Best Drivers to stop Radeon 9800 crashing

Dr Trout · Sep 1, 2005, 06:32 PM

Hi guys,

I have a Radeon 9800 256MB graphics card. Which is all very nice.

However, in some games, it crashes - either the image freezes, or the screen just goes black. It's taken me a while to work out the problem, but I reckon it's the graphics card now. The thing is, it's not high end games that crash it, necessarily - Doom3 plays fine. But GTA Vice City crashes it every time.

So, I thought, I'll update my drivers - I haven't touched them up until now.

So I tried the new catalyst ones... it lasted longer, but it still crashed. Then I tried Omega, but that didn't help. Right now, I'm downloading DNA and NGO drivers, to test them out.

I'm assuming it is a driver problem causing this problem. Which drivers would be best to use? Thanks a lot for any advice you can offer me.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Sep 2, 2005, 11:31 PM

Have you used Driver Cleaner when reinstalling the drivers? It sounds like that might have something to do with it.

You also should check to make sure your PSU or a heat issue isn't at fault...this may have manifested itself just as the drivers were changed.

Dr Trout · Sep 3, 2005, 06:53 PM

I didn't change the drivers until I discovered I had the problem. Since then I have used a driver cleaning programme to sweep up.

I was thinking heat or power, but having run Motherboard Monitor during a crash, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I was wondering about my power supply though. I have a 300W power supply. I was wondering if I need another one for the graphics card itself (I'm not an expert on hardware, so I'm not really sure if this is possible, but this what I've picked up from reading around). I haven't actually touched the hardware itself in the PC since I bought it, so I wouldn't imagine I would need an extra power supply or extra fans, as it has all the fans and power that it came with.

Thanks for the advice though.

Iria · Sep 4, 2005, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Trout

I didn't change the drivers until I discovered I had the problem. Since then I have used a driver cleaning programme to sweep up.

I was thinking heat or power, but having run Motherboard Monitor during a crash, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I was wondering about my power supply though. I have a 300W power supply. I was wondering if I need another one for the graphics card itself (I'm not an expert on hardware, so I'm not really sure if this is possible, but this what I've picked up from reading around). I haven't actually touched the hardware itself in the PC since I bought it, so I wouldn't imagine I would need an extra power supply or extra fans, as it has all the fans and power that it came with.

Thanks for the advice though.

You wouldn't need an extra PS just for the video card, but you might need a bigger supply.

Not sure if this is a new card you just got or an old one that started acting up. Since you have 256MB on the card, it's gotta be a Pro or XT, which means it has a molex connector on the card for power. I assume it's connected (just asking in case it's a new card)? Even if it's connected, if this is a new card it might be needing too much power than is left in that 300W PS (with all the rest of the stuff in your system). Or the PS may have gone bad.

EvaUnitXIV · Sep 4, 2005, 06:08 AM

try agp speed at 4x instead

Dr Trout · Sep 4, 2005, 10:10 AM

<<try agp speed at 4x instead>>

Very good advice. In fact, I tried that, just before you siad it, and that seems to have fixed the problem completely! Thanks for that.

Back to power supplies, though, my old supply has started making a funny noise recently, so I was thinking of getting a new one. Just a quick question. If my old supply is 300W, can I get a new one with any power rating? Or does it have to be the same? And also, are power supplies pretty standard, or, like most things with computers, are there loads of different types, and I have to get the one that's right for my PC? Thanks a lot.

Sep 1, 2005, 06:32 PM	#1
Dr Trout DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	Best Drivers to stop Radeon 9800 crashing Hi guys, I have a Radeon 9800 256MB graphics card. Which is all very nice. However, in some games, it crashes - either the image freezes, or the screen just goes black. It's taken me a while to work out the problem, but I reckon it's the graphics card now. The thing is, it's not high end games that crash it, necessarily - Doom3 plays fine. But GTA Vice City crashes it every time. So, I thought, I'll update my drivers - I haven't touched them up until now. So I tried the new catalyst ones... it lasted longer, but it still crashed. Then I tried Omega, but that didn't help. Right now, I'm downloading DNA and NGO drivers, to test them out. I'm assuming it is a driver problem causing this problem. Which drivers would be best to use? Thanks a lot for any advice you can offer me.

Sep 4, 2005, 06:08 AM	#5
EvaUnitXIV DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 229 Rep Power: 0	try agp speed at 4x instead __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Abit KV8 Buffalo 2x512mb PC3200 ram 40GB Maxtor 7200rpm HD (Boot) 2x250GB WD SE 8mb Cache 7200rpm HD (Filedump) Benq 1620 Pro Liteon 1635s x800GTO @ x800XL SB Audigy Gamer WinXp Pro /w Sp2

Sep 2, 2005, 11:31 PM	#2
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Have you used Driver Cleaner when reinstalling the drivers? It sounds like that might have something to do with it. You also should check to make sure your PSU or a heat issue isn't at fault...this may have manifested itself just as the drivers were changed.

Sep 3, 2005, 06:53 PM	Thread Starter #3
Dr Trout DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	I didn't change the drivers until I discovered I had the problem. Since then I have used a driver cleaning programme to sweep up. I was thinking heat or power, but having run Motherboard Monitor during a crash, that doesn't seem to be the case. I was wondering about my power supply though. I have a 300W power supply. I was wondering if I need another one for the graphics card itself (I'm not an expert on hardware, so I'm not really sure if this is possible, but this what I've picked up from reading around). I haven't actually touched the hardware itself in the PC since I bought it, so I wouldn't imagine I would need an extra power supply or extra fans, as it has all the fans and power that it came with. Thanks for the advice though.

Sep 4, 2005, 10:10 AM	Thread Starter #6
Dr Trout DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	<<try agp speed at 4x instead>> Very good advice. In fact, I tried that, just before you siad it, and that seems to have fixed the problem completely! Thanks for that. Back to power supplies, though, my old supply has started making a funny noise recently, so I was thinking of getting a new one. Just a quick question. If my old supply is 300W, can I get a new one with any power rating? Or does it have to be the same? And also, are power supplies pretty standard, or, like most things with computers, are there loads of different types, and I have to get the one that's right for my PC? Thanks a lot.