Possible temperature/software issues with XFX 5700

[Edcrab]

Making this thread before I go to bed in anticipation of a deluge of helpful correspondence when I return

My XFX 5700 graphics card (256 memory) encounters an incredibly bizzare problem whereby my machine can run nothing 3D until a time period of variable length has passed from its intial start up. I'm obviously unaware of the cause, but if I were to turn the computer on and try running a graphics-card utilising game such as HL2 or Dawn of War, the system will freeze or display graphical corruptions. It's almost as if it's too cool, and requires time enough to warm up before running, which is an insane notion...

After a restart, Windows will declare that it has detected a possible device failure which may be down to its drivers, but no amount of driver tinkering has resolved it. I'm currently running the NVidia 6702 beta driver, but the problem is just as pronounced as it was on earlier versions; there's been no magical resolution of the issue. Currently my only solution is to leave my computer on for up to twenty minutes or more or submit myself to numerous restarts before the card decides to work- the worst occasions are when it runs fine initially and only encounters a crash or corruption partway into a gaming session.

I have a 2000+ AMD Athlon with 512 megs of RAM and an 80GB hard disk, although I doubt the knowledge will help. I've ran spyware checks with the latest versions of SpyBot and Ad-Aware and ran numerous prevsiously-recommended virus scanners, but found nothing.

Anyone prepared to shed a little light on the subject for a techno-ignoramus?

 

[Eg.]

lol, deluge havent heard that in a while

1. update bios
2 update drivers
3.update windows

if problems continue to endure, take notice that the Fx series had problems with dx, HL2 being one of them. also, this is a pci card? it may be suffering from "first generation growing pains" as the tech has just come out. ur screwed any way

 

[Edcrab]

Yes, I'm definitely screwed then. The card is AGP, and as stated I've already performed driver updates and even tried running under earlier versions, and due to connection limitations I'm doomed- past attempts to grab service packs have resulted in a huge, useless corrupt download.

I'm going to check for motherboard drivers again, I might get lucky- I've practically got used to this damn thing now.

 

[Rotary]

I got the same card about 2 weeks ago and had a few problems with the fps. But no problems like what ur talking about. Sounds like u got a bad card.