ATI Radeon 128MB AGP 9000 Restarting My PC

[venom10463]

Hi
System Spec:
Amd Athlon XP 2400+
2+256MB PC2100
2+80GB HARD DRIVE
PSU: 250 WATT
I just installed an Ati Radeon 4X 128mb agp video card on my pc. The card seems to work fine(when I'm not using my computer)But when I'm on the computer running a few application, my pc just restart out of no where. I checked my power options properties and bios setting and everything is fine there. I took out the video card and when back back to my onboard video card and the problem when away. I'm thinking the problem might be my 250 watt psu. I would appreciate any additional help anybody can give me.

[redwudz]

Are you sure that's a 4X video card? Most all are 8X these days or faster, unless you have a fairly old motherboard.

250W is on the low side, depending on the quality of the power supply. Some PS's are overrated. If your computer uses a standard ATX PS, then I would upgrade it. Some computers like Dell or others may use a special PS, so upgrading can be difficult.

Fairly standard these days is a PS in the 400W - 450W range. Much more than that is not likely necessary with your computer as described. Newer video cards do take more power. The SLI types in some computers require separate power connectors. But a 4X/128 shouldn't take much power.

There are many good brands of power supplies available, and it's not really a big job to switch one out. And one other thing to mention; If a PS fails, it can destroy the whole computer. This is a rare occurrence, but also a good reason to use a decent name brand of PS.

[Scorpion King]

In display properties/settings/advanced/smartgart/ fast writes=off might help (if present). Just a thought.

Good luck.

[GKar]

Not knowing what motherboard you are using heres a basic checklist:

1) onboard video is diabled in bios
2) motherboard chipset drivers are installed and updated (agp driver particularly)
3) compatible ati video card driver package installed (make sure it supports your card)
4) if you are overclocking your system, go back to stock as the agp slot may be overclocked as well

You power supply is a little weak, agreed.

[venom10463]

My card is definitely a 4x. Here's a picture of my motherboard detail info... I got from cpu-z

[redwudz]

OK, that's an older MB and 4X seems correct. Thanks for that additional information.

I would follow GKar's advice to upgrade your video drivers. Your PS is still marginal and that may be your problem. If you have a ATX compatible PS, I would still upgrade that if you can't afford to upgrade the system. You might downgrade my suggestion to a 350W or so, if finances are a problem. A good 250W PS should be able to handle that card with your present system. But it is marginal. It's difficult to decide if it's just a PS problem or a driver problem. Try to solve the driver problem first.

[venom10463]

Well, I got the card off of ebay and the guy just sent me a disc with different ati drives on there. So maybe I'm installing the wrong one. Here's a pic of all the drives on the disc.

[lordsmurf]

If this is an AIW card, I'd not upgrade to the newest drivers, not necessarily. Sometimes newer is not always better.

[GKar]

[quote="venom10463"]Well, I got the card off of ebay and the guy just sent me a disc with different ati drives on there. So maybe I'm installing the wrong one. Here's a pic of all the drives on the disc.

Another thing to check, make sure the fan is spinning on the video card if you can. Try setting you AGP to lower than 4x, the mainboard may have a flaky AGP slot.

If you can manage to keep it from rebooting on you, try underclocking the GPU and Ram on the video card with ATI tools or Rivatuner...if it has flaky parts on it thats one way to find out.

Ebay....ughh...good place to sell, bad place to buy sometimes

[Scorpion King]

Is it a AIW RAGE 128PRO?

[venom10463]

Is it a AIW RAGE 128PRO?

no, its an ati radeon 9000