IRQ / AGP Apiture Settings?

Skelleos · Feb 12, 2006, 03:32 AM

I've been trying to get a game D&DOnline to work on my computer for about the last 3 weeks. I get to the start screen, enter the world and 2 seconds later my screen freezes and my comp reboots. I have all current drivers and windows updates installed.

I've heard that IRQ's might be set wrong or they might be sharing too many together. I've also heard resizing the AGP apiture might help.

Can anyone explain how I would check and set up what devices used which IRQ's and APG apiture using WinXP? I tried rebooting and holding F9, I get a bios screen but it doesn't give any options that I see that I'm looking for.

I've tried pretty much everything so far except reinstalling XP from scratch.

P4 2.6 1gigram nvidia 5200 FX WinXP Service Pack2. I'm using a Linksys wireless router, DSL connection, if that matters.

Video card drivers version: 81.98_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql

Dyre Straits · Feb 12, 2006, 07:43 AM

There are some other things that may need to be checked out in addition to what you've already listed.

You should also list your motherboard brand and make. If it's got a VIA chipset, make sure you have the latest 4-in1 drivers from the VIA WEBsite. In some cases it will be "Hyperion" drivers. You need to check with your mobo manufacturer as to which you need. Same goes if it's SIS or Intel chipset based. Make sure you have the latest ones installed.

1. Power Supply Unit: In some cases, the PSU may not be providing enough voltage when the system gets under a heavy load. My 'guesstimate' would be that you should have at least a 350 W PSU with close to 20 AMPs on the 12V rail. You should see this data somewhere on the side of the PSU.

2. Possible Bad Memory: Download MemTest86 (Google is your source) and run it for several hours....perhaps overnight one time. This will determine whether the memory is causing the lockups and reboots when things get hot and heavy.

3. Make sure all the fans are working without obstruction. With the side off the case and the computer turned off, make sure the insides are clean of dust and debris. A can of compressed air is what you need for blowing out any dust.

4. Now, for setting up the AGP Aperture: Normally, the default setting will be 64 - 128 MB depending on the system configuration. Either of those settings should work just fine with your setup. The one setting that might work for you is to switch from AGP 8X to AGP 4X...if you're already using 8X. This is done within the BIOS...not from Windows. So, when you reboot, go to the BIOS settings and look for these areas where you can make the changes. (The BIOS is accessed prior to getting into Windows.)

5. IRQ Settings: Normally, the easiest way to change IRQs is to move any addin cards around. If you have, for instance, a Sound Card installed adjacent to the video card OR at the farthest slot from the video card, you may be causing the devices to share IRQs. Do you know for sure at this point that your Video Card is, indeed, sharing an IRQ with something else? When in Windows, go to Device Manager, click on the VIEW option and then Show Devices by Connection. You'll see an option to view the Interrupt Requests (IRQ). Expand that view to see the full listing of IRQ assignments.

Post back when you have some more information or questions.

Good luck!

Skelleos · Feb 12, 2006, 08:03 PM

Here's what my motherboard box says:

P4 Titan 865PE FSB800/Dual Channel DDR400/AGP8X

I opened up the case and the power supply is 350W. It says: L&C Model: LC-B350 ATX

None of the cards are close together and I just cleaned it a few weeks ago. It wasn't very dusty. All fans appear to be working normally.

I played SWG and EverQuest2 very memory intensive games, up until a few months ago and never had a problem.

Setting the AGP apiture...I restart my comp, hold F9 and a bios screen comes up but I don't see anything that will let me adjust that setting.

IRQ's. I don't really understand that stuff but I opened up the window you were talking about and took a couple screenshots, you can check them out. The only thing that looked off to me is the "MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device." I'm not sure if that should be that way or not. I can't really tell which device is on which number.

Dyre Straits · Feb 13, 2006, 05:14 AM

First off, those screenshots don't show the IRQ settings. From that screen you need to click on the VIEW option at the top. Then from the dropdown menu, select "...by Connection". Then you'll see the Interrupt Requests (IRQ) option. That's what we need to see.

