WarSpartan

I'll chekc those caps in just a bit here. I did completely pull the cpu and heatsink, cleaned with alcohol, dusted, reapplied AS5, and reseated and mounted. Edit : A good look over shows all the caps look fine.

Nice call ont he cpu. I actually found that one the other night just after I posted so I was considering that as an option too. Now however Im not sure if I should do a cpu only replacement. Long story was I went to turn o the comp and got nothing on the power switch. Opened it up, looked it all over quick was getting nothing on the power switch. Then I wiggled the heatsink on top of the cpu, and it started the bootup sequence once. So i powered it down, but then couldnt get it to power up at all after that. Even the wiggle didnt work. So stripped it down and found dust along the edges of the cpu. Not a ton, but some. So total cleaned the cpu and heatsink, blew out all the dust in on mobo & case, then reassembled with fresh AS5. Still nothing. Then tried pulling the mobo and and getting it to power without memory, with 2 sticks (though I didnt try just 1), using the case switch, using the onboard testing power switch, and clearing cmos. Still getting nothing - not even basic power up. The mobo has the ready LED's as on (yellow), but wont power period. My gut reaction was the cpu was toast based on the dust I found around it and the fact that it did power for 1 run after the heatsink wiggle. However the more i read around the forums it lots of people end up having the mobo as the issue in this situation. So im somewhat at a loss as to whether to give a new cpu a try or just up and replace the whole core. I do have a basic power supply tester and it shows all green. Im assuming the PS is fine. So blah not sure where to go next with it. The 939 x2 above sounds like an ideal option if it is indeed the cpu only. But now im worried about the mobo possibility. Any local shops do quick hardware checks ? lol

Hello. The cpu on my backup box got "dust fragged" yesterday. So if anyone has a amd socket 939 cpu they are no longer using and want to sell, or even a motherboard and cpu, I'd be interested. Let me know what you have and whats your price. Im newegg shopping right now and will pick up a cheap am2 board and 64x2 cpu otherwise. They are only running like $50'ish dollars on the cpu and between $30 and $70 on the mobo depending on name & features. So Im looking to beat out those prices if you got used and lower spec. Wayne

What I wouldnt give for an honest to good auto run in shooters like we get in MMO's...

Yes dual core 6600. Do you have a link for the temp ranges then for the different steppings ? That would be supreme. As for the OC yes when I go to do the OC's properly I run a couple of the aggressive stress testers including Prime95, popping them on before I go to bed at night and see how they ride overnight. However after all the research I knew the 6600 would ride in the 3-3.2 ghz range pretty easily and stably for most users. My initial OC was just a lets see if it will quick, and peek at the temps. I havent run into anything thats needed to push the cpu that hard yet on my new box so havent bothered getting too hardcore with it yet. Crysis I know is gonna be a beast at it so mainly just preparing to up it when I start grabbing the new wave of games. Im in no hurry atm, lol.

Looked gorgeous. I'd be interested in seeing it. Cant fork for it yet but I can peek.

Im in then to support the shin-digs.

Cool I'll grab that in the morning. Also if anyone needs a demo copy of Stalker, I have one for the LAN. I dont know if I'd need patch v1.004 to go with it - not sure if they apply to demos. What a beast of a game single player though - I totally feel like I am playing an MMO shooter in it. Multiplayer seems like it will be nice.

The 49-51c was near idle. I didnt run any extensive software tests for stability, just got on and junked around a couple games, but didnt check temps uder full load. I wasnt trying to field a max'ed & stabilized OC, just was doing a quickie will it work OC, but I noted the temps and was wondering if that was a little high. I did some looking around but didnt see a good place for temp #'s. Basically just wondering what you'd expect on average from stock settings for temp, then for a 3, then 3.2 Ghz OC. 3.2 Ghz OC seemed fine. I was hoping to stick with stock for simplicity, but can grab an aftermarket if im running too hot.

Good deal ! Glad you are back in your groove Ill get crackin and see what games I can get my hands on. I only have BF2 and HL2 out of all those atm. But Im guessing FEAR is still a free download. Ive been itchin and hoping the new games would hit soon. Crysis, CoD 4, Quake Wars, all look interesting. I do have SC though for some reason Ive been in a funk with RTS's lately. Which is weird because I used to be a total RTS junkie !!! Couldnt stand shooters and now that seems to be what I play nowadays.

So what are considered good temps on the 6600 base and with OC ? I have a 6600 that i threw a couple quickie basic OC's on. It was running 49-51 c on stock after popping it up to 3.2 Ghz. I didnt find solid info on it yet, so backed it down until I run into some games that need it. Also for your mem are you running 1T or 2T. I was fine at 4-4-4-12 until I did 1T then I had issues. Back at 2T and fine.

Ha ha yea ! Ill take some of that 64 bit OS action too. Me and DaPoets can split it But that driver bit sounds a bit harsh

Wow sorry to hear you are having some health issues bob Hopefully you are in good shape and back at things right way I was hoping to make this one. If worse comes to worse I can see if the wife would let me offer up our place. Give me a chance to break in the new basement. The one area is pretty sizable and i have a pair of 6 footer and 1 5 footer table to add to the mix. The only hitch is that we have family in town next week, so I dont know if it will all work together, with extra in-laws about and a whole gaming crew in attendance, lol. Wife's call but I'll see if i can bribe her if needed, lol. Either way what are people playing nowadays ? I havent been to the last couple lan's so i'd need to install whats the current favorites.

