I have a four year old HP Pavillion, currently got a Radeon HD3650 graphics card which has started throwing memory errors.
As a first step I'm going to take the card out and give it a clean, reseat and retest. If that fails it looks like new card time.
Machine is not used for gaming much, couple of driving simulators is about the limit. I'm not looking at a fortune here, up to £100 notes should get me something reasonable.
Any recommendations* ?
* Being C4P I reserve the right to ignore everything said and go out and buy the one everyone says don't go near with a bargepole ;-)
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>> Machine is not used for gaming much, couple of driving simulators is about the limit.
How old are the games ie. are they recent, requiring a fairly high spec card? Do you have the packaging which will tell you (and us) what they recommend?
EDIT: shouldn't have a problem with £100 to spend - I reckon half that would probably be fine
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 31 May 12 at 12:02
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If you want to spend £100 on a graphics card then you will almost certainly need a new power supply too. You will need one with at least 40amps on the 12v rail if not more.
Then there is the issue of cooling many of the shelf PCs just have small cases and are not designed for large hot running graphics card. Then of course you cannot put into a bigger case because that breaks the Microsoft licensing rules.
The best thing to do is just stick a similar graphics card in that way you won't have issues with blowing your power supply up.
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Thanks Rattle,
The HP Pavillion case is a full size desk top which has four fans in there, one on the case, one for the PSU, one on the graphics card and one on the CPU.
Need to check the ratings again for the PSU to make sure I'm not cooking it. I've got the full spec sheet at home for the unit.
I've noticed from Focus' link I need to becareful about what formats are supported, I need VGA and HDMI or DVI.
I'll probably go like for like, just wondered if people had any preferences with regard to make nVidia vs Radeon etc... I've never had a graphics card go before, it's usually the PSU for me before anything else.
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>> Then there is the issue of cooling many of the shelf PCs just have small
>> cases and are not designed for large hot running graphics card. Then of course you
>> cannot put into a bigger case because that breaks the Microsoft licensing rules.
The case is hardly going to write to Microsoft to complain, is it. And as long as not too much hardware is not changed, they won't know either.
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Hello Focus,
Games are a couple of years old.
The existing card supports DirectX10.1, PCI Express 2.0 and full HD1080p.
www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-3000/hd-3600/pages/ati-radeon-hd-3600-overview.aspx
I don't want to go backwards on spec if that's possible from something more than 4 years old.
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Two years ago we bought a Radeon HD5670 on the back of a glowing PC Pro mag review and the fact it drew so little power no extra power lead or beefy power supply was needed. www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/graphics-cards/354787/ati-radeon-hd-5670
It's still available in the £60 to £70 range and it even gets top score from Windows 7's built in hardware benchmark programme.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Thu 31 May 12 at 15:05
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Get another radeon for about 50 quid, that way you don't have to muck about with changing drivers.
Interested in your symptoms tho, how do you know the card is throwing up hardware memory errors?
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>> Interested in your symptoms tho, how do you know the card is throwing up hardware
>> memory errors?
>>
Problems started on Monday night when OS threw a massive wobbler and froze, I'd just booted up and opened Chrome. Never seen that before in all the time I've had the machine.
Started digging through the logs finding the cause and thought I'd run the H/w Diagnostic Tool which comes with HP hardware.
Video Memory Test Fails with error code VC316-6W
Color Line Test has an Unknown Error
Frame Buffer Blit Test has an Unknown Error
Snooped Blit Test Unknown Error
Non-Snooped Blit Test Unknown Error
Googled the error code which suggested the strip, clean, reseat and retest. Just done that and still problems.
When switching from one user account to another, the HDMI connected screen forgets its an HDMI screen and it cycles through the options until it can see the monitor again as HDMI, meanwhile the VGA connected monitor goes to sleep waiting.
The screen cycling has been happening for a few months now but I didn't really think anything of it.
The display works fine for surfing and static type stuff (spreadsheets, word processing) but when viewing video online the image can start ghosting or become very pixelated which is not always attributable to the stream.
