Radeon 7500 Crashing problems

Urak · Jun 28, 2006, 08:11 PM

Hello, I'm new (As if the post count didn't give that away) and having some problems.

Unfortunately, I have no way of making sure 100% that it's my video card causing the problems, but as from what I can tell, it's the only thing that makes sense.

Essentially, my video card (Radeon 7500, 64Meg) functioned fine when I bought it - I was also on Windows ME at the time.

After moving to XP I experienced odd crashes. Also, sometimes I was getting errors that basically sounded like "The video crashed and had to be restarted to avoid damage" and then I'd be stuck on 16 colors until I restarted the computer.

Since then I've had to reinstall Windows XP several times for various reasons ranging from just regular "Windows XP Lifespan Death" and "Oops, Accidently killed my boot sector after my Linux OS crashed because I tweaked with it in a way I shouldn't..."
Several times since then I've had various problems with the card, pretty much every time I reinstalled I'd experience different problems or variations of the same problem in lesser or greater extents.

I have no idea which drivers gave me the least problems, and which drivers gave me the most, all I know is what ones I'm using now and that they are not working.

The drivers I'm using now are the ones Windows XP automatically installed. They seemed... ok for a while. Some games would work (Jedi Academy, Guild Wars) and some games would not (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Warcraft 3) (The games that worked often switched between operating system installs... always seemed odd to me, but I figured because I always installed drivers different ways...)

My computer setup hasn't changed much in the past 8 years when I originally built this machine - the only changes have been additional DDR Ram, a 160GIG hard drive, and of course, the original change of the video card from my old 16X.
Prolly a bad way to phrase it actually..
I built this computer about 8 years ago.
I got the video card a few years after that.
Somewhere after that I increased my Ram to 512.
Finally, I added a 160Gig hard drive (I already had an 80)

Thus my specs are...
1.67 Ghz Processor (2100+ I think it is)
512 Meg's of DDR Ram
Radeon 7500 Video Card
On board sound >_>;;
80 Gig hard drive (Primary)
160 Gig hard drive
My radeon Driver version: 6.14.0010.6601

Recently, my card problems... changed...

Essentially, I can no longer play ANY games for more than a limited amount of time, except very graphics low games.
Savage works for about 10-15 minutes before it locks up.
Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne will work for about 2 minutes before the screen goes to "Blue screen of death" then restarts a half second later not even giving me time to READ the screen - Not that that's ever helpful anyway >_>;;
Jedi Academy gives an error message and crashes.
I haven't tried any other 'real' games simply out of annoyance, mostly. Like I said, low graphics games still work (Stendhal, flash games >_<)

So, I figured it couldn't hurt to try something..
So I went into the BIOS and changed my AGP Aperture Setting to 128Megs (It's default was 64)
This helped. For one day.
I swear this computer does things just to confuse me.
After doing this, Savage would work for hours and hours, Warcraft 3 as well. I was quite happy, I still couldn't play for an unlimited amount of time, but I could get about 2-3 hours of Warcraft in before it crashes.

Next day, try warcraft 3, blue screen of death's on me again and restarts. Check BIOS, it's still 128Megs on the aperture setting.

My computer hates me. With a passion.
Sorry if this post was hard to understand, my nephews keep bugging me "I wanna play Jedi Academy" and when I explained to one what I was writing this post for he decided it'd be fun to continuously say "It's not gonna work, I know it" over and over.
So yeah, sorry for the poorly compiled points, hope it's legible O_o;;
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I did do a search in this forum, but I didn't find anything that seemed similar. Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

Retarp · Jun 28, 2006, 09:26 PM

First thing I'd do is make sure you computer is not overheating. Get a can of compressed air and blow out the cpu & radeon heat sinks, blow all the dust off the motherboard, and make sure to get as much dust out of the power supply as possible. Then power it up and go into the bios. Monitor the temp of the cpu for about 15 minutes and tell us how hot it gets. If the temp goes over 65*C you are getting too hot. If it stays lower than that boot into windows and try to replicate your crash.

If it still crashes after a good cleaning, it's probably a ram issue. Download prime95 & memtest. See if they give an error.

Be sure to report back to us so we know what's going on!

Urak · Jun 28, 2006, 09:31 PM

I'll check the temp in a bit, though I don't think that's it (I leave the side of my computer off and used to have a program that monitored it for me...)

