Need help with ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

[kedip182]

I just bought new comp and already has severe problem

My system spec :
MSI K7N2 Delta
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Kingston HyperX PC3200 1 GB
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

the sytem would hang several minutes (5-45) after i run games with heavy 3-d requirements ( NFS Underground, Tron 2.0, Call of Duty, Deus Ex Invisble wars) and i have to reboot the comp

Oddly, some games work just fine ( Star Wars KOTOR, Simpsons Hit and Run)
Reducing the AGP speed from 8x to 4x partly fixed the problem (Deus Ex Invis war) but not other games

I have tried installing bigger power supply (Enlight 420 Watt), checked the temperature (which was normal ), checked IRQ, installed newest Catalyst driver 3.10, updating Driver chipset
but nothing seems to work

I am considering to increase the AGP voltage but i heard it would heat up the video card more
Any suggestions / advice I badly need it !!!

BTW there seems to be a problem on my RAM ( a little bit out of topic hope you guys don't mind) :
during booting, memory check wouldnt stop and just keep on looping ( back to 0 when the metre reached 1 gig)
and memtest86 also registered errors

I have set the timing and voltage to the "recommended" settings (from Kingston website) but that didnt help
how am i suppose to fix this?

Any badly needed help and or response will be appriciated !!

[Th0r]

Faulty RAM my friend... Take it back and get another set...

[kedip182]

thx

i'll swap the ram tomorrow

[Matthias99]

BTW, it's normal for your POST to loop several times over the memory -- mine check it 3 times. If it *never* stops, though, that's bad. Usually that means it found a problem and is trying to restart the test.

And if memtest86 reports problems, or Prime95 fails its torture test, you have serious hardware problems with your CPU, motherboard, or memory (most likely memory).

[kedip182]

Memory wasnt the problem !
I just swapped the memory today with the good one (checked using memtest86) but games would still hang several minutes after i play

I suspect this might be the temperature?

I'm getting desperate here I need help !!!

[jmcmike]

Have you run the Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm) torture test? If Memtest86 show no errors I would feel comfortable with the RAM but you really need to "certify" your CPU, especially if you are OC'ing it. But even if you're not, run Prime95 anyway.

[kedip182]

thx for the advice
i just downloaded the prime95

anyway what's the best program (most effective and fastest) to test the stability of the Radeon card ?
I'm going to test it in the store where I bought the comp so I need the quick and reliable one

I'm thinking of using NFS underground (constantly freezes on my comp after about 15 minutes) or 3D Mark 2003
\

[jmcmike]

There is a program out there called "Artifact Tester" which may help with testing the card's stability but it might not help you diagnose lockups, which may or may not be preceded by artifacts. I think your best bet is to check the CPU and if nothing else, try an old graphics card (if you have one) to see if you still have problems.

[kedip182]

I did some testing with 3d mark 2003
Game tests run fine even for hours

But system freezes during the cpu tests (after several minutes) what does this mean ??

[kedip182]

My system freezes too when running prime95 torture test
does this mean the problem is in the memory/mobo ??

[jmcmike]

Originally posted by kedip182
My system freezes too when running prime95 torture test
does this mean the problem is in the memory/mobo ??
If memtest can run the extended test overnight without errors and prime95 still bombs out then I would say it is most likely your CPU.

[vkvenom]

I had the same prob. running game for a long time and had to reboot after the system hangs . Changed my vga voltage to 1.6 from default 1.5 never had the prob. again !