You're right about the MPU-401. According to this, it's showing that it's Disabled. That's what the red X is about. If you have an addin Audio Card, you need to see if you can find updated drivers and install them. If this is an onboard audio you're using, you need to install the Motherboard's chipset drivers and then the updated Audio drivers for that motherboard. (Realtek AC'97 tells me this is an onboard audio you're using, right?)

I'll have to do a little research about getting your particular BIOS settings for the AGP. It won't be on the 'first' screen you see. It'll be under some other settings on another screen within the BIOS.

Skelleos · Feb 13, 2006, 10:29 AM

It's really late so I can't open my comp and check for a sound card, but I'm pretty sure it's just integrated into the mb. I'll have to look for the drivers. I know I don't have them on disk. Here's a pic of the IRQ settings:

Thanks alot for your replies. I'll be stoked if we actually fix something and it works.

Dyre Straits · Feb 13, 2006, 07:23 PM

According to your IRQs, I suggest you move that LinkSys Wireless adapter to another PCI slot. Having it on the same IRQ as the video card is likely causing the problems.

To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again.

Put the NIC card into a different PCI slot, boot back into Windows and let Windows redetect the card.

Good luck!

Skelleos · Feb 14, 2006, 01:58 AM

Here's what happened...I turned my comp off. Pulled out the Linksys card, plugged it into a new slot, restarted, and my internet connection was gone. The card wasn't being recognised in the new slot. So I think ok I'll just delete the old drivers and reinstall...I go to delete them and it won't let me do it from the Add Remove Software in my control panel, it would say it couldn't find it even tho it was showing up in the menu. So then I go into safe mode and try to uninstall or delete it from the programs folder. I was able to delete it from the programs folder but it was still showing up in the add remove software control panel and I couldn't remove it. I tried restarting and removing it after I deleted the files from the programs folder, tried removing with the card plugged in and not plugged in, nothing worked. I tried reinstalling the driver from the CD but it kept saying that I couldn't install because it was already installed!! And there's no uninstall option on the CD! Then I tried putting it all back the way it was and doing a system restore...It wouldn't work. By that time I was so pissed off I decided I was just going to do a clean install of XP. So I spent about 2-3hrs backing up all my files/music. Then I went to try to format c: but couldn't figure out how...I saw somekind of emergency screen when I rebooted and held F6 I think it was. A screen came up and asked if I wanted to reset to factory defaults and that all info on my hd would be erased or something like that. I said yes and it started to do it then an ERROR message popped up and it wouldn't do it. So this is where I'm at now. I just pulled out the Linksys wireless card and plugged my DSL modem back up straight from the phone to the modem to my comp. I'm online but it seems to be working really slow. So something is screwed up. What's unbelievable is that I've been trying all this to try out the DDO Beta. I figured since I was running my connection straight from the phone again I'd try to log in and see if the game worked. But I just tried to play it and they're saying now beta is over. The only way you can continue playing the beta is by preordering the game. That wasn't the case until TODAY. Yesterday and before that if you were let into beta you could play it without preordering. The irony of the timing is beautiful. Now it's going to cost $50 if I want to find out if that was the problem or not...><Now I really need to reformat my hd. I guess I need to make a boot disk or something. There's no option on my CD to do that. I hate XP! I'll have to look up on the web to figure out how to do it. I'm going to take a break for awhile.

Dyre Straits · Feb 14, 2006, 06:54 AM

First of all, you didn't follow instructions.

I'll quote myself here:

"To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again.

Put the NIC card into a different PCI slot, boot back into Windows and let Windows redetect the card."

Since you're going to proceed to reformat the HD and reinstall Windows, that's what I'd advise at this point. Once you get to where you're ready to install Windows be absolutely sure to put that NIC card into a different PCI slot than the one where it was. Otherwise, you'll wind up sharing the IRQ again with the video card.

Skelleos · Feb 14, 2006, 09:43 AM

"To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again."

Ya I realised that later after I had finished pulling my hair out.

