My HTPC. have got the hiccups.

[blue]

My HTPC. has begun to stall a bit when I watch HD. movies. Not all the time, only when there is something that really requires a lot calculation.

It hasn't done it before and I wonder why.. but I suspect the CPU. to be the bottleneck, even though I'm using onboard GFX. I believe that HD. material are being eliminated / calculated (or how you would put it) in the CPU. if I'm not mistaken? (so therefor not so important to have a separate graphics card.. or?)

(Hence the: "Not done it before".. I suspect the CPU. to start getting a little worn down, the system is about 4 years old, and if Im not mistaken again, hardware DO get slower by time.. right?, and if the CPU. was barely big enough only by a pussyhair in the beginning maybe. So thats why I think that now perhaps it's begenning to stall because it is a little worn? Becouse I can't find any software that should be in conflict.. unless it is a Windows thing )

But what do you think, and have you experienced something similar and got it fixed.

Motherboard: MSI. K9AGM2-FIH AMD. 690G / ATI SB600.
CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+.
RAM: 2x1024 MB. DDR2, PC4200.

[blue]

xacuit where are you

[abercrab]

Blue,

Did you buy/build this as specifically a HTPC setup? Just curious if it has any special bells or whistles in the setup that would make it so.

Video card should still play a big part in watching HD stuff, I think. Have the problems been with video that used to play correctly and now doesn't or is it just new videos? I would think your processor would still have enough umph. Even though HD has a lot of data its not constantly changing like a game. That's what makes sense to me anyway.

Have you ever formatted and started with a clean slate in recent years? That may help if it used to work and now doesn't. Just too much clutter.

Can you add more RAM? That may make a difference. I didn't look your board up or check your operating system system if it can handle it. I can't remember what the limit on XP is.

[]UBC[xacuit]

lmfao,Hi Blue,ok i see that your board should support hdmi,i dont know what you mean by htpc! ;D.
Hear is a link to the updated drivers for that chipset,check&see what version you are running&update if you are not running 9.4

www.brothersoft.com/amd-chipset-driver-download-232757.html

I take it that you are running with onboard graphics only,not a seperate graphics card?

I will check back to see your reply ;D

updated found a 9.4 driver

[blue]

Hey abercrab

The setup is one I built myself, after reading and reading and reading and... what hardware would be good to use when building a HTPC.. But Im not sure that the setup is "kickass" I just read what others use and so on.. and until now it has worked totally perfect.

Yes the problem is also with the movies I use to be able to see without any problems, this is what puzzles me that it suddenly starts doing this. I did try to re-install XP. because like you write that it might solve the problem, but unfortunately not.

I dont think I can add more RAM. because I believe that XP. is only able to "see" 2 GB. But I think there is some way you can cheat XP... ehm or something.. to be Able to see more. Unless I change the system to run 64 bit.. but XP. and 64 bit shouldent be a very good combination.. hm I think?

I talked to a freinds yesterday about it and he couldend understand how I could possibly see HD. without a separate graphics card with good result, so he was pretty sure that that was the problem.

Unfortunately, my gfx. card in my gamer PC. is gone (talk about bad luck these days with my PC's lol) so I can't even try to throw it into the HTPC. and test... ARGHH..

Collection for a new PC. for Blue... yes? ;D

[]UBC[xacuit]

XP will run 4gig of ram,thats what i got ,but looking at your board you only have 2 slots so you would need to buy 2 2gig cards to bring it up to the max!

[blue]

There you where

When I start to download that chipset file update, I can see the file is called "amd_9-4_vista32-64_sb.zip" And isent that a file for Vista?


HTPC. = Home Theater PC. ;D

[]UBC[xacuit]

Hi,sorry didnt see that ,look at this one it says 9.12 xp32-16

www.opendrivers.com/driver/297111/ati-amd-580x-amd-690g-amd-780g-amd-790gx-south-bridge-driver-9.12-windows-xp(x32-x64)-free-download.html

If you can i would check or make a copy of your exicting drivers before installing the new once,just as a backup!

[blue]

Problem solved

I updated the drivers, plus some others also, and that solved the problem. I still find it strange that it suddenly starts with that problem with the old drivers when it had worked before, but ok.. I guess theres somethings you just dont HAVE to understand when it comes to computers.. hehe.

Thanks for your help Xacuit and also Abercrab