x1950 Pro AGP crashes and other unstable behavior

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I also have a Powercolor x1950 AGP card and have been having problems with it.

I have now tried it on two different builds and it is consistently crashing in World of Warcraft. I've checked everything else (Memtest 86 - no problem; Prime95 - no problem) - everything is pointing to the card.

What happens is that after a short amount of gameplay the screen goes blank and my monitor loses it's video signal. I'm forced to do a hard reboot.
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I have the pci-e version of that same card. Same problems but in oblivion. Sometimes reboots itself too. Thought it was my psu since its only got a single 18A 12V rail but another guy here has only 15A! The powercolor (non-extreme) uses the same cooler as the sapphire so likely has the same problems. Maybe I should RMA my card and get a 7900gs instead... save $50 and less psu strain.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of ATI!
I started a thread about a month ago about our problem. http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1451552#1451552
So far, I've tried: X1950 PRO 256/512 AGP Visiontek, Diamond, Sapphire, and the latest, HIM and nothing's changed, no signal output after 10 mins to start, but it decreases with each reboot, leading me to believe in the heat theory. Interestingly, it's fine in 2D, using the win drivers, but as soon as I load the ATI drivers it takes a dump.
Just for grins, I'm going to try it in another build this week and see what happens, (4 RMA's anyone?) in the meantime I'll suffer with my 7800GS. : (

3.2 P4/Asus P4V8X-MX/2GB Corsair XMS/750W Thermaltake....
 
MaxLagG: What drivers are you installing. I have used the 1950PRO specific driver package which you should get with your card. ATI also post a link to this on the Catalyst 7.1 download page.

It could be driver issue. I played Cnstantine on Sunday for 12 hrs plus without problems - 1600*1200 and high settings.

I have not had any shutdowns or failures. My card is quiet and cool no matter what I throw at it.
 
JustJack:
I always do a clean install, downloading the X1950 driver from the AMD/ATI website and using Drive Cleaner Pro.

I gave up, RMAing the AGP card and ordering a ASRock 775DUAL-VSTA, a 3.4 Dual Core, and a HIS X1950 PRO 512 PCIe with the Ice Q fan.
If the PCIe card goes south, I guess I'll go Nvidia.

Really wanted to wait a year, but FSX is unplayable with my 3.2 P4 & GS7800.

Cheers
 
Hello all, I seem to have the same problem with the Gecube 1950XT AGP graphics card my dad just bought. I installed the latest ATI 7.4 drivers but the card just seems unstable. As soon as I run 3dmark 03, it crashes everytime bringing the system to a halt. I have to power off and back on again to restart the computer. My dads comp is a Amd 64 3000, 1.5gb of mem and a corsair 520w psu with three 18a 12v rails which is surely enough power.

My dad only uses his comp for email and surfing the net so I thought I would swap it for my geforce 6800le 😀 Unfortunately it's also unstable on my system which is a Asrock 4core, Core duo e6300. 2gb OCZ DDR2800 mem and a corsair 520w PSU. Again as soon as I run 3dmark 03 or any other game it just brings the system to a halt. Looks like this card will have to be returned. Oh well I guess I'll have to put up with my geforce 6 le until I can afford to upgrade.

I'm thinking about getting a geforce 8800 GTS 640mb card, but I've heard that it doesn't work under winxp on the asrock 4core dual or Asrock 775Dual VSTA. Can anyone confirm this. Is there any driver available that would allow me to get this card working under windows xp. I know it supposedly works under vista x64, but I dont currently have Vista at the moment.

take care
kindred
😀
 
I've done thorough testing with three AGP X1950 PROs, A sapphire 512mb card, a Powercolor 256 and a Diamond Viper 256. All three were in shrink wrapped retail boxes when I got 'em, so no cherrry picking.

I haven't experienced an issue with any of the three. I should mention I'm using an Ultra 550w PSU with a real strong 12v rail - 28 amps if I remember correctly.

not to say there aren't problems with some of the cards out there, just thoguht I'd offer my experience.
 
I gave up and went to PCI-e, neccessating a complete rebuild. Wanted to wait until Penryn, but pulled the trigger anyway. Just for grins, I went with a HIS X1950 PRO PCI-e for a month without problems, leaving me to wonder if it was a mobo compatability issue. I ended up with a 768 GTX8800 only because FSX is a memory hog and was unplayable with the PRO.
 
I got a HIS X1950 512MB AGP turbo. Its very stable (w/ a PC Power & Cooling 750w with 60 amp rail!). When I first installed it, it was a little quirky. I did a clean install of the drivers than came with it, and haven't had a problem. I run Prey, FEAR, and others, maxed out. GPU has never gone about 49 degrees. It seems to like the drivers from the CD better than the ones currently available on both HIS' and ATI's websites. Don't know why...
 