So now I'm just trying to figure out how to reformat my hd...I did web searches and ended up at the microsoft site (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=305595) where they explain how to create a boot disk (6 disks). I can't get my computer to boot from my XP CD because it's not set as the start up drive, and I can't get to a bios screen to change it, that's why I ended up trying the 6 disk thing. So I format the 6 floppies, download and run the install, the disks are done, I put disk 1 in my floppy drive and restart. Comp starts up, the install starts, I put in disk 1-6 and then it says put in the XP CD into the CD drive and hit ENTER. I do that, my CD spins a few times, nothing happens and it tells me to put the CD into the drive etc, over and over. It wasn't accepting/recognising the CD...
How do you get to the BIOS screen

When I start my comp it says to hold F6 to get to bios, but I do that and it just takes me to a screen with an option to start in safe mode.

I found this site (http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm) and did this: Download self-extracting [color=#800080]Bootable Floppy Disk Creator for NTFS Reader[/color]. Restarted with the floppy and the program started and I think there were 3 options, one of them being to erase the hard drive. Should I use that? That's the only thing I've found that would let me erase my hd in dos mode. After I do that I should be able to just put my XP CD in the drive and it should start a clean install?

Dyre Straits · Feb 14, 2006, 10:31 AM

In most cases, in order to get to the BIOS settings, the key that needs to be pressed is the DELete key.

If you've gotten as far as booting to that floppy and the option to erase the HD, that's what I'd do. Yes, I believe afterwards, you'll be able to proceed with installing Windows from the Windows CD.

Good luck!

Skelleos · Feb 14, 2006, 06:55 PM

The delete key did work, THANKS! I'm going to try reinstalling from the CD now.

Skelleos · Feb 16, 2006, 11:06 AM

I got XP installed got all my drivers back in place, then I went to try to get the wireless router and card set up. I got the router working but trying to set up the wireless card I remembered why I put it in the slot it was in, no other slots would work, they wouldn't recognise the card. I remember it took me forever to get it working last time and it seemed more like dumb luck than anything. I still haven't been able to get it working yet this time. I've tried installing it in every open slot, it only seems to work in one of them but when I install the driver, it shuts down my computer, then I install the card, and it should finish the install and the card should start working when I start up again.........but it doesn't.......The little green light in my bottom toolbar doesn't light up or connect. I'm ready to throw my comp off the balcony lol.

Dyre Straits · Feb 16, 2006, 12:09 PM

I know exactly how you feel.

I've been taking care of a couple of computers for other people who let them get infected with backdoor Trojan viruses.

With that wireless card in one of the 'dead' slots, boot up into Safemode and see if it shows up there.

EDIT: Also, while there shouldn't be any, just in case, check to make sure there aren't any jumpers on that card that force it to use certain IRQs.

Skelleos · Feb 16, 2006, 11:29 PM

OMG I finally got it to work! The thing that was messing me up was that the card just wasn't plugged in all the way. It felt like it was, but I finally turned my comp over on it's side and was able to mash it in another centmeter or 2. It's back in the same slot, the only one that has worked. I did try 2 others after figuring out what was up but it only seems to work there...I checked my IRQ's and the card is right back on the same line as my video card (16), like the pick in my previous post. The one thing that it looks like I did fix is my sound. The red X's are gone and it looks like all that is installed. That might've been my problem. My system was working fine playing EQ2 the way it was so I'm not sure. Maybe my directories or something were messed up and that was causing me to crash. Who knows.....! I'm just glad to have it all back in one piece. It does seem to be running a little faster now so that's cool.

Trying to install a card with 4 open slots and it will only work in one and you're not pushing it in all the way, ya that'll drive you to madness! lol

Thanks again for the tips and advice, it was nice to have a wall to bounce off to help keep things straight! These things are always process of elimination. Funny thinking back on it now I think this is exactly the problem and solution I found when I originally put the card in 6months ago. I'm going to write it down this time on the install CD: "MAKE SURE CARD IS IN ALL THE WAY!!!

Plagues and madness plagues and madness...

