radion problem, please help

[miked]

hi there. ok, i have just installed new ram and a new graffics card. the ram is working fine but the graffics card is starting to anoy me! the card is a radion sappire 9550. i have installed cataylist version 1.2.2243.38605 with .net runtime version 2.0.50727.42. the problem occurs when i run games (eg Battle Filed 2).

the game loads up ok, and i get to the main menu, but then when the game goes to play i somtimes get a glimps of the game, and sometimes not, but ither way, the screen goes black. i can still use the mouse , as i can hear the noises the game menus make as the pointer goes over them, but just a black screen. when i go back into windows, its as if the graffics card has uninstalled: scrolling pages on internet explorer goes frame by frame, and dragging windows on my desk top is really jerkey. however, when i reboot the computer, the card is back working fine, and everything is smoooth.. untill i try the game again that is. iv tried this with a few games.

i was wandering if anyone has had this experiance, or if anyone knows how to solve it.

my comp is:

AMD athlon xp 2400+ at 2ghz
1.25 gigs of ram
using windows ex with service pack 2.

if any more info is needed, just say. any help would be much apreciated

regards, mike

 

[peterdiva]

The latest drivers are version 6.4, which you can get here.

 

[miked]

yeh just installed them, still same problem really, but with none of the item draging jerkyness.

i tryed it with a demo of BF 1942 and it just frose on the menu..

anything else i could try?

m

 

[danswebs]

your graphics card could be overheating, try getting some fans

 

[miked]

hmmm...the card does have a little fan on it... do you think this isnt enough, i previously opened up my case and put my desk fan close to the card and mother board on full, but it made no differance. is there anyway of finding out the temp of it?

iv also noticed that in the menu of games, there are some tiney glitches with words; some letters flash slightly?!

do you think my cpu could be the problem? if so, how do i find out how much power its putting out.

thanks for your help with this

m

 

[danswebs]

The only thing i could narrow it down to is, Faulty RAM, Overheating Graphics Card or Processor or a faulty processor/graphics card

 

[danswebs]

o and you can find out the temp of your system using a program called 'Speedfan' google it

 

[miked]

i just had a thought. when uninstalling my on board graphics device, i just clicked on uninstall, would have this uninstalled the drivers as well?

thanks, m.

 

[peterdiva]

No it wouldn't have. What I suggest you do is remove all video card drivers via add/remove programs (including the new ones). Download Drive Cleaner Pro, and by carefully following the instructions in the readme this will remove any parts of leftover drivers.

Then you can either reinstall the Catalyst 6.4s, or if you don't want to use the CCC, you can install the Omega Drivers and use Ati Tray Tools which takes up less resources, and also gives you a few extras including game profiles.

 

[miked]

ok cool, il try it! 1 more thing.. i found this on my comp.. (NVIDIA windows 2000/xp display drivers) is a driver i need to keep or sould i get rid of it? i had a nvidia card ages ago... i read somthin about display drivers being important as part of your motherboard.. or is this just wrong?

m

 

[peterdiva]

If they're display drivers then they have to go, when you run driver cleaner select nvidia drivers as well. If you have an nvidia mobo the drivers are called chipset drivers, which drive cleaner clearly states in the menu (leave these alone). If you post your mobo make and model I'll be able to tell you the chipset.