Connect3d ATI Radeon 9550 AGP 256MB keeps resetting and crashing

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Eccles

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This may seem familiar to forum regulars, I've seen similar threads. Basiaclly my problem is that I have bought a Connect3d ati Radeon 9550 AGP 256 MD graphics card, but whenver I try and play a game, there is a click, the monitor goes black and says there is no signal, and I have to reset.

I have updated my BIOS, and my chipset and ATI drivers, still same problem, plus it crashes sometimes while I'm online.

My mobo (Gigabyte GA-7VT600 1394 KT600 chipset) Has seemingly had issues with 9600 ATI cards, could it be a similar thing?
I've read about PSUs being a problem, I have speedfan but don't really know what it's showing me, could anyone interpret? (My power supply is 300W)

Can anyone help me with this? I'm beginning to think I've forked out for a rubbish card, is that the case? :(

(By the way, I can include my DxDiag if that would help?)
 
What game are you trying to play and have you installed the latest driver for your graphics card?

Regarding your 300W PSU, what brand is it and can you look inside the PC and read what the amp rating is for the +12V rail or rails? What voltages are being shown by speedfan?
 
I use a 9550 and while its far from the fastest card on the market, it does me proud.

I recon its down to psu.

And did you remove all drivers and software for your old card before installing your 9550?
 
I did indeed remove all the old bits - I've used search and add/remove to check for Nvidia material, nothing to be found.

As for the PSU, it's an 'A one' (I think) 300W ATX 2.03P4, Model 300x. The specs on the side read:
+3.3v = 14A
+5V = 30A
+12V = 10A

Speedfan says:
VCore1: 1.70V
VCore2: 1.33V
+3.3V: 3.22V
+5V: 4.89V
+12V: 12.67V

Temp1: 35C
Temp2: 29C
Temp3: 47C
HDO: 31C


The game I've been using to test it is Myst V. I managed to get into the game yesterday by selecting new game pronto, but as soon as i went to change the graphics options it blacked out. I've found Doom3 blacks after a few seconds of the title screen, but I thought it was due to a bad install, so I've deleted that, might reinstall. Unreal tournament 2004 had some weird graphics effects then decided it's CD Key was corrupted when I first installed the card, but in my naivete I hadn't scrubbed off all the Nvidia stuff at that point. Haven't addressed that yet, was waiting till I solved this card issue.
 
Your power supply only has 10 amps on the 12V rail. I think that might be the main problem. Eight or 10 amps more would be better for your setup.
 
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting! Does that mean when it tries to go for Polygons or something complex it just can't draw what it needs from the PSU? Will I need a whole new case, or can I pop a new PSU into the one I have?
 
You don't need another case. Just a new ATX form factor (which is most of them) power supply would do. I'm guessing your present power supply came with your case. If so, those are notorious for being low quality units. Check some equivalent wattage power supplies from Antec, Fortron, Enermax, Seasonic, Tagan and PC Power & Cooling to name a few. Many have more than one 12V rail.
 
Cool, I'll have a look at the case later, see where it comes apart. You're right, it did come with the case. So I want 300W with at least 15/20A on the +12V rail and preferably two +12V rails?
 
(Now I come to think of it, with my old Nvidia card I used to have this problem whilst playing Uru, I guess insufficient power would explain both, and explain why it's more frequent now I have a more powerful card..... :) Fingers crossed!)
 
You don't necessarily have to get a dual rail power supply but so many come that way these days and some have even more rails. I wanted you to be aware that there were PSU's with multiple rails. I would recommend at least 400W to give you adequate margin and the more amps the better, at least 18A but 20-24A would be better.
 
I've been looking through some sites like Antec, finding it hard to find out how many amps they put on the rails. Is there a thread or site that can simplify my searching?

PS Rik, I did Scandisk a couple of weeks back, think it would be worth doing again?
 
By the way, during the week it's hard for me to get to a computer regularly, so I may be away for a couple of days at a time till next weekend, but i'll keep checking in. Thanks for all your help so far!
 
