Videocard trouble

[Morgan25]

I com computer literate to a point, i built my PC. I just updated my videocard. I bought ATI Radeon 9600 XT.

My Current computer specs are:

P4 2.4 Ghz
768 Mb of Ram
80 Gb HD
Asus P4PE
I have an AGP slot that is 1x/4x compatible

I bought this card from newegg.com, in its description it says it is 8x/4x compatible, but the link to the descriptions says this "VGA ATI RADEON 9600XT 256M 8x"

I try to play HL2 and CS Source but it freezes along with my whole PC, it only freezes when i play the games, and i have all my settings on the reccommended ones. I did a video stress test and it averages 83 FPS. I downloaded and updated drivers. Is it possible there is a problem with my BIOS setup and if there is how can i fix it and how can i update my BIOS if i have to? Is there anymore information i have to give to get the right advice? just wondering any helkp would be wonderful.

Sincerely Morgan

BTW I plan to return the videocard tomorrow around noon or 3 oclock depending on the posts i recieve, i have my old vid card in my PC right now, if anything thing comes up please post. I am a new user to this website.

[Morgan25]

Well no one has repsonded, but i dont think it was the videocard, i think there is an even bigger problem, i have my old card in and my pc froze while i was doing in Adobe preimiere, what could be the problme, could it be a virus, im freaking out now, what am i supposed to do now?

[Coconut Monkey]

Well no one has repsonded, but i dont think it was the videocard, i think there is an even bigger problem, i have my old card in and my pc froze while i was doing in Adobe preimiere, what could be the problme, could it be a virus, im freaking out now, what am i supposed to do now?

Give us time! :mrgreen:

Did you properly uninstall the previous video card's drivers from add/remove programs? Did you properly uninstall the new card's old drivers before installing the latest ones? Mixing drivers can cause all kinds of trouble, so make sure you just have one set sitting on your system.

Make sure you have the latest motherboard chipset drivers as well. These are available from the motherboard manufacturer's website (Asus in this case), or, if the board is rather old, you might want to check out the chipset manufacturer's website (I think you have an SiS chipset there).

If instability continues despite the above fixes, you might want to try turning off AGP fast writes via the ATI control panel or the BIOS. There is only a tiny performance drop from disabling it.

[Pistols]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem with my Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256Mb.

I load up a agame, go into the actual playing mode (3D mode) and after a short period 5-30 seconds, it crashes.... the whole system. Requiring a manual reboot. :sad:

I've been looking all over the net but most forums have said turn Fast Write off, which I have. Others have said it's a VIA problem. I've got all the latest Drivers, and even checked for any SOYO bios updates I might have missed.
I'm not gonna change my motherboard anytime soon.

Some VIA forum users stated it could be AGP voltage or even a weak PSU.
I don't really wanna mess with the AGP voltage.

When i send the error report to Microsoft after the reboot it comes up with exactly the same error report every time which states something about a thread blocked and it's something to do with the driver.

Tried changing a few BIOS AGP settings but to no avail.

Tried the current Catalyst drivers and then tried the OmegaDrivers and they haven't made a difference (apart from in DXDIAG the tests run Uber fast).
Theres no worry about driver conflict as i had to uninstall the catalyst before installing the Omega driver.

The only difference with my problem is that when i put my GF4 Ti4600 back in, it runs fine as before.

I'm running:

Windows XP SP2
AMD Athlon XP2600+
SOYO KT880 Dragon2 w/ onboard sound
2x 512MB PC3200 Corsair Value Select in dual channel mode
DVD ROM
CDR/RW
C: IDE 12GB
F: IDE 80GB
Asus Wireless LAN
Sapphire Radeon 9600XT
400W PSU

(on a side note, with the GF4 my wireless connection is pretty poor, ~30-50%, but with the radeon it's Excellent ~75-95%. strange. :confused: )

[Morgan25]

Well, so its not just me who had that problem. I have the Sapphire Radeaon 9600 XT I am going to return my videocard, and get a different one. See how it works out, if the problem persists, it is probably the mobo.

[Pistols]

It is slightly worrying that your comp froze when you put your old graphics card back in.

I got my card from MicroDirect and luckily I'm off to Manchester where they're based for the weekend, I'm gonna take mine back to them and see what they think.

Since the error report for mine stated a thread error and it's to do with the drivers/hardware theres always a chance it could be a hardware problem. i.e. memory, but I've heard of so many poeple with this problem it's kinda annoying that it could just be driver incompatibility.
I'll quote someone from another forum i stumbled across. "It's as bad as Plug and Pray" :rolleyes:
heh.

[Pistols]

ok, the computer froze while browsing the web. uh oh. :cry: Same error as before, this time I copied it:

Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

Anyone have a clue what this actually means? other than a command thread from the driver to the hardware is stuck. :confused:

Microshafts advice.... turn the hardware acceleration off, if it works, leave it off. Come on MS, the whole point of a graphics card is the 'acceleration' it provides surely.

[Catweazle]

It means that your display drivers are incorrectly installed or corrupted. Before wiping clean and installing fresh, check in BIOS setup and ensure that AGP is set to 4X and that 'Fast writes' are set to 'Disabled' . AGP 8X and AGP fast writes sometimes adversely effects ATi Radeon display cards of this vintage.

If that doesn't help, format and install fresh. I know a lot of people would advise fiddling around with it to try and correct the problem, but I've seen too many messy driver installs to recommend that procedure myself!

[Morgan25]

yea, i actually returned the other videocard, and before i buy a different on , i am going to reformt my computer, i figure, it wouldnt hurt to start fresh, new everything, im planning to get a GEforce instead. I dont want to fiddle with my bios, i iwll probably brake something anyway. thank you for help.

[Catweazle]

You can't 'break' anything by making BIOS changes. If things go haywire on you then all you have to do is reset CMOS to return it back to factory presets ;)

[Pistols]

Well, I took my Radeon back to the shop and they tested it for ages, so it aint a hardware problem. I ran programs on my comp like detonator destroyer like the tech guy advised me and still the problem is there.

I did a windows repair install and reinstalled SP2 aswell to clear out anything else and that didn't work. Tried my 2 memory sticks on their own, lots of slow down but the problem still arose.

Gonna try today one last time I think.

The only other thing I can think of is my power supply. I would have thought 400w was ok though. I might upgrade to a 500w in a week or two and see if that makes any difference.
I got a feeling I won't be able to get a refund on my graphics card due to 'incompatibility' problems. So changing it aint gonna happen :(

[Catweazle]

Format. Fresh install. Your system has driver corruption problems which a repair won't fix.

[omw]

hi,
u have already downloaded the latest catalyst 5.2(i guess). did the shop people try the card on their system? did it work ok? u working on one or two op systems? if two, format 98 and xp both(obviously both). before doing that check that the card is not conflicting with irq of some other hardware's sofftware. sometimes sharing can cause problems. install catalyst 5.2, restart, check application, if crashes or troubles then uninstall (any conflicting source) say the modem driver, check system, if no good then restart and check again. if it works fine otherwise whatever fixes ur problem please let me know coz i was thinking of buying a 9600xt myself.
could it be the manufacturer (saphire) which is causing the trouble. i think if i go fo ati's ati 9600xt, it wont be a problem...dont u think?
regards

[Catweazle]

It might surprise people to know that Sapphire manufacture the greatest bulk of ATi radeon cards sold. Many other manufacturers have Sapphire manufacture the cards for them, and then badge the things with their own brand name ;)