Ati x1650pro agp512m Blackout !?

[J.TINKER]

The problem; I installed a Ati x1650pro agp 512m video card early last year.Since that time whenever I try even the simplest games the computer will lock up,then go to black screen.The only way to clear it is to shut down power from the tower. Ati was great in trying to fix it,finally they sent me a new tested and benchmarked card....still the same problem!
I've added a Antec 550 NEO psu, and 1 Kingston 512m memory (1GB tot.)
All games are well within the parameters of the computer. I intend to keep the computer another year or two ,at which time I'll put together a high end unit. Any thoughts or solutions would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks, J.T.

 

[Rob Williams]

Hmm. Does the computer stall at other times, or is it just with gaming? Does it happen with all games, or just specific titles?

At first glance, it looks more like a software issue than a hardware issue, but it's hard to say since the GPU is apparently not the problem. Just to take care of one potential issue, you should run this MemTest for Windows (set it to 900MB) and let it run until 500%. If no errors arise, it's not the memory at fault.

Where lockups are concerned, I tend to think it might be the memory configuration. If that's the case, at least it will be an easy fix.

 

[Merlin]

The problem; I installed a Ati x1650pro agp 512m video card early last year.Since that time whenever I try even the simplest games the computer will lock up,then go to black screen.The only way to clear it is to shut down power from the tower. Ati was great in trying to fix it,finally they sent me a new tested and benchmarked card....still the same problem!
I've added a Antec 550 NEO psu, and 1 Kingston 512m memory (1GB tot.)
All games are well within the parameters of the computer. I intend to keep the computer another year or two ,at which time I'll put together a high end unit. Any thoughts or solutions would be greatly appreciated ! Thanks, J.T.

You didnt say what OS.
If it's linux, the open source drivers are crap

 

[J.TINKER]

x1650proagp512m blackout!?

Thank you Rob & Merlin; The computer is nothing great! It is a e-machines t-3103 w/ a AMD 3100+, XP (home),the mobo is a K8m-800m. It has recently started giving me grief even just using the internet and it has locked up with different games (all are within the recommended requirements). I do defrag. ,disk cleanup and removal of old software as needed on a regular basis. My next step is to pickup a good,high quality registry cleaner. Any recommendations? I did get a version of the Mem.test86, that is also on the agenda. Rob, you mentioned the memory might be at question. I have seen that in other articles. could there be a conflict between the orig.512m & the added Kingston512m? Could the mobo chipset be causing a bottleneck and the lockup & blackouts? I have some notes of things I've tried or was thinking of trying,I'll post them if it will help? Thanks again for the fast response! J.T.