Radeon 9800 pro video problem

[swatoke]

My wife plays World of Warcraft and has been having problems with her video card. It is a Radeon 9800 pro 128mb agp. I made sure it had a dedicated power rail. It will go to black screen and freezes or just reboot only while playing a game, no error message. It may work fine for several hours or even a full day. I have checked the temps and they are fine. We have used a spare Radeon 9200 card for several months and the computer works fine. I don't know if there are some adjustments I can make in the bios or within the Radeon software. I have the newest driver installed (Catalyst 7.4). This card has given us problems ever since we bought it new. I should have returned it right after we purchased it but I thought the problems were related to the game (Everquest at that time). So I guess I'm either looking for some suggestions on possible solutions or recommendations for a card that would perform better than the 9200 for less than $150.

Here is her system:

Abit VI7 motherboard
P4 2.8ghz
1gb kingston value ram
Radeon 9800 pro 128mb agp
Antec SmartPower 500W Power Supply
Windows XP

 

[tank171]

This is probably the best you will get for under 150 for AGP x8. I dont know much about this particular card, but it is the fastest for under 150, and AGP limits your options a lot.

 

[Trashman]

I had a "somewhat" similar situation with a Radeon 9500 pro, computer would slam down playing game, didn't matter which game either, would occur just like you anywhere from an 1hr to whenever.
I had a spare PSU laying around and it's been fine ever since. It could be your video card, but if you can try another PSU, I would suggest trying it.
The odd thing about all that, I'm still using that old PSU in 1 computer as well as that 9500pro in yet another...both have been fine last 2 years.
Could be just a odd combonation of hardware that causes it to "freak" out.

 

[Captante]

If you want to spend roughly $150 then don't even consider a 7600GS because you can get one of those for a lot less money ... here are some better choices:


SAPPHIRE 100209L Radeon X1950GT 256MB @ $155 + $6 shipping
(as long as your power supply can handle it this is by far your best choice ... you'll need a strong 450 watt model)


Leadtek WinFast A7600GT TDH 256MB Geforce 7600GT @ $159 + $6 shipping
(before $20 Mail-in rebate ... almost as fast as the X1950GT above & requires a lot less power)


EVGA 256-A8-N542-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB @ $109 + $6 shipping
(considerably slower then either of the above, but faster then a 9800 Pro ... has the same lifetime warranty as the over-priced BFG)


ASUS AX1650PRO/HTD/256M/A Radeon X1650PRO 256MB @ $107 + $6 shipping
(roughly the same performance as the 7600GS but has better cooling & improved image quality)

 

[swatoke]

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions. We had an Enermax 365w power supply in her computer that seemed to be working fine. When we started having problems after installing the 9800 pro we bought the Antec 500w power supply. The problem with freezing and rebooting did not change. Any way we decided to buy a new video card, ordered the Radeon X1650 PRO. We decided since it is an older computer we didn't want to dump the extra $50 for the better card. Thanks again for the help