Dyre Straits · Feb 17, 2006, 07:09 PM

Glad to know that all's well again in Skelleos' world.

It is still strange that the NIC card only works in that one slot, though.

Feb 12, 2006, 03:32 AM	#1
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	IRQ / AGP Apiture Settings? I've been trying to get a game D&DOnline to work on my computer for about the last 3 weeks. I get to the start screen, enter the world and 2 seconds later my screen freezes and my comp reboots. I have all current drivers and windows updates installed. I've heard that IRQ's might be set wrong or they might be sharing too many together. I've also heard resizing the AGP apiture might help. Can anyone explain how I would check and set up what devices used which IRQ's and APG apiture using WinXP? I tried rebooting and holding F9, I get a bios screen but it doesn't give any options that I see that I'm looking for. I've tried pretty much everything so far except reinstalling XP from scratch. P4 2.6 1gigram nvidia 5200 FX WinXP Service Pack2. I'm using a Linksys wireless router, DSL connection, if that matters. Video card drivers version: 81.98_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql

Feb 12, 2006, 07:43 AM	#2
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,196 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	There are some other things that may need to be checked out in addition to what you've already listed. You should also list your motherboard brand and make. If it's got a VIA chipset, make sure you have the latest 4-in1 drivers from the VIA WEBsite. In some cases it will be "Hyperion" drivers. You need to check with your mobo manufacturer as to which you need. Same goes if it's SIS or Intel chipset based. Make sure you have the latest ones installed. 1. Power Supply Unit: In some cases, the PSU may not be providing enough voltage when the system gets under a heavy load. My 'guesstimate' would be that you should have at least a 350 W PSU with close to 20 AMPs on the 12V rail. You should see this data somewhere on the side of the PSU. 2. Possible Bad Memory: Download MemTest86 (Google is your source) and run it for several hours....perhaps overnight one time. This will determine whether the memory is causing the lockups and reboots when things get hot and heavy. 3. Make sure all the fans are working without obstruction. With the side off the case and the computer turned off, make sure the insides are clean of dust and debris. A can of compressed air is what you need for blowing out any dust. 4. Now, for setting up the AGP Aperture: Normally, the default setting will be 64 - 128 MB depending on the system configuration. Either of those settings should work just fine with your setup. The one setting that might work for you is to switch from AGP 8X to AGP 4X...if you're already using 8X. This is done within the BIOS...not from Windows. So, when you reboot, go to the BIOS settings and look for these areas where you can make the changes. (The BIOS is accessed prior to getting into Windows.) 5. IRQ Settings: Normally, the easiest way to change IRQs is to move any addin cards around. If you have, for instance, a Sound Card installed adjacent to the video card OR at the farthest slot from the video card, you may be causing the devices to share IRQs. Do you know for sure at this point that your Video Card is, indeed, sharing an IRQ with something else? When in Windows, go to Device Manager, click on the VIEW option and then Show Devices by Connection. You'll see an option to view the Interrupt Requests (IRQ). Expand that view to see the full listing of IRQ assignments. Post back when you have some more information or questions. Good luck!

Feb 12, 2006, 08:03 PM	Thread Starter #3
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	Here's what my motherboard box says: P4 Titan 865PE FSB800/Dual Channel DDR400/AGP8X I opened up the case and the power supply is 350W. It says: L&C Model: LC-B350 ATX None of the cards are close together and I just cleaned it a few weeks ago. It wasn't very dusty. All fans appear to be working normally. I played SWG and EverQuest2 very memory intensive games, up until a few months ago and never had a problem. Setting the AGP apiture...I restart my comp, hold F9 and a bios screen comes up but I don't see anything that will let me adjust that setting. IRQ's. I don't really understand that stuff but I opened up the window you were talking about and took a couple screenshots, you can check them out. The only thing that looked off to me is the "MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device." I'm not sure if that should be that way or not. I can't really tell which device is on which number.

