Sapphire 9600 XT problems

[Richmond]

Hi

I'm having problems with my newly constructed pc consisting of

Athlon 2500xp barton
ABIT NF7 mobo
512mb ddr3200 generic memory (2 x 256mb simms)
Sapphire 9600XT 128mb
Windows XP Pro + Service Pack 1

My problem being it has started to crash frequently resulting in a
system reset with no prior warning. It seemingly randomly does this
whilst browsing the internet (with IE6) although it seems to
especially dislike the flash adverts that sometimes appear on
www.gamespot.com, but crashes everytime i run the ut2004 demo in full
or safe mode and also in Halo It will happily run the menus and even
the intro but as soon as the actual game engine starts it resets the
system.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled all the drivers and tried various
different versions of the ATI drivers up to version 4.2 and also
installed all of the critical updates from the windows update site and
direct x 9b

The only thing i haven't done that i can think off is format the hard
drive and re-install windows.

Would changing from AGP x 8 to x 4 help?

Any help would be much appreciated cos I'm a bit stuck!

Cheers!

 

[NDF]

Hi

I'm having problems with my newly constructed pc consisting of

Athlon 2500xp barton
ABIT NF7 mobo
512mb ddr3200 generic memory (2 x 256mb simms)
Sapphire 9600XT 128mb
Windows XP Pro + Service Pack 1

My problem being it has started to crash frequently resulting in a
system reset with no prior warning. It seemingly randomly does this
whilst browsing the internet (with IE6) although it seems to
especially dislike the flash adverts that sometimes appear on
www.gamespot.com, but crashes everytime i run the ut2004 demo in full
or safe mode and also in Halo It will happily run the menus and even
the intro but as soon as the actual game engine starts it resets the
system.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled all the drivers and tried various
different versions of the ATI drivers up to version 4.2 and also
installed all of the critical updates from the windows update site and
direct x 9b

The only thing i haven't done that i can think off is format the hard
drive and re-install windows.

Would changing from AGP x 8 to x 4 help?

Any help would be much appreciated cos I'm a bit stuck!

Cheers!

Are you entirely sure this is your VGA card to blame, many issues like yours
tend to be caused by poor RAM and or PSU.

If you reply with full details of the RAM, and also the numbers printed on
the chips on the RAM too.
Some RAM doesn't work well in Dual DDR Mode.

You bought DDR3200, why, your CPU is only 166FSB (333Mhz) are you
overclocking ?

Also what is the make and model of your PSU and it's Specs ?

NDF

 

[RobundConny]

Would changing from AGP x 8 to x 4 help?

Certainly did for me, i was getting lockups in games and windows rebooting
for no reason, i changed the agp settings and hey presto! it works fine now.

 

[Sunbow]

i had some of the probs you`ve described but only when overclocking. All
probs caused by RAM speeds and voltages. your memory should have a divider
to make it run at the correct speed. Is this set to AUTO or SPD or a manual
setting? This makes alot of difference to your RAM, especially if it`s
generic stuff. Set it to AUTO. you could try upping the voltage of your RAM
too. I use the same VGA card and m/b but have 1x512MB dimm of PC2700 ddr and
an o/c`d XP2000+@2083MHz. Also don`t use any aggressive settings on your RAM
till the probs been ironed out. Or buy some good quality RAM.

 

[JLC]

Hi

I'm having problems with my newly constructed pc consisting of

Athlon 2500xp barton
ABIT NF7 mobo
512mb ddr3200 generic memory (2 x 256mb simms)
Sapphire 9600XT 128mb
Windows XP Pro + Service Pack 1

Sounds to me like a bad power supply. What brand is yours and what's the
wattage? JLC

 

[Richmond]

Are you entirely sure this is your VGA card to blame, many issues like yours

tend to be caused by poor RAM and or PSU.

If you reply with full details of the RAM, and also the numbers printed on
the chips on the RAM too.
Some RAM doesn't work well in Dual DDR Mode.

