tbh sounds more like something on the card has died rather than a driver problem,ahve you checked CCC for any stupid settings ticked or ought like the 24x AF or something

Yeah, I've scoured tray tools everything's fine.

It seems a lot of x1600 agp owners are having issues, I should count myself lucky it works at all!

I've managed to sort out the bulk of the fps trouble with an overclock and a visual raping config. It's not perfect, but it'll do for now.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gainward-BLISS-78 ... 286.c0.m14

This was the last card i had on agp, was awesome even handled crysis @1280 1024 with low/medium settings.
i got about £150 when i sold mine about a year ago, but tbh you should just bite the bullet and upgrade to pci xpress rather than waste money on dead technology.

Are you sure your power supply is up to the job if you're running with overclocks?
If you want one of the big agp cards you're gonna need a decent 400/500w supply minimum, they suck juice just as much as the new pcix cards.

I've got a pretty new 500w psu, no worries.

I can't afford anything for a while though. I might be able to scrape up enough for that card, but that'll be it for months.

It's a bugger because I know my hardware is holding me back from being a good scout.

The last one sold on ebay finished at £55 but reserve not met! (which is ridiculous considering a 8600gt is less than that).

If you're only bothered about TF2 it would be perfect, I used to get constant 80+ fps, settings maxed on the HL2 engine.

A good idea to find cheap computer parts at the moment is to check out any office clearing, bailiff/repossession companies in your area. They're doing big business at the moment
I've been offered 6month old laptops for <£100 and monitors, printers and networking stuff etc for silly money recently.

You might be able to pick up a pci express system for cheap, doubt it'll have much in the way of graphics but it's a start.

Have you tried "Driver cleaner" During your troubleshooting? It might help to start from scratch with your Chipset and Soundcard too.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745.

I'm certainly no expert but BSOD's usually end up being basic hardware/driver conflicts that just get worse the more you fiddle.

Ramble Ramble




If ladies night was anything to go by Medics beware you're more than capable already

Cheers

I know its ATi but theres this on overclockers.co.uk at the moment. That should eat tf2 for breakfast and a very reasonable price too. 256mb means that over 1280 x 1024 is a no-no, but tbh with your cpu it is anyway.

Id be tempted to replace that gfx card rather than try and fix it anyway, tbh its not worth it. The 1650 can only be holding you back even when its working properly!

i certainly wouldnt be investing over £50 on an AGP gfx card. It will only last you the life of your current pc, so spending decent money on it at this time is just a waste really.

ok a bit of an update.

have been playing tf2 on vista ultimate 64bit. after about 10 mins, the stuttering starts, but after about 30 seconds, stops and the game recovers. This can happen upto 4 or 5 times on an evening.

when i return back to the desktop, vista reports the gfx card driver had crashed.

On vista i installed the ati catalyst centre, but not on the xp, so i wonder if installing the catalyst thing is actually a good thing. Or is it just vista being able to cope.

If I remember correctly I had a similar thing happen to me with my old ATi, when the game first came out. So it could be the catalyst thing.

p.s. just to clear up, tf2 crashes in xp and vista. its only vista that has the catalyst control centre installed.