I just built a new system and I'm having a some issues playing some games, mainly recent, graphics intensive games. Firstly here's the system I got...

CoolerMaster Centurion 1 Aluminium Case
Tagan 550 Watt Power Supply
Athlon 64 3000+ S939
AUS A8N-SLI
1Gb of DDR400
Western Digital SATA 200Gb
Gecube Radeon x800 256Mb PCI-E
Liteon DVD burner

and I'm running windows XP SP2

The problem is crashing after a few minutes of Battlefield 2, or Boiling Point: Road to Hell, I have no issue with GTA SA, and I'm guessing cause it's less graphically intensive, no bump mapping etc...

I'll be playing along happily, nice framerates, when bam, monitor loses connection and I have to reset to get my system back, after the first few times this happened, I checked the CPU temperature in the bios and it was fine, my only other guess is graphics card overheating? but I don't know how I can check the temperature of my card.

Anyone got any suggestions? or know of some software I can try to check my video cards temperature? or RAM testers?

ATI doesnt have monitoring software for their cards? I havnt used ati for a long time so Im not sure.

Definatly sounds like video card problem, but it could be heat or a dodgy card :/

This might help? http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-455.html

also sounds like it could be a PSU thing, i remember when i upgraded to a 6600GT
it f***ed up with a similar problem, and i was advised by firefrog who sold me it at CA that it could be PSU but i didn't listen and changed to a 9800 pro. abd it still happened to i eventually bit the bullet and upgraded my psu and it was fine

yeah well the PSU was recommended by the guys at CA, 550W which should be plenty, so unless it's actually faulty?

Crashing back to desktop after a few rounds of BF2 is a wide spread issue (Happens to me to)... Also 1gig of ram isn't enough for BF2, at least 1.5gig will get it running smoothly.

it wasn't crashing to desktop, I had no response from the computer after it crashes, can't get back to windows, it also does it in boiling point

I have that same PSU powering a 74gig raptor, 2 200gig drives, 2x 6600GTs ,the asus A8N and a 3500, so it shouldnt be lack of power.

also I have a gig of ram, and it plays BF2 awesome.

Sounds like its a direct video card problem, do you get artifacts or anything?
if not, maybe the card is just screwed.

I did get some artifacts in one game briefly, I've restarted the game a few times but never seen them again

I had a similar type of problem although i have different hardware. I would have to say its either your video card overheating/faulty or you memory. Wierdest thing last time my graphics kept s***ting itself it turned out to be memory related. had to fix both sticks.

Have you checked the event log for any errors? Any indication of what might be causing the issue? Sounds maybe like some hardware incompatibility.

does your vid card have a fan or is it a heatpipe model? Try whacking another fan in that blows directly on your vid card - if it fixes it, it's heat related.

I would also suggest running memtest to check that your RAM isn't getting errors.

it has a fan on it with a big freaky flat heatsink

http://www.computeralliance.com.au/parts.aspx?qryPart=5143

this is the card

Get the card RMA'ed sounds like its dodge silicon, that or its not seated properly on the heatsink, tho id take it back before pulling it apart, also what temps you getting?

Ati Tool For Temp Monitoring and Logging

RMA'ed?

hehe return to manufature :P , basicly take the card back to shop for replacement.

lemme guess, creative soundcard of some sort?

heh geez this spoon dude is a bright one ;)

Edit: Ok just re read your orginal post, so your not getting black screen of death with all games?

Get ati tool, theres a setting there to force your gpu fan to 100% all the time, try that first but defintly sounds like a heat realated issue.

you have to rule out heat or bad silicon or bad ram.

last edited by 0z at 17:40:11 16/Aug/05

The best test is open up your case, and put a pedistal fan aiming in to make a f***load of airflow running through it. If you still have problems, Ill say dodgy card, because nothing should be overheating with a pedastal fan cooler! :D

sounds like a similar problem to other radeons (9550's)

screen just loses sync and is gone

well I got that ATI tray tools app, I made it crash but I can't make any sense of the log, the temperature got up to 90+ degrees though which I'm sure isn't good

well I know what it is now, the GFX card fan doesn't work :/

it's only a few weeks old and should still be under warranty

anyone know if computer alliance is open tomorrow?

hmm they do9nt say anything about public holidays on their website :S

last edited by Fuknukle at 21:15:19 16/Aug/05

Ati Sliencer 5 Ftw, my x800xt pe agp with stock cooler ran like 38-40c idle and 65-70c underload, ati sliencer 4 idle 32-33c and 50-55c underload.

edit:also wtf promoted news item , this a bug with firefox?, had to nuke my post and re-submit :S

last edited by 0z at 22:09:26 16/Aug/05

well I know what it is now, the GFX card fan doesn't work :/

it's only a few weeks old and should still be under warranty

anyone know if computer alliance is open tomorrow?

thats how my olf ti4800 choked on me one day, couldnt figure it out for ages until I had a look at the fan and saw she weren't moving...grrr..

Ati Sliencer 5 Ftw

So he should spend money and void his warranty, just to get what he paid for? Common sense ftw.

last edited by Bah at 23:37:24 16/Aug/05

So he should spend money and void his warranty, just to get what he paid for? Common sense ftw.

Right, if you used common sense, and removed the orginal heat sink and fan carefully, and keep it in a safe place if something does go wrong how the hell they going to know its been on there? sigh....

Also this way hes probably looking around a month to 3 months for rma, getting the sliencer and installing it leaves no down time what so ever,unless of course the shop has a spare heat shink and fan for hes gecube, but i highly doubt that.

last edited by 0z at 17:48:36 17/Aug/05

anyone know if computer alliance is open tomorrow?

yep 10am-4pm.

their serviceroom is full up atm though :(

so what did your event log viewer say was the actual error?