crashing drivers after 2 mins

[jocky68]

i have had a radeon 9800 pro running in my hp m380 p4 1g ram for almost a year with no problems. now last week i started getting crashes. i can run windows and everything else on my computer no problem, but any game i load up crashes about 2 minutes into gameplay. on catylist drivers in gives a vpu recover error, graphic driver has been reset error, and on omega drivers it crashes to desktop and says something about the omega driver no longer reponding to the hardware. i have tried every driver new and old, lowered my clock speed, updated the bios, reformatted and checked countless forums for solutions with no luck. this is a real nightmare and is starting to *"$% with my head. it seems a lot of people on other forums have this problem but no fix. and no i dont have a via motherboard. getting ready to buy a nvidia card which people say dont suffer this problem. any help from you bunch here would be great.
cheers.

 

[jocky68]

psu

also, how do you find out the wattage of your psu? cant see it.

 

[Ti133700N]

Did you add an additionnal 512MB of RAM?
If you really have the HP Media Center m380, then your PSU is 200 Watts.

Personnally when I see an HP computer, I run away as fast as I can...

 

[giant384]

i would just run away from a Matx computer because u know there crap

 

[jocky68]

yes i just checked the psu is 200w. i take it this cant handle the graphics card? would this be expensive to upgrade? did add 512mb

 

[sinkoman]

yes i just checked the psu is 200w. i take it this cant handle the graphics card? would this be expensive to upgrade? did add 512mb

Nup Nup Nup. The psu is generic, not to mention horrible wattage. And it depends. A decent PSU can run you around 80 bucks. But it really depends on the wattage you go.

I would say that the two 512 dimms (ram sticks) might be conflicting. Since the one HP put in was some generic POS and the 512 you got could also be some generic POS. Timings could be off, lower clock speed than your MOBO's max, lotsa things can be going wrong with ram.

First, I would say run Memtest (google it. The one you want is meant to be saved to a floppy disk and run at your PC's startup) and then see what that pulls up.

But it's most likely your psu.

 

[Ti133700N]

The problems with those HP computers is that everything is crap, well ok let me rephrase that last sentence. The problem with most (not to say all) HP computers is that they are built for web surfing and in your case, to play movies etc... so, not for gaming. And replacing or adding stuff can be a little hazardous.

My friend had the same problem as you, he added a 9800PRO. The result, he couldn't play Source Games anymore or the comp would freeze or restart. So what he did is replacing the PSU for a better one and also the vid card wich seemed to overheat and I don't know what because of the old crappy PSU. He also had problems because he had 2 sticks of 512 MB but they weren't the same brand and timings and frequency.

Now it seems to work ok. So, what should we understand of all this, don't buy HP computers.

But to answer your question, yes changing your PSU for a better one should help. The brand is very important and of course the wattage. 350 watts should be enough if it's a good PSU.

Good luck.

 

[jocky68]

well thanks lads. going to pc world monday to ask for a 350w psu. have this hp over a year, and its done me proud so far. should because it cost me over 2000 euro. i have 2 256mb and one 512 in my machine. dont know are they all the same. that was my plan though, get decent power unit and then top graphic card. fingers crossed. maybe i should upgrade my dell dimesion 8300, it only has 250w psu though. i put a 9600 card in and it runs fine, i dont think its the memory.