I have to shut the comp off for a bit right now, something going on with the power they need to service or something, but I'll check when they say it's ok. Thanks for the reply ;-)

EDIT: Huh, that program I used to use only showed me the System temperature, which stays pretty steady around 30ºC
But the CPU temperature was staying around 60ºC-63ºC, which is probably the problem. I just rearranged my setup so my computers not cramped in the lower corner of my room, so it should get a bit better circulation as it is now.

I'll prolly find a nice window fan or something to have blow into it for a while to see if my games will actually work that way, and after I do that, I'll make a new post afterwards ^_^;;

Thanks again, you've already helped a bunch.

Urak · Jun 29, 2006, 01:09 AM

Yup, my nephew was playing savage for about an hour, it's definately much better now, thank you! I wouldn't have thought about heating problems because of that shoddy temp program I had didn't show the CPU Temp, so without you I'd prolly be cursing ATI out by now, heh.

Thank you very VERY much ^_^

Retarp · Jun 29, 2006, 10:47 PM

You didn't mention if you cleaned the dust out. You do that and I bet you won't have to worry about needing the big fan.

Glad I could help out. Always the simple things, eh?

Urak · Jul 2, 2006, 05:40 AM

Ah, sorry, yeah I cleaned it out as much as I could, all of them, power supply too. See, my first computer was an old 233.
so when I built this one... well, it didn't really occur to me that I'd NEED a good cooling system (It was my first "fast" computer, though... now it's not fast... my 233 used to be when it was built too... I feel old >_>;;), so I had originally had 1 processor fan and a case fan. I have another case fan now, but heating was always still a problem during the summer...
The only thing is, usually when it overheated it would just power down without giving me a blue screen of death first, that's what made me think "software problem"

Thanks again, I've been enjoying Savage and Warcraft3 expansion all over again, and I'm going to be getting Enemy Territory and Jedi Academy back too. I've missed them so.

Retarp · Jul 2, 2006, 06:15 AM

LOL! I know how you feel. Only reason I have a computer as fast as I do now is because my motherboard went bad in my old computer (XP 2600+ w/ATI 9800) after 3 years. Instead of just buying a new mobo I upgraded. My first gaming computer was a 233 pentium as well, with a voodoo 3.

Jun 28, 2006, 08:11 PM	#1
Urak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	Radeon 7500 Crashing problems Hello, I'm new (As if the post count didn't give that away) and having some problems. Unfortunately, I have no way of making sure 100% that it's my video card causing the problems, but as from what I can tell, it's the only thing that makes sense. Essentially, my video card (Radeon 7500, 64Meg) functioned fine when I bought it - I was also on Windows ME at the time. After moving to XP I experienced odd crashes. Also, sometimes I was getting errors that basically sounded like "The video crashed and had to be restarted to avoid damage" and then I'd be stuck on 16 colors until I restarted the computer. Since then I've had to reinstall Windows XP several times for various reasons ranging from just regular "Windows XP Lifespan Death" and "Oops, Accidently killed my boot sector after my Linux OS crashed because I tweaked with it in a way I shouldn't..." Several times since then I've had various problems with the card, pretty much every time I reinstalled I'd experience different problems or variations of the same problem in lesser or greater extents. I have no idea which drivers gave me the least problems, and which drivers gave me the most, all I know is what ones I'm using now and that they are not working. The drivers I'm using now are the ones Windows XP automatically installed. They seemed... ok for a while. Some games would work (Jedi Academy, Guild Wars) and some games would not (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Warcraft 3) (The games that worked often switched between operating system installs... always seemed odd to me, but I figured because I always installed drivers different ways...) My computer setup hasn't changed much in the past 8 years when I originally built this machine - the only changes have been additional DDR Ram, a 160GIG hard drive, and of course, the original change of the video card from my old 16X. Prolly a bad way to phrase it actually.. I built this computer about 8 years ago. I got the video card a few years after that. Somewhere after that I increased my Ram to 512. Finally, I added a 160Gig hard drive (I already had an 80) Thus my specs are... 1.67 Ghz Processor (2100+ I think it is) 512 Meg's of DDR Ram Radeon 7500 Video Card On board sound >_>;; 80 Gig hard drive (Primary) 160 Gig hard drive My radeon Driver version: 6.14.0010.6601 Recently, my card problems... changed... Essentially, I can no longer play ANY games for more than a limited amount of time, except very graphics low games. Savage works for about 10-15 minutes before it locks up. Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne will work for about 2 minutes before the screen goes to "Blue screen of death" then restarts a half second later not even giving me time to READ the screen - Not that that's ever helpful anyway >_>;; Jedi Academy gives an error message and crashes. I haven't tried any other 'real' games simply out of annoyance, mostly. Like I said, low graphics games still work (Stendhal, flash games >_<) So, I figured it couldn't hurt to try something.. So I went into the BIOS and changed my AGP Aperture Setting to 128Megs (It's default was 64) This helped. For one day. I swear this computer does things just to confuse me. After doing this, Savage would work for hours and hours, Warcraft 3 as well. I was quite happy, I still couldn't play for an unlimited amount of time, but I could get about 2-3 hours of Warcraft in before it crashes. Next day, try warcraft 3, blue screen of death's on me again and restarts. Check BIOS, it's still 128Megs on the aperture setting. My computer hates me. With a passion. Sorry if this post was hard to understand, my nephews keep bugging me "I wanna play Jedi Academy" and when I explained to one what I was writing this post for he decided it'd be fun to continuously say "It's not gonna work, I know it" over and over. So yeah, sorry for the poorly compiled points, hope it's legible O_o;; Any help would be greatly appreciated. EDIT: Forgot to mention, I did do a search in this forum, but I didn't find anything that seemed similar. Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

