Radeon X1800xt lockup problems, PLEASE HELP!

MattJ · 12-29-2007, 01:52 AM

ok, ive been to three different forums in the last four days, and NO ONE will respond to this. PLEASE AT LEAST SKIM AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. AT LEAST THE PART ABOUT THE POWER SUPPLY!... Im going to cut and paste what I wrote there, to save me the time, considering im losing hope in online help. If you dont feel like reading my lifes journal down there, then Ill sum it up.

Yes I updated my drivers for my video card, Bios, and chipset.

I bought an open box X1800xt off of new egg.com
Installed it, played COD4 beautifully for 4 or 5 minutes, monitor turns off, turns back on with video card fan on high

somtimes I will get an error that says your video card has quit responding and has been restarted, other times I wont

when I get back into the game (which stays running through this) it is set with all of the graphic settings at the absolute minimum. I can play at that setting for as long as I want, but why pay all of that money for a video card if your not going to use it.

I have a dell powersupply, and worry about buying another one because of reported fitting problems.....

And thats it. If you want to see the progression of my problem in full, please read below.

"Hello, this will be a rather long story, so please bear with me
Today I recieved my Radeon X1800xt Video card from NewEgg. It was an open box, if that changes anything.
Anyway, I recieved the card and noticed first thing that the normal blue plug that most monitors have did not have a slot on the back of the video card, it only had 2 white slots. Im not too sure what these slots are called, but one is usually on all of the video cards Ive ever seen, but Mine has two. So we start off with me not having a compatible monitor (supposedly there is an adaptor, but that is still unseen).
So I go up and grab my brothers monitor, due to some advice that although his monitor has both the blue and white cords coming out of it, it should work if I plug in only the white cord into the back of the video card. I do this and install the proper drivers off of the ati website.
I then installed and began to play Call of Duty 4. It was running without a hitch until suddenly my monitor turned off, the fan on my video card turned up all of the way, and my screen stayed black for a short period of time, coming back on with my compter on its desktop reset to 800x600 resoution. I alt-tabbed back into the game and the game was reset to this resolution as well. I then tried turning down the resolution on the game(I had it set on a high random number just to see how good the graphics were) and started playing on 1152x864 resolution, it made it a bit longer and did the exact same thing, only this time the game would not come back on and I had to close it through the task manager. I decided to see if somehow it was just the games fault, so I went to start CounterStrike:Source, and it would not start. Steam would say that it was starting the game, that notification would close, then nothing would happen. I tried to start Half-Life 2, same deal. I then went to start CounterStrike: Condition Zero, and it stated that My computer did not support the current graphics setting (open gl) and that it was switching to the software mode.
Im about to restart my computer, but I do not know where to go from here. Im guessing it could perhaps be that i only have one of the 2 monitor cables plugged in from this monitor, but I do not see how that would affect the way that my computer was acting.
That is all of the information I have, and ANY advice is much appreciated!
Thanks,

Matt

Edit: Update:

I restarted the computer, and the windows software said that is has found new hardware, and it wanted to search the computer for drivers for it. I clicked yes, and where it was supposed to list what peice of hardware it was looking for drivers for, it stated "Unknown", so I closed out of it.

I went on to play Source for about 10 minutes, played without a hitch. Im going to try Call of Duty 4 again, which is much more graphic intensive, and see what happens. If it does the same thing, I think I will attempt to reinstall the drivers.

Also, My monitor that I am using is a Widescreen flat monitor, and my system specs are

Windows XP
1 gb ram
dvd drive
cd-rw drive
X1800xt video card

Update 3:

I reinstalled the drivers, this time getting the same error that I just recall getting last time, which was in the step where steam was being modified, which SHOULD have no effect on anything that Im having problems with. Played COD4 for aprox 5 min on what settings should be on, and it skipped back to 800x600 on me. I then went into the settings and turned everything down all of the way, and the game ran for 40 min no problem. I turned the graphics back up, and it started to artifact immediatly. I quit before it could freeze.

When I turn the settings up, the game runs flawlessly, without lag, but will then begin to artifact, then crash...

Update 4:

I dont know if it has anything to do with anything, but I was wondering if perhaps I should have a different version of that .net microsoft thing. mine is 2.0, and it seems like there is a 3.0 or 3.5 out there, but it never tells me to download anything like that. I just followed the link that was supplied to me, which took me to 2.0

Update 5:

I have found today that it seems that other people are having the same types of problems that I am with Cod 4, and that perhaps it is not my videocard. when the screen goes black, it pops me to the lowest video settings and resolution, at which I can play the game forever. The problem is that I didnt pay this much money to play a new game at the lowest settings, so im still looking for a fix. Im installing Rainbow Six: Vegas now to see if My video card does the exact same thing. I figure that 2 different companies shouldnt have the exact same glitch in 2 different games.

Im still hoping someday someone will actually respond...

