ECS K8T890a (ver.1.0)

[johnnyq1233]

I have an ECS 8K890A (ver.1.0) mother board.(latest bios)
On it is an AMD 3500+ 64 bit cpu
1 GB of DDR400 OCZ (dual channel)
Radeon 1600 pro 512MB pci-e card.
Power is Enermax 350w.
The problem I have has just recently started.
When I run CoD, Ghost Recon or any other intensive game the system after about 2~5 minutes blacks out the screen and then re-starts the screen only darker and no control over the gamma or brightness.
After a few cycles it will eventually crash/lock-up, forcing a hard reboot!
I've re-installed xp several times and installed every driver combination I could find with no help.
I've run the vid card on another system and works fine.
Tests I've run include sysoft sandra, numerous burnin software and it all passes with flying colors!
I've run mem test 86+ and the windows memtest all pass.
We've replaced the ram for new ram and the same thing is happeining.
Don't know where else to look other than the board is having difficulty with this radeo card.
Any help would be apprciated!

 

[tdank]

Heres what I would check.

First off it sounds like it may be an overheating issue on the GPU, does the system run fine when not playing games? For Example: In IE/Firefox while browsing the web, using email, wordprocessor? If so check the fan on the GPU make sure its free of dust and is still spinning. It could be dead as it sounds like the system is a little older. Replacing the fan would be a relatively cheap fix if thats the case.

Secondly check the bios you are currently running. That motherboard is kind of a special case in that is has both AGP and PCI-E GPU slots. Could be that its time to flash the BIOS to make sure its up to date. The most recent BIOS I found for it was dated May of 06 Link to BIOS page here.


Let know what ya find, best of luck bud.

 

[johnnyq1233]

I have the latest bios did it 2 days ago...... ran ATI tools and let the tool creep the clocks .
GPU got up to 600 MGHZ and started showing lines but no crash.
Mem got to almost 500 and still no crash.
Temps got over the 85 c mark and stable.
At stock the GPU runs at 78 when running 3 d apps.
ATI tool says the fan is at 30% when running @78c
The system runs perfect on desktop and running vids!
Not this system but my brothers.....

 

[tdank]

Very strange.

And the CPU, all the temps are running good there as well?

Maybe try finding the free version of Driver Cleaner(They Charge for it now but you can still find downloads for the free version). Simply uninstalling drivers doesnt always remove all the components. Driver Cleaner does an excellent job of pulling every trace of them from a system. Could be you have a conflict with a particular component that isnt normally access outside those games.

 

[johnnyq1233]

I ran "easycleaner" and manually went through the system to get rid of all files pertaning to ATI then did a sweep and defrag then installed the drivers again.
Still same thing...the system never had problems 3 months ago just recently.
Plz ignore the sysetm specs below they are not for the system I'm asking about!

 

[tdank]

Yeah I am looking at the specs up top. Just noticed the PSU. That could be your culprit as well. Do you have a larger PSU you could swap into the system to test with?

 

[johnnyq1233]

did that with a 450 watt Antec that's out of my system.still has the same problem.

 

[tdank]

Id say time for a new MB then. :lol:

Check the current one for blown capacitors maybe. But repairing them on a MB that old isnt worth it.

 

[johnnyq1233]

thanx I kinda...figured something like dat would be the order...lol