Any idea what I might have done?

[kriostar]

Long story-

I got a radeon 1950pro w/o realizing I needed the 6pin power connection. Ended up buying a new PSU and installing it. Installed the new drivers, everything worked fine for around 1hr (of gaming) then I got booted to desktop with a GPU error stating something like "unable to recognize the appropriate drivers" or something.
Rebooted.... tried again.. same thing, expect this time after reboot , the desktop wouldn't load (got stuck on the desktop background loading). Paniced a bit... switched the new card to the old...same thing happened after an hr or so. In my newbishness ,not knowing what to do.. I switched the PSU back to the old... reinstalled the game, drivers, defragged, etc... same issue (now with the old card an X700pro).
I never had an issue before I got into this.. (the game and card were working just fine.. just a bit slow) The graphics card (old) seems very hot and smells a bit funny? I'm not as concerned that I have fried the card but I have a new card on the way and don't want to risk damaging it as well. Anything else I can do? I don't even know where to start...

 

[mpjesse]

Hoooooooly cow. How did you go so wrong so fast? lol.

OK. Follow these steps:

1. Go to ati.com and download the latest radeon drivers.
2. Reboot computer into safe mode.
3. Remove the video card from device manager in safe mode. Remove ANY software that you installed with the video card.
4. Turn off computer
5. Remove old video card and power supply. Reinstall old video card and power supply
6. Turn on computer and boot into regular mode. When Windows prompts you to install the video card, hit cancel. If Windows automatically installs the video card, that's ok too
7. Run the driver install that you downloaded from ATI
8. Reboot
9. All should be peachy

 

[kriostar]

I feel like I have already done all that except the safe mode part but I'll give it all a try again as soon as I get home. (In like 45 minutes).

Thank you

 

[kriostar]

Just a quick update..i downloaded one of those GPU temp software.. the card was overheating and after looking at it closely during operation turns out now the fan is broken So there is my culprit.