Hello,

My PC:

Asus Vintage V2-PE3 Socket 775
Intel Celeron D336 [2.8,RET,775] - crap i know, in fact, if anyone knows how to overclock this through what appears to be a locked Pheonix BIOS, please let me know!!
512MB 4-Layer V-Data PC3200 DDR
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 2MB ST3802110A

The system has onboard GFX - VIA UniChrome P4M800 Pro

BUT this doesn't even seem to handle CS: Source!

Is that to be expected or are my settings all over the place?

Also, I ran Belarc Advisor which told me my 512Mb Memory is in Slot 3 - would that be making any difference? Basically, there are 4 slots on my MB for DIMM - two black and two yellow - which one shoudl the memory be in? The nearest to the processor?

Many thanks peeps, mansfield1981.

Think i am gonna go look for a good budget GFX card on ebuyer...

Hi mansfield1981,

I could be mistaken, but I would think that the shader-based rendering and ragdoll physics of the Source engine would require hardware transform and lighting, something that onboard graphics does not support.

Two of the four DIMM slots support DDR RAM while the other two support DDR2 RAM. The yellow slots support DDR2. Since you have DDR, the stick should be in the first of the two black slots.

My opinion? If you can afford it, purchase a good AGP8X card and another stick of RAM.

hello Patti, I have just ordered a Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB DDR VGA TVO DVI-I AGP from ebuyer

seemed like the best one at my low budget, what dya reckon? will it do the job?

thanks for your response by the way

oh also, do I have to purchase another of exactly the same memory modules or should others be compatable? if so, any suggested? Cheers.

I'd say that it's a decent card for the price you'd pay for it It should do the job, if not on highest settings, then at least on medium settings.

You would have to ensure that your RAM modules have the same CAS latency and yes, for optimum compatibility I'd recommend purchasing the same make.

Patti, if you are still there..? Or anyone actually!!

My graphics card arrived and I installed it along with another 512Mb memory.
System is much speedier thanks to the extra 512Mb!

However, when I load up a game (such as CS or Unreal 2004 - both of which change the resolution when loading up..?), my PC freezes up, goes black and then reappears with the message:

VPU RECOVER: VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no lobger responding to graphics driver commands.

I have looked around for an answer online to find that other people have similar problems with this card and my mobo (ASUS P5VDC-TVM) - something about ATI - although I don't understand what that is... argh, wish I'd checked up before purchasing!

Info on my mobo here:
http://ftp.maxdata.com/index.asp?info=/inf.../ASUS_P5VDC-TVM

Nobody seems to have resolved the issue.

So... unless you, or anyone else reading this, could shed some light on a poissible fix, I intend to return the card to ebuyer in exchange for one that will work! My question is - which one will work?!! And which is the best value?? My budget is around £50...

thanks a lot peeps!! joe.

Hi Joe,

There may be a setting on the card utilities control panel to disable VPU... you may also try to play with the card settings...

On the game, there may be settings you can change... some requires Direct3D enabled and DirectX to run and others performs better using OpenGL.

Chris

Thanks Ironbender,

I actually sent the damn thing back to ebuyer today for a refund.
Just couldn't be bothered with the fiddling.

Popped out this morning to find a XFX GeForce 6200 256Mb DDR2 on offer in local store for £39.99! Bonus!
Am home now and have installed - works an absolute treat! FPS averaging 15 in CS-Source!
All settings on HIGH as auto-detected! Doesn't seem to be any conflict anymore! Hazzah!

One niggly question though - my MoBo manual says that DDR & DDR2 memory don't work together - I have two 512Mb sticks of standard DDR and the new GFX card is 256Mb DDR2 - what's the deal with compatibility there? Not that this little beast seems to need to run any faster!!

Oh, also, do you know of any good (& free) GFX card monitoring software?

Cheers muchly, Joe.

Hi mansfield1981,

I was busy the past few days fixing up a friend's computer (in addition to my regular household chores ) so did not have a chance to get back to this thread.

Yeah, I'll bet you're seeing a big difference in performance after installing another stick of RAM!

Not to worry, there is no compatibility issue due to the differing types of RAM on video card and mobo. Your video card keeps its RAM to itself and does not share out to the rest of your system, otherwise you'd probably have compatibility problems.

Since your mobo has the capacity to use either DDR or DDR2, the manual is warning you against using both types of RAM in the DIMM slots.

grand! thanks for all your help... system is running well but i guess since the whole coolbeans prgramme i was suggested for performance monitoring, i am fixated with wanting everything to cope with everything... haha, a pc dream i guess?! my cpu is now holding me back but hey, a few paycheques and i should be able to sort that out too! any suggestions? upgraded spec below.... or at least, what would u upgrade next??? thanks again, joe.

Asus Vintage V2-PE3 Socket 775
ASUS P5VDC-TVM (Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG)

Intel Celeron D336 [2.8,RET,775]
2 x 512MB 4-Layer V-Data PC3200 DDR
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 2MB
20GB Samsung SpinPoint Voyager SV2042H
XFX GeForce 6200 256Mb DDR2

Audio Realtek ALC 655 6 Channel
LiteON 52x52x32 x16 CDRW/DVD
Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM SP2