I recently bought a new system, as seen below:

CPU AMD|3200/400 ATHLON XP
MB nForce2|5P1A4D NF7-S V2 ABIT ATX
VGA ATIOEM|RADEON 9800PRO 128M
2X DDR 512MB|DDR400 CL3 PC3200 RTL
HD 120GB|SEAGAT ST3120026AS SATA
DVD+/-RW LITEON SOHW-812S BLACK

Problem is as follows, everytime i run a game...Farcry, City of Heroes, Painkiller, etc, my system will eventually shutdown the game and return me to windows, or worse, my entire system will shutdown (a more recent development). This doesnt always happen immediately...sometimes it will be after 20 minutes...sometimes after 5 minutes. I have tried installing all of the newest drivers to my machine but nothing has worked. I believe the problem may be related directly to my vid card due to the fact that I put my ancient GeForce 2 in and the programs did not crash. However, I do not this it is defective as it worked in my friends comp. I have purchased a new power supply as well (350 Watts which should be sufficient). Has anyone out there experienced any compatability or driver issues with this card? I am stumped and do not know where to go from here.

Is your cooling airflow in your case sufficient? It sounds like heat-related issues.

You may wish to get a software utility to monitor system temperatures while you run some games, etc.

Thought about that, but Im not sure if that is the case. I have fans on every component that normally has fans and I also have an additional 3 fans which came with the case that I purchased. I havent read any reviews on the case which cite poor airflow. I appreciate the input though...any other thoughts???

stryke3333,

When I purchase my radeon 9800 I had the same problems that you have. I working with almost the same specification.
ASUS A7N8X
ATHLON XP 3200
etc...

The solution for your problem I think is the powersupply, believe me or not, power ratings that came with your power supply will not always say everything.
The problem with my Aopen 350W power supply was that the 5volt line was not stable enough to feed the CPU and the radeon9800.
You can simple test it for yourself.
- Measure your voltage with a monitor tool (come almost with your mb)
- Throttle your CPU and Videocard 100%, you will see the voltage will drop with 0.3 to 0.5 volts.
I think when the voltage become 4.7 volts or less it will not be stable enough.

The solution in my case was a power supply replace with one of the
FORTRON brand with (only) 300 watts.
TYPE: FSP300-60PN

The strange part is that my Aopen power supply is also made by FORTRON in China.

Hopefully will this help you. Good luck.





PS. If you try another supply, buy one of a respectable brand. Mostly a good power supply weight more than a cheaper one.

proscrip,

Thanks...Yeah im starting to get the feeling more and more that this is a power issue (ie. praying its a $50 ps issue and not a $200 vid card issue). I appreciate the advice. I will check that out.

I added a 430W ANTEC and I still have shutdown issues! Any other suggestions???

Stryke3333,

I'm sorry the power supply didn't working out.
Antec is one of the most best names when it comes to power supplies, that can not be the problem.

Have you already measure your voltages from your mobo???

As your system crashes, mostly the main CPU gives the problem not the VPU (ATI also uses VPU recovery, that works alomst anytime.)
This was based on the problems that I have with the r9800.

You can try a few things (there is maybe a little chance).
- Set your CPU on a higher voltage setting
- Set your AGP on a higher voltage setting, 4x setting en disable Fastwrites.
Use the nVidia nforce utility, to give you control over the FSB setting and try to experiment.

Maybe sound this stupid, is your system grounded to earth.