ATI RADEON 9800 Problems

[BEEHATCH]

Hello, please could someone help,i have a problem with my ATI RADEON 9800 graphics card.
I have a P4 3.4,1gb RAM with WIN XP. When attempting to play a game i.e Joint operations,command and conquer on/offline, my computer shuts down and reboots by itself or just shuts down.I have the latest Catalyst control centre and drivers from ATI. I have tried adjusting the video settings for these games but to no avail.If someone could even give me an idea of what it might be i would be most appreciative.Thanks

P.S dont know if i have giving enough info,if not just ask thanks again BEE.

 

[vegasgmc]

Did you remove the old drivers before installing the new ones?
If you only have problems during gaming it may be a heat or power supply issue. What brand and output is your power supply? Are your cooling fans working? Some 9800 cards can run incredibly hot.

 

[BEEHATCH]

I did uninstall the old drivers using the ATI uninstall tool and downloaded drivers from this websites drivers section but it still just crashes and shuts down. I'm going to check out the power supply details and whether or not the fan on the card is functional. I'll post back this evening to let you know.
Thanks .

 

[Mayotruck]

Open the side panel of ur computer

I had exact same problems with my radeon 9800. It was a overheating issue, open the side panel of your computer and blow a home fan into it. Try to play your game now. Worked for me!

 

[BEEHATCH]

Well it is like an overheating problem as it has all the charcteristics. When looking into my PC the graphics card is right above my wireless card, the fan for the card is literally 2mm from the wireless card. Under the wireless card is an internal modem which i don't use/need anymore so is it feasible to remove the modem and plug the wireless card into that PCI socket therefore giving my graphics card more room to "breathe". Sorry, i'm not too clued up on computers, so is this realistic and what sort of set-up worries will i have in doing this if its possible!, is it a case of plug the w/less card in and the PC does the rest or will i need to configure the PC so it knows whats in what socket? Cheers for any help on this matter.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

You might want to take a look at the following link.

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product_info.asp?stockcode=M003810

Regards Howard

 

[vegasgmc]

Just remove the modem and move the other PCI card as far from the video card as possible. My 9800 would fun so hot it would lock up , even with a big fan blowing on it. I had to get. I had to get an aftermarket heatsink and fan, the VGA Silencer. Works great now.

 

[BEEHATCH]

Thanks for your advice, can i just move the wireless card to the other PCI slot with no other set-up issues, will the PC adjust itself automatically? Thanks in advance.

 

[vegasgmc]

If you move a card to another slot it will have to be re-installed in Windows. Just let Windows search for the drivers.

 

[BEEHATCH]

Hi again,my brother inlaw knows a bit about computers and he seems to think it could be the power supply, i've checked out the supply and it's a 300watt supply. Does anyone know if this is adequate? Its a brand new PC, but there have been so many problems with it i wouldn't be surprised if they fitted a unsuitable power supply. Thanks again in advance.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hi again,my brother inlaw knows a bit about computers and he seems to think it could be the power supply, i've checked out the supply and it's a 300watt supply. Does anyone know if this is adequate? Its a brand new PC, but there have been so many problems with it i wouldn't be surprised if they fitted a unsuitable power supply. Thanks again in advance.

All the more reason to take it back and tell them you are not happy.

If you continue to open it up and alter things and should something drastic go wrong then you won`t be covered by your warranty.

The whole idea of buying a prebuilt as opposed to building a computer is the peace of mind that comes with the warranty.

You have obviously paid good money for it and it should work correctly without to many problems.

Regards Howard

 

[BEEHATCH]

Yeah in theory the warranty is good but it's not on-site so that means that i'm without my PC for appx. Two weeks and i need to trust the courier guys that deliver it and trust me i've had enough probs with this thing to put you off buying anything new ever again!!!! So if it's just a case of a new power supply then i'd rather deal with that myself. Thanks

 

[Guerrillaz]

1. Try spacing out your pci cards first to avoid bad air flow + cleaning fans with compressed air (9800pro does run very hot.)

2. Check too see how much watts your PowerSupply is drawing (Overtaxed pwoersupplies can cause weird issues such as Blue screen errors, reboots, slower performance; in extreme cases cpu failure)

3. If the above do not work check your RAM, memtest86 (google it to be safe not sure of the exact url for the site)

4. If all above fails try an aftermarket videocard fan (If your card is still under warranty you might want to consider sending it back. The Warranty will probably be void by removing the fan + possibilty of damaging the chip removing the fan (not sure how it is secured to the chip.)

 

[SilkCutBlue]

i have a 9800 non-pro card and it has no problems what so ever in a dell dimension 8300 with a 250W PSU
take out all your other cards and try playing a game offline

if your PC is still under warranty though i'd go back to the shop first and get them to sort it
if you added the card recently yourself make sure you have the on-board gfx switched off
i remember the frustration i had a long time ago when i added a VooDoo 3 to my old compaq machine without disabling the onboard....