ATI card issues..

M

marleena

Cadet
Hey folks! I'm having a problem with my ATI card and I think you folks are more computer literate than I am, so I thought you may have some ideas. I'm currently playing EQ2 to pass the time until something new and good (read: HJ) comes out, and I had played EQ2 before but quit, but now I'm back. I am however having huge video card issues. I'm using an old ATI x300/550 PCIe card, which works great with any other game.. WoW, Battlefield 2, Civilization, FFXI.. But when it comes to EQ2, it just is not happy. I'll be in the midst of combat and my screen freezes for about 10-20 seconds, then IF it comes back up, I get a VPU recovery message. If it doesn't fix itself, it just dies to a black screen and I have to reboot.

I've tried playing with settings, including putting the game in extremely high performance mode, but I still get the same crashing/freezing problem. Anyone who currently or used to play EQ2 have any ideas? I've tried changing drivers, turning sounds off, turning particles off, and nothing has helped.
 
Oh I know this one inside and out Marleena. Been there done that. I *had* a Raedon X600XT 256mb card in my PC and had the exact same problem with the exact same game for longer than I cared to.

The first thing i'd advise is to go to Best Buy or Comp USA maybe your local hardware store may have it and get a can of compressed air for like $3.00 or so.

Take the card out of the PC and clean the dust off of it with the compressed air. You'd be amazed at how much dust actually gets into PC housings. Don't just stick the knozzle in there and do it; take the card out.

Spray the card at some distance and spray with little burst and approach it slowly till you find whats good for ya etc. Don't just aim and directly fire at it point blank. While you PC housing is open hose out other areas as well.

Handle the card by the green edges only, before you take it out touch something metallic to discharge any static electric build up you may have from walking across a carpet even. One zap and you'll be shopping for a new card.

Those cards (i've lost all relevant links) are whats called "reference design" cards. Meaning they were the first in line on the way to designing a better card. I had links which showed how poorly they were designed as pertaining heat flow away from the central processor but as stated have lost them.

On the card itself around the little fan were three raised brackets, sort of like little fences. They did nothing but catch the dust the fan usually blows away. This causes the card to overheat and the ATI software will stop the card from processing and shut down in a type of self protect. Its actually protecting PC etc.

So cleaning the dust off the card will help the fan do its job whereas now it can't probably due to the build up of dust against those little 'fences' I mentioned earlier. At least that was my situation.

EQ puts a hellacious strain on a graphics card and those cards and the situation you're having caused me to simply replace the card after dealing with that for some 9 months at least.

Cleaning it should help you quite a bit, if it doesn't BFG makes the shizzle when it comes to graphics cards. But cleaning out you PC housing with that little can of Dust-Be-gone or whatever its called can save you $$ and headaches.
 
Wow! That was so much more info than I had ever expected! Thanks so much for the advice! It's nice to know someone else has had this exact same problem, and how to deal with it.

Now I do have a question.. I've pulled the card out to take a peek at it, and I didn't see any fan. Although I'm not even sure what I was looking for so it was merely for curiousity purposes. I'll take it out again and look, and maybe now I'll see what I didn't see before, but I was under the impression that the card just didn't have a fan!

Now onto the $$ issue.. agh, I've broken down and bought a new card! I decided to upgrade to ATI's x1600 PCIe 512mb card. And since you have experience with this, was that a good choice to upgrade to? I'm currently unemployed, so my choices were a little limited as I need to save room on my credit card for when I really need it, but I figured a $200 card would be ok. They even have a "trade-up" program for previous ATI users, so I get $50 back. Can't go wrong right?! So I'm hoping to hear that I made a good choice, but let me know either way if it was a good decision please?
 
Not a bad choice for a new a card. With an average price of about 160-180 it gives you quite a bang for your buck. Also after doing a little bit more research on it, it seems to be pretty good as far as dependibility goes.

Now as far as your old gfx card if you don't see a little heatsink fan on top of your gpu it could be one of two things. I'm not sure how old the x300 is but they use it in laptops now. But it could either A. Not have a fan built on it since when it was designed it didn't require one like a lot of older cards. Or B. That could have been your problem the whole time.

But with the upgrade to your new card you hopefully won't experience anymore problems as long as u keep updated with the drivers and take thaos's advice. If you wanna read some review on the card your getting.

X1600 Reviews
 
Thanks so much for that newegg review. I had gone straight to the ATI website and they don't have customer reviews (as far as I could tell), so it was nice to read those.

Also, I guess there isn't a fan on the x300. I certainly didn't see anything that looked like the fan on the x1600, which is OBVIOUSLY a fan.

I'm glad I decided to upgrade.. hopefully this should last me until and far into HJ!
 
ATI Drivers being a pain? Oh look at that! The sky is blue!

Heh, been there before too. :smiley: Sadly, anything I could say that would actually help has already been said here.
 
Sylvado said:
If there is another card in the slot next to the graphics card then move it to another slot.
Click to expand...

Thats also a good idea (sylvado always so smart). But since your using pcie most boards have 1 or 2 max (assuming your board is crossfire enabled).

Let us know how the new card turns out when ya get it.
 
marleena said:
Thanks so much for that newegg review. I had gone straight to the ATI website and they don't have customer reviews (as far as I could tell), so it was nice to read those.

Also, I guess there isn't a fan on the x300. I certainly didn't see anything that looked like the fan on the x1600, which is OBVIOUSLY a fan.

I'm glad I decided to upgrade.. hopefully this should last me until and far into HJ!
Click to expand...

No fan??? Yeah there were a few of those I guess. If there is no fan then you graphics card relied onthe air circulating within your PC's housing in order to keep the processor cool.

Looks like a good upgrade choice though.. hope the fan is quiet but you'll notice it whirring regardless since you're used to not having one. But you'll get used to it.

Um.. can I kick you old one out the door for you.... PLEASE!!!!!!:D

I got new boots and everything.
 
cordy said:
Thats also a good idea (sylvado always so smart). But since your using pcie most boards have 1 or 2 max (assuming your board is crossfire enabled).

Let us know how the new card turns out when ya get it.
Click to expand...

You don't move the graphics card, you move the other card.
 
Well, I got my new video card. And it blows the old one out of the water! The one thing I have a concern about is the fan.. I have only heard it run once, and that was when I initially put the card in and had it all connected. Since then, I don't think it's run at all. Should I hear it all the time? Or does it only run when it needs it..?
 
Open the case and make sure the fan is running on the card.. all the time. If not, return it now. It will burn up quickly if the fan is not running.
 
Upon your advice, I opened up the case and peeked at the card and its fan. It IS running, I just couldn't hear it, except for the initial *whir* it makes when starting up. So all is well!
 
marleena said:
Upon your advice, I opened up the case and peeked at the card and its fan. It IS running, I just couldn't hear it, except for the initial *whir* it makes when starting up. So all is well!
Click to expand...

Nicely done Marleena. The newer fans are a lot quiter. The only time you may hear a whirr is when it kicks into gear as you put a graphical load on it during gaming etc.

If you don't hear it during normal computer usage that seems to me to mean it can handle your everyday normal stuff without a sweat.

er.. and thanks for letting me boot that old one, still gives me a thrill.
 
WatchMaker said:
I don't want to pick a fight, but Nvidia has always been easier working with for me.
Click to expand...

I've been very happy with ATI but right now the best choice for me is the 7600GS because it won't require a power supply upgrade.
 

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