Graphic card or powersupply problems.

[Lazerith]

Hey.

Im not sure if this is in the right area. Im sorry if its not

I have been having problems while running games lately.(particularly City of Villains and City of Heroes) I think it is eather the Graphic card driver or power supply. Up intell afew weeks ago, I was using the driver that came with the graphic card, but when i played the City of Villains stress test, it said i needed to upgrade my driver to 5.10. After that everything was working fine, untell a week ago. It started with me turning off my monitor and leaving for about an hour. When i came back and turned on my monitor there was no signal. After that, everything started looking like less bit colours. Then, afew days ago, when i was playing a game, my computer just turned right off. Now I can't go more than 30 minutes playing a game without it crashing. Im thinking that it is somthing with my graphic card, but one of my friends said it could also be my power supply.

My specs

Motherboard: ASUS k8v-x
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Ram: 512mb ddr
Video card: Radeon 9550 256mb 128bit APG 8x
Power supply: 420Watts ATX

If anyone has any idea what is wrong, or has any idea how to fix this please help me.

 

[tractorboy]

hey back at ya

Have you physically looked at your vid card. I mean removed it from the case ?

It sounds like there might be a fan or something that is wrong. If there is a fan it should turn freely.

What OS you got ? and when the pc crashes what happens ?
error codes ? How is the video ? ok till it crashes ? do you have virus protection software and defs up to date ?

the redeon that has a second power connector , looks like a floppy or am i thinking about something else ?

what wattage is yur power supply ? oh you answered that 420 watts....might try 500+ , not yet though

 

[Lazerith]

Thanks for the quick response.

I am running XP. When my pc crashes it just shuts off. No error codes or anything. The video is working fine untell the crash and my virus protection is up to date.

The fan on the card is working fine and there is no second power connector.

I am really at a loss on what to do. I thank anyone who helps.

 

[Sui]

what brand psu?

 

[tractorboy]

Check your bios settings you may have a setting to shut down the pc if a certain temp is reached, the tresh hold may be too low.
it may be in fahrenheight or celcius

Is your pc generic or is it an OEM like Dell , Gateway....etc
if oem you may ahve to get from them you will have to determin
if generic go here

newegg.com

 

[Lazerith]

I built this PC myself with some help from the people at the store.

Where abouts can i find what temp it shuts down at in BIOS and what would be a good temp to set it at?

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

One thought: have you tried going back to the previous verion of the ati drivers that were working for you? Version 5.10 is more recent, and might do more harm then good for your older card. You said you were prompted with a message to upgrade your drivers, did you have to upgrade or was it a suggestion. You dont have to run the latest drivers, just ones that work for your system and your needs. What version were you running before you upgraded?

 

[Lazerith]

I did try that, but it seemed to cause more problems. Once it asked me to restart my computer, windows did not load properly screen came up.
The one where it askes you how you want to start windows (safemode, last knowen working configeration, etc). Starting windows normally, my monitor would lose its signal. The last knowen config put it back to the 5.10. I just reformated my computer to see if that would help. I havent lost a signal yet, and the colour hasnt gone lower. I installed the driver that came with my video card, but when i loaded City of heroes or villains, it said my driver was out of date (as before) and the bottom half of my screen froze. (this happened before with the CoV stress test. That was when i first installed 5.10). Now I have 5.10 again to see if it would run for over 30 min (witch it doesn't).

 

[Mr_Threepwood]

Check temperatures this could very well be a heat issue. Does it crash when your doing things that are non cpu heavy? Or only in things like games? Check temperatues in the BIOS to see what it sits at there, and you can also get Everest to check your temps in windows. What I think is happening is you are reaching the reset temp (which you can change but dont take it off or you can fry your cpu). In windows I sit around 34 degrees celcius. In games if I go over 52 degrees I start getting concerned. Are you sure you put on your heatsink right?

 

[Lazerith]

It is only happening in games.

According to Everest, my cpu temp is sitting at around 42-43 degrees celcius just sitting in windows. I take it thats high? Also i didnt put the heatsink in, the store did when they tested everything. I guess I should go check that out.