Problems with Video card
 

Ive posted here before about the same issue a while back and have continued to have the same problem. Well I'm using an ATI 9600 XT 256 MB and I used to have an ATI 9800 pro 128 MB but my friend and i swapped because my old 9800 pro would make my computer fail hardlock more than this 9600 does, althought the 9600 still does the problem often as well.

Anyways, the problem is I will be playing some games or something like that and all of a sudden my video card will make a computer startup noise or a recharge noise that is quite loud and a few seconds afterwords my computer will completely hardlock. I cant do anything and i have to physically restart my computer with the power button. I'm pretty sure it's not a heat issue and I think it has something to do with VPU recovery. My computer runs fine with the onboard video so im positive its the video card. I've checked temperature of my video card only seconds before it hardlocks and it is around 35 degrees C so it can't be a heat issue. It seems to hardlock less when the games I am playing are on a lesser quality resolution but I havnt confirmed if that has much to do with it. Worse graphic settings or highest it will still hardlock. I'm sure it isnt a malfunctioning problem because I sent the 9800 into the ATI repair shop and when I got the card back it my computer was still hardlocking. So I assumed ATI didnt fix my card so I wanted to see if my friends comp wouldn't work with it as well, well it has been running in his comp fine for over 4 months and I have his 9600. I have tried disabling VPU recovery but the problem still occurs, if anyone has any tips or ideas on anything I can try my ears and eyes are open, mind you the 9800 worked in my computer fine for 2 years. :uhm:

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Any1?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

So this has happened with both video cards? More likely to be a chipset issue then, possibly a faulty AGP bus.

Can you describe this "whine"? If it sounds mechanical, it could be your GPU fan spinning up in an effort to keep the card cool. If not, it could be something more serious...

Re: Problems with Video card
 

35C seems too cool for any card by ATI that starts with a '9'. I'm positive that 9800's had heat issues, and I would assume 9600's do to. It's still possible that your card is having heat issues, and simply reporting the temperature wrong. Try running the computer with the case open and (preferably) a house fan blowing air into the case. See if your computer freezes. Also, next time it crashes, open of the case and feel the heatsink of the video card with your own hands.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

If it's got a modern replacement cooler then it should be possible. Modern high-end cards can get those kind of temps when idle with a decent cooler. If it's got a stock cooler then you're probably right that it's actually too cool for a 9600.

To be honest I agree with Rookie, your mobo is most likely knackered and you can't repair that kind of damage.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