Feb 13, 2006, 05:14 AM	#4
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,196 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	First off, those screenshots don't show the IRQ settings. From that screen you need to click on the VIEW option at the top. Then from the dropdown menu, select "...by Connection". Then you'll see the Interrupt Requests (IRQ) option. That's what we need to see. You're right about the MPU-401. According to this, it's showing that it's Disabled. That's what the red X is about. If you have an addin Audio Card, you need to see if you can find updated drivers and install them. If this is an onboard audio you're using, you need to install the Motherboard's chipset drivers and then the updated Audio drivers for that motherboard. (Realtek AC'97 tells me this is an onboard audio you're using, right?) I'll have to do a little research about getting your particular BIOS settings for the AGP. It won't be on the 'first' screen you see. It'll be under some other settings on another screen within the BIOS.

Feb 13, 2006, 10:29 AM	Thread Starter #5
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	It's really late so I can't open my comp and check for a sound card, but I'm pretty sure it's just integrated into the mb. I'll have to look for the drivers. I know I don't have them on disk. Here's a pic of the IRQ settings: Thanks alot for your replies. I'll be stoked if we actually fix something and it works.

Feb 13, 2006, 07:23 PM	#6
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,196 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	According to your IRQs, I suggest you move that LinkSys Wireless adapter to another PCI slot. Having it on the same IRQ as the video card is likely causing the problems. To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again. Put the NIC card into a different PCI slot, boot back into Windows and let Windows redetect the card. Good luck!

Feb 14, 2006, 01:58 AM	Thread Starter #7
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	Here's what happened...I turned my comp off. Pulled out the Linksys card, plugged it into a new slot, restarted, and my internet connection was gone. The card wasn't being recognised in the new slot. So I think ok I'll just delete the old drivers and reinstall...I go to delete them and it won't let me do it from the Add Remove Software in my control panel, it would say it couldn't find it even tho it was showing up in the menu. So then I go into safe mode and try to uninstall or delete it from the programs folder. I was able to delete it from the programs folder but it was still showing up in the add remove software control panel and I couldn't remove it. I tried restarting and removing it after I deleted the files from the programs folder, tried removing with the card plugged in and not plugged in, nothing worked. I tried reinstalling the driver from the CD but it kept saying that I couldn't install because it was already installed!! And there's no uninstall option on the CD! Then I tried putting it all back the way it was and doing a system restore...It wouldn't work. By that time I was so pissed off I decided I was just going to do a clean install of XP. So I spent about 2-3hrs backing up all my files/music. Then I went to try to format c: but couldn't figure out how...I saw somekind of emergency screen when I rebooted and held F6 I think it was. A screen came up and asked if I wanted to reset to factory defaults and that all info on my hd would be erased or something like that. I said yes and it started to do it then an ERROR message popped up and it wouldn't do it. So this is where I'm at now. I just pulled out the Linksys wireless card and plugged my DSL modem back up straight from the phone to the modem to my comp. I'm online but it seems to be working really slow. So something is screwed up. What's unbelievable is that I've been trying all this to try out the DDO Beta. I figured since I was running my connection straight from the phone again I'd try to log in and see if the game worked. But I just tried to play it and they're saying now beta is over. The only way you can continue playing the beta is by preordering the game. That wasn't the case until TODAY. Yesterday and before that if you were let into beta you could play it without preordering. The irony of the timing is beautiful. Now it's going to cost $50 if I want to find out if that was the problem or not...><Now I really need to reformat my hd. I guess I need to make a boot disk or something. There's no option on my CD to do that. I hate XP! I'll have to look up on the web to figure out how to do it. I'm going to take a break for awhile.

Feb 14, 2006, 06:54 AM	#8
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,196 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	First of all, you didn't follow instructions. I'll quote myself here: "To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again. Put the NIC card into a different PCI slot, boot back into Windows and let Windows redetect the card." Since you're going to proceed to reformat the HD and reinstall Windows, that's what I'd advise at this point. Once you get to where you're ready to install Windows be absolutely sure to put that NIC card into a different PCI slot than the one where it was. Otherwise, you'll wind up sharing the IRQ again with the video card.