Jun 28, 2006, 09:31 PM	Thread Starter #3
Urak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	I'll check the temp in a bit, though I don't think that's it (I leave the side of my computer off and used to have a program that monitored it for me...) I have to shut the comp off for a bit right now, something going on with the power they need to service or something, but I'll check when they say it's ok. Thanks for the reply ;-) EDIT: Huh, that program I used to use only showed me the System temperature, which stays pretty steady around 30ºC But the CPU temperature was staying around 60ºC-63ºC, which is probably the problem. I just rearranged my setup so my computers not cramped in the lower corner of my room, so it should get a bit better circulation as it is now. I'll prolly find a nice window fan or something to have blow into it for a while to see if my games will actually work that way, and after I do that, I'll make a new post afterwards ^_^;; Thanks again, you've already helped a bunch. Last edited by Urak; Jun 28, 2006 at 11:44 PM.

Jun 28, 2006, 09:26 PM	#2
Retarp DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 119 Rep Power: 0	First thing I'd do is make sure you computer is not overheating. Get a can of compressed air and blow out the cpu & radeon heat sinks, blow all the dust off the motherboard, and make sure to get as much dust out of the power supply as possible. Then power it up and go into the bios. Monitor the temp of the cpu for about 15 minutes and tell us how hot it gets. If the temp goes over 65*C you are getting too hot. If it stays lower than that boot into windows and try to replicate your crash. If it still crashes after a good cleaning, it's probably a ram issue. Download prime95 & memtest. See if they give an error. Be sure to report back to us so we know what's going on!

Jun 29, 2006, 01:09 AM	Thread Starter #4
Urak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	Yup, my nephew was playing savage for about an hour, it's definately much better now, thank you! I wouldn't have thought about heating problems because of that shoddy temp program I had didn't show the CPU Temp, so without you I'd prolly be cursing ATI out by now, heh. Thank you very VERY much ^_^

Jun 29, 2006, 10:47 PM	#5
Retarp DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 119 Rep Power: 0	You didn't mention if you cleaned the dust out. You do that and I bet you won't have to worry about needing the big fan. Glad I could help out. Always the simple things, eh?

Jul 2, 2006, 05:40 AM	Thread Starter #6
Urak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	Ah, sorry, yeah I cleaned it out as much as I could, all of them, power supply too. See, my first computer was an old 233. so when I built this one... well, it didn't really occur to me that I'd NEED a good cooling system (It was my first "fast" computer, though... now it's not fast... my 233 used to be when it was built too... I feel old >_>;;), so I had originally had 1 processor fan and a case fan. I have another case fan now, but heating was always still a problem during the summer... The only thing is, usually when it overheated it would just power down without giving me a blue screen of death first, that's what made me think "software problem" Thanks again, I've been enjoying Savage and Warcraft3 expansion all over again, and I'm going to be getting Enemy Territory and Jedi Academy back too. I've missed them so.

Jul 2, 2006, 06:15 AM	#7
Retarp DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 119 Rep Power: 0	LOL! I know how you feel. Only reason I have a computer as fast as I do now is because my motherboard went bad in my old computer (XP 2600+ w/ATI 9800) after 3 years. Instead of just buying a new mobo I upgraded. My first gaming computer was a 233 pentium as well, with a voodoo 3.