Problem with Radeon 9500 Pro

[trunks199]

i just recently bought a ATI Radeon 9500 Pro and went to intel to update my chipset, got the latest ATI drivers, removed my old Nvidia drivers (with Driver Cleaner), and installed it.

After installation it (update drivers and all that) it would work for awhile, then it would start having problems, such as:

-After reboot, Windows tells me there was a serious error with my Radeon 9500/9700 card.

-My computer would freeze for awhile then set the resolution to the lowest.

-When I run a 3d game (Ex: Ragnarok Online), or program (such as 3dMark)it would freeze and reset the computer.

I even went through the process of re-installing Windows XP. I thought that solved the problem because I was able to run all the tests for 3dMark03 (not a very impressive score, but it did way much more better than my GeForce 3)and get an hour of play with Ragnarok Online. Then problems arouse after installing service pack 1, but then I did a Fresh installment of XP again (formating my Windows partition) and still couldn't run a single test on 3dMark.

Here's my specs:
It's a Gateway, just to let you know

1600 P4
640 MB Rambus
Intel (Monterrey) Motherboard
350W Enermax PSU
Windows XP (w/Service Pack)
2 WD HDs (40 GB and 80 GB)
lite on DVD
16x CD Burner

Is it my power supply? ATI says at least a 300. I even disconnect my fans and dvd burner to see if that would help. Is it a combatibility issue? Please help. I love the card so much, great for watching DVDs and awesome performance/quality with games.

 

[nlm9802]

how are your temps? running 3d apps tends to heat that video card up quick. What kind of cooling do you have in place? I rigged my system (p4 3.06, radeon 9700 pro, 512Mb Corsair PC3200, WD 40GB 7200 rpm, liteon 48x12x48 cdrw, dell 16x dvd in a koolance liquid cooled case.
It has 3 tops fans for the radiator, 2 rear fans to suck hot air out, a fan on the video card, a fan to the side of the card blowing air across it over the memory, and another fan on the front of the card blowing air across it towards the rear fans.

I guess the first thing to check would be, do you have the latest drivers for the motherboard and video card? latest bios for the motherboard? in bios, is the card set to 4x agp (or is the 9500 pro 8x?)
How hot is the cpu at idle? under load?
" " video card " "

if everything appears fine.. go out and buy a 400-550W power supply. they can be had fairly cheap, usually less than 40$. swap out power supplies and see if that makes a difference. If not, try removing all components, and adding only what is necessary.. motherboard, cpu, ram, video, hard drive. If it works fine after that, add components one by one. If not, try removing the motherboard and reseating it, taking care to ensure it stays elevated off the case.

If after all that, it still doesn't work, I would look into getting a new motherboard, something like an asus, soyo, or gigabyte would be more ideal for gaming. Your other components look good, just make sure the new motherboard supports your ram, or you'll need new ram too.

 

[trunks199]

I have one fan in front and a fan on the side, with two rear fans blowing hot air out of the case. I removed my dvd player, fans and phone modem (should of done that when i bought the computer) and still crashes. I install the latest bios I can get from Gateway's site, but how can I identify my motherboard so i can check at Intel's website? My temps are about 20-40 C. I can't really change the AGP on my BIOS, but with ATI Control Panel its set at 4X (I tried 2X, and 1X). umm... I'll try reseating the board, that might help. As for upgrading the power supply, I'll borrow my friend's power supply, see if that helps. I was in the thoughts of getting a new mobo, too... maybe asus.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

 

[nlm9802]

ok, I'd say 95% it's probably a motherboard driver that you need
look for any markings on the motherboard that might tell you what it is (besides intel).
do you still have the invoice from gateway? they should list the model number, or you can give them a call and see if they can look it up for you.
you want all the updated drivers you can find, and any bios updates that relate to problems you're having.
specifically look for anything related to memory and agp.

If you're up for it, I would recommend an asus or soyo, both have excellent support and performance.

good luck

 

[trunks199]

The invoice sucked, said Intel Pentium 1600Mhz with Motherboard. The good thing about Gateway is their website which gives you more of an indepth describtion.

here's what i got:
The Intel® 850 chipset consists of the following devices:
82850 Memory controller hub (MCH) with accelerated hub architecture (AHA) bus
82801BA I/O controller hub (ICH2) with AHA bus
82802AB Firmware hub (FWH)

as for calling, i've had terrible experiences with them before. lol... but i'll give it a try again.

well, i've been trying to win an asus board from ebay, with no luck. does dual channel really make a big difference? just wondering because i can't decide on what type of motherboard i want.

 

[AntiProxy]

i've had the exact same problem with an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro on a Gigabyte GA-NI8XP based system with a P4 2.4Ghz CPU (1GB RAM)

the solution for the occasional freezing was surely to reduce the AGP bus speed from 8X to 4X and 3D games no longer crash my system anymore.
i know that isn't an ultimate solution, but unfortunatly, i didn't find any better options.

as for the occasional driver crashes, followed by this error:
"Windows - System Error : Microsoft Windows detected and recovered from a device failure. Please save your work and reboot to restore full functionality."
i still can't figure out what causes this, but today i noticed my system started acting up after enabling TV-Out display.. while it has been ok for quite a while b4 i did that
i wonder if TV-Out is causing this..

i've contacted ATI support regarding this case,
also, i have posted a question here on this same forum with way more details..
thread749-553340 hope this helps

 

[trunks199]

ok... i gave up and decided to build a whole new system. It was fun and worth while and it kicks a lot of bootie.