Frequent lock up and crash problems with ATI Radeon 2600Pro

[IK00NI]

I bought my Diamond ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro SB Edition (verbatim from the box, just to make it as clear as possible) at around the end of summer and have been experiencing problems the entire time.

The main issue is that while playing games (sometimes doing anything, more frequently with games, though) the screen will freeze, occasionally accompanied by a strange pixelation around the edges of the screen, followed by a black screen. Sometimes, the game will recover after about 10 seconds and I'll get a VPU Recovery message. At other times I'll be brought simply to that black screen with the error message, the game not recovering. Less frequently, but still somewhat common, the screen becomes a strange array of orange or pink pixelated boxes in which the computer simply won't respond to anything.

Any insight or help would be much appreciated, and probably far more helpful than ATI's support has been.

 

[IK00NI]

Whoops, probably should have posted some essential info...

Computer: HP Media Center PC m7250n
Operating System: Windows XP MCE 2005
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (PCIe)
Driver Version: 8.11 (11/14/08)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

 

[Jien23]

Hmm.. i've had this same problem before with an old nvidia card and it was caused by the card overheating. This would cause wierd coloured pixels and artifacts to appear on the screen before crashing. By any chance is your card passively cooled(meaning it is silent and has no fan). Perhaps you could post a temperature reading from your card on the forum so we can see if there's anything unusual.

 

[IK00NI]

I believe it does have a fan, but that could be an issue.

...Pardon the ignorance, but how would I find the temperature reading?

 

[IK00NI]

Nevermind, checked the bios. It was at 67 degrees Celsius, but that was also during startup.

I looked at Motherboard Monitor as a way to get a reading while playing games but heard it was no longer updated.

 

[Jien23]

That is a rather high temp reading at startup. Download Everest Free Edition - http://majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

To get a temp reading from your GPU, expand "Computer" and select "Sensor". Note down the temp reading from "GPU". Try doing this while running a game that causes the aforementioned issues to get a load reading.

A temp reading from a GPU at 50C - 60C at idle and >70C at load is considered to be normal (from TweakGuides.com).

 

[IK00NI]

Oddly enough, when I go to Computer, then Sensor, there's no temperature reading for GPU. However, there is Motherboard, Aux, and WDC WD2500JS-60MHB1.

Aux is reading around 79 degrees C when I minimize just after having the game lag and get the VPU recovery message. After being minimzed for a while the temperature drops to around 70 which it is now.

 

[Jien23]

Hmm.. that's wierd.. and you mentioned that you are able to get temp readings from the BIOS? maybe you should try this then - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163.(click on Hardware monitoring under Customize)
I am not a 100% sure that the overheating is causing your problems, as other things such as the video RAM or maybe even the graphics card itself is malfunctioning, but in any case a cooler temperature is always better, and will prevent furture issues.

1) Try opening the case to help ventilate it a bit and see if the situation improves.
2) Check the fan on the graphics card, to make sure it's working. Also, clean off any dust from the fan and heatsink of the card using a can of compressed air(if you have one) or, using a small brush.
3) Does your computer case have any other fans? Ideally, there should be one at the bottom-front and one at the top-rear. Make sure that any fans you have are all functioning.

EDIT: check out this thread for more infromation - https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?t=108706&highlight=temperature+high

 

[IK00NI]

Hmm, I'm starting to question whether overheating is the problem as well. The Core temperature reading from RivaTuner was never more than 57 degrees C, however, most of the GPU usage was at 99.9%. Is it normal for it to be that high? I'm really thinking that it may be an issue with the graphics card like I thought before.

 

[Jien23]

Well, to clear any doubts you should try putting your graphics card on a spare computer or try another graphic card on your computer, to confirm that it's not software-related. If all else fails, you should definately replace/repair the graphics card (it should be under warranty)