You bought DDR3200, why, your CPU is only 166FSB (333Mhz) are you
overclocking ?

Also what is the make and model of your PSU and it's Specs ?

NDF

I guessed that it was a VGA problem because it was graphically
intensive tasks that caused it to crash but I'm no expert.

I'm not currently overclocking but i was planning to in the future,
the BIOS settings are currently 166 x 11.

It's a 300w PSU but i'm at work at the moment so i can't get any
serial numbers from the PSU or the memory, sorry

 

[Richmond]

Would changing from AGP x 8 to x 4 help?

Certainly did for me, i was getting lockups in games and windows rebooting
for no reason, i changed the agp settings and hey presto! it works fine now.

I had a go at that last night but no joy! Cheers anyway though

 

[Richmond]

"> i had some of the probs you`ve described but only when
overclocking. All

probs caused by RAM speeds and voltages. your memory should have a divider
to make it run at the correct speed. Is this set to AUTO or SPD or a manual
setting? This makes alot of difference to your RAM, especially if it`s
generic stuff. Set it to AUTO. you could try upping the voltage of your RAM
too. I use the same VGA card and m/b but have 1x512MB dimm of PC2700 ddr and
an o/c`d XP2000+@2083MHz. Also don`t use any aggressive settings on your RAM
till the probs been ironed out. Or buy some good quality RAM.

It's set to AUTO at the moment, I shall try it on SPD tonight when i
get home. What voltage do you reckon it's safe to run the memory at? I
have cooling chips attached to both memory simms if that makes any
difference

 

[Richmond]

Sounds to me like a bad power supply. What brand is yours and what's the

wattage? JLC

It's a 300w PSU that came with the £30 case i got from scan.co.uk.
Other people i have asked also suggested the PSU might be the problem
so i'm going to replace it with a 400 watter. Anyone got any brand
suggestions (bearing in mind i am unfortunately not a wealthy man!) ?

 

[Richmond]

It's a 300w PSU that came with the £30 case i got from scan.co.uk.
Other people i have asked also suggested the PSU might be the problem
so i'm going to replace it with a 400 watter. Anyone got any brand
suggestions (bearing in mind i am unfortunately not a wealthy man!) ?

Someone else has now pointed out to me that although the power supply
sounds likely it would affect any software that uses all the hardware
at once (graphics card, sound, etc) and Call of Duty, max payne 2,
n-oone lives forever 2 all run fine. This leads me back to the
graphics/sound config, I have tried taking the graphics card all the
way down to it's most basic setting using the bios and ati control
panel and have also tried disabling the onboard sound, still no joy
though. I am getting a bit fed up now!

 

[Dion L Heap]

(e-mail address removed) (Richmond) wrote in message

Someone else has now pointed out to me that although the power supply
sounds likely it would affect any software that uses all the hardware
at once (graphics card, sound, etc) and Call of Duty, max payne 2,
n-oone lives forever 2 all run fine. This leads me back to the
graphics/sound config, I have tried taking the graphics card all the
way down to it's most basic setting using the bios and ati control
panel and have also tried disabling the onboard sound, still no joy
though. I am getting a bit fed up now!

Are you using onboard sound or a sound card? If your using a sound card, try
uninstalling it in device manager, shut down and physically remove the
soundcard, then fire the machine up and see if it stops the crashes, if it
does, then install the soundcard in a different slot.

regards,

Dion L Heap
www.thetophouse.com

 

[Richmond]

Are you using onboard sound or a sound card? If your using a sound card, try
uninstalling it in device manager, shut down and physically remove the
soundcard, then fire the machine up and see if it stops the crashes, if it
does, then install the soundcard in a different slot.

regards,

Dion L Heap
www.thetophouse.com

Thanks Dion, unfortunately it's an onboard sound chip so all i can do
is switch it off at the bios which i've already tried.