New Video Card WTF?

[chaos]

Well i bought a new HIS Radion X1550 256mb AGP video card not long ago.

i Had a GeForce FX5600 before this and played all the games i am currently having problems with.

after losing a stick of ram just after i got the card im stuck with 512mb of DDR2, i have my o/s running *OK* but not very well, it seems a little unsteady and freezes up alot and sometimes when im browsing the web and just playing music it will have a fit and freeze up or go into standby .

i cannot play any 3d games, It freezes up when i enter the game(s) and if i do make it into the game i will see all the graphics of the game a short burst of sound and then it will freeze screen turns off ect...

Now i am leaning towards hardware incompatibility on this but the only hardware i have changed is my graphics card but my MOBO seems to support all the features of it.

My computer:

PSU: 550W generic brand (came with the case)
MOBO: Foxconn/WinFast K7S
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ @~2.0ghz
RAM: 512mb DDR2
Graphics Card: HIS Radion X1550 256mb 128bit AGP
Extras: 2X case fans

I have searched the web so much to find an answer but to no avail,
Now if anyone could help me out or give some suggestions i would greatly appreciate it.

thnx
~chaos

[WhiteGraphite]

Did you uninstall the old one fully e.g. The Drivers. I had a similar problem with a graphics card that I bought I didn't remember to uninstall the On board graphics card or it's drivers and as a result I couldn't play videos the computer would just freeze. I didn't check to see if games worked but id say they probably didn't. So I just uninstalled the On-board card and its drivers and it worked. Hopefully this will help.

[singularity]

are you using two different types of ram, if you are thats probably one of the problems. when using ram from two different manufactures they do not seem to communicate with each other well and cause errors. also 512 mb is barely enough to play any modern game i would suggest something in the 1 to 2gb range.

[Fnord]

Drivers could be the problem.
Did you buy it new or used? Over the years I've come to the conclusion that radeon sucks for the most part. If you installed it yourself, make sure the 12v(4pin) power cable isn't loose(I think this card has one, does it not?).

If you got it from ebay, it may have been someone's overclocking experiment. If you want my personal advice, pick up a newer nividia card next time.

also 512 mb is barely enough to play any modern game i would suggest something in the 1 to 2gb range.

I was able to play Doom3/quake4 on high settings, FEAR on med-high and UT2004 maxed with 512megs of ddr.
Doom/quake/fear run reasonably well, but I never see fps drops in UT.

It really depends on how clean your windows install is. This was done on a 1.6ghz amd. Graphics card: Some nividia card(don't have it anymore)450mhz gpu, 128mb memory @800mhz.

[singularity]

if you plan on playing any ames from ea (bf2,bf2142, c&c3) your gonna need atleast a gig of ram. all of their games eat up ram, along with fear, oblivion, and the newer splinter cell games

[PCGUY]

You...

1, need more ram. 1 gig at least. This is a must.

2, google for "Nvidia Driver Cleaner" (or something like that). It is a utility that can ensure all old Nvidia drivers are gone. Big issues can happen when you go from having an Nvidia card to ATI if the drivers aren't totally gone (as mentioned earlier).

3, do the general PC cleanup things. If your computer freezes in the middle of just playing music, there is something wrong. What types of programs do you have running in the background? Is your computer full of viruses and spyware? All of this can cause instability.

4, how long have you had Windows installed? Believe it or not, Windows degrades over time... even if you keep a very clean system. Having "crap" on the PC can make it even worse. Usually the only good solution to this is to reinstall windows and do windows updates then reinstall your software, however that may be a bit extreme for your case.

5, does your new video card have a power connector on it? I looked up your video card and the one I found did not have any extra power connectors, it doesn't really seem like a card that would take a whole lot of power. However you say the power supply came with the case... usually they aren't very good ones and don't put out nearly their rated wattage. Newer video cards take a TON of power, the most in a system now days. If your power supply can not handle it, it will give bad power to everything in your system, causing major issues. Anything from hardware failure, instability, corrupt files, etc. Many people do not realize how important a good power supply is... if it can not keep up you can have corrupted files all over the place, from the hard drive getting bad voltages. This may not be your case, but it's a good FYI.

