Quake3World

My powermac has been running fine, at least as far as I could tell until this afternoon. I installed SimCity 4 and the expansion pack, and realized its a bit choppy. I didnt care much, and restarted my machine, but the choppiness was still there. I would figure this is becuase of system load or whatever, but the choppiness is accompanied by a high-pitched hiss sound that is in sync with the observed visual choppiness. I dont think this is supposed to happen. I figured I'd see if any sounds occur with Q3, and the hiss is constantly there when I focus on large parts of the arena. Its constant, and I'm getting ~250FPS or so (com_maxfps set to 250). When I look at a wall and get a solid 250FPS the sound isnt there, but when I look away and focus on more stuff in the arena the hiss becomes noticable, and its relatively constant. This is telling me there's some problem with the video hardware, but I'm not sure. Has anyone else heard of this happening? Any suggestions?

Hissing is usually a bad sign that preceeds a "sudden death" situation of some electric part. I had a switch that started hissing, until some day, it popped.
Being an electronics layperson, I'd say it's some capacitor or transistor that, when going bad, starts to make physical noise.

Do you have access to another graphics card to test, if it's a problem on the card hardware, as opposed to the VRM on the mainboard?

I dont have any other AGP GPUs that are mac compatible. I spent a shitload on this Geforce6800, so I'm really hoping its not going to blow on me.

Sure hope so too. Have to checked if it's seated properly, or if any connectors/cables are not fitted as tight, as they should? What about the coolerfan? could it be that?

hey G-News
wb btw!
:icon28:

I just got some RAM for the thing that came in today, so when I install that I'll give the card a jiggle and ensure its seated. I'll also take a compressed air can and blow out the connections of any dust accumulation.

I put my ear to the thing today and it sounds like the sound is coming from around the RAM. I'm not sure if it's the RAM itself or the MB, but it doesnt sound like the video card.

I'd pull the video card and take it to a service center pronto.

FWIW, my ADC monitor had my Mac making relay type noises. I replaced the monitor with a DVI-I one and all is well.

Perhaps it's something similar?

Yesterday the comp had some pretty wierd behavior, such as Mail and Quicktime unexpectedly quitting right after I launched those apps. MirrorAgent would also hang, causing a systemwide slowdown. Looks like i'm in for a backup session followed by a system re-install. I'll back up in the following days and re-format this weekend, preferrably when I'm drunk.

fuck yeah! i still use that cabbage soup recipe of yours!

I dont eat cabbage soup...

Well would that stop you handing out recipes while drunk?

Article on bac capacitors
Could be your problem but hope it's not.

cheers

Hm, could be bad RAM too of course, from what you describe. Generally sounds like you'll have to take it to the mech, if it doesn't fix itself after reinstalling

WB all:)