@#$%^% ATI card. Omega drivers any better?

[Elizara]

...It's come to the point I'm thinking about reformatting to try to solve my blackscreen/crash problems with FFXI with my ATI card. Just so you know what happens, the sound will suddenly start repeating(Imagine the last 5 seconds of the background song repeating 3-4 times), and then it will black screen. This is very random (I never know when it will happen), and it started really ticking me off when it happened during a dyn. (I'm a whm. someone might die while I'm rebooting/cursing at computer.)

...I know what the problem is I think. I need to reformat, install all Windows XP patches before I install sound/video drivers, then install the drivers. The question I had tho is; I've been looking to go to Omega drivers in hopes they're more stable for my AGP ATI Radeon 3000 series. How well do those play with FFXI, guys? Just curious.

(And yes, I'm not sure if I want to go with ATI ever again after this. BLAH!)

[Kryssan]

Omega Drivers haven't produced anything in quite some time. Just recently returned but they've always done more for nV than ATi. Granted, with an old card like that, I guess you could get away with it. Do Not Argue has become Cell Systems with Enzyme Drivers, and I always preferred DNA over OD for ATi.


Just how old is your system though? When was the last time you cleaned it out? What're your temperatures like? What kind of error messages do you get in logs on crashes? Drivers is always the first stop, but it shouldn't be your only one.

[Elizara]

Ok, I'll go over these realquick..

1. Computer is 3-5 years old. I cleaned it out about 2 weeks-a month ago with canned air, actually. (Had to replace the battery, so I did that while I was ats it.)

2. Temps are within normal limits. I tend to keep watch on this like a hawk since I had to replace my old video card because of overheats (and I might not of had to. Might of just had to replace the processor fan and forget it.). I can use a proggy to get exacts if you're curious but IT IS NOT OVERHEATING, I can say that with confidence. (It might of been a teensy bit at one point, but I moved it off the carpet and onto a milk crate. It's been running about 20 degrees cooler since, so I doubt that's the issue, esp since the bluescreens I'd been getting stopped.) Also before you ask, my PSU is younger than the computer and is a 500 watt one. (My old one blew out pretty suddenly one day. So I replaced it for a Asus one, I've had very few problems with those.)

3. The errors I've been getting (About 99% of them) almost all of them are ATI-Driver related according to WhoCrashed. here's the WhoCrashed report(I pasted this from the program) AIDA 32 Report, private info removed. According to my research, the ONLY WAY to fix this is to reformat, get it to Windows SP2 without installing audio or video drivers, then install all windows patches before installing either, THEN install SP3. There's a patch that you can install on SP2 that will fix it, it's the fact you have to start all the way over to get it

Also again before you ask; this crashing has been going on for a year or so, since I changed out the card. It's only when it crashed IN LIMBUS that I started to get irritated; When it crashed in a Dynamis-Tav it was the last straw. I got WhoCrashed to start trying to run this down soon after the embarrasing crash during Limbus. I've tried cleaning out the drivers and reinstalling them, and it STILL crashes.

Finally, a piece of info I may of forgotten; my 'puter can ONLY TAKE AGP CARDS. I have to patch the offical drivers to even get them to load, which is the other reason I'm looking at Omega.

[Kryssan]

Well both OD and Enzyme will support the 3600. The most 'current' OD set is based off of the 7.12 Catalyst drivers, and Enzyme being based off of 10.2/10.1/9.11 depending on which set you want to use. I'd say Enzyme, but that's just because they're formerly DNA which I preferred over OD. If you want the older driver sets (which some people say aides them with FFXI) you'd be best with one of the OD sets.

[Elizara]

Thanks. Wish me luck in fixing this problem which is really making me say some things that are VERY unladylike.

..I really don't want to have to comb ebay for a older Nvida card that would do the job I'll put up a update later. Hopefully I can finally squash this crash so I don't have to worry if I'm gonna blackscreen in d-tav or worse again...

[Zha]

I had this issue w/ one of my older comps a few years back, the issue ended up being that the power supply was failing and the card was starving the system. Not sure if it's the same cause for your issues but worth looking into.

[Elizara]

I checked the powersupply (I tend to call that a PSU, but that's me), it's actualy still going strong (as I said, only a couple years old, and a 500 watt asus one. Those take a lickkin'. I already had the original fail on me before I even upgraded this for FFXI, so that's prolly out of the picture since it's a new PSU)

Thank you for the suggestion though.

[Edit] Doesn't seem like my card likes any unoffical drivers but I'm up and running again. Made sure to install the patches that might solve my crash errors on SP2, now I'm d/ling SP3 and I got the drivers installed. Let's hope this solves it for good.