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1900XT problem...

V

Vorret

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Messages
1,100
Good morning,

First part... my stupidity, story :

So a year ago or so I don't exactly remember, I tried to play Bioshock and got some MAJOR artifact... usually that means card heats up so I check around the card for dirt or something, the fan speeds up fine so I decide to check the core and add thermal paste so I clean it up, put paste, put it back in the computer. Same problem. Now I run a bunch of progs to test (just as an exemple, the atitool artiact thingy rise the temp of my card from 60 to 80 in less than a minute and 80 to 85 in another minute or so).

I finally (my stupidity part) that I didn't remove the back panel that let the air flow out of the card... yes... I'm very stupid lol.

Anyways... for a couple months it worked fine or so it seems since I stopped playing most games that required big GFX until I got COD4 when it came out. I can't play the game, after 5 minutes, alot of artifacts and the game just freezes along with the computer (bunch of red/yelllow thing and the sounds just repeats itself).

Now... I tell myself maybe it's the paste that isn't good anymore, it's been a year, so I open it back up, clean it, apply new paste and nope... same prlblem. Heck, I can't even get paste the opening cinematic of The Witcher, my video driver crashes then it starts lagging like mad and either the game crash or my computer freezes.

I ask around at work and someone pointed out that my card might have been broken when it first heated up like crazy a year ago and it just started to really show it's problem. OR could it be something else?

I just want to test everything before I buy a new card and end up with the same problem because it was something else I didn't think about.

I run Vista 64 and usually (try) to run games at 1680x1050

Any ideas? Please!

Thanks in advance.
 
85* seems hot as crap but isn't usually damaging for a gpu. First try underclocking the thing and see if it all goes away. If it does, and the card is some sort of factory overclocked model, you can assume it is defective. Dont rule out software issues though if that doesn't help, I know the witcher has problems in vista (mine was crash happy until I patched and installed a vista hotfix) though I dont think it usually causes artifacts. How are the temperatures now btw? and is the fan going good? Might try adjusting the fan speed to 100% and see if it still happens.
 
Idle it's around 45-47
I went in CCC and did the "check the max clock / max mem" tool and it actually underclocked my card badly, my core is under 600 (can't remember the exact nmber as I'm at work) and my memory around 1200.

Still it doesn't work ... so I tried to set the speed at 100% in Atitool and run witcher again and it didn't help the computer crashed again...

Could be software though you're right... I guess I could try a clean install and see how it works.
 
85C isn't that high for an X1900XT - mine get to just under 100C before crashing, and 85C is pretty routine when I'm gaming.
 
It wouldn't bother me if it didn't start artifacing like mad...
It's seriously annoying in Dirt the screen flashes like crazy and it gives me headache.

In GTA SA after a little while there's glitches in the game (like there's a brown bar that fly in the sky, not sure how to exlain this but it's some kind of cone that never ends hehe)

Same thing in COD4, Stalker well I'm not even gonna talk about this cuz it's just plain crazy... Lags in Company of Heroes as well...

Actually it lags pretty much in everything and I have artifacs after a little while in most games and it's annoying me to the highest point.

Thing is... how do I KNOW it's a problem with my card and not something else?
 
Throwing it in a different system would give a final answer ;)
If you cant though, you can run the ATI software uninstallation thing and then throw in some Omega drivers (worked for me when my card was being stupid, uninstall utility AND driver cleaner both left some crap, I know because omega kept asking for my permission to overwrite them with older versions).
 
What are the temps when artifacts occur in your games? my x1950Pro can produce artifacts at as low at 45 C. My current solution to artifacts is leaving the case panel off, setting a box fan next to my computer, turning up fan speed to 100% (and exiting out of ATi Tool because it can cause conflicting issues with CoD4. btw the fan speed still stays at 100%). The solution works for 90% of my gaming. Artifacts occur more frequently when the temperature in my room begins to rise.

My x1950Pro started artifacting last march, but I did nothing about it until just before my one year warranty and a distributor of HIS has denied me of an RMA number, a problem I am currently working on.

Therefore, check your invoice date and warranty time and see if an RMA is possible.

Actually, testing in another computer would be great, but remember that CoD4 can experience crashing while ATi Tool or Rivatuner are running.
 
Yeah a coworker will test it in his computer tomorrow so I'll have news soon if it's my card or something else!

Also... artifacts start appearing it's at over 70c...

Thanks for all the replies ! :)
 
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