• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Random Restarts with new video card

I

i0nical

Junior Member
I'm getting pretty desparate here.

I just got a new Radeon 9700 Pro and popped it into my computer and reformatted (because it has been almost half a year since I last reformatted).

I was getting pretty excited about testing this new card. After reformatting, I updated Windows XP Pro to SP2 because the ATI drivers recommend it and I installed the newest Catalyst drivers too (5.4).

I installed and loaded up Lineage II and right when it was supposed to start the 3D animations, my computer crashed and restarted. I tried to boot it up a few more times and it'd always crash at the same spot.

I installed and tried Age of Mythology to make sure it wasn't just a Lineage II problem. This time, the game would load up well and fine (probably because L2 is much more demanding on graphics). I could play for maybe about 5 minutes until the computer would crash and restart again. I tried to play it again a few times and it always ended up the same way.

So, this leads me to thinking it's a problem with the Radeon 9700 Pro (obviously because I didn't get these problems before adding the new video card in). I uninstalled the official ATI graphics drivers, restarted the computer, and then installed Omega's modified drivers. The results were the same -- computer would crash and restart on 3D graphics.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem might be or any other ideas I could try?


I'm running:

ECS L4VXA2
P4 2.4GHz
1GB PC2700 RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Antec Truepower 430W PSU
 
Hello. i play Lineage 2 as well =) bartz 4 life any way it soudns like your power supply is the problem, Sounds like your 12 volt raisl mite be dipping into the red. To chekc this get motehr board monitor 5 and then run Lineage 2 se how the 12 volt raisl do, they shoudltn go below 11.90 very much if they dip alot and go way down thats your problem.

2nd reason could be overheating, get atitool and see how hot your video card is running, u cna check your case temperatures and your cpu temperatures with motehr board monitor 5 when uj have those results post them here.
 
Screw ATI Tool. The best way to check is to touch your video card heatsink right when it crashes. If it's hot enough to burn your finger, then it's too hot. If you don't, then it's fine.
 
Hi and thanks mechBgon. 🙂

#1: I sure did plug the power cable. The retail ATI card won't boot up without the power cable.
#2: Yup, I've got the four-pin cable hooked up to the motherboard too.
#3: I believe I did, but I downloaded it and installed it just now to make sure.

The problems keep persisting though. However, instead of the computer crashing at the first sign of 3D graphics, sometimes the games will just crash and go back to windows. L2 sometimes will just crash and restart the computer though. I think the newest Omega drivers let me get this far.


Hmm, I don't think the PSU is the problem. I just bought it after class today. 😛

Here are the results from Motherboard Monitor 5. According to MBM 5, my CPU has hit 167°F. I don't think it's the CPU's problem because I've been switching in my GeForce FX5200 card in when I get fed up with trying to fix the Radeon and I can run all my games fine and leave L2 on overnight.


I touched the video card's heatsink after the computer crashed during L2 and it seems fine. It's a tiny bit warm, but definitely not hot.
 
Your computer is extremly underpowered
http://img85.echo.cx/img85/5171/mbm54vj.jpg el problem pic

Those values should be above 12 99% of the time. When they are under load they shouldnt be below 11.50 and we as u can see OMFG.
Now im not saying the ps unit is to blame, but this is however a power issue.

Theory
1 The ps unit is a piece of s*** ( Return the ps )
2 Some otehr device is eating up all your power ( Break apart the pc and run it at bare min )
3 Your Mobo drivers arent regulating power properly ( make sure you have the latest mobo drivers installed )
4 Your ps is faulty ( return that bad boy at once )

In any case first thing to do is retunr the ps and get a new 1, id try to get a different brand or model of ps to eliminate the model being faulty n general theory.
If after u plug in the new ps and it still crashes then we cna talk again.

 
Also i noticed your case temperature is a tad high, How old is your case. I ask this cause u sound like a value guy no need to upgrade your case if it works rite i my self been using the same case for last 9 years but it has changed drastically new holes new fans ect ect.

This is more how your monitor should look like becides your cpu temp as im using a 90 nm athlon 64 which runs cooler than your by far.
http://img67.echo.cx/img67/234/mytemperatures7px.jpg
 
I forgot to mention, but I've been switching back and forth between two PSUs before this new Antec. I've been using a Linkworld 430W and a 300W no-name brand, yet both of those PSUs yield the same results as the Antec. I'm pretty sure all three of my PSUs have no problem. I got fed up again and popped the GeForce FX5200 card back in and played L2 for a couple of hours. Haven't crashed since then, so I'm fairly sure the problem is related to the Radeon 9700 Pro.

My case is about three years old. By the way, is there something wrong with my MBM? Obviously the case isn't 159°F. And nice girl in the wallpaper. 🙂
 
Ok well the chance of the video card being the problem is very slim. do u have all the power connectors connected to the mother board. what aout that square 12 volt connector. their should be 2 12 cables from the power supply that run directly to the mother board.

And yes your being under powered because the 5200 is such a piece of s*** that it can get away with a serverly underpowered system.

2nd suggestion buy a bigger wattage power supply one with dual 12 volt rails. its very hard for your 9700 to just go bad so quickly.

take all the parts out of the case lay thme on a nice soft something and plastic, hook thme all up and then boot up see if u can play games that way, this will eliminate the heat theory of the case and the case downgrading all yur ps's. dont plug in cd roms or anything that u dont need for the system to boot to windows.

make sure u have the latest bios and latest drivers for eveyrthing. also how old is the mobo and did u recently put in anything else becides the new 9700. are u over over clocking your pc?
 
Also did u uninstall those nvidia drivers properly. try this as well.

Plug in the 9700 then uninstallt the ati drivers and the nvidia ( if u forgot to do so before ) then use driver cleaner to removes all ati and nvidia drivers that mite still be on the pc. then get omega drivers and install those. do this with the pc out of the case with no cd rom drives notihng else.

Also can u give me a list of your otehr parts in ytour pc a detailed list hard drives sizes brands speeds, then sounds cards also how many cd rom / dvd drivers burners.
 
Yes, there is a square 12V connector (I'm assuming you mean the four-pin cable) and a rectangular power connector. I've hooked both of them up to the motherboard. The Radeon 9700 Pro requires the same type of power cable as floppy disk drives need and I've connected that also.

In all honesty, I think MBM5 is not working properly on my computer. How can it show that my case is 159°F? That's impossible. It's obvious when I put my hand inside the case that it isn't 159°F.

Like I said, I reformatted and updated every thing I could think of. Chipset drivers, Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Video drivers (several different ones including official ATI and modified Omega, and older drivers as well as newest ones.) I know that I am properly cleaning the drivers completely after re-installing new ones. I run the respective uninstallation from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and then reboot the computer before reinstalling new drivers and then reboot again to make sure.

This is everything that I'm running in my system:

ECS L4VXA2
Intel P4 2.4GHz
1GB PC2700 RAM
On-board Sound
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Maxtor 80GB 5400 RPM
Western Digital 200GB 7200 RPM
Pacific Digital Mach-16 DVD±RW/±R
Antec Truepower 430W PSU
1 Side Case Fan

I've tried unplugging the DVD burner and the side case fan to free up some power, but it doesn't help the problem. I also tried unplugging the secondary HDD, but at the time I installed Windows XP, I installed it to the D drive (Maxtor) because I accidentally set Maxtor to slave and WD to master so the drive ordering was wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top