Knowing we have some smart folks around here, I figured I'd see if any of you out there could help me with a problem..

Before I begin, I should probably mention that I have a Dell Dimension 9200 or something, and the graphic card is an Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS..

Last month, after Seril that *** got me to buy Fallout 3, I began getting errors that my graphic card isn't recieving enough power. Now, I've never had this problem before, and it didn't start appearing until about 20 hours into the game. So, asking me, that makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Now, I figure it's not so bad, and don't bother doing anything for a bit. But it gets worse, as instead of the single message popping up, I suddenly start getting 10-20 messages at once, which lags my computer up horribly..

So first I try to update my graphic card drivers, but it still happens. Now, I do get something new, namely another error, saying something about "NvCpl.dll" are making issues aswell.. After a little checking up, I find out that NvCpl.dll has something to do with the Nvidia control-something-or-other. At this point, I open the PC and unplug and replug the power suply to my graphic card, uninstall and reinstall my driver, reupgrade..

Finally, I manually deleted NvCpl.dll and reinstall the drivers, and it suddenly worked fine again. Until last night, where exactly the same problem started up again. I tried the same things (all of them), and it didn't help what so ever this time. I was recommended on the Nvidia boards to try clean the card itself from dust, but I haven't gotten around to it, and can't until Monday (the only store nearby that sells compressed air were sold out..).. But I figured some of you smart folks may have a solution, so I wanted to post here.

Just to show how bad it is, I took a screenshot earlier (before shutting off my desktop until further notice, as it saddens me greatly that I'm unable to do anything on it).

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/ ... rerror.jpg

In advance, thanks for anything offering aid. To those who can't help, thanks for at least reading!

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

Haha, my bad! I had no idea your computer wouldn't be able to handle Fallout.

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"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room.
There was a knock at the door."
-Frederic Brown

That's the thing, my computer -can- handle it. I may have overburdened it a little, but this error still doesn't make much sense to me.. I guess I'll have to switch the graphic card, though, to see if that works.. But it'll have to wait until tomorrow, and until then, I'm open to alternative suggestions!

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

I completely agree that these problems seem like they don't stem from insufficient hardware. Rather, it sounds like a technical problem with your graphics card. Or, alternatively, a problem with your power supply. However, the latter seems like it'd give you problems across the board, not only with the card. However, I have nothing but educated guesses to offer you. My insticts say hardware error, though, not software problem.

For what it's worth, your graphics card, although past the minimum requirements of F3, are still well below the recommended ones. I don't see how that would have much of an impact, but still.

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Mary Maywell, Ravenclaw, Resident Ray of Sunshine
Also, some other dudes I barely play.

Is your power supply old? Or is as old as you graphic card? For that kind of card you need to have a big power supply. Maybe try conecting your computer to another power socket, for it can be a problem in that power socket. And try to find out if your power supply is the recommended for your computer.
Well if is nothing to do with the power supply, well, i would say maybe is a problem on your PCI slot and so your motherboard, or is your graphic card that is wacked up, and you better change it.

It all came with the computer, the power suply and the card. It's about a year and a half old, so it doesn't seem like it'd be losing power yet. I know the card is rather minimum for Fallout, but the fact that I was running for so long without any problems kinda make it all a little weird. It's likely an issue with my graphic card which I'm unwilling to admit. I have an extra one laying around too, just haven't gotten around to changing it. But I wouldn't be surprised if that solves it.

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

Sounds like your card is f'd, yeah. Swap cards, see if that works.

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Mary Maywell, Ravenclaw, Resident Ray of Sunshine
Also, some other dudes I barely play.

I did, and it seems to be working now.. Annoying, but I figured it would work. I guess I should call Dell and get a new extra.

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

LOL @ Dell
Dell = Hell

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From what I've seen in America, Dell works very differently in the two countries.

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

I love Dell. All my computers have been Dell, and they're generally well working, affordable machines with little problems. Maybe I've just been lucky.

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Mary Maywell, Ravenclaw, Resident Ray of Sunshine
Also, some other dudes I barely play.

Same here.
(Apart from my laptop, that's Toshiba)
All my Desktops (Apart from the really old one) have been Dell, so I guess I've been super lucky too...

Same. We have a computer which is like.. 10 years old, a Dell, and it's still running without any problems. More or less. It's kinda slow.

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.