Possible graphics problems

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halmotors

New Member
Hey all, first post here on the boards, but I'm getting a bit desperate. Recently, I bought an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card, as my old 8500LE just wasn't cutting it any more. The install went fine, as did the installation of the Catalyst drivers. I downloaded the latest ones, just to be sure.

That was a few weeks ago. The card has been running flawlessly ever since...or at least, until now.

Now, during the middle of playing a game, at total random (or so far as I can tell it's random...) the computer will seem to shut down. Absolutely no sounds emanate from my case...not even fan noise. The power light is still on, however. When I push the button, the computer appears to start normally, with all the usual noises coming from the case. A few seconds afterwards, however, it seems to shut back down again. No noise, but the power light is on. What I end up having to do is to push the power button, then very quickly push and hold it down for a forced shutdown. This time, it shuts down and the power light turns off. When I turn it on again, it starts normally. It gives me a Hardware Error notice, and tells me to either press F1 to continue startup, or Delete to enter setup.

XP loads properly, and performs and displays properly, until I try to play a game again. Then it does the whole process all over again.

As this is the first time I've had this happen, I'm assuming it's my graphics card that is causing the problem, although I'll be hornswoggled if I can figure out what to do about it.

Here are the system specs I think are relates to the problem (don't laugh too hard...):

Windows XP Home
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ processor
Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card
SyncMaster 955DF flatscreen monitor
256 megs RAM

Not sure of the motherboard type.

Anyway, any input would be much appreciated. I'm at my wits end, trying to get this fixed. Luckily I have a laptop to keep me occupied, but it's just not the same :(

Thanks in advance!
 
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halmotors

New Member
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and I have no additional heating than what the computer came with. The card has the usual fan on top, and the case itself has 2 fans on the back (not sure what size off the top of my head) in addition to the power supply fan. No aftermarket fans or water cooling systems.
 
jancz3rt

jancz3rt

<b>VIP Member</b>
Well..

Could be the temps. Try checking (without touching) for the heat by putting your hand close to where the chip is. If you feel immense heat, it is overheating.... and you may need to change the fan. However, it could also be a fault of the card, although I doubt that. I would also check that the GFX is strongly settled in the AGP slot. I cannot think of anything else.. I hope that someone else will suggest some more.

JAN :D
 
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halmotors

New Member
I opened the case and checked out the temps in there...it's not too hot over the chip, both on the card and on the mobo. What I'm going to do is rearrange my pci cards to see if I can't get them into a better arrangement for temps, and try leaving the side of the case open for a little bit. If that doesn't work, well...I dunno.
 
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Bobo

banned
I have the same type of prob with my FX5200 on some games (not extensive at all), and I have installed a fan on the hs, but it didn't do any good. It also seems to only have 8bit color for the games, too, so I can barely see anything...:mad:
 
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halmotors

New Member
Well, the card is working wonderful. I can crank all the details up on Sims 2 and it handles it no problem, and renders everything beautifully. It's just this little shutdown problem that's bugging me.

If the entire computer is shutting down, would that possibly be a problem with the mobo or power supply? Wouldn't overheating the card simply cause display issues?
 
B

Bobo

banned
halmotors said:
If the entire computer is shutting down, would that possibly be a problem with the mobo or power supply? Wouldn't overheating the card simply cause display issues?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily..

What is your psu voltage?
 
Yeti

Yeti

VIP Member
If the entire computer is shutting down, would that possibly be a problem with the mobo or power supply? Wouldn't overheating the card simply cause display issues?
Click to expand...
Actually that was my first thought when reading your posts but I didn't think that the 9800 uses that much power (I could be wrong on that). What kind of power supply do you have and have you watched the voltage rails at all to see if they're steady?
 
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Tommydukes

Guest
check the voltage its set to in the bios. I had to set mine to 1.6 to stop the shutting down. dont jump the voltage to that though, start one tick at a time. this in a last case scenario, because its a little risky. good luck






free Ipod shuffle here -----> http://www.FreeiPodShuffle.com/?r=14508065
 
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halmotors

New Member
1) Whereabouts in the ATI tray tool would I look for the temp readings on the card?

2) How do I check the voltage rails?

3) The power supply is an Apollo 300w

I suppose upgrading the psu would be a good idea anyway, since it's kind of a small one. It's running a bunch of stuff, so is it possible it's being overloaded?
 
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tomprice43

New Member
the official ATI tray tool has a section on temperature, 300w isnt enough to run a high spec computer, so considor upgrading to a 500w at least.
 
Yeti

Yeti

VIP Member
1. I'm not sure if plain/Pro cards have temp sensors on them (I definitely could be wrong) I know XT models have a temp reading because it automatically overclocks depending on the temp

2. Hardware Monitor

3. That might be a little low. I'm not really familiar with Apollo either.

Upgrading the PSU -> not a bad idea
 
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halmotors

New Member
I was looking at this as a power supply. It's a very cool idea, one that I'm surprised we haven't seen more of. It definitely gets rid of the clutter inside a case. This is what the inside of my case looks like right now...

DSCF0275.jpg


HMonitor is showing my Core and AUX voltage as red boxes. They're around 1.79v. Is that bad? :confused:
 
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