Benjammin

Please throw your roses

I DID IT! I FIXED MY COMPUTER! AFTER HOURS AND HOURS OF TOILING BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS! YESSS!

But yes I will explain how I managed to pull it off.
It all started when I was clicking away at my computer nonchalantly humming along and all of a sudden the screen flicks... Oh no! What did you do Ben!?

My computer has just restarted itself. This problem will plague me for the next 9 months. Whenever my computer uses the graphics card extensively and the sound together it would just reboot itself. Originally I assumed a graphics problem, but when I checked the computer heat it was outrageously high. So we decided to install a new CPU Fan that drastically cooled the system and we also upgraded to a Gig of RAM. I was convinced that was the problem (the heat) but alas I boot up the computer and guess what? It flicks off... So I wept like a little baby (if you can think of that except with no tears and a very manly whine) (mmmm wine) Anywho I did what I did earlier, search the vast resources of the internet for information concerning this issue. Come to find out it is a very common problem and many factors could be involved, checking forums also can be misleading because many know-it-alls suggest answers to completely different problems that can throw you off. Until just recently though I finally stumbled upon a very odd answer to my problem. Did I check my sound driver? Sound...driver? What has my soundcard have anything to do with intense graphics rebooting my computer? BUT! I checked my soundcard and it said: Realtek AC97 Onboard Audio
Interestingly enough the person on the forum had the exact same sound card and eventually later on he had found a solution to his problem by upgrading his graphics card! However I also found this bit of info... Realtek AC97 has compatibility issues with ATI Radeon Graphics card series 9000-9200 up until like 9-600!? (I have an ATI Radeon 9250) Because unfortunately ATI decided to completely forget about those series and stop supporting them (problematic issues?) So after finding this bit of information I had three options: Buy a new Graphics Card, buy a new Sound Card, or spend countless hours and the next few days staying up late and downloading drivers/new info/and troubleshooting other potential problems pointed out by completely different problems that sound similiar. One person had his problem solved by upgrading to ATI Omega drivers but not until after I had downloaded them, uninstalled my original ATI Catalyst Control Center Drivers and replacing them with the Omega ones did I totally mess up my computers video and have to eventually system restore and reinstall my Catalyst CC. It wasn't until after all this I read the fine print under the driver downloads that said "Series 9000-9600 will not be compatible with Omega Drivers" ........NOOOO........ So I jump right back into the internet for more information. I also along the way found some neat websites and programs extremely helpful to the whole PC process, not to mention flashing BIOS and all that non-windows jazz. But anywho I used a program called Everest: Home Edition to tell me everything inside and out of my computer hardware wise, and driver wise to inform of what specific specs I had in my computer. I noticed in the spec list that the company "VIA" was infront of the AC97 Audio. Interesting and all this time I kept looking up "Realtek" which proved useless (Realtek is absolutely useless help wise) So I check out VIA and stumble upon various FAQs and issues involving audio incompatibility. Eventually it leads me to one issue that referred to Halo, which I have on my PC (I typed in "game" and "restart" in the sites search engine" It gave me a "Does Halo restart or hang when you enter a mission" clicked on it, yet its solutions all involved things I've already done before until the very end. It told me to go into my display settings, then the advance tab, then about 15 tabs are on the little box (all ATI setting and video settings) at first glance I was like "there's no way this would solve my problem, I've done so many other things related to this" but there was one tab it wanted me to go to, the "SmartGArt" tab. In this section it had a slider for none/low/medium/high. This adjusted the AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) from slow to high. At first I didn't think AGP was the issue but apparantly the AGP was what was incompatible ALL ALONG with the AC97 Audio (onboard, mind you) It made since afterwards why it wasn't working. But yeah I turned that off and I can't really tell a difference in gameplay. All that my computer was having trouble with was when my graphics card was accelerating it apparently didn't mesh with sound when both were being used extensively. AND you thought AGP was better than PCI Graphics Cards... Well in a sense it is. Alas, I will give you a rundown of the difference between AGP and PCI slots:
On your motherboard is several slots, the main standard slot is the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) is like the USB (I expect you know what that is) of slots on the motherboard. Pretty much all motherboards have them (they should). Standard PCI slots will fit just about any card (sound/graphics/internet/enhanced stuff) aslong as it says PCI compatible on the box. As for AGP, AGP is special to only Graphics Cards. They are larger slots that basically enhance the Graphics card to act much faster and assemble graphics more quickly such as for computer gameplay. Despite the enhanced graphics, my problem was the enhanced graphics were incompatible with my onboard sound. I searched and I searched for downloadable drivers but after many different drivers none worked. But yeah, I fixed my problem by simply turning my AGP into a normal PCI. I guess I figured if the sound wasn't working with the graphics then it just wouldn't work regardless with AGP or without. So there you have it, that hardware conflict kept restarting my computer randomly and now it is solved. Oddly enough my computer didn't recognize the incompatiblity and never told me...mehh.
So there you have it.

