Having trouble with Radeon 9800pro?

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Hey :dead:

I bought my computer about 2 years ago, it came with a Radeon 9800pro.. It's been running fine until lately. Anytime I run a game, my computer will lock up. I'll get a blue screen or a black screen.. it varies. :p

Nothing else I can really say about it.. I've updated my video card drivers.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like when it happens.
http://img332.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot01572qr.jpg
 
It looks like the graphics card has nearly died. It may have overheated. Does the card fan still work?
 
Is your graphics card's cooling fan working? Sometimes they "die" and then the card overheats and acts up or fries.
 
Im looking at the inside now and there are two fans in the back of the case, and one on the inside mounted to the side.
 
You may wish to remove the videocard itself (the one in the VGA slot) and take a can of compressed air and blow any dust or crud out from the heatsink. You should also verify the fan is spinning unobstructed and higher rpms (i.e. not just barely spinning) once you return it to the slot and power-up the PC.

Here's what the card looks like, along with the fan- which is nestled in the metal fins (heat sink). That metal fin dealie- you should use a can of compressed air to fully clean it up as best you can.
http://www.clubic.com/photo/00065073.jpg
 
okay thanks, I'll work on this.

(by the way, that link to the pic doesn't work for me) could you show me a pic so i know exactly what to take out and clean pleaseeee? :eek:


edit: is there anything in specific i should look out for when im cleaning it? shock or touching anything?
 
This image work?
8wi7u9.jpg


I'd just lay the board on an anti-static bag if you can, otherwise work on a table with something non-conductive under it (paper bag, paper, etc.). The heatsink has a tendency to pack-up with dust and dirt, as well as the fan can get packed up and stop spinning or only spin slowly- not enough to keep the board cooled. Hopefully, it's not too late and no damage has resulted if it's been the case for a while.

It has a power connector on the back part of the card (see the white molex connector near the top of the image). Be sure to re-attach this power when you re-insert the card.
 
i got the same card except its the all in wonder version. I use to get those crashes while running 3dmark so I installed a Artic cooling VGA silence to the card and ram sinks to both sides of each ram chip on the card and runs fine now. Yea this card gets extremely hot. Btw i'm using omegadrivers and has always been stable. Definitely try it out.
 
is it just me, or are Radeon 9800 Pros prone to problems?? seems to be a lot of threads about them here.
 
amdGuy said:
is it just me, or are Radeon 9800 Pros prone to problems?? seems to be a lot of threads about them here.
If ya look at the picture above, you can clearly see the heatsink has channels that pack up with dust pretty easily... not to mention it's basically the design of a 9700 Pro and mass produced (as in every heatsink/fan isn't always put on perfectly straight or with good contact to the GPU).

So.. in a variety of cases, these suckers can run hot.. or get hotter over time as their fan/heatsink packs with dust and debris. I'd say the 9800 Pro's have *barely adequate* cooling, so in the long run- like Richard commented, putting an aftermarket cooler on-board (after the warranty expires, of course.. just like overclocking, right? hehe) can alleviate future problems. They also assume a pretty decent case with some amount of case cooling to pull away hot air generated by the mediocre heatsink/fan included.
 
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