Oh well Well with 32 bit OS you can still get up to 3.2 gigs of that 4 i believe. I guess the next question is does that create problems in itself - only using a portion of that of that 2nd 2 gigs. Its not like another 2 gigs is that expensive and would be an easy upgrade.

I enjoyed the server while it was rolling. I love having the vehicles in the game, ground pounding only gets boring pretty quick. I was an very active player on the server till it went through the ground only phase - i played it for a couple weeks then just got bored of that style. I of course still think air is grossly over-powered, but it is what it is I still fight against air but the lack of effective anti air makes you skulk around more than engaging in open combat when the air jockeys get going. I know it was my biggest gripe but seriously - everything in the game has a very effective counter. Air is the one element that you cant effectively counter. Especially if you get skilled pilots going. I loved tanking around and was pretty much hated for it But the tanks are soo easily killed compared to air its not even funny. Infantry can drop tanks very quickly - they cant do squat to air. Ground cant do squat to air (except of course my patented tank shell chopper dropper manevers, lol - but thats never a given), the rocket chairs can almost not do squat to air. The anti air tracks are really the ONLY effective counter, but then flares shut all that down pretty quickly. Personally imo if air didnt have flares - it would bring things back in line. Then at least the current anti air tools would actually work against air effectively I know theres all the arguements about real life combat etc, but in the end this is a game. When a game has elements that dont have a counter or balance - thats broken. Not unplayable, but sucks. Which of course is why the most popular and consistently populated servers end up being no air, or ground only, or small maps with limited air, or city maps with limited or no air.

Yea Im still very tempted to grab a 64 bit OS as well for the 4 Gig luv. Everything says driver support is essentially horrible so Ive been reluctant. Anyone know if the driver support problems have to do with the variety of peripheral devices or is there a lack for the core items like updated video, sound, and chipset drivers too ? On a bright note my new core2duo, 2 gigs, and 2900xt should go a ways in making a dent in Crysis settings. But 4 gigs...drool...

Work, family, life - oh well heres hoping i can do the next one

Yummies 1. Far Cry 2. CoD2 3. BF2 4. Quake Wars (if its out ? is it out now ?) 5. ?

I enjoy boardgaming However the social type games arent my speed Im more of a strategy board gamer -> Axis & Allies Or a RPG'ish gamer -> Talisman (basically D&D in boardgame format, pretty fast & fun) In all I like something with a little competition. If thats still okay then I'd be game to try out a game night. Thanky

I actually have an extra set of keys for BF2 & SF kicking around here you could use till then. Unless using them on your account ID would make EA flip and ban it for some reason. Is the new map on regular bf2 or one of the expansions ? Tanky !

j00 da man Pick a version and I'll make sure my comp is good to go next lan. Far Cary ftw. Zoar definately hit me up then next time you guys play im interested for sure. At the very least we can have a few games the next lan. Now I gotta start playing it again and get my skillz back up, lol.

I have to admit this game looks like a real winner !!! I can wait to play it.

Yep thats fine. I was still under the idea that we were trying to create a presence in the server to help keep it going. So I was sitting and hanging around thinking that was part of the idea. After a couple weeks with no one at all showing up thats when I came to the realization it was dead. So I stopped popping in at that point. I pop into the forums here for new chatter on the topics since this is where it was rooted. I'd be happy to see it back in action. I enjoy BF and SF quite a bit. So 'twas the point of my original post..."w00t its back on". If I undestood it the problem with building up a population on the server is really just having a core prescence there as much as possible. If people browsing servers always see 0 players or just 1 on a server they will skip over it. But if they see 4 or 5 and know a game will start with 6 players they'll jump in and then theres a good chance the server will pick up lots of players the more the game runs (since we need 6 to start a ranked game). If we only look at x-fire to see if anyones on the server and go in when we finally see someone, theres probably never going to be anyone there, and therefore never a game. People join where they see people. If they dont see anyone no one goes there and its a self perpetuating ghost town. Unless the goal is to have a server that we can hop on to play with each other occassionally that is.

I dont want to have an extended arguement at this point. I think I made my points clearly and am not looking to make this a recurring bashing thread. Ima bow out of this one now and hope for good will in the future. If thats not possible just IM me and that will be that. Thanks.

So how many weeks am I expected to login a couple times a night to an empty server. And then how many hours should I sit there waiting with 0 other people on the server ? So that month that I was coming onto the server almost every night for 2-6 hours counted for diddly yo ? You being and admin and trying to get the server up to where you want to see it - thats a different set of requirements and expectations. But even as just a casual clanner with the full load of RL responsibilities I was there quite a bit. Even nights when you were off playing on different servers and LoTR online I was in our server twiddling thumbs. People can take breaks, step away, whatever. Thats totally cool. Whats not cool giving me a slap just because the server was dead for a long time, and is in fact still dead. I spent a lot of time stopping in and hanging out. Even since I saw this post the other day Ive stopped in. I still havent seen anyone. Point of note - I like to play - yes I'd want to play - and yes doing it with a clan is cool - and heck yea Special Forces sounds awesome. All I was saying above is the servers been dead, and I havent been there in a couple weeks because there wasnt anyone there. Nothing more was implied by it.