I got a HIS X1950 512MB AGP turbo. Its very stable (w/ a PC Power & Cooling 750w with 60 amp rail!). When I first installed it, it was a little quirky. I did a clean install of the drivers than came with it, and haven't had a problem. I run Prey, FEAR, and others, maxed out. GPU has never gone about 49 degrees. It seems to like the drivers from the CD better than the ones currently available on both HIS' and ATI's websites. Don't know why...
Click to expand...

Somewhere I read that AMD/ATI had problems with the latest Catalyst drivers.
 
Yeah, they made my card act "quirky." In the second test (forest) of 3DMark06, the screen would get corrupted. The only fix was to reboot. I did a clean install of the CD drivers (and removed my ATI TV Wonder Card), and its only happened once since (oddly with 3DMark05). It never happens while playing games.

I've written to HIS, but they never responded.
 
My ATI X1950Pro 256mb PCI-E is doing the same things, i basically cant play any 3D games or it just dies. Hangs, crashes, screen goes blank. Originally i thought it was vista but i recently installed XP Pro which is way more stable. But the same problems with video. I have a Xion 600watt PSU with plenty of juice for this system. I spent weeks troubleshooting this system and verified memory and cpu stress tested to hell. Everything else is completely stable in my system but the video in 3D games. I tried just the ATI driver and ATI Tray tools with the same results. Im getting a RMA sent to me now so im hoping this will be fixed next week.
 
I've used original ATI cards since the first All-in-wonder. I had a problem with the AIW 9700 version after about 6 months and replaced it at the store since ATI makes you jump through hoops for an RMA. The replacement worked fine and is still working. The AIW 9800 version was fine for about 2 years, but again ATI was a pain to get an RMA from. Finally I got a Sapphiretech x1600, it getting decent reviews. It did run hot and I had to tighten down the heatsink for it to run stable. After 6 months I got no video. And tech support? I placed 2 tickets with no response. None...
I can't even post on their forums even though I verified my email.

So, while I liked the image quality of ATI's products I will no longer be buying them. And none from Sapphiretech neither.
 
I had real problems running my new HIS X1950 IceQ3 Turbo card. I searched and considered a lot of possible solutions. I knew it couldn't be power (I have a Corsair HX620W supply) and was pretty sure the heatsinks and IceQ3 cooler was doing fine to keep the GPU cool, so I was originally thinking driver problems, though the latest Catalyst install (8.291) still caused problems.

I eventually was able to try the card on another system and figure out what the problem was.

If you are having trouble with X1950 and are using an all-in-one chipset, you may be suffering from overheat of the chipset. I have an NForce2 Mobo (Abit AN7) that I passively cool the NB of with an oversize heatsink. After finding the card was fine in another system I disabled onboard sound and installed an old (Fortissimo III 7.1) PCI sound card that I had spare and all my problems went away.

The overheating chipset makes some sense, since all-in-one chipsets have a hell of a lot of work to do running the AGP bus to feed the X1950 AND run network , sound, disk etc. I expect it never worked so hard with the Radeon 9800 Pro that I replaced.

Another observation - the other system I tried the card on only had a 380W PSU and barely made the 12V power supply suggested in the manual, but it worked perfectly well so PSU may not be such a problem.

Also, there has been a lot of mention around forums about the voltage converters overheating, but this is not a problem with the HIS IceQ3 due to the large Heatsink covering the memory and convertors.

Hope this helps some folks!

By the way, the symptoms I was getting were problems in 3D games, ranging from instantaneous reboots, games hanging and BSOD "Stop Errors". Desktop was fine, but my theory is that bandwidth usage of the card for 2D is minimal, so not a problem for the chipset to push over the AGP bus.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of ATI!
I started a thread about a month ago about our problem. http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1451552#1451552
So far, I've tried: X1950 PRO 256/512 AGP Visiontek, Diamond, Sapphire, and the latest, HIM and nothing's changed, no signal output after 10 mins to start, but it decreases with each reboot, leading me to believe in the heat theory. Interestingly, it's fine in 2D, using the win drivers, but as soon as I load the ATI drivers it takes a dump.
Just for grins, I'm going to try it in another build this week and see what happens, (4 RMA's anyone?) in the meantime I'll suffer with my 7800GS. : (

3.2 P4/Asus P4V8X-MX/2GB Corsair XMS/750W Thermaltake....
Click to expand...

lol, i only ever bought one x1950 pro (by sapphire) and for the last 5 months its run better than i expected. Extremely stable as far as i can tell. No problems what so ever on any game (UT2004, BF2142, COD2, Rainbow six vegas, GRAW, Oblivion, C&C3, Tomb raider legend, Need for speed carbon to name some) To top it off im only running it on a 380 watt (22amp on +12v rail) psu.

Im guessing its a batch of them or something.
 
I replace, y 9800XT with the Sapphire X1950 PRO 512MB AGP. At the beginning I had problems with:


1. The booting logo was multi-color and with distortion, as soon the windows logo appears no problem at all.

2. 3dmark06 has distortion in the right corner and below. In 3 tests I only have a blank screen.