My guess would be , if your getting extreemly high pitched sound, assuming its not a fan winding up from heat, that you have a serious voltage problem, and a squeeling sound short burst off one in anycase sounds like a very small capacitor struggling for ampage, its a similar sound to the sound you get upon turning a tv on.
If it is a voltage shortage, its onlt a matter of time till you fry something, l would be guessing at an overvoltage to the graphic's card, overclocked is it ? lts the video card or video card overheating from your discription, does your case have as good an air flow set up as your mates ?
Can you use the ATI tool to set up fan speeds at the right temps ?
set the fan to go 100 percent at 42 deg, 80 percent for anything under and test it, using the ATI cube.
It shouldnt go over 72 deg no matter what,[at around 78 deg the insulation looses integrety] if it does shut the cube down, average running temp under extreem load will be around 50 to 68 deg.
These card will run cool, when you start your pc, the chip temps are around 15 degrees, they run fine, under a 3d render, they wind up get warm, if you have one running at 30 odd degs under load , is probably got fried pipes in it, and is basicly rendered useless in most cases, l do have an x800 that still runs desktop but not 3d apps because of 4 pipes that died from 16, there is a good chance it is the agp bus slot too though, they are a common stuff up, thats a new mobo, basicly, test your card under the ATI tool if you can, one other thing, get two different temperature reading programs, to check its accurate, ati tool is one, make sure your drivers are up to date, they can really stuff your day, if your VPU is being engaged its got to be video card related.
Got any other video cards you can test out ?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Well, it does make the sound like when I turn on my tv almost, its like an electrical charge up, and i dont think its a heat issue because my video card like never goes past 50 degrees C. And when I'm using my onboard video it doesnt have the error but obviously the graphics suck lol, but m computer doesnt hardlock. Running games in windows seems to help but the problem does occur just not as often. If ATI Tool is the key and setting the fan speed and all that, instrutions on how to do that would be awesome.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Download the ATI tool from the ati site, then run it , click on settings, then up the top find the menu for fan controls,my settings are as follows, above 33C / 51% fan speed, 36/60 , 40/70 , 45/79 , 49/90 , 52/100, im in north qld australia, so it gets warm up here, l have no problems , even overclocked 50 odd htz in summer its fine, so give it a run, when you have set your temp/fan settings, run the 3d cube, run it for at least 8 minutes, it will warm up the card to its pretty much max in a full on hard rendering 3d game, which bf2 isnt really, it shouldnt run over 68deg really, though some do run a bit warmer, up to 72 is safe over that its likely to have the gpu recovery kick in.
The ATI tool was if l remember correctly designed for the x800 range cards but has a setting mode for 9800's and 9600's and 9550' l think.
If its not the card being faulty, it may be just one of those things where your particular set up, for whatever the tiny detail difference is, just doesnt like it, and finding it is a software nightmare or even a hardware nightmare.
Can you check your voltage readings in your bios, make sure all the voltages are correct and not fluxuating ?
Do you have a spare power supply to switch and check ?
Is it a lack of power to the video card ?
The 3d chip [ gpu] can sucky sucky some juice and its sister ram too.
Have you checked its set on x8 and not x4 bandwidth ?

l had a sound similar to a tv starting once, it was a dimm of ram frying, and the pc locking up, then going beep beep beep beep beep on re boot, until the stick was found and removed, try running the card with a stick of ram out even, see if your getting some sort of addressing problem.

Give that ATI tool a working out might solve the problem, good luck......

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Yea, im still havin problems after trying to change the ATItool settings and I just dont know why I would just randomly get problems like this after 1 year and a half or so of solid performance. After no hardware changes or anything and it just starts acting up just mystifies me. What is that bandwith you are talkin about, i've never heard about that, and ive looked at my Power to my video card and it seems pretty stead and i havnt noticed any fluctuation.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

It sounds like your mobo, almost positively. Simply the fact that the cards work fine in your friends mobo.

Buy a new one and see what happens

Re: Problems with Video card
 

yes its definately sounding like a motherboard screw up, l cant think of anything else you can try on the vid card.
Got a spair motherboard ?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Yea, im guessing that it must be my mobo :( I dont have the money to get a new one either, o well

Re: Problems with Video card
 

But why my mobo would randomly stop workin correctly is a mystery to me, i keep it clean lol

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Live near the ocean, or a moist area ?
They can just die for no reason at time, there wierd things, stress from heavy video cards, and or ram being pulled out and put in over time may have cracked something in the motherboards circuits, corrosion is a big killer, a surge may have damaged a diode , or over time many surges, static, static from you incorrectly touching a pc part without earthing.....many many things go wrong with em, then sometimes you can get one that lasts 12 months of lan parties and everything with no glitches, luck of the draw, and other than that all you can do is be gentle with em.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

But i'm not sure if its even my MOBO, after searching I've seen so many cases exactly like mine on many different message boards, but the thread either ends or there isn't a definitive answer...I've tried talkin with ATI but I just get the standard reply.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

any1?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

The only way to really diagnose this kind of thing is trial and error. You've confirmed it isn't either of the cards, so logically it's your motherboard.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Could it possibly be RAM or CPU? Think about it, high-strain programs on a weak part = crash. But I don't know about this "whine". If any of your friends has a spare stick of RAM, borrow it (or if you have 2 sticks of RAM, try one at a time). As far as CPU, the only way i could think of to test that is to switch it out with another one, but would be tricky if you don't know how to do it. So if you don't know how, don't do it, get someone who does know how.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

