video card doesn't let me play games (9500P)

[Roots]

Often (usually during games) my display locks up and my monitor says "no signal received". However the sound still plays and things continue like they normally would. It happened the other night when I was watching an .avi file, but it partially recovered and I think that it was WinXPs fault that time. I disconnected the fan on the card because its WAY too noisy, but I have a side intake fan that blows directly onto the card so I thought I'd be ok. But even when the card fan was connected, I still got display lock ups and crashes during games. I've updated to the latest drivers but I don't know what else I could do.

Is there any sort of software to monitor video card temps/problems? The ambient temp in my case rarely goes above 40C. Is there any hope in sight for me?

 

[onza]

OC'ing the video card??

OC'ing anything ? cpu, mem....

Might be a driver issue. But heat does sound like it might be a problem. 40c isnt hott either, i'm not 100percent sure.

 

[Roots]

Nope I haven't OCed anything (yet). Sometimes WinXP gives me an error message after it restarts saying that "the video display adapter failed to complete a draw operation"

 

[Viper96720]

Clean install of the video card?

 

[Viper96720]

Try running the video card at 4x if your using 8x.

 

[Roots]

I bought it and built a brand new PC from scratch with it (specs listed in my sig). How do I make it run at 4X?

 

[Roots]

There are a ton of settings in the ATI control panel, but I don't know if screwing around with them will do anything. I'm running my res at 1280x1024, which is the max my monitor supports. Are there any settings I could change in there that might solve my problem?

 

[Viper96720]

Look in your motherboard bios for an agp speed setting. Download the smartgart uninstaller from ati. Sometimes even though you set the agp to 4x the smartgart will reset
it back to 8x. uninstaller

 

[Dustswirl]

Try lowering the res to 1024x768 and in the ati control panels just click on the "Defaults" button both under OpenGL tab and the Direct3D tab
i hope this is just a refresh rate problem!

 

[Roots]

I looked in my mobo bios, but I didn't see any option for changing the AGP speed. There was some "fast write" AGP option which I had enabled, which I disabled. I don't know what it is its not in my manual. I lowered my res to 1024x768 (ugh, things are all big and clunky now). I looked at that uninstaller but I don't like that I can't tell it where to install to (I HATE it when programs create their own sub-directory off of c:\), and it also said it was for advanced users, which obviously I'm not.

I downloaded Wolfenstein Enemy Territory and it started ok, but about one minute into the game the same crash happened. I forgot to mention that when it happens there is a large buzzing sound coming from my PC (not the speakers, the PC). Its a very bad sound I'm going to try playing it again and see if things are any better. Thanks for the help so far

 

[Roots]

Nope, it didn't help one bit My computer works FINE except when I try to play any remotely demanding game (Starcraft worked fine, CS, C&C Generals didn't). This time the error had a sound loop too though, so it may have been WinXP and not just the video card. Heck I don't know, for now I'd be happy if I could just IDENTIFY exactly what the problem is. I just want to play computer games, is that so much to ask? :brokenheart::frown:

 

[Dustswirl]

you're sure you connected the power plug to a working power supply unit's plug when you installed your card? try changing that to another plug and be sure that the fan is working! don't give up there's always a way!

 

[onza]

try a different card? not enough power to the vid card?

 

[Roots]

Yeah I'm sure the power works, the fan was working with it.

 

[Dustswirl]

the fan can take power from the agp bus (not enough though to make it work properly)...

 

[Roots]

Well that sucker was running REAL loud. I know my power was working, because I started up my computer without the power connector on the video card once and on boot up it made very loud, bad warning sounds. And my PSU is brand new too. Could it be something with my DirectX drivers? Since this problem only seems to be occuring on modern games which use DirectX, could it be at fault?

 

[Roots]

Just ran dxdiag, ran through all the video and sound tests and found no problems anywhere. I'm up to date on my mobo drivers, video display drivers, sound card drivers, and just about every other driver I can think of. Any ideas at all what could be wrong? During times of uncertainty like these, I usually focus a stare of hatred on Microsoft

 

[Roots]

Sorry about the triple posting, but I just had another crash and this time I actually got something from Windows about it. Here it is:

"""

Error Caused by Graphics Device Driver

Thank you for submitting an error report to Windows Online Crash Analysis. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with specific information about how to resolve this problem at this time. The information that you and other users submit will be used to investigate this problem.

Analysis

A device driver installed on your system caused the problem, but we cannot determine the precise cause.

Getting Help

Depending on which situation is applicable to you, do one of the following:

If you are running Windows Server 2003 you may experience crashes if you have adjusted the Hardware Acceleration setting. Microsoft recommends that the Hardware Acceleration setting be set to None for server systems. To check your Hardware Acceleration setting, go to the advanced section of the display properties dialog box.
If you know the manufacturer of the device, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.
If you don't know the driver's manufacturer and need help diagnosing and resolving this problem, contact your computer manufacturer's product support service.
Updated drivers might be available on the Microsoft Windows Update Web site. At Windows Update, you can have your computer scanned and, if there are updated drivers available, Windows Update will offer a selection of drivers that you might be able to use. To learn more about updated drivers that might be available, visit Microsoft Windows Update.
For information about Microsoft support options, visit Microsoft Product Support Services.
You can track this error report by clicking the Track this error report link. If you choose to track your error report, you will be notified of resolutions to this problem as they are identified.

"""

This was also included at the bottom:


"""
Additional Technical Information

Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)
"""

So it appers to be a problem the the display driver after all. And a thread being stuck sounds exactly like what has been happening to me. I'm pretty sure that I have the latest drivers though. What can I do?


EDIT:


I did some searching and I found a thread that talks about the same problem I seem to be having:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/6438/

There is also a link I found on ATIs website:http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/3968.html

 

[sandorski]

Loud or not, pluf the fan back in and see if the problem goes away. If it does, replace it with another fan.

 

[dunkster]

If you're hearing a loud 'buzz' from the fan on the video card, shut down, pull the card and inspect the heatsink/fan and the wires that power the fan.

This sounds like the fan blades hitting the wires that power the fan motor. Usually the problem is seen at or near the base of the heatsink/fan, where the wires lead up to the fan motor. Just manipulate/push/pull/bend the wires back away from possible contact with the fan blades.

Aside from the fan being 'way too noisy', your complaint indicates that the video card gpu is probably overheating - which is hardly surprising when the onboard heatsink fan is disconnected.

It ain't Windows. It ain't DirectX.

Hope this helps!

 

[Roots]

Well I fixed it. I didn't touch that fan, because I was pretty confident that it wasn't a heat issue after I remembered that the same thing happened when the fan was on. What I did was I went to my BIOS settings on my mobo and set CAS latency to 2.5 and AGP voltage to 1.7. Thats it! It fixed it and everything works perfectly now! I haven't had to restart and I've been soaking up those 3D graphics games. Ahh it feels so good, feels like a brand new computer all over again. Well thanks for your help everyone