3. If I try to over clock the screen start blinking (I am using the 7.4 driver to over clock). If I over clock the minimum I still have the problem.

At the beginning I thought that was a power supply issues. But I was able to play game with any problems, some times I start loading the game and the game just close (it say that is a problem with the memory)

Anyway, I format my computer, update my bios, and install a new fresh XP in my system. Then I install the newer Catalyst 7.4, then try 3d mark 06 and I have the same problem, I went to the web site and they have Updates for the 3d marks of certain years, I update and my problem improve but is was there, what I did I use the defaults settings of the catalyst and try the program again, and the problem went away.


OK what is going on? At the end I found that I have to disable the “Alternate pixel something” that is one of the option of the catalyst under 3D environment” is the one that is on top of the OPEN GL box.

As soon I disable this, all the issues went away. “Except the sistortion in the logo of my bios”

Any way I am sure that most of the issue will be resolve in the next catalyst. “I hope “

The card was I good upgrade from my 9800XT

Hope this info helps


My system spec :
 
Hi all, thanks for this post... I also am having problems with black screen appearing after playing certain games on my PowerColor X1950 PRO AGP.

My power supply is a Coolmax CX-450B with 17A on +12V1 and 16A on +12V2. Max. Combined Wattage on the +12V side is 360W (30A).

I have set the bios to 4X AGP since when I first powered it up at AGP 8X (yes, my AGP drivers are the latest) after installing it I had all kinds of random wierdness with black screens, blue screens, flashing four quarters of the video screen stuff... and after I set it to 4X AGP that went away. I thought I was ok until I started playing my games.

I had thought that my power supply was underpowered before I found this thread but now am wondering if it's a heat issue.

With that information would you go after a new power supply or after the heat issues? Does my power supply look marginal or ok?
 
PSU seems fine. Could be a heat issue. My chipset was overheating, thus causing problems which I thought were related to my X1950Pro, but were solved after I disabled my onboard sound and stuck an 80mm fan in the front and added another in the back.
 
the x1950pro is a great performer but unfortunately some of them are having heat problems due to the vrm. my previous Asus 1950pro had some trouble with reboots and freezes and i just put a fan above the vrm and it was stable for a month (after that i sold it because i loved the card and bought his big brother wich is even better 😀 )

so: it`s a GREAT performer and IF you are having problems : COOL IT! that's all..... or at least make sure you have some GOOD airflow in your case.
 
Hi all, I had similar problems with my HIS X1950PRO IcQ3 Turbo. A game could be fine for half an hour, sometimes something like Half-Life 2: Lost Coast could become severely corrupt in a matter of seconds. I tried re-installs, all different Catalysts, Omega drivers, everything. I found out that my card was getting hot, and once the x1950 pro hits 55-60c, they re prone to locking. I used ATI Tray Tools to control the cooler fan accordingly, which seemed to slightly delay the problem - at least now I was able to exit the games, though to get back to a proper uncorrupted desktop meant a reboot.

I was in the middle of having upgraded from a s939 Athlon AGP to the AM2 PIC-E, so this caused major upheaval. I ripped all the new parts out until I had a definite plan of action to follow.

It was then I looked at GPU Review, which showed that ATI's reference speed for the video memory was 690Mhz (1380 DDR), whereas my card's memory speed was factory-clocked to 770Mhz (1.54 DDR). I found the newest version of ATI Tray Tools, which let me adjust the memory speed - without locking - down to 700 Mhz, and everything's been fine since.

MORALS:
1. Read the small print - i.e. specifications may vary.
2. ATI's reference specifications were probably fine, but the card manufacturers, in an attempt to out-do each other, will overclock the cards past what is advisable to try and whoo us with big numbers.

P.S. I hope what's in this post might help others like myself.
 
My powercolor X1950 AGP is working just swimmingly ... until I try to wake from S3 suspend. That's when I get a black screen of death. Used to be a blue screen, with MS's diagnostic saying it was the video driver thread stuck, but then I upgraded catalyst and now it simply spins the CPU for good without the courtesy of a bluescreen, or any screen at all. Seems pretty "stuck" to me still, neh? Doesn't happen when booted to VGA mode, so I can definitely point the finger at the ati driver or at least some interaction involving it.
 
Anyone here having problems with HIS? I like their card well enough, but I am finding I do not like the company and will never purchase from them again. Every email I have sent to them requesting technical support has gone unanswered. Also, they sent me the wrong game (their cards come with a coupon for a free game). They use an outside company for this. I emailed that company about the problem. Their response was that I have to call them. Call them. They want me to make a transatlantic telephone call to solve what should be a simple problem. That will cost more than the game is even worth. I emailed HIS about this, and again, not response. I should have gone with my first impulse and bought a diamond (or even a sapphire).

Sigh.
 
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