ATI Radeon9250 128 MB ADT graphics card, problems while playing games

[daoul]

I have an ATI Radeon9250 128 MB ADT graphics card and i am having problems while playing games. Each time I am playing a game, my computer shuts down automatically after ten minutes or more. This occurs with all the games that I have. I hope that somenone can help. I dnt know if this is due to my graphic card or something else.

 

[JesseM]

I have a 9250 in my old Dell. How new is the graphics card? Have you tried reinstalling the driver?

 

[daoul]

Re

I have the latest catalyst driver for the graphics and im having this prob only in the games. I got this problem since i bought the card and its one year now.

 

[JesseM]

It might be a defective video card or it could be the power supply. Can you post your computer's specs?

 

[daoul]

Intel P4 3.2Ghz
512MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon9250 ADT 128MB AGP 8X/4X
40GB Maxtor HDD + 80GB HDD
IS7E motherboard
400W power supply

I have changed power supply thrice.

 

[JesseM]

I'm not an expert but I'd say the video card is defective. You might try putting a different video card in your computer and testing it out to see if that works and if it does I'd try to return the 9250 if it's not too late. I actually had to return my first 9250 because it was defective so I wouldn't be too suprised if yours was also.

 

[MrNemo]

Just to be on the safe side, consider that there may be a thermal problem. Try checking your CPU fan speed in the BIOS, as well as the temp of the CPU. It could be that your fan is running more slowly than normal (maybe 800-1000RPM) and is running ok during normal use (probably still hot) but gets hot enough to shut down (if thermal shutdown protection is enabled in the BIOS). Usually when I hear something is shutting down, I think heat. It is not uncommon for the stock (assuming you have one) P4 fans to slowly crap out, or to malfunction sharply without warning. Another possibility is that your power supply may have 400W written on it, but that number may be inflated (more of a peak performance number rather than a constant voltage number) and you could be under-supplying your computer (this is probably much less likely than a thermal problem). Maybe inspect your innards for dust and vacuum it if there's a bunch. The only other thing I can recommend is flashing the BIOS to the newest version and making certain that your video card drivers are the newest available (which you said you've done already). Googling hardware incompatibilities concerning your setup is always worth it, as well, to see if any others have seen the same problems.

 

[daoul]

re

Thanls for helping me...i will do as you say but im not sure that i can change the video card.

 

[nickc]

daoul, the upgrade might just be a new driver for the video card, but do not jump too far as this is one old card and the new drivers may not support it.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

New drivers do not support it in fact. The only Catalyst drivers that have support for the 92xx series is v6.5. daoul, you should be able to get that version from ATi's website or from Guru3D.