9800 np causing reboots in BF1942 and DC (not sure about other games)

[LesPaul]

I'm just gonna C/P my posts over @ rage3d forums, since it doesn't look like anyone's even lookin at my post, and you guys seem to be more helpful and quicker response times anyways:

I just upgraded from a gf4 ti4200 to a 9800 non pro - one of those Circuit City sale ones- and everything's running sweet, except for DC .50. BF1942 runs without a hitch for hours, but for some reason DC will cause my PC to reboot. I'm using the latest omega drivers with nothing overclocked, fast writes disabled.

This is the first ATi video card i've ever owned, so i'm not too up on tweaking/troubleshooting then. Should I try a different driver, or is there a hotfix for this?

My specs:
WinXP SP1
AMD 2500+ @ 211x10.5 (2.2 GHz)
2x512 MB Corsair PC3200 2-2-3-11
Abit NF7-S rev 2.0 - latest BIOS - using Soundstorm APU
36 GB WD Raptor
ATi Radeon 9800 - all stock

Its got to be a video card/driver issue since I had no troubles playing DC on my old Ti4200, and figured this is the best place to get Radeon help.

Thanks for any help resolving this issue.



Well, I guess it also happens in stock BF1942 also. I played from 7pm to 11:30pm and was abruptly interrupted by a reboot. System is rock stable in every benchmark, game, stress test, etc I can put to it with my 4200 in it. This card looks very nice and runs very smooth, but if i can't get it stable its no good to me, since I play BF1942 competitively.. for it to reboot on me at a crucial time in a match would not be good.

I think it MAY be an overheating issue.. the heatsink is very loose. I can actually twist it a few degrees each direction, and also rock it side-to-side so its not sitting flat on the core.. This is one of those Circuit City 9800's that were on sale for 199, and they are out of stock.. should I try to go back to Circuit City, ask for a replacement (maybe get lucky and score a 9800 pro since they are OOS), or get an RMA from ATi? Or is this loose stock HS/F normal for these cards?

 

[McArra]

There is a hotfix for Cat 3.9s but you're using omegas, so this might a different issue you have. Somebody will help you. Just wait a little and good luck (have you tried another version of omegas to see if that works?).

 

[LesPaul]

Naw, I haven't had much time to do any thourough trouble-shooting. First half of the week my free time during the nights is usually filled with scrims and matches for BF1942. Hopefully wed I'll be able to experiment with different drivers and whatnot. I set my CPU down to 200x11 instead of 211x10.5 to see if maybe it was a memory error or something... Haven't had a chance to test that out (even though I'd rather leave all my BIOS - CPU/Frequency settings the way they were; 11 MHz FSB isn't that big of a deal if it gets my video card stable). Doubt that will change anything since AGP is locked @ 66 and I never had stability probs with old card, but worth a shot i guess.

 

[Camofrog]

Part of ATI 's probs with they're cards is they're cooling solutions, I'm an avid BF1942 player as well and i used to have a ATI Radeon 9000 pro, i never O/C it and it ran ok in BF1942, i was using the same updated drivers. but it had this dinky little fan heatsink and if it werent for all the other fans i had in my case im supprised it wouldnt have cooling probs. that heatsink issue you were talking about might be something to look into.
In the mean time im holding out for a 9800XT pro soon.

 

[LesPaul]

I really like the looks of that arctic cooling silencer VGA heatsink/fan.. but dropping another 30 bucks to cool this card just so it will run kinda defeats the good deal i got on the card...

 

[Matthias99]

the heatsink is very loose. I can actually twist it a few degrees each direction, and also rock it side-to-side so its not sitting flat on the core..

Uh... that's bad. You need to RMA that card; usually those things are bolted/glued on there pretty tight.

Part of ATI 's probs with they're cards is they're cooling solutions, I'm an avid BF1942 player as well and i used to have a ATI Radeon 9000 pro, i never O/C it and it ran ok in BF1942, i was using the same updated drivers. but it had this dinky little fan heatsink and if it werent for all the other fans i had in my case im supprised it wouldnt have cooling probs.

The RADEON 9XXX series have much smaller heatsinks/fans than the GeForce4/FX cards because they run much cooler to begin with. Especially the 9600 variants, since they're on a .13 micron process. You can run a RADEON 9800 Pro fanless on a Zalman passive heatsink cooler without a problem, so if you're having heat issues, it's from a badly mounted heatsink.