Video Shutting Off

[acrs]

I did a clean install of Windows XP Home on Thursday, and now am unable to
play any games on it. I have an MSI branded ATI Radeon 9550, and have tried
latest drivers/older drivers etc but have no idea what to do.

This is what happens, after installing a game I click to play it and after
about 30 seconds of game play the screen starts freezing for a couple
seconds, then eventually the monitor simply switches off. Sometimes I can
get out of the game by using ctrl alt delete but most times simply have to
restart the PC. The machine still responds with the monitor off (I can press
numlock and see the light on the keyboard switching off/on) but the monitor
stays off (unless I manage to close the game). I have checked in the Event
Viewer but there is nothing listed, I have downloaded latest Direct X etc
all updates/patches. I have also tried a different video card which gave me
the same problem.

The games are mostly flying sim's (2-3 years old) and my machine has enough
RAM etc. One thing I have not tried is a different PSU, which after typing
this I may try......... the reason I did a clean install of XP was due to a
power surge which killed the PC, upon rebooting it would not load Windows
due to various corrupt files. Ok if anyone has any ideas please let me know,
I am off to try a different PSU and will post back results.

Thanks.

 

[acrs]

Ok tried a different PSU and still the same problem, trying memtest at the
moment to see if the memory has any problems.

 

[acrs]

And memtest also found no problems, tried a different stick of memory and
the video still shuts off. Really got me stuck now. Running out of different
things to try.

 

[paulmd]

And memtest also found no problems, tried a different stick of memory and
the video still shuts off. Really got me stuck now. Running out of different
things to try.

Put your fingers on the video card hint sink while's running (avoid the
other circuitry) Is it hot? If it is, you can try to get a
squirrel-cage fan that fins in the next PCI slot.

Also, if this is an AGP vdieo card, and you have a card in the first
AGP, you may want to remove it, as the AGP and first pci are on many
motherboards shared. It deosn't usually cause crashes, but it's
something to try.