New Radeon Grafics card freezes computer

[stevewilson]

At last, I just installed a new Radeon card. WOW what a defferance it makes in FS9. Thanks to all for the great advice and info on the cards it sure helped to decide on which card to get.

But with the good there is always a little bad. In my case the Radeon 9600XT is freeze up my comp., and the only thing I can do is to power down. No mouse or keyboard inputs at all.

Has anyone else had this problem? My spec are:

AMD Athlon
1.0 ghz mem
Radeon 9600XT 128 mb

[Delta_]

Have you tried turning VPU recover off, and set the AGP setting to 4x.

[JBaymore]

Hi.  Another thought..........

Did you set the video aperature correctly in your BIOS setup screen?  Is the XT card actually a 128M card....or a 256 like the XT designation for the 9800?

Not sure if that would do it..... but it might.

best,

....................john

[Delta_]

aperture is the system memory that is given to the GFX card if it needs it, not the memory size of the graphics card.

[andy2]

My 9600 Pro used to lock up with antialiase on with the 3.7 driver out of the box. It's been ok on that issue since I went to the 3.8 or 9 driver and later.

[Delta_]

I use Cat 4.3 (Cat 4.1 came with the card,) i have absolutely no problems at all.

[JBaymore]

[quote]aperture is the system memory that is given to the GFX card if it needs it, not the memory size of the graphics card.

[Delta_]

You need to set it according to what system memory you have:
RAM        Aperture
128MB    64MB
256MB    64/128MB
512MB    128MB
1GB        256MB

[stevewilson]

Hi Everyone and thanks for the replys.

Hyvry1_Delta, I've now got the VPU recover off, AGP was set at 4X.

JBaymore: The spec's in the disply panel say that it has 128 mb, and the driver is ver 3.8. I'm not sure how to set the video aperature in BIOS, or what it is set to.

I will try looking into the BIOS and see what I can do there.

Also I was thinking of adding another fan in case it is heat
related. Will let you know what I find out. Thanks.

An after thought; my pre-installed vid card is on the motherboard, How do I disable it, and could it be causing problems

[Rivers]

It

[stevewilson]

BR;  Not sure what rating the PSU is, it is stock. I did learn on another not not to plug the monitor into the PSU the hard way .

If I could I would set AGP aperture to 50%, but the BIOS will only let me set it at 256, 25%. Thats the highest option there was.

After making the changes, I reset my screen size from 1024 x768 to 1280 x 1024, then after flying for abt and hr, it froze up again. At 1024x768 it didn't freeze. So I'm thinking it is over heating.

PS: It froze up while I was writing this, got it back by going into sleep mode and back out again???

I'll put in another fan now, and will check the psu, and if need be upgrade it as well.

[Delta_]

The 50% thing only works on memory sizes below 512MB, then it becomes 25%, so you setting it to 256MB is good.

[stevewilson]

Hyvry1_Delta;  I'm really begining to think that it is the psu. At this moment my case is open, there are fans running on the cpu, graffics card, and in the psu. Plus I installed a fan just below the card that pulls heat away from and out the back and still it will lock up.

So I guess I'll have to tear it down and get a bigger psu. I don't heat montering ablities, except for the cpu and it is at 44* C according to speedfan.

It really looks like it is the psu.

[Delta_]

If you look at the sticker on the PSU could you post the Brand and Power rating, then we will have a better idea as to whether it is the PSU.

[stevewilson]

Hyvry1_Delta;  I think we might have discovered the problem, if the model # below indicates the wattage then I need a bigger psu.

PSU = Made by Bestec, model # ATX-250-12E.

I beleave the psu is a 250 watt unit, and that I'm sure is to low.

Am I wrong on this?