Lock up woes


Q: I installed a Magic TNT2 Ultra 32 meg 2D/3D graphics card for my son's birthday but it locks up in all his major games (Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Swat 3, Grand Theft Auto, Half Life). The lockups occur between 5 seconds and 10 minutes into the game and are accompanied by a 2 second sound loop. Only a reboot fixes the problem.

Peter McGovern

These lock-ups sound like they stem from a heat related problem. If your driver program came equipped with an æoverclockingÆ utility, you should try reducing the values of the clock and/or memory speed slightly. Underclocking your card though contradicts the reasoning behind buying an Ultra card in the first place (which is supposed to run at higher clock settings as opposed to a regular TNT2). To try and avoid having to make these clock changes you need to get under the hood of your machine and check to see if the card has adequate cooling. Ideally, a card of this calibre should come equipped with its own heatsink and fan combination. If there is no fan present then you should look into adding some extra case fans at the front and rear of your system to help circulate the air. There are also some expert card coolers available, which can be installed in strategic places such as PCI slots, that help in cooling specific areas of your system. Jaycar Electronics (www.jaycar.com.au) offers various types of cooling devices.

Elias Plastiras


Category:Hardware
Issue: July 2000

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