Need help pinpointing a problem

[SpyderS]

Ok, I am having some major issues with my computer.

I currently have a Asus P4S800D-E with a Prescott P4 CPU. 1 Gig 3200 DDR and a Asus ATI x800 256mb video card.

My computer restarts itself without warning with this setup. And when I restart my computer I sometimes get a message telling me that my video card drivers were responsible for the instability. Well, i have installed the drivers from the CD Asus gave me, the latest drivers from the ATI site, and the latest drivers from the Asus site.

It still does not fix the problem. So, my question is, who's the culprit? The video card doesn't seem damaged, i doubt its the drivers, so what can it be? Is it my hard drive? Is it my OS (XP)? I'm at a loss here. Any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[zerozero]

Here are a few things you may try if indeed it is the video card. On the control panel, disable trueform and fastwrite. Since fastwrite is not supported yet, it is known to cause instalbilities.
You can also try the omega drivers, do a google search for the site.

 

[SpyderS]

Well, I checked the Control Panel, and it seems like Trueform is always off.

One thing that I found that bothered me was the SMARTGART had disabled the AGP setting. Probably because fastwrite was on. I'm going to reenable AGP acceleration and try to turn off fastwrite.

 

[SpyderS]

Well, I tried enabling AGP acceleration, but the computer won't let me. So now I'm pretty lost. No clue what to do.

 

[zerozero]

No 3d acceleration....Wow!!!. What version of direct X have you got installed?
This may help too.... Under run, type dxdiag.exe and run your 3d tests

 

[Soloman02]

I believe you can only disable fastwrite from the bios, cause there is a seting to enable.disable it on my bios. try using a different video card/putting the x800 in another computer. if you have to, ask a friend if you can use a card they have lying around, or ask if you can put you card in their comp. make sure the motherboards have agp slots.

 

[killians45]

Asus is known to have Gart chipset driver issues. Update the MBD chipset drivers. Also, due to random restart, goto system properties and in advanced remove the checkbox next to restart after system failure so you can generate an error of some sort.