Card freezing/crashing/decreasing will to live!

[Pulse]

Hope someone can help me out here, this problem is preventing me from playing anything at all!

Recently I have only been able to play HL2, CS, Gary's Mod or any other mod for a few minutes/seconds before it either freezes with a looping sound and crashes to desktop or my PC completely freezes and/or restarts itself (only it doesn't restart in the traditional sense, my monitor blanks out and it just sits there as if it was in hibernation or standby).

I've had the excat same thing with ANY other game I have tried to play, it all loads up fine with no problems, but as soon as I'm ingame after a few minutes- BAM!

I have tried cleaning out the fans on my PC of all dust and debris, I've reverted to old drivers, cleaned and reinstalled drivers, updated drivers- all to no avail. I sometimes recieve an ATI error (when I'm lucky enough not to crash and I'm 'thrown' to the desktop) that states my graphics card has stopped responding to commands or something along those lines, but if I then alt tab back into the game it runs normally until it shows the same error again or crashes/locks up.

My specs are:

ATI Radeon 9800 SE (R350) 256mb
Built-in VIA AC'97 Audio Card
1024mb DDR RAM
2.4 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3400+
145gb Hard Disk Space


I've never had any major problems like this in the past with this card and computer, so if anyone has any advice and what I could do it would be greatly appreciated as I can't play a single game at present!

Cheers in advance!

 

[bbson john]

Overheated?

 

[Pulse]

That's what I initally thought, however the dial on the front of my computer says the temperature is 30 degrees which shouldn't cause any major problems like the ones I'm facing... unless anyone knows of a good program that asseses the temperature of all components?!

 

[nutcrackr]

It's either the power supply or the card itself. Swap the PSU and see what happens. If you can put the card in another computer that would also help. If you don't have another PSU, you could try removing some uneeded devices like PCI cards, CD drives etc. Or if you are feeling adventurous get a multimeter out and measure the rails on the 12v and 5v lines while the computer is on (be careful, don't kill yourself and try not to short it out). If the rails drop more than 10% under 3d load there is your problem.

 

[Pulse]

I think I'll have to invest in a new card at this rate... if it is the power supply will this have a great affect any other cards I put in?

 

[Saketi]

the dial on the front could be readin the temp incorrectly. In BIOS is the best temp reading to use.

Yes, Power Supply can cause all sorts of issues, not enough power being able to suports ur cpu, gfx card, hdd, soundcard, cd/dvd's drives./ If u only running on a low wattage ie 350W i suggest u get something abit higher around 550W or higher. Also dont get a generic one, look for a good make, eg Akasa, TAGAN, Coolerwmaster etc etc. this will also future proof u, incase u decide to updgrade sum or ur parts in the future.

If u want to check out a UK based company for cheap prices see...www.cclonline.com

 

[kacation_man]

I dont think its a hardware isue... I've had such a problem before... I could only get like 15min. into a SOURCE game and it would crash and go back to the desktop. it always pissed me off... not even sure if I fix it or if it fixed its self during an update or somthing...

 

[Tyguy]

When did all this start and did you change something?

 

[Pulse]

When did all this start and did you change something?

Roughly a month ago I'd say, the only thing I could have tampered with in relation to my graphics card was downloading new catalyst drivers... and when I started experiencing problems I reverted to older drivers, but that still didn't solve aything :/ I'm starting to wonder whether or not some of my plug sockets are fault or surging maybe... who knows bleh!

Thanks to Saketi aswell for that link, may come in useful!

 

[Saketi]

Roughly a month ago I'd say, the only thing I could have tampered with in relation to my graphics card was downloading new catalyst drivers... and when I started experiencing problems I reverted to older drivers, but that still didn't solve aything :/ I'm starting to wonder whether or not some of my plug sockets are fault or surging maybe... who knows bleh!

Thanks to Saketi aswell for that link, may come in useful!

use Driver Cleaner, u may not have completly deleted your drivers & installing new ones can couase instability issues, if the previous ones are not all deleted..

Then install a new set of ATI drivers for ur card.

 

[Tyguy]

Reformat if nothing else works, its a huge inconvienance, but so is your situation as of right now so thats not a bad way to go.

 

[Pulse]

I was considering reformatting, may do the general performance of my rig some good aswell. I'll try that driver cleaner and have one more go at reinstalling drivers.

Greatly appreciate the help guys, cheers! Just hope I can fix this problem without the need to buy a new card...

 

[Saketi]

Having to fix a problem with your computer is a big achievement, not the easy way out & re-formatting, you will never learn how a computer works that way. Pulse try your best at fixing the issue, go on to ATI forums, do a google search, try your best & find the answer, you will feel much better after you have acomplished a problem that has been annoying u for some time. Thats what i tend to do.

 

[Pulse]

Having to fix a problem with your computer is a big achievement, not the easy way out & re-formatting, you will never learn how a computer works that way. Pulse try your best at fixing the issue, go on to ATI forums, do a google search, try your best & find the answer, you will feel much better after you have acomplished a problem that has been annoying u for some time. Thats what i tend to do.

I have been googling for an answer for quite some time now with mixed results, seems alot of people were having similar problems to me with regards to crashing in games etc. but many of the problems were from 2004-2005 which is slightly worrying...

Oh well I've just cleaned out all my drivers and have re-installed the latest cataylst ones, I'll let you all know how I get on.

Thanks again!

 

[Pulse]

Still the same problem... *sigh*

Managed to get a screenshot of the error that sometimes comes up this time however, if it's of any use at all:

 

[nutcrackr]

If it's your power supply then newer cards won't like it at all. They probably won't reset the computer as much but it's not going to be good for it. If you are running a generic PSU you might want to think about getting a new one anyway.

 

[Pulse]

So would the recommendation for me be to buy a new PSU? I'm willing to invest in a new one if, by the sounds of things, my current one has had it.

 

[Beerdude26]

Seems like your card is either getting too old AND/OR overheating. I've got the same card, and when the weather is hot, my card will start resetting too. Try taking off the lid of your computer and let it cool off. It worked for me on hot days

 

[Pulse]

Some signs of success- I recently set my AGP from 8x to 4x and tweaked a few options and it seems to have been relatively stable ingame now, so hopefully it will remain like this, otherwise it's time for a new graphics card!

 

[simplekid]

i'd take a guess and say ur graphics card is abit broken