Radeon 9800 PRO crash..?

[BackStabber]

yea, just got a radeon 9800 off of ebay for cheap, it was tested, worked, and it was someone who had good feed back, except it didnt have a fan sold with it.... yea so i bought an artic cooling vga silencer, hmm.. seemed to work perfectly, and alas, i go to load up a game of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, or Half-Life, it crash as soon as the map loads... so im like, wtf, drivers maybe? it didnt come with any cds, so... i downloaded some from www.ati.com, but still no luck.... i have a pretty crappy computer, Pentium 3 1.2 Ghz, 320 mb ram, which i am up grading to at least 512... any reason why its doing this? i go to dxdiag, when i test direct draw, fine, but when i go to direct 3d, it reboots when it gets to the direct 3d 8 testing.. i know alot about computers, but i havnt messed with video cards a whole lot.... i dont know like which drivers i should get, ive searched yahoo, not sure which to use... if anyone can help me, thanks, i just wanna play my games..

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

It may be that your psu isn`t upto the job of supplying enough power, now that you`ve got the new graphics card.

What psu do you have?

Bear in mind, that if it`s a cheap no name brand, then it will struggle to put out anywhere near it`s rated power. Even a good quality psu only achieves around 70% efficiency.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[DonNagual]

Edit: never mind. Same thing as Howard (who is a faster typer than I am.... THIS TIME!)

 

[BackStabber]

how do you know what your psu is?

not sure how to tell, probably not as good, considering i have a cheap computer, a crappy compaq presario.... what could i do if its not?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

You will have to open up your case and take a look. There should be a lable on the psu, that gives it`s wattage output.

Regards Howard :grinthumb

 

[BackStabber]

any other possible reasons? i opened up case, but cant really find anything, dont really know where to look o_O ill try some more, but even if i do find it, no really way to get it to work then, is there? bad drivers??


edit: i actully do see something, it says output 146 watts, then it says 0.8 a,
then total power 250 watts... hmmm?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Your psu(power supply unit) Is what your mains cable is plugged into on your computer.

Now that we know what psu you have, it`s highly likely that it`s not upto the job. Upgrading to a better psu will probably solve your problem.

Look HERE at this handy psu wattage calculator.

You may also want to take a look at this excellent article on psu`s. It will tell you what psu`s to buy, and more importantly, which ones to avoid.

The psu thread



Regards Howard

 

[BackStabber]

ok, thanks for you help.. but before i go and buy this, can you give me a link to a good driver for my card? i really dont feel like spending any more money, even tho i will have to sooner or later..

not sure if i calculated it right, but my minimum should be around 220 watts..

 

[howard_hopkinso]

You could try these drivers from ATI HERE

Before you install these drivers, be sure to uninstall the old drivers first.

Let us know if they make any difference.

Regards Howard

 

[BackStabber]

ok, i installed the drivers, i restarted, i went to Medal of Honor, started up a game... it actully loaded this time.. com_maxfps is set to 85, and it was maxed out to 85... but then after about 5 seconds, the game crashed, so i tried again, and then my computer crashed again... so, im planning on upgrading to dual 512 ramstick maybe, maybe just 1, and a new processor.. how many watts would you reccomend on the psu?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

I`d say around 450watts should be about right.

Just make sure you get a decent one. Maybe an Antec, or Enermax etc.

Just look at the links in my previous posts.

Regards Howard

 

[BackStabber]

i dont wanna spend alot on a new psu, but how is this one? the link you gave me, they said its a cheap brand..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=17-153-006&depa=0


maybe not that, then this? http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/Antec_True380S.html?id=zkvooa

 

[howard_hopkinso]

I wouldn`t be to keen to put that in my system.

I know you don`t want to spend too much, but a good psu is one of the most important pc purchases you will ever make.

I`d recommend something like this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103936

If you look at the detailed specs you will see that this psu reaches the magic 70% efficiency rating. It also has dual 12v rails.



REgards Howard