Graphics card problem.

[Advisor]

Hi.

I have a problem with my Radeon 1950 pro 256mb card. Until about a week ago it worked fine,
but now everytime i play a graphics intensive game (BF2, HL:2 EP1, and now the ETQW Beta) after about 2-30 minutes, the game freezes and VPU Recover pops up.
Somtimes i can continue to play after that, but most of the time the game just crashes.

My first thought was a temperature problem, but my card does not get much hotter than 68-70?C max.

I installed the newest driver and updated directx but that did not help.

I also scanned for artifacts with the ati tool. After about 10 seconds the first artifacts begin to show up, and after about a minute, 60-70 pixels didn't match, then the computer freezes and restarts.

Could that mean my card is defective? Please help!

My system:
WinXP SP2
Core 2 Duo E6400
2GB ram
Radeon 1950 pro 256mb
BeQuiet 530W PSU

 

[Asus]

It could be that it is defective. Is it under warranty?

Granted the chip temperature is perfectly fine, could other parts of the GPU be over heating (memory, capacitors)? Do you have at least 1 front and 1 back fan in the case?

Do you remember what driver version you had previously?

Enough power getting to the graphics card? Does it have a 6pin power plug on the end and it is attached properly?

 

[giant384]

could be your psu man. i mean a psu that tells you to shut the hell up has to be bad. ' BeQuiet 530W PSU'

 

[Advisor]

Thanks for the replies!

It could be that it is defective. Is it under warranty?

Yes, i think it is, i just have to search for that coupon.

Granted the chip temperature is perfectly fine, could other parts of the GPU be over heating (memory, capacitors)? Do you have at least 1 front and 1 back fan in the case?

I do have a front and a back fan in the case. The card also has this huge cooler on top of it, (link) so i think it should cool all parts pretty well.

Do you remember what driver version you had previously?

Catalyst 7.4

Enough power getting to the graphics card? Does it have a 6pin power plug on the end and it is attached properly?

Is there a way to test this? It does have a 6pin power plug and it is attached properly, i just checked.

could be your psu man. i mean a psu that tells you to shut the hell up has to be bad. ' BeQuiet 530W PSU'

I hope not.

 

[Asus]

Have you tried disabling VPU recover? For some their games remain playable but others have big enough screen errors that without VPU recover they have to restart their PC to get it back to normal.
Could try it.

I would take the card out and clear it of dust. And put it back and make sure it's plugged all the way in.

Did you change anything in your PC software or hardware wise a little bit before it started happening?

FYI if you do a search for "BeQuiet 530W" this thread is the 2th link on google. D:


Edit:
ATI also released the Catalyst 7.6 drivers.

 

[Advisor]

It looks like the new driver helped a great deal. I am not sure if the problem is totally eliminated, but it is surely less frequent.

Thanks for the help!

FYI if you do a search for "BeQuiet 530W" this thread is the 2th link on google. D:

That's strange/funny. Is that on google.com?
Because my google.ch just shows some reviews and onlineshops.

 

[VirusType2]

Hi.

I have a problem with my Radeon 1950 pro 256mb card. Until about a week ago it worked fine,
but now everytime i play a graphics intensive game (BF2, HL:2 EP1, and now the ETQW Beta) after about 2-30 minutes, the game freezes and VPU Recover pops up.
Somtimes i can continue to play after that, but most of the time the game just crashes.

My first thought was a temperature problem, but my card does not get much hotter than 68-70?C max.

I installed the newest driver and updated directx but that did not help.

I also scanned for artifacts with the ati tool. After about 10 seconds the first artifacts begin to show up, and after about a minute, 60-70 pixels didn't match, then the computer freezes and restarts.

Could that mean my card is defective? Please help!

My system:
WinXP SP2
Core 2 Duo E6400
2GB ram
Radeon 1950 pro 256mb
BeQuiet 530W PSU

I have a X1900 GT. A very similar card. Mine will reset the GPU at about 71C or 72C also. That is a safety feature.

If you aren't going beyond default overclocking, and your fan is working, then there is something wrong.

I have a feeling you are using the overdrive, which is over-clocking, and causing your card to get too hot.


A great utility for that card is ATI Tool or something similar. It will let you change the fan speeds. On my card, the default configuration of the card was set to never go above 14% fan duty until it's already reset itself from being too hot. You might have to re-read that to realise what I'm saying.



Anyway, using a tool like ATI Tool, you can set the fan to kick up as the temperature rises. 14%, 22% 33%, etc. The faster the fan spins, the more effectively it removes the heat from the card. Set it so that it is at 100% fan cycle at like 69% C. It won't generate enough heat to get any hotter with the fan duty that high, it should level off at about 68 Degrees C.

There will still be stability issues with overclocking, but you shouldn't have to worry about overheating anymore with ATI Tool. You should be able to overclock much higher with ATI Tool than you can with CCC's overdrive.

Ask Asus, he uses it too.

Good luck.

 

[Advisor]

If the card resets the gpu at 71-72C automatically, that could have been the problem.

I didn't overclock btw. Neither with overdrive nor with the ati tool.

Thanks for the tip with the ati tool, i just set the fan to go up to 100% if the temperature reaches 68C.

 

[VirusType2]

If the card resets the gpu at 71-72C automatically, that could have been the problem.

I didn't overclock btw. Neither with overdrive nor with the ati tool.

Thanks for the tip with the ati tool, i just set the fan to go up to 100% if the temperature reaches 68C.

OK be careful with that tool, don't mess with anything that you don't understand. Unless you like your Graphics Card Well-Done/Char-Broiled.

 

[Advisor]

I'll try not to, because i like my graphics card medium rare.

 

[Asus]

My card has gone up to 80C before. D: