ati radeon 9800...urgent help please
hey all...just upgraded my pc and put in a new powercolor radeon 9800 256mb card with the following specs on the machine...
ecs pm800ensp1 mobo
1.2 gig ram (but two chips of diff speeds)
p4 2.4ghz cpu
seagate 160 gig hard drive
sony dual layer dvd-rw drive
winxp sp2
creative sound blaster live card
now for the last few days i've been at my wit's end to get any game to work...have already done about "4" formats n reinstalls of windows xp sp2...the problem i face is that after fresh installation,windows works fine but as soon as i install any game the system goes to hell...slows down to a crawl and even after uninstalling the game the system stays slow.Only a format and fresh install of windows helps.
Have already tried updating ati drivers twice but doesn't work...any help would be appreciated...and yes i have only a 300w psu...could that be the problem or is it a hardware conflict.
ecs pm800ensp1 mobo
1.2 gig ram (but two chips of diff speeds)
p4 2.4ghz cpu
seagate 160 gig hard drive
sony dual layer dvd-rw drive
winxp sp2
creative sound blaster live card
now for the last few days i've been at my wit's end to get any game to work...have already done about "4" formats n reinstalls of windows xp sp2...the problem i face is that after fresh installation,windows works fine but as soon as i install any game the system goes to hell...slows down to a crawl and even after uninstalling the game the system stays slow.Only a format and fresh install of windows helps.
Have already tried updating ati drivers twice but doesn't work...any help would be appreciated...and yes i have only a 300w psu...could that be the problem or is it a hardware conflict.
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Comments
It's corrupting everything.
I installed it on one of my 6 pc's to test it and now it's getting random restarts/BSOD's/some things run ok/ some things don't, etc.
Even using system restore doesn't help.
I've read on many forums of others having the same thing happen/ BSOD's/restarts/real slow boot/no icons show for 4-5 mins until it gets through trying to boot and finally does/programs not running right or at all.
The only thing that fixes the problem is reformat and only install SP1.
SP2 has issues.
That's interesting. I have the same type of card and am running winxp sp2 just fine. Although I must add that it is a lite version I have installed. I used nlite and got rid of a bunch of extra winxp junk. I would also recommend reverting back to SP1 if all else fails. I wonder if this is a bios problem on the video card?
I'd recommend trying a chkdsk /r to look for any filesystem problems. It is possible that once the machine has the OS installed, the game writes over a troubled part of your hard drive.
If you have another video card you could borrow from a friend, I would give that a try as well. That way you could rule out the card.
Also, try to remove any add-in cards, like your soundblaster. I'd be curious to see if that changes the behavior. Be sure to uninstall any associated drivers and see if it helps.
firstly...my bios doesn't list system voltages but using speedfan this is what i got...
vcore1 1.31v
vcore2 2.67v
+3.3v 2.67v
+5v 4.92v
+12v 10.50v (fluctuates heavily once dropped to 4.46v)
-12v -0.27v
-5v -0.33v
these seem a bit low to me and could be that my psu cannot support the card because as long as the cabinet fan is plugged in,the card keeps displaying an error message at the bios screen that the power cable for the card is disconnected.
secondly...the system is very jumpy with the 9800 installed and slows to a crawl...could be an overheat issue too...since the cabinet fan is switched off...
any suggestions or ideas?...thanks...
p.s.the problem persists with all games...cs,lotr,psi-ops....all of em
Your powersupply is definietly defective or underpowered for your system. 10.5V on the +12V rail is well below the 5% ATX specification, as is your 3.3V rail. Your 5V rail is about the only one in spec. A PSU behaving like that is on the brink of failure, and could very well damage your hardware. I'd replace it ASAP.
I'd highly recommend replacing that PSU with a brand name model from OCZ, Mushkin, Corsair, Silverstone, Antec, Enermax etc. Something like the Antec Truepower 430 would do well based on your system specs.
Best of luck!