Bad ATI Radeon 9600 Pro card?

[Erasmus-X]

Click on my rigs link to see my specs (this rig is named "Omega II").

I bought my Radeon 9600 Pro several months ago back when Star Wars Galaxies was released (my old Rage 128 Pro didn't support Hardware T&L). Ever since I got this card, I cannot seem to play a single 3D accelerated game without my system locking up or rebooting itself at some point. Sometimes it's just 5 minutes into a game or it'll take half an hour. Just to humor the situation, I plugged in my old Rage 128 Pro and suddenly, the problem no longer exists. Anyway, I let a whole semester of school go by and forgot about it, because I use my laptop 99% of the time during school. But now that I'm on break until the end of January, I want to start doing the stuff I didn't have time for (like playing JK Academy, for example).

So I started hunting around on ATI's website for help with the situation. My specific problem wasn't in their knowledge base, but they suggested updating to the latest Catalyst drivers and updating my motherboard chipset drivers. I did both, and the problem still won't go away. So my only conclusion is that my particular card HAS to be defective somehow.

I just wanted to get a second opinion before I decide to RMA my card to ATI.

 

[Mem]

If you think the card is defective try it in another PC,I would recommend you disable fastwrites both in BIOS and also in ATI control panel " Smartgart tab" since that can improve stability on some computers.

What PSU & motherboard do you`ve?

Btw make sure nothing is overclocked as well,also try Driver Cleaner from here to remove any old ATI driver files.

BIOS settings wise for tweaking you can disable all video shadowing,video ram cacheable,fastwrites as meantioned above,last I wouldn`t rule out cooling as well so try it with your case open,you`ve to start ruling out all possibilities.

 

[Erasmus-X]

I have an Antec SmartPower 350W PSU and an ASUS A7V8X motherboard. I disabled fast writes and set AGP down to 4X (these were also suggestions on ATI's website) in both the BIOS and in SMARTGART and I still have the same problem. My system will eventually lock up in a 3D game to where I actually have to hit the reset button to reboot my machine - very annoying. My old Rage 128 Pro never did this, but that card is ancient and runs all my new games like crap. My Catalyst drivers are version 3.10 (the most current) and they were freshly installed right after reformat/Windows reinstall. Therefore, there are no older Catalyst drivers floating around on my system.

As far as the cooling thing goes, my case is a bemehoth (Supermicro SC760A) and has more fans than it knows what to do with. Furthermore, I don't overclock any of my hardware, so excessive heat shouldn't be an issue, unless my 9600 Pro has a defective HSF (always possible).

I've never had so much trouble with a video card.

 

[McArra]

I would RMA it.

Edit: try it in another Pc first.

 

[Erasmus-X]

I would try it in another PC, but the only problem is that my other machine is an old Dell P2/400 that does not support 4X AGP cards. I guess I'll have to wait till I can try this card out on my friend's PC.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[lordtyranus2]

Try it in a friends PC.

 

[Regs]

He most been one of those who lost the "lottery"

 

[icyredsol8181]

smartgart off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[icyredsol8181]

i feel like a idiot...fastwrites off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had somwthing else on my mind.....