Last edited by: gmac on Thu 31 May 12 at 15:53
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Fair nuff, sounds like a stuffed video card to me. You have two pci express slots? did you plug it back in the same one? Try the other
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I've got:
◦ 1 PCI x16 ◦ slot for graphics card
◦ 2 PCI x1 slots
◦ 1 PCI slot
So, unfortunately, only one slot that the graphics card can slip into.
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>> Radeon HD5670
But it looks like gmac's PC takes an AGP card.
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Very much doubt a four old PC would have an AGP slot. It was phased out around 2005/06 and even the oldest antiques I see have PCI express. Four years old is 2008, and that is very much Intel Core Duo era and even by 2008 they were old hat.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Thu 31 May 12 at 15:15
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The Radeon 3600 series (the OPs defective card) is PCI express.
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From the machines spec sheet:
• Interface: PCI Express x16
• Maximum resolution:
◦ HDMI TV resolution: up to 1080p*
◦ HDMI PC resolution: 2560x1600 at 60 Hz
◦ DVI TV resolution: up to 1080p*
◦ DVI PC resolution (dual-link): 2560x1600 at 60 Hz
◦ DVI PC resolution (single-link): 1920x1200 at 60 Hz
◦ VGA resolution: 2048x1536 at 85 Hz
* Use ATI Catalyst Control Center software to optimize display
• 512 MB onboard memory
• Supports two displays at the same time*
* Two of the three ports are usable at any one time
• Supports HDCP
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Missed the edit:
The link I put in further up replying to Focus shows the requirements for an HD3650 as:
PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
400 Watt or greater power supply (550 Watt for dual ATI CrossFireX™) recommended
Certified power supplies are recommended
1GB of system memory recommended
HP have fitted a 300W Delta Electronics PSU.
Q Rattle and a PSU upgrade to go with my new graphics card.
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You really need to know the ampage figures for the 12v rail. If you want to go fairly cheap there is a Coolermaster 500W OEM PSU which will do the job, they cost around £30. If not you can get a very nice 500w Corsair unit for around £45.00.
Avoid the no brand stuff as they usually cannot handle the power they claim they can.
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The ticket on the side of the PSU shows:
OUTPUT
+12V/19A +3.3V/18A
+5V/25A +5Vstb/2A
-12V/0.8A
+5V & +12V TOTAL POWER OUTPUT CAN'T EXCEED 288W
+5V & +3.3V TOTAL POWER OUTPUT CAN'T EXCEED 175W
Thanks for the info & help to all above.
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Assuming it still works - probably goes - I have a spare Nvidia 6800GS. As in I don't need it and have not used it. If someone near by (Manchester) wanted it I'd drop it off. Trying to decide if I'll replace the 250GTS card soon. It's fine for DX10 games etc but I am sure for not more than say £170 I can get a DX11 card which draws less power.
Still need to sort out getting sound working in OSX on the new build too.
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>> The Radeon 3600 series (the OPs defective card) is PCI express.
Apologies - not sure where I got AGP from now.
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>> Very much doubt a four old PC would have an AGP slot.
My thoughts as well......
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Given Rattles recommendation re:PSU and the fact the machine is four years old in August, I went for a Silent card. Asus HD6450. And it really is. All the fan noise from my machine could be attributed to the graphics card fan. Quiet as a mouse now.
Only downside is the Windows Experience Index (Windows Aero test) has tanked but as I'm not a gamer it has not affected me so far. I tried the games I have and the graphics were as good as before with no flicker.
If/when the PSU gives up the ghost and I upgrade that, then I may rethink the graphics card but for now, this Silent one is giving my ears a rest.
Last edited by: gmac on Thu 31 May 12 at 22:21
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Update: The HD6450 went back, it was cooking the box, GPU running in the 80s C, CPU running 60+ when running two screens in HD.
Replaced with MSI N520GT, again a fan less model but running back at normal case temps high30s C/low 40s C. Just don't rely on the PC Alert4 utility that comes with it. It reckons my Mobo 12V rail is running 22.44V and the CPU fan is not running when I can see it spinning.
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Graphics cards - Focusless
