I got up this morning and turned on the pc to play a game of Battlefield 2. I was getting great fps and playing as usual until suddenly my game froze and the ati catalyst center gave me an error message (catalyst 6.8). It said something about a vga error. My screen resolution had been dropped to 1024x768 from 1280x1024 and I could no longer see my mouse pointer. I had to manually restart the pc and now it hangs after the windows loading screen. I tried multiple times to restart and I turned off the power supply in order to try and remedy the problem. I noticed that when windows is supposed to load the light on my monitor starts blinking, indicating that I dont have a video signal anymore and leading me to believe that there is a video card problem.

It's an Asus x1900xt I bought from newegg about a month ago. I'm looking into the RMA process now but I just wanted to see if anybody had any suggestions before I go through that ordeal. If it really is the video card, not having a pc for a few weeks is going to be rough. The card has not been overclocked (yet) and ironically I have an arctic cooling heatsink for it coming to me in the mail. I was afraid to try and overclock it with the horrible stock heatsink. I don't think the problem is overheating though, I had only been playing BF2 for about 45 mins and my case is extremely well ventilated despite the horrible heatsink on the card. My pc consists of an Asus p5b, 2gigs of Corsair xms ddr2 800 (4-4-4-12), and an Intel core 2 duo e6600. I recently overclocked the 6600 from 2.4ghz (266x9) to 3.2ghz (400x8) if that has any effect on this at all. I used the Asus bios function to lower the multiplier and increased the stock voltage ever so slightly. I didnt push it very far because the pc has to run for extended periods of time and it's still quite hot outside here in the south. I may be rambling but that's the only thing I have changed recently on the pc.

I'm a little panicked because I just built this system the first week of August and I'm college student. If something is fried I probably cant afford to fix it right now and I have quite a few assignments that are still on the pc I haven't backed up yet. Even if it can be RMAd I'm stuck without a pc for a few weeks. Sorry for the long post! Any help would be appreciated.

Try removing and reseating the video card before you go the rma route.

Did you mention a OC on the mobo? if it was OC'd then it may be worth resetting the CMOS
while you are reseating the card.

Did you have a GOOD power supply in there? Cheap ones can kill hardware quick!

http://forums.pcapex.com/other_oc_ha...ood_power.html

Necro, I used a 580W Hiper modular power supply.

I just finished taking the card out, cleaning it, and putting it back in. Still no luck. I cleared the CMOS and reset all of the bios features but that did nothing. After a little experimentation I got it boot Windows in safe mode, but still no luck with booting normally.

If you can get into windows (safe mode) try un-installing catalyst and see if the default vga drivers will let you get into windows normaly. If that works re-install catalyst. I'm pretty sure that overclocking can result in some corrupted data (possibly drivers?) but i'm not sure, I just know whenever a piece of hardware stops working and reseating/reseting doesn't work the next logical choice is the drivers.

i would suggest you remove everything attached to your motherboard except for ram, hdd, cpu, heatsink, video card, and power cables going to psu...

go into the BIOS and check the HARDWARE MONITOR and possibly take a picture for us to troubleshoot for you...points of interest are...

• cpu temperature
• chipset temperature
• +12v voltage
• +5v voltage
• cpu voltage (VCORE)
• chipset voltage
• agp voltage
• memory voltage (VDIMM)

just get as much info as you can about all the above, dont worry if you cant find everything, just give it your best shot and try to get it on camera...

if your motherboard has onboard video, remove the x1900 and see if the onboard works properly...if not, see about borrowing a card from a friend...

a failure in mid-use (with recurring issue) means means something either broke, or became unseated, and it sounds like what "broke" was your power supply...but that has yet to be seen...

ok well I managed to boot it in safe mode and uninstall the ati display drivers. It will not allow me to remove the catalyst control center in safe mode, but I can boot normally after removing the display drivers. I then loaded Windows normally, removed catalyst and everything related to ATI on the system. After restarting my pc no longer hangs and the card seems to be fine! Now the problem is that when I reinstall Catalyst drivers the problem returns. After removing 6.8 and all its components and folders I installed the new 6.9 drivers. Once again I hang at the loading screen. Either there is some config file that remains on the system that I need to delete, or my pc simply doesnt like catalyst. Thanks so much for the help.

I cant seem to get rid of these damn catalyst drivers! I've used the ati uninst-all utility to get rid of the files and then used a registry cleaner to try and remove the remaining files. Each time I install new drivers the problem returns and I've been through the process 4 times now. I really hate ATI drivers.

