My primary workstation has an ATI RADEON 9500 Pro w/256mb ram video card. It was a good card, but lately its been freaking out whenever I load up a game. I'm not a huge gamer, but I like to occasionally whittle away a few hours. After loading up games that used to run great, say HL2:Episode One, the game starts and then the monitors go black or get all scrambled and I get a high pitched screech through the speakers and I have to hard reboot. If I lockout the desktop the monitors also flicker on and off continuously, which they never used to do. I've replaced drivers this way and that but it keeps doing the same thing. At this point I'm not really interested in troubleshooting the ATI and I just want to replace it.
I don't want to spend a fortune($100-$300), but I would like a decent card that would keep me in games for a couple years, including newer titles. I haven't really stayed up on video cards, so I am open to suggestions. It needs to have dual outputs, preferably digital and fit an AGP 8x/4x card slot. Here are my machine specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 2GHz
3gb ram
Windows XP Pro
Well I opened the case up today and found the fan on the ATI card is seized up. I'm guessing that what is happening is that when I run a game the chip heats up and fails. The card has a substantial heat sink in addition to the fan, which is why it probably works okay when I'm working in Windows vs. running a 3D game.
What is the possibility of replacing the headsink/fan assembly on this card? Has anyone done it and can provide details or recommend parts?
Actually, scratch that. I found I can still get this card new for around $60 which will be cheaper and easier than messing around with trying to replace the heatsink/fan.
Either the thread starter or a moderator has marked this thread as solved. You can most likely trust the responses and answers given. There is most likely no reason for any further responses to be posted here. If you have a related question, please start a new thread in this forum instead.
This thread is more than three months old
No one has posted to this discussion for at least three months. Please let old threads die and do not reply to them unless you feel you have something new and valuable to contribute that absolutely must be added to make the discussion complete. Otherwise, please start a new thread in this forum instead.
Marked Solved 
