FS crashes randomly and constantly

[Moach]

hi there...

i recently bought a new video card and i have been having trouble with FS ever since i put it in...

i'm having random crashes of all sorts of nature.... sometimes it unadvertedly crashes to desktop, others , i get the "FS must shut down" error, and some times, i get complete computer lockdown, for which i have to hit the reset button, which is not the healthiest thing you can do to a pc

my new rig consists of:

ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB
asus a7n8x mobo
athlon xp2000 cpu
1 gig ram
sound blaster live x-gamer
win XP pro (SP1)

i had to reinstall windows when i replaced the motherboard, but i chose not to format the hard drive as i couldn't affod to lose my stuff (there's an almost complete 737 in here)...

that "unclean" windows reinstall didn't cause me much trouble, except that my FS is madly unstable, as i haven't been able to play it for longer than 5 minutes without experiencing one of the crash scenarios above

but i have not reinstalled FS yet, as it's a LOT of trouble to backup everything... and as i didn't want to risk going through all that trouble just to find the same problems as before, i just thought i'd ask first...

BTW: i got the enw catalyst drivers for the radeon, and had a MAJOR frame rate boost in all games, and FS seems to be  more stable than before, but still crashing nonstop...

what should i do?

Moach

[Politically Incorrect]

Confusing problem but my best guess would be you need to re-install FS9.
But before that try looking to be certain that FS9 reconizes your new card. Look in the display settings to see that it is shown if it isn't there that might be your problem. Also check to see if your running the newest DirectX (9.c)

[JBaymore]

Moach,

The "five minutes" comment for me is a clue.

[Moach]

FS does recognize the new card, and, yes, i'm running directx 9.0c

about the cooling, i don't think that's the case since ONLY flightsim crashes after five minutes... (i've been playing much heavier games than FS without much hassle) but just in case i 'll turn off overdive to see what happens....

about the power supply, i was a little worried that low wattage might be the issue... i'm using a 250W (real) PSU...
the guy who put my rig together said it could do the job, but i'm starting to think otherwise...

and no, i never had an ATI card before (previous card was Geforce4 mx440) the old drivers were all removed...

thanks for the replies, keep 'em coming

Moach

[Katahu]

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