Not to mention I found this along the way:

http://www.download.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition-2006/3000-2086_4-10596207.html?tag=lst-0-1

I highly reccommend it, I'd download it first aside from AdAware if I got a brand new computer. What this program does is reads computer temps/gives you links to driver updates/and gives you specific detailed information on your hardware. (neato huh?)

Adios
-Ben Grahammin

posted by Benjammin @ 10/27/2006 12:21:00 AM Comments: 2

What happens if I mess with Texas?

Oh man, it's been a zillion years since I posted...I know! But what a great way to comeback with a post about the Feast!

Come and gone, just like that, another one of God's fantastic Feast of Tabernacles! This year was the year to crack open my listening and focusing potential; the messages were absolutely fantastic... The first day we had Mr. Smith give the first service sermon while Mr. Bryce gave the second sermon, quite possibly the best 1st day ever for me...I really hope those sermons were recorded. :) Now before I delve into everything that went on I have to point out what was special about Texas. Texas... is a lone star. Nobody! gloats asmuch as they do... "Don't mess with Texas" that, "we say howdy all the time" this! Bleh. Oh and I expected a lot more fat guys with pistols and cowboy hats, but instead I got just a bunch of guys who just wear cowboy hats!? Where's the guns!? Not to mention oil derricks...I wanted to see oil!!! Mehh Texas was not at all what I had imagined. Just a bunch of cowboy-hat-wearin-we-say-howdy-all-the-time-our-state-is-better-than-you peoples... You all make me sick. I demand euphoria!!!

As for everything else it was awesome, sunday I went to six flags with pretty much everyone except Charles and Cole (the other half of everyone else went to Seaworld--bah) I won a football pillow at the "throw the football through the tire" game and various other stuffed plush novelties. After crazy rides and 20 dollars worth of mini-games and arcade games later we went to some mexican place. That was the first dose of excitement. Other various things we did the rest of the week included going to wal-mart literally 5-6 times, burning rubber, rolling down the windows going to tacobell and turning the mexican station up full blast. Chocolates with love notes (from Charles ;0 to women), David Hasselhoff spanish dubbed movie, completely owning everyone in bowling 4 out of 5 games. Going to an outlet mall with nothing but clothing stores (naturally), getting schooled by a bunch of black guys in basketball, going down the river and in the schute, and finally coming home and finding out I smoked my GED (oh yes!). Mind you I'm going to get my homeschool diploma too, the college I plan to attend wanted me to take it despite homeschooling...meh. Oh and we also played ultimate frisbee at night. That was all good and fun until I hurt my finger, looked pretty bad at the time, but it wasn't that bad. A good closing with everyone was the friday night dinner at applebees. We had tremendous fun there, not to mention Cole clocking the daylights out me and my chair (that's right AND the chair) After the LGD me, Charles and Monique rented a movie and stayed out until 1:00. 4 hours later I wake up load the car and off we go back home.

A few Feast notes:
-There were no bears
-New Braunfels had the greatest waterpark in the world named "Schlitterbahn" but it was closed
-Texas is full of themselves
-Everyroad has atleast 1 SUV and 1 truck on it
-Charles sings in the shower, loudly.
-Mexican food has its revenge
-Bowling alley grilled cheese sandwiches are good
-Friday Night Lights is a good movie
-I'm sick of "Howdy"
-I'd like to hear more "Howdy-doo-dees"
-Missouri is like an oasis in a desert of states considering what Missouri is surrounded by.
-High school football in Texas is full throttle
-I want to be the next urban ninja

As for everything else in my life I'm pretty much the same, I never did post about pre-teen. Most of you who read my blog were there anyways... and school is lame, I'm wearing fuzzy slippers more often and I've ascended in ping-pong. The Cardinals are in the world series, I'm really psyched about that. Also, tonight my dad started a fire (chimney-fire) for the first time in the Graham household since like 3 years ago. It was grand!

Anything else that I want to say I'll just tell you later.
-Ben

posted by Benjammin @ 10/22/2006 07:35:00 PM Comments: 4