But running the same graphics on just my motherboard graphics card my computer does not hardlock, and then runnin same crappy graphics on my ATI card my computer will hardlock. So it has to be the video card and its somethin wrong with ATI or something idk.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Hmm... true, I forgot about that... It probably is the slot, as earlier suggested, or something esle. Sorry to hear about this m8, wish there was more I could do to help, someone else might have a suggestion, so wait till tomorrow and see if anyone else has some more ideas.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Yeah, but they work in your mate's PC, so how can it be the cards? :p

Re: Problems with Video card
 

The card is fine, but the slot on his mobo may not be

Re: Problems with Video card
 

What mobo do you have?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

ok, i may just be treading in shallow water here but...have you updated your chipset/agp (or pci-e, but im guessing agp since you have a 9600) driver? i dont know how many times i've seen downright fatal problems be solved by a driver reinstallation/upgrade.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

perhaps its the power supply, when it goes under load it uses alot more power than in idle so maybe that could be the problem
.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

How do i update my AGP driver? and how do i find out what type of AGP i have lol

Re: Problems with Video card
 

oh boy, first you need to find out your motherboard model, or if you have a premade pc (dell for example) then you need to tell us the model number. and probably the processor type and memory type. just to help us narrow it down incase we can't figure out the exact model.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

My MOBO i believe is a nvidia nforce 220. I have a stock hp pavilion 742n but just about everything on it i've replaced. Added ram, new psu, new video card, new sound card, new ethernet card. Only things that are still stick are the CPU and MOBO. And it's worked fine for over a year with no hardware changes so...

Re: Problems with Video card
 

that is a very old nvidia chipset and may not be able to handle vintage high end cards. your mobo chipset predates that 9600. if you are experiencing lock ups in games and strange squaling noises, this is caused by overheating chipset, specially with built in audio or non controller sound cards. best thing to do is to get a cheap agp mobo with KT chipset or more recent agp nvidia chipset like nvidia3 for about $50-$60, by all means stay away from Uli chipsets found in asrock boards , they are not friendly to AGP cards. the best thing is to upgrade to PCie board if at all possible.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

i'm so glad that i didn't have to break that news to him :uhm:

Re: Problems with Video card
 

That MOBO handled my 9800 pro for over 2 years :/ Now it will only work with my friends 9600 xt :/ I'm curious though, Ive read of a lot of people who have the same exact problem, could they all have bad video cards as well? O well :bawl:

Re: Problems with Video card
 

as in my earlier post, the issue is not necesarily that the chipset is not adequate but more likely that the chipset has gone bad and is overheating , chipsets are suceptible to heat and in older mobo designs , specially oem designs, the chipset had poor cooling or no cooling at all. this is due to most of these prebuilt systems being intended to be used with built in video only.

Re: Problems with Video card
 

hmm, that sucks. It's too bad that my computer's warrant expired a long time ago. :bawl:

Re: Problems with Video card
 

try a pci card, if it doesnt work its the mobo, if it works then it is something else

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Well, I took out my video card again and can play all my games fine without hardlocking. Obviously I play on lowest possible settings, but on those same settings my video card hardlocks. It still sucks because on most of the games I'm playing now I only get like 10-20 fps. But something interested I noticed after I took out my video card I was gettn diskboot errors and couldn't get to windows. So I changed the power cord that goes into my HDD with a different free one, and my computer started fine. SO could the problem maybe have something to do with my Power supply? I have an Antex 430 watt powersupply that I've been using for a couple years now that I got to replace my stock PSU so I could put in a video card. But I'm wondering if that could be the culprit? :uhm::confused:

Re: Problems with Video card
 

could be, I think we did suggest that it could be your psu

Re: Problems with Video card
 

yea maybe

Re: Problems with Video card
 

I just had a thought, did you check to see if your video card or north bridge are overheating?

Re: Problems with Video card
 

Well with the ATI control panel on the temp monitor the highest it goes is like 37-40 degrees, but usually stays in low 30s