Get a lot of VPU recovers/graphics crashes

[MikeH]

I seem to be getting this a lot... I'm a racing sim fan, and often I'll be racing away, and suddenly the screen will go black, and I'll get the VPU recover message.

Or in the game GTR, I'll switch to external view, and the game will just CTD.

I'm thinking that possibly my Radeon 9600XT is getting too hot, and possibly the PSU isn't up to the job, at 250W.

I'm running an Athlon XP3200+, plus the Radeon.

[thedeceiver]

i would recommed you check your system for stability, for instance check your ram, that is usually the culprit for CTDs. I suggest running Memtest86. As for your powersupply, that could also be possible, but i think if it was the PSU it would Blue screen, i could be wrong. Well your 250w could barely be enough, do you know what the power ratings are? ie. Amps for the 12v line, that one is important for video cards. Also is your psu warmer than room temperature?

[four4875]

could try going into the display properties, setings tab, advanced button, and somewhere (sorry dont remember how to get there exatly) theres a thing to turn off VPU recover, could try unchecking that box.

could download a prog alled ATItool and check if its stable, and make sure there isnt a PCI card in the slot right beside the vid card, try to keep as much space as possible, and see if dust is built up in the heatsink and that the fan (Assuming there is one) is spinning freely and spins when powered up.

[Banthur]

Does it happen after a long amount of time or randomly? Do you pass benchmarks? What are your temps like idle/load?

[Serraph]

I had this problem with GTA: San Andreas. It would freeze the game and crash to desktop with the VPU Recover screen. It turned out that the drivers were causing the problem, so I uninstalled them and used an older Catalyst driver.

[hibner]

I started getting that after i installed the new cat 5.7s.

[3DFlyer]

You may want to try an downclock a hair and see what happens. It may be putting just a little too much stress on the CPU.

On the PSU, I really don't like the looks of that. Most late model systems take a PSU of at least 350 watts anymore. If your OC'ing it's really going to push that 250 watt unit.

What PSU is this exactly? If it's a cheapie it's probably not even putting out it's rated spec. Games tend to stress things just like benchmarking programs.

If you get somebody to monitor your voltages during a gaming run, that would tell you alot about what the unit is doing. My bet is it's sagging under load. Even if it's putting out it's rated capacity it might be a wise thing to do to upgrade. I'd be very weary of such a low wattage unit, especially if it's a budget unit.

[MikeH]

The PSU has been there since 2001, when this was originally a supermarket bought machine. I think it's the only original component apart from the hard drive now though :)

It's not overclcoked in any way (The CPU or GPU).