My latest crash gave me the Blue Screen of Death, which said:

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: ati2dvag
The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates problem with the driver itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.
Tech. Info.:
*** STOP: 0x000000EA (0x821E2020,0x82D434C0,0xF8C65CB4,0x00000001)



Does that help at all?
 
The file ati2dvag is one of the files of the graphics driver. Perhaps uninstalling it and reinstalling it might help.
 
Another friend has suggested the driver has become damaged by the crashes, so I'll reinstall after I've put a new PSU in. What do you think of the one I posted the link for?
 
Although I've never heard of the brand before (and I don't pretend to know all brands), it seems like a decent unit. The specifications look good and most of the reviews seem favorable.
 
There was one review further down by paul robson:
"Whilst on the face of it, this power supply seems to be able to cope with a reasonably high spec system, in reality it isn't; the outputs listed in other reviews is the peak output, not its continual output, which means that the power supply is only capable of sustaining the stated power outputs for very short periods of time.

I'm running an athlon 4400+ with Radeon x1800xt, under any kind of load, this power supply couldn't cope causing frequent crashes. If your system is going to be used for gaming or other processor / graphics intensive applications I'd suggest you spend a little more and get a named PSU which states both the continuous and peak outputs.

Don't pay too much attention to the wattage of the power supple (550W in this case) in modern systems its the Amps which count.

On the up side, if your system isn't power hungry, this is a reasonable power supply, plenty of connectors for all devices, including SATA, it's by no means silent but its reasonably quiet, the fan is large enough to keep it running cool."


Then again, his was the only review covering that subject out of the 38 or so, and like you say, the majority seem to rave about it. It's very tempting.....

I also found this: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/90615

I've seen reviews of 430W TPII that says Antec tends to run hot, though.... :(
 
I have an older Antec 550W. It's been superceded by newer models that have a 24 pin motherboard connector (mine has only a 20 pin with which I used a 24 pin adapter) and dual 12V rails. It has run my system for a year and half without problems. I currently run a Radeon X1900XTX, 2GB Corsair XMS PC3200 (DDR 400) RAM (2x1GB), AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 cpu, SB Audigy 2 sound card, WD 250GB SATA hard drive, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum motherboard, two optical drives, floppy and four case fans (two 80mm in the front, one 80mm on the side, one 120mm in the rear).

All stock cooling and no overclocking. Runs fine. When I upgraded my graphics card, shortly afterward I bought a 650W Mushkin psu but have not installed it yet. However, the Antec has continued to power my system without trouble. I run a few fairly demanding modern games including Battlefield 2, Dawn of War, Half Life 2, Far Cry, Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2, SiN Emergence and a few others.
 
Nice! I'm going to have a go with the first one, mixture of budget and my friend's one running a higher system than mine fine. Wish me luck!
 
Well that didn't solve the problem :( This is getting ridiculous. It crashed while I was downloading the ATI drivers. When it started again, it had the "recovered from a serious error" box, which gave me these details:

BCCode : 100000ea BCP1 : 82654590 BCP2 : 8259C468 BCP3 : F8C6DCB4
BCP4 : 00000001 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 256_1

C:\DOCUME~1\James\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER2249.dir00\Mini093006-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\James\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER2249.dir00\sysdata.xml

Is this any use?
Is it just a faulty card?

Aaaaarghh!!!!
 
I've also had a reply from ATI asking if I'm using the right drivers for my OS, 32 or 64 bit. I've got the 32 ones, I think, just for usual Windows XP, but how do I tell whether it's 32 or 64? I might have had the wrong drivers from the start!!
 
To get the 64 bit driver from the ATI website you would have to scroll down the left side a bit to find it. If you just got the "default" Catalyst driver, it should be 32 bit. It's the version I always get for my 32 bit system. Are you installing the Catalyst Control Center version? If so, have you installed the required .NET Framework? You probably did but I'm just checking.

Maybe it is a faulty card after all. Can you test it in another PC?
 
I've got copies of both drivers ready to try out, 32 and 64. Is there any way of telling which I should be using? I've no clue if it's a 32 system or what-have-you. I've updated NET framework, is it worth doing it again just in case?

Unfortunately I don't have another PC, I'll be thoroughly narced if it is faulty!
 
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