[chaos]

Okay thanks for the feedback.

PCGUY:

1: i will get some more ram, 1gig probably.

2: i have done a fresh install of windows xp, i dont have any Nvidia drivers on my computer.

3:i only have a max of 4 extra aps running in the background i.e: Ati Catalyst control center, AVG antivirus, Spybot S&D teatimer, Daemon tools. but now the general fits it haves from just doing stuff like music and the web has gone away.

4: yer a max of 3 days windows has been installed.

5: Yes my video card has the power adapter connected, i am also thinking that it may be the psu, i might try and get a new one aswell.

this here is my card http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=287

it has a 4 pin molex (i think) connector on the back left corner of the card.

thanks for the hints and thoughts guys. ill keep you updated

~chaos

[singularity]

you installed all the newest direct X drivers right. i don't think the psu is the problem i got a 600watt and im run dual 7800gt's just fine (you know like a 30A draw on the 12v rail) and the power connect looks like the ones for floppy drives not a standard molex connector. i suggest testing the psu first but if you do decide to get a new one get an antec with a 120mm fan (they are dead silent) if you could get me the psu's info about the specific voltages and amp output it would be a help (they normally put a sticker on the side of the psu with that data on it)

[chaos]

kk yer the connector is like the floppy power socket.

im not sure but would having a more hungry grafix card require more ram to do certain tasks? i could play CSS with my old card and 256mb of DDR2?

PSU sticker says:

SHAW
ATX-550W
switching power supply

Red: +5V || 39A
Orange: 3.3V || 22A
Yellow: 12V || 39A
Blue: -12V || 1.2A
Purple:+5VSB || 2.3A
White: -5V || 0.9A
Grey: "POWER OK"
Black: GND

-Low noise design
-+5V standby 2.0A
-Thermal Overload Cut off protection
-Short circuit protection

[zeigs spud]

HOLY CRAP! your bigest problome i see is you need at least 1 gig of RAM!!

[chaos]

HOLY CRAP! your bigest problome i see is you need at least 1 gig of RAM!!

oh sorry people i have found the problem, as Zeigs just said it was a ram problem.

when i fried that old Ram stick it ruined my gaming abilities which supprised me cauz i used play css on my cuzzes comp with 256mb, now from what i have worked out this card requires more ram to run the drivers and the card during a game

mm so i have called my computer friend and am gettin a gig stick of DDR2 to go with my other 512mb stick.

thanks for all your help people.
hope this helps if somone else has the same problem (not that likly )

peace
chaos

[zeigs spud]

P.S. some new cards acualy require a power supply directly from the power supply box thingy..now that a sound liek a retarard, if your comp still seems slow or is shuting right off, screen flicker out (no signal from comp) you may need to get a new power supply for the computer, the old one may not support your new hardware. also make sure your comp is properly vented, it's expensive but will last longer if you buy new cooling units. mainly i'd just get one for the central proccesor at a minimum if your doing hardcore gaming.

[chaos]

its all good man, it was just the ram, ive have ordered a 1g stick of ddr2 which should be nice.

the card does have a power connector, it is conneced, i also have 2 thermaltake 80mm fans on/in* the case, so the case is well vented, but im thinking bout water cooling for my next board/processor.

[MisterSteve124]

I have found that even if you get a better video card sometimes it is not always supported for that game. If you look up the game support most of the time they will give you a list of certain graphics cards that the game will work with and if its not on there it isn't guaranteed to work. I have had cases where once I get a new video card with more ram games don't work anymore for just that reason. Also you really do need more ram that is why your computer freezes often and stuff like that. You mine as well just get a gig stick of ram.