ATI radeon 9800 drivers problems +HELP+

Thanks

I've had this problem with CPUs before but I never thought heat was a graphic card problem. I thought the built in fan would be designed to keep it cool.

So how does a aftermarket fan work. Where do you attach it?

Aftermarket coolers

The stock fan on most high-end cards nowadays are typically only good enough to keep the card cool under "typical" daily usage. But the more graphics intensive your work is, the harder the card must work and the hotter it gets. Soon, that tiny fan just isn't enough.

That depends on which one you get.

The two most common are the Zalman GPU cooler and Artic Cooling's "VGA Silencer". Of the two, the Artic is both better and cheaper.

Both coolers require that you remove the stock HSF on the card and install theirs. This is a relatively simple proceedure for anyone that knows their way around the inside of their computer.

The Zalman looks like a giant CPU cooler that sits atop the GPU. The "VGA Silencer" encloses one entire side of your card and blows air across it from the side and out the back though a slot vent, thus blowing the excess heat right out of your case. Fan speed is also switchable (Hi/Lo) to reduce noise, if needed.

Here is a decent short comparison:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/arctic_cooling_vga_silencer_3.php

For the 9800XT, you'd need Artic's Rev 3 cooler:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=11

Both can be had for around $30 online.

I just recently bought a athlon 64 3500 with an nforce chipset. I have a radeon 9800 pro and games make the computer freeze after a couple of minutes of play. First I thought it might be a psu problem but it seems to happens with some games more often than with others. With age of empires 3 demo it almost always freezes before 6 min of playing, sometimes even before I load the map (in the splash screen). With half life 2 i can usualle play for about 15 minutes before it freezes, same with chronicles of riddick demo. With doom 3 demo it doesnt seem to crash at all. I have a 350 watt cooler master psu and I only have 1 hdd, 1 dvd, and 1 memory dimm installed so Im pretty sure is not a power issue.

More tests needed.

Hey "Amigos",

It certainly sounds like the card is overheating (a chronic problem with the 9800), but I can't say for sure based on what you've told us. Your PSU, at a mere 350watts, is WAY too small, and when the 9800 starts doing heavy 3D, it starts pulling more electricity, so it may very well be your PSU. Anything under 450watts just is not acceptable by today's standards.

However, "freezing" is more indicative of a "software" problem (like a bad driver) rather than hardware/electrical (which would cause a crash/reboot). Are you running the latest drivers and are your games patched (if necessary)? Hardware failure "typically" does not seize up your computer. Any interruption in the flow of electricity usually has some "physical" effect. The exception is, of course, a video card crash (the computer keeps running but all comminication with the video card ceases).

Besides games, do any other programs crash? Have you run any 3D tests to see the result? What are your CPU and Case temps?

I'm inclined to suspect your problem is an overheating 9800, but upgrading the PSU, even if it's not the problem, wouldn't hurt. It *would* help you rule it out as a possible cause though.

Thanks for the reply. I have the latests drivers for the video card and the motherboard. If my problem is overheating and not psu would that mean that I have to add a special fan for the video card? If it means anything, my case has a large cooling fan at the back and a small one at the front, my cpu has a cooler master hyper 48 heatsink and fan and the cpu always runs at about 40ºC. BTW, 3dmark 2005 can run all the tests without crashing.

I think I found what is causing the problem. I left the campaing of age of empires 3 demo running by itself and it didnt freeze after 30 mins. then i disconnected the keyboard and played only with the mouse and again didnt freeze at all. After reconnecting the keyboard and playing for only a few more seconds the game froze. Maybe there is an irq conflict with my ps2 keyboard?

Coolers discussed above.

See my reply above to Scott100 regarding aftermarket VGA coolers.

Interesting. I haven't yet seen a device that uses the PS/2 keyboard Interrupt (IRQ1), so I doubt that's the problem... though I don't know what kind of KB you have. How old is the keyboard? I suspect the KB has just gone bad. A replacement is less than $10, so you might just get something new anyway. It certainly seems to be a problem.

I think you were right, I wasnt able to play much longer even with the keyboard disconnected. I decided to place a large fan blowing at the open case and I think that finally did the trick. Seems that I will have to buy that vga silencer.

I'm using a ATI Radeon 9800 PRO and it was working fine before.... UNtil recently i got windows service pack 2, my com defitnitely crashes within 5 mins of each start up.... so i reformatted and reinstalled windows wif service pack 2 and installed all the drivers e.t.c and the same problem comes up.. i tried it on different hard disks and the same problem arise... den i tried to install windows without any service packs and the same problem arise....
I realised that if i dun install the drivers for my video card, the problem will be solved... but my graphics will look quite lousy... there are weird faints lines on my screen now actually......

So what exactly is the problem now?
Izzit the driver problem? does installing newer drivers from ati helps?
Or has my video card overheated till a state that it can't be repaired? or do i just need to buy something to cool it down?

thx for the attention!!!

Definite driver issue. Not heat.

You *definitely* have a driver issue there.

The Catalyst Driver package isn't very good at removing the old driver before updating.

If you know your way around Windows Device Manager and your Registry, you can manually uninstall your ATI drivers and then re-install Catalyst, though I suspect there is some other driver causing a conflict you may need to resolve first.

Thx mugsy for replying!!!

I've read some from this thread that say there may be a conflict between ati's driver and windows wif service packs installed... but even when i re-installed a fresh windows without service pack 2, the problem still arises....
Before i upgraded my windows to service pack 2, my com and the driver was working quite fine together for more than a year...
Note: i upgraded to service pack from my old windows due to a crash, which may be due to the video card.....
Is there anyway that i can check whether my video card has been damaged?
and if it is really due to the driver's problem, is there a step by step way to remedy it?

Thx a lot!!!

Maybe a solution

For those guys outthere that doens´t know how to fix this problem I don´t I am just giving a posibble solution Install only the display driver and all my problems are gone. do it and let me know if works for you. :bounce: