Problems with Ati 9550 and Compaq

[jeepnut24]

Ok kinda a newb question, but we are having serious issues and don't know where to turn.

Ati 9550 256Mb AGP
Presario SR1030NX
2.16 GHz Athlon XP 3000+
512 MB RAM
Windows XP Home Edition

400Watt power supply

We have unistalled the onboard video drivers. The Bios has a PCI option and an AGP/On Board option. We selected the AGP/On Board. Plugged the 9550 in and tried to install the drivers and catalyst. We have also upgraded the power supply to an Antec 400Watt unit. We upgraded the bios to the latest version. Windows will boot, and we can play about 5 minutes of a game and then the screen shuts off. Not the PC, just the screen. Any help would be greatly appreicated. We don't know where to turn from here. The board says it supports 4x/8x agp??

Thanks a million

 

[FlyingPenguin]

I presume this mobo originally had on-board video? If so, did you disable it in BIOS (if there's a setting for it) or disable in Window's Device manager?

Does it only blank when playing games? Never on the desktop? If so I'd suspect the video card is overheating. Those Compaq's are rather cramp inside. Try leaving the cover off the computer case and see if it helps.

Why did you replace the PSU? Somce of these OEM systems don't use standard PSUs (although if it POSTs you're probably okay) and you certainly aren't drawing enough power with an ATI9550 to warrant upgrading the PSU. This is not a high performance video card.

May just be a bad card, or may just be the usual woes of trying to upgrade a Compaq. Those computers just aren't designed to be upgraded.

Hope this helps...

 

[jeepnut24]

Well first off, we tried to turn off the on board in the bios. However the options where PCI and AGP/On Board..
We uninstalled the drivers for the onboard card from the device manager.

Ill try leaving the cover off.

The original PSU was only 250Watts and clearly not enough for everything in the machine. The upgrade works just fine and is only a bit longer than the OEM.

We plan to swap out the case for a larger case. I guess we could work on a GPU fan also. The card shipped with simply a heat sink?

Any other suggestions?

And yes, things seem fine when simply running windows. It only dies when you are about 5 minutes into the game.

 

[montag451]

Local heat problem?
Maybe the graphics card fan isn't fast enough - Does the card feel hot to the touch - and no, don't touch any traces or metal bits - or the spinning bit in the middle ;-)

 

[jeepnut24]

The stock ATI 9550 doesn't have an active fan, it simply has a heat sink.

Any suggestions on a fan would be great though.

 

[montag451]

Maybe a strong case fan, and you can also get pci fans that may help - just make sure you get one facing your card.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

DO NOT uninstall the onboard drivers. This is a common mistake. If you do you leave a device that's using resources in device manager with no proper drivers for it.

If you can't disable the onboard in Bios then DISABLE (do not uninstall) the onboard video. If you've uninstalled the drivers, re-install them and then disable the device in the Device Manager.

I doubt that's your problem though, but it's possible.

Just leave the cover off, if that makes a difference (runs longer before crashes, or never crashes) then you know it's a heat issue. You can always strap a small 486 size CPU fan onto the heatsink with nylon ties which may be enough.

 

[jeepnut24]

Every install walk through Ive seen calls for uninstalling the old drivers. I can't disable it in the bios, and we'll try to disable it again in device manager. The problem is if you boot with the card then you don't see the onboard in the device manager.???

We'll have to try running it with the side off and see what happens.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Doesn't matter what card you boot with, both cards show up in device manager. That's normal. If the driver's not installed for the onboard then it shows up as an "Other" device. Either way it's potentially using resources. Best to leave it installed and then right click on it and disable it.

 

[jeepnut24]

Ill check again, but last time it didnt' show up in the device manager, only the ATI card.

Thank you for the help BTW.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Some mobos automatically disable the onboard via BIOS when it detects an add-on card, so if it doesn't show up - even as an "other" device, then you're cool.

 

[jeepnut24]

Any other suggestions to go along with the cooling? I check the mobo specs and it supports 4x/8x AGP. But there doesn't seem to be a way to tweak any of the AGP settings in the BIOS.

 

[jeepnut24]

Well doesn't seem to be a cooling problem. Ran with the side off and still died about 5 minutes into it.

 

[Fardringle]

Do you have another AGP video card you can try? Even if it's not specifically overheating, it really does sound like a problem with the video card itself.

 

[jeepnut24]

We tried an old Geforce 2 AGP card and it worked just fine.