Feb 14, 2006, 09:43 AM	Thread Starter #9
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	"To do it properly, shutdown the computer, pull out the NIC (Linksys card), leave it out, boot up the computer without it in the system. Once you get back into Windows, go ahead and shutdown again." Ya I realised that later after I had finished pulling my hair out. So now I'm just trying to figure out how to reformat my hd...I did web searches and ended up at the microsoft site (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=305595) where they explain how to create a boot disk (6 disks). I can't get my computer to boot from my XP CD because it's not set as the start up drive, and I can't get to a bios screen to change it, that's why I ended up trying the 6 disk thing. So I format the 6 floppies, download and run the install, the disks are done, I put disk 1 in my floppy drive and restart. Comp starts up, the install starts, I put in disk 1-6 and then it says put in the XP CD into the CD drive and hit ENTER. I do that, my CD spins a few times, nothing happens and it tells me to put the CD into the drive etc, over and over. It wasn't accepting/recognising the CD... How do you get to the BIOS screen When I start my comp it says to hold F6 to get to bios, but I do that and it just takes me to a screen with an option to start in safe mode. I found this site (http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm) and did this: Download self-extracting [color=#800080]Bootable Floppy Disk Creator for NTFS Reader[/color]. Restarted with the floppy and the program started and I think there were 3 options, one of them being to erase the hard drive. Should I use that? That's the only thing I've found that would let me erase my hd in dos mode. After I do that I should be able to just put my XP CD in the drive and it should start a clean install?

Feb 14, 2006, 10:31 AM	#10
Dyre Straits HH Old Fuddy Duddy Join Date: May 2002 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 14,196 Rep Power: 216 System Specs	In most cases, in order to get to the BIOS settings, the key that needs to be pressed is the DELete key. If you've gotten as far as booting to that floppy and the option to erase the HD, that's what I'd do. Yes, I believe afterwards, you'll be able to proceed with installing Windows from the Windows CD. Good luck!

Feb 14, 2006, 06:55 PM	Thread Starter #11
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	The delete key did work, THANKS! I'm going to try reinstalling from the CD now.

Feb 16, 2006, 11:06 AM	Thread Starter #12
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	I got XP installed got all my drivers back in place, then I went to try to get the wireless router and card set up. I got the router working but trying to set up the wireless card I remembered why I put it in the slot it was in, no other slots would work, they wouldn't recognise the card. I remember it took me forever to get it working last time and it seemed more like dumb luck than anything. I still haven't been able to get it working yet this time. I've tried installing it in every open slot, it only seems to work in one of them but when I install the driver, it shuts down my computer, then I install the card, and it should finish the install and the card should start working when I start up again.........but it doesn't.......The little green light in my bottom toolbar doesn't light up or connect. I'm ready to throw my comp off the balcony lol.

Feb 16, 2006, 11:29 PM	Thread Starter #14
Skelleos DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Rep Power: 0	OMG I finally got it to work! The thing that was messing me up was that the card just wasn't plugged in all the way. It felt like it was, but I finally turned my comp over on it's side and was able to mash it in another centmeter or 2. It's back in the same slot, the only one that has worked. I did try 2 others after figuring out what was up but it only seems to work there...I checked my IRQ's and the card is right back on the same line as my video card (16), like the pick in my previous post. The one thing that it looks like I did fix is my sound. The red X's are gone and it looks like all that is installed. That might've been my problem. My system was working fine playing EQ2 the way it was so I'm not sure. Maybe my directories or something were messed up and that was causing me to crash. Who knows.....! I'm just glad to have it all back in one piece. It does seem to be running a little faster now so that's cool. Trying to install a card with 4 open slots and it will only work in one and you're not pushing it in all the way, ya that'll drive you to madness! lol Thanks again for the tips and advice, it was nice to have a wall to bounce off to help keep things straight! These things are always process of elimination. Funny thinking back on it now I think this is exactly the problem and solution I found when I originally put the card in 6months ago. I'm going to write it down this time on the install CD: "MAKE SURE CARD IS IN ALL THE WAY!!! Plagues and madness plagues and madness...