X1900XT fan does not "gain up" automatically

[frombauer]

I have a BBA card (512MB), and while playing games, the card's fan does not up its rpms enough, so after 20min or so, I get artifacts or the game freezes. If I use software such as ATITool to keep the fan high all the time (over 50-70%), everything runs fine. I've tried several Catalyst drivers, no luck. I have a X2 3800+ and an Asus A8N-SLI Premium mobo, WinXP Pro Sp2.

Any ideas? I was thinking of flashing a custom bios with new fan temps threshholds, but I couldn't find a nice online guide or files to do it.

 

[Gamingphreek]

You really shouldn't use custom video card BIOS's (Flashing with a regular BIOS can be risky in itself). If you screw it up you basically have to do what we call a "blind flash" in which nothing appears on the screen you just have no know what keys to hit.

With that being said, the stock BIOS should have the appropriate Thermal Thresholds. There is something that isn't initializing at the right time. The drivers really shouldn't have anything to do with it, as IIRC the BIOS has threshold marks. I would try RMAing the card first...that way you don't VOID your warranty or anything.

-Kevin

 

[Munky]

RMA the card. Or else use Ati tool, it also has custom fan-temp ramping you can setup.

 

[Captante]

The same thing happened with my second HIS X1900XTX (IceQ3) ... the first one with reference cooler worked fine. It was fine at first but started artifacting & locking up in games after awhile, then it was ok with the fan locked at 100% for a few weeks but the same stuff started again & got progressively worse to the point where 3D applications just refused to run without problems. HIS RMA support is provided by the vender, so I returned it to Newegg (good thing I bought it from them!) but they no longer carried the IceQ3, so I got a store credit & put it towards my 8800GTX. A friend of mine had the same experience withhis MSI X1900XT & while he was able to reach them for an RMA number, they told him "the card doesn't officially support thermal monitering" (yeah, right!) ... he called Newegg & bitched & they took it back for exchange as well.

Bottom line is that I suggest the OP go ahead & RMA his card asap because theres somthing wrong with it that I don't think even a BIOS flash will fix.

 

[frombauer]

Yeah, thanks guys. Problem is, I live in Brazil, I'll see if I can RMA the card from here. The issue would be probably having to pay customs tax once the new card is returned to me.