Update 6:
after more research, I found this

"9. Ensure that you have adequate Power

300 watts for ATI Radeon™ 9700, ATI Radeon™ 9800, ATI Radeon™ X300, ATI Radeon™ X600 and ATI Radeon™ X700.
350 watts for ATI Radeon™ X800, ATI Radeon™ X850, ATI Radeon™ X1300, and ATI Radeon™ X1600.
ATI Radeon™ X1800, ATI Radeon™ X1900, ATI Radeon™ X1950 require special power supply:

450 Watt capacity with 30A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for single graphics configuration.
550 Watt capacity with 38A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for dual graphics configuration for Crossfire (for a list of certified power supplies click here). "

I was told on these forums that the power supply that was supplied with my dell was enough, considering the numbers that I gave them and the card requirements. The reccomendations above seem vague and generalized. Do I need a bigger power supply, and could that be the problem?
(this is from the ati troubleshooting website)

Update Blah:

5 Minutes into Rainbow Six= Artifacting off of nightvision goggles on my characters head

7 Minutes into Rainbow Six= Sound and video freeze. Sound looped over and over. Had to power off tower to get anywhere.

So maybe it is my video card. I wish someone would say SOMETHING as to what COULD POSSIBLY be the problem. im running out of ideas and im not the best with computers...

Right now, im thinking that its the inadequate power supply. Would that cause artifacting and freezeups like im having, or would too little of a power supply just cause the system to shut down?"

Thanks for reading all of that, and I appreciate any help

-Matt

**pharoah** · 12-30-2007, 11:59 AM

what is the power rating of your dell power supply,and how old is it?

swarner · 12-30-2007, 03:29 PM

From the symptoms your describing I would say either an underpowered PSU
OR
Bad or overheating VRAM.

If your card is still under warrantee I would strongly recommend getting a replacement,
Then if with the new card the problem persists, it is most likely an underpowered PSU!

MattJ · 12-31-2007, 03:13 PM

thanks guys for your replies, sorry I didnt get back to you, I kinda forgot about this thread after it went a while without a responce. It ended up being a heat issue, because the cards fan wouldnt throttle up from idle no matter how hot the card got. I ended up sending it back and got a 7950gt nvidea card to replace it with, so hopefully all works out for the best. Thanks for the suggestions!