Edit: I've spent the past two days fighting with this POS. Each time I manage to boot into safe mode I can uninstall the ati drivers and boot normally. I then removed ALL ati files that I could find on the pc, both in the registry and ones I found through the search options. Upon reinstalling the new catalysts the problem returns and I can no longer boot into windows. I just tried using some alternative drivers like Omega this morning thinking that by some odd chance that might make a difference but it doesnt seem to. I've resurrected my old Barton xp 3200 linux system for the time being but I'm completely clueless as to how to fix this problem.

I just spens 30 minutes typing a possible fix for the problem, accidently hit the "Back button" on my mouse and lost the whole damn post

Gimme a few to redo it

Since you are having problems uninstalling things, this may not fix it, you may have to do a "XP Repair Install" if all else fails....I can explain how to do this properly without losing any data or files on your rig, or "Google it"

Correct way for removing ATI drivers:

1. Using "Windows Control Panel" got into "Add and remove programs"
2. Remove "ATI Control Panel"
3. Remove "ATI Video Driver"
4. Remove "ATI Uninstall Utility"
5. Exit Control Panel
6. From your "C" drive, delete "ATI Folder"
7. Run "Driver Cleaner Pro" from your desktop
DriverCleaner.net Driver Cleaner Professional Edition

Tweek Guides removal procedure:
TweakGuides.com - ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide

Guru of 3-D video card driver section
The Guru of 3D Download Section

I did a bit shorter post than the originally, but all the basic info is there.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro I just spens 30 minutes typing a possible fix for the problem, accidently hit the "Back button" on my mouse and lost the whole damn post Gimme a few to redo it Since you are having problems uninstalling things, this may not fix it, you may have to do a "XP Repair Install" if all else fails....I can explain how to do this properly without losing any data or files on your rig, or "Google it" Correct way for removing ATI drivers: 1. Using "Windows Control Panel" got into "Add and remove programs" 2. Remove "ATI Control Panel" 3. Remove "ATI Video Driver" 4. Remove "ATI Uninstall Utility" 5. Exit Control Panel 6. From your "C" drive, delete "ATI Folder" 7. Run "Driver Cleaner Pro" from your desktop DriverCleaner.net Driver Cleaner Professional Edition Tweek Guides removal procedure: TweakGuides.com - ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide Guru of 3-D video card driver section The Guru of 3D Download Section I did a bit shorter post than the originally, but all the basic info is there.

Thanks so much for spending the time to try and help Necro. Unfortunately that's the exact process I've used the past 3 attempts now. I googled it and used the same guides you listed but the system still will not boot windows once the new drivers are installed. I'm actually using the pc now just without any display drivers. All ati programs have been deleted, the ati folder is gone, and Driver Cleaner has removed everything related to ati that it can find. I learned my lesson I'll never play BF2 again! I'll give it one more go this afternoon and see what happens.

Ok..now did you do that procedure the first time round? or did you do it out of order?

I would try a repair install, or if worse comes to worse, format it and try it again.

You also may not be getting enough power to the vid card, try removing it and reseating it, rewiring the power (Unplug everything, and move the connectors around)

Have you tried resetting the bios back to defaults?

well I fixed the problem...though in the worst possible way. I attempted to repair my windows installation and upon booting the freshly repaired OS I got the dreaded blue screen of death. I ended up having to reinstall windows completely and I've spent all day trying to recover my files. But I suppose if I can actually use the pc now I shouldnt be complaining. Once again thanks for all of the suggestions!

Edit: Ok so its not completely fixed. I now have a workable booting windows installation but upon doing anything intensive such as gaming or benchmarking the video card freezes completely and I'm forced to manually shut down the comp. Occasionally the screen will go black and I can hear the fan on the video card get louder as it spins faster. I'm going to RMA the card but newegg isnt going to let me trade it for a different model of card since I've had it for a month or two. This thing has given me so much trouble i really dont want another one.

now I'm just trying to make sure its actually the card and not the motherboard card slot or something.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Ok..now did you do that procedure the first time round? or did you do it out of order? I would try a repair install, or if worse comes to worse, format it and try it again. You also may not be getting enough power to the vid card, try removing it and reseating it, rewiring the power (Unplug everything, and move the connectors around) Have you tried resetting the bios back to defaults?

It now appears to be a hardware problem as opposed to software. Yes I reset the bios, I also reseated the card to no avail. I'm unable to switch the power connector that is on the card due to the design of the modular power supply, it will only fit in the slot it currently occupies.

btw, 12v is at 12.355 and 5v is at 5.171, is the 12v abnormally high?