Radeon 9600 Pro, hangs computer when 3D kicks in

[Peroxyde]

Hi,

I am trying to fix a 4 years old computer (Intel D 830, 1 GB Ram, Mobo Biostar P4M800Pro-M7) which has a Saphir Radeon 9600 Pro. The machine is in unstable conditions, I wonder if it is the video card. Here are the symptoms:

- sometime doesn't post (screen blank but probably HD boots OK as I hear the HD noise)

- when it boots OK. Under Windows XP, Catalyst "Legagy" version 10.2. Using Burn in Test 6.0 standard, if I test video 3D, the computer hangs right away. Power off is the only option.

- Under Linux, the computers sometimes works, sometimes not, after boot, and the desktop comes up, the mouse is frozen in the middle of the screen and the computer hang (power off is the only way out).

Question: is it possible that a video card has something wrong in the 3D part and is able to hang a computer?

Can you please suggest a way to determine if a video card is faulty?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[dguy6789]

Simplest way to determine if the video card is the problem is to stick a different video card in and see if the problem persists.

 

[Peroxyde]

Simplest way to determine if the video card is the problem is to stick a different video card in and see if the problem persists.

There is an onboard video chip with very low features. I tried it a for few minutes, not extensively. But I am afraid the instabilities problem I am dealing with may be not the video card. The Burn In Test hung after 10 minutes and video 3D was not tested.

May be this is a CPU overheating. The CPU is a D830, 90 nm, 130 W
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL8CN

I set the Bios to shutdown at 80 degree Celcius (176 F). During the short test I made temp didn't reach that level. I really have no clue what could make the computer hang, but I am pretty sure that it's a hardware issue.

 

[SolMiester]

mouse freeze, system hang or freeze is usually attributed to memory issues, however the black screen but HDD activity sounds like video issues...

 

[dualsmp]

If you can bump the AGP voltage .05v in BIOS, I'd try that first.

My Sapphire 9600 XT won't post at 1.5v, but if I bump the voltage to 1.55 it's ok.

 

[Peroxyde]

Thank you gentlemen for your quick help. I tried dguy6789 suggestion (try another video card) I am using the low end onboard video chip (S3 UniChrome). Prime95 now can run past 10 minutes but still hangs at about 25 minutes, CPU temp stabilized at 67 degrees C (153 F).

May be the bios of the motherboard won't allow me to change the voltage http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdetails.asp?model=p4m80-m7

Will try to test RAM, replace CPU cooler to see what happen.

 

[dguy6789]

Sounds like a memory issue from everything you have mentioned so far.

 

[Sylvanas]

Perhaps a slight bump in CPU/memory/chipset voltage if you find the memory to be good. Run Memtest86+ on the memory to determine if it's bad.

 

[Peroxyde]

Perhaps a slight bump in CPU/memory/chipset voltage if you find the memory to be good. Run Memtest86+ on the memory to determine if it's bad.

Memtest86+ v2.11, four passes successful. May be the memory module is shaky in the slot? Will try to change for another slot if that could help anything.