i owe u one. Mike. Heh heh heh, that's very cool dude, and you're welcome, from all of us, if I can be so bold as to speak for everyone. Now, you got your "hands dirty", next time around, you probably won't be so shy about fixing your system yourself, which is a very cool thing, we all start somewhere. Congrats on the successful BIOS flash, BTW. 8)