12-29-2007, 01:52 AM	#1 (permalink)
MattJ Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Radeon X1800xt lockup problems, PLEASE HELP! ok, ive been to three different forums in the last four days, and NO ONE will respond to this. PLEASE AT LEAST SKIM AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. AT LEAST THE PART ABOUT THE POWER SUPPLY!... Im going to cut and paste what I wrote there, to save me the time, considering im losing hope in online help. If you dont feel like reading my lifes journal down there, then Ill sum it up. Yes I updated my drivers for my video card, Bios, and chipset. I bought an open box X1800xt off of new egg.com Installed it, played COD4 beautifully for 4 or 5 minutes, monitor turns off, turns back on with video card fan on high somtimes I will get an error that says your video card has quit responding and has been restarted, other times I wont when I get back into the game (which stays running through this) it is set with all of the graphic settings at the absolute minimum. I can play at that setting for as long as I want, but why pay all of that money for a video card if your not going to use it. I have a dell powersupply, and worry about buying another one because of reported fitting problems..... And thats it. If you want to see the progression of my problem in full, please read below. "Hello, this will be a rather long story, so please bear with me Today I recieved my Radeon X1800xt Video card from NewEgg. It was an open box, if that changes anything. Anyway, I recieved the card and noticed first thing that the normal blue plug that most monitors have did not have a slot on the back of the video card, it only had 2 white slots. Im not too sure what these slots are called, but one is usually on all of the video cards Ive ever seen, but Mine has two. So we start off with me not having a compatible monitor (supposedly there is an adaptor, but that is still unseen). So I go up and grab my brothers monitor, due to some advice that although his monitor has both the blue and white cords coming out of it, it should work if I plug in only the white cord into the back of the video card. I do this and install the proper drivers off of the ati website. I then installed and began to play Call of Duty 4. It was running without a hitch until suddenly my monitor turned off, the fan on my video card turned up all of the way, and my screen stayed black for a short period of time, coming back on with my compter on its desktop reset to 800x600 resoution. I alt-tabbed back into the game and the game was reset to this resolution as well. I then tried turning down the resolution on the game(I had it set on a high random number just to see how good the graphics were) and started playing on 1152x864 resolution, it made it a bit longer and did the exact same thing, only this time the game would not come back on and I had to close it through the task manager. I decided to see if somehow it was just the games fault, so I went to start CounterStrike:Source, and it would not start. Steam would say that it was starting the game, that notification would close, then nothing would happen. I tried to start Half-Life 2, same deal. I then went to start CounterStrike: Condition Zero, and it stated that My computer did not support the current graphics setting (open gl) and that it was switching to the software mode. Im about to restart my computer, but I do not know where to go from here. Im guessing it could perhaps be that i only have one of the 2 monitor cables plugged in from this monitor, but I do not see how that would affect the way that my computer was acting. That is all of the information I have, and ANY advice is much appreciated! Thanks, Matt Edit: Update: I restarted the computer, and the windows software said that is has found new hardware, and it wanted to search the computer for drivers for it. I clicked yes, and where it was supposed to list what peice of hardware it was looking for drivers for, it stated "Unknown", so I closed out of it. I went on to play Source for about 10 minutes, played without a hitch. Im going to try Call of Duty 4 again, which is much more graphic intensive, and see what happens. If it does the same thing, I think I will attempt to reinstall the drivers. Also, My monitor that I am using is a Widescreen flat monitor, and my system specs are Windows XP 1 gb ram dvd drive cd-rw drive X1800xt video card Update 3: I reinstalled the drivers, this time getting the same error that I just recall getting last time, which was in the step where steam was being modified, which SHOULD have no effect on anything that Im having problems with. Played COD4 for aprox 5 min on what settings should be on, and it skipped back to 800x600 on me. I then went into the settings and turned everything down all of the way, and the game ran for 40 min no problem. I turned the graphics back up, and it started to artifact immediatly. I quit before it could freeze. When I turn the settings up, the game runs flawlessly, without lag, but will then begin to artifact, then crash... Update 4: I dont know if it has anything to do with anything, but I was wondering if perhaps I should have a different version of that .net microsoft thing. mine is 2.0, and it seems like there is a 3.0 or 3.5 out there, but it never tells me to download anything like that. I just followed the link that was supplied to me, which took me to 2.0 Update 5: I have found today that it seems that other people are having the same types of problems that I am with Cod 4, and that perhaps it is not my videocard. when the screen goes black, it pops me to the lowest video settings and resolution, at which I can play the game forever. The problem is that I didnt pay this much money to play a new game at the lowest settings, so im still looking for a fix. Im installing Rainbow Six: Vegas now to see if My video card does the exact same thing. I figure that 2 different companies shouldnt have the exact same glitch in 2 different games. Im still hoping someday someone will actually respond... Update 6: after more research, I found this "9. Ensure that you have adequate Power 300 watts for ATI Radeon™ 9700, ATI Radeon™ 9800, ATI Radeon™ X300, ATI Radeon™ X600 and ATI Radeon™ X700. 350 watts for ATI Radeon™ X800, ATI Radeon™ X850, ATI Radeon™ X1300, and ATI Radeon™ X1600. ATI Radeon™ X1800, ATI Radeon™ X1900, ATI Radeon™ X1950 require special power supply: 450 Watt capacity with 30A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for single graphics configuration. 550 Watt capacity with 38A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for dual graphics configuration for Crossfire (for a list of certified power supplies click here). " I was told on these forums that the power supply that was supplied with my dell was enough, considering the numbers that I gave them and the card requirements. The reccomendations above seem vague and generalized. Do I need a bigger power supply, and could that be the problem? (this is from the ati troubleshooting website) Update Blah: 5 Minutes into Rainbow Six= Artifacting off of nightvision goggles on my characters head 7 Minutes into Rainbow Six= Sound and video freeze. Sound looped over and over. Had to power off tower to get anywhere. So maybe it is my video card. I wish someone would say SOMETHING as to what COULD POSSIBLY be the problem. im running out of ideas and im not the best with computers... Right now, im thinking that its the inadequate power supply. Would that cause artifacting and freezeups like im having, or would too little of a power supply just cause the system to shut down?" Thanks for reading all of that, and I appreciate any help -Matt Last edited by MattJ; 12-29-2007 at 01:59 AM.

12-30-2007, 11:59 AM	#2 (permalink)
pharoah TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 5,188 OS: vista business edition My System	Re: Radeon X1800xt lockup problems, PLEASE HELP! what is the power rating of your dell power supply,and how old is it? __________________ Follow These Steps First Power Supply Selection Posting System Specs Oblivion Tweak Guide Video Drivers& Information TSF folding at home team 85015

12-30-2007, 03:29 PM	#3 (permalink)
swarner Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Ireland Posts: 272 OS: Vista Ultimate	Re: Radeon X1800xt lockup problems, PLEASE HELP! From the symptoms your describing I would say either an underpowered PSU OR Bad or overheating VRAM. If your card is still under warrantee I would strongly recommend getting a replacement, Then if with the new card the problem persists, it is most likely an underpowered PSU! __________________ Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad Computers are like air conditioners. They work best with windows closed.

12-31-2007, 03:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
MattJ Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 2 OS: XP	Re: Radeon X1800xt lockup problems, PLEASE HELP! thanks guys for your replies, sorry I didnt get back to you, I kinda forgot about this thread after it went a while without a responce. It ended up being a heat issue, because the cards fan wouldnt throttle up from idle no matter how hot the card got. I ended up sending it back and got a 7950gt nvidea card to replace it with, so hopefully all works out for the best. Thanks for the suggestions!