In desperate need of help

[Medicated858]

Okay my cousin just got a Radeon 9800 pro oem from allstarshop. He says that his comp is crashing all the time. He said that when he played the call of duty demo it just crashed.

Specs:
xp 2700
abit NF7
512 ddr333
sapphire oem 9800 pro.

Hes got the new cats. he switched from a Ti500 that gave him alot of trouble. Id like to save him the restocking fee, but I dont know whats wrong. Does he need to reformat his HD? Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[Medicated858]

Okay heres an update even though no replys yet. He tried turning on agp 8x in bios and atis control panel and no dice. Is it his mobo? Oh yeah he got under 5000 marks in 3dmark03.

 

[John P]

You say the Ti500 gave him troubles, was the machine stable before he switched video cards or not? What OS is he running? What other components are in the computer?

 

[Corporate Thug]

what power supply? this is either a PSU issue or a heat issue. what are the CPU temps?

 

[Medicated858]

Hes running winxp and has an audigy gamer, 60 gig maxtor, cd-rom and all that. The old ti 500 was shady in that it gave him artifacts on textures. It crashed alot but i figured that since the ti500 looked like it was smoked that that was the problem with his comp. He just told me he just switched his power supply to a radimax 350 watt. And that fastwrite is on. So could it be fastwrite maybe, or a cheap psu? Thanks for your help.

 

[Medicated858]

i know his comp does tend to run hot. But he has an air conditioner in his room. he says the temp is 120 f.

 

[LordOfAll]

if it is a heat issue you could have him try leaving the case open and blow a fan on it. if that works have him get a new case. also, did he hook up the aux power connector to the 9800?

 

[John P]

Make sure nothing is overclocked.
Reload DX9.0 (www.microsoft.com/directx)
Reload Audigy Drivers
Reload Video Drivers
Uninstall/Reload Windows Media Player

Test

Still broke

Remove sound card and everything else except video card.

Test

Still broke

Find a known good video card

Test

Still broke.

Use good video card, try swapping power supplies with a good 420W.

Still broke

Uh oh.... motherboard or RAM?

Also, try video card in a know stable computer if possible.