Radeon X1950pro issues and possible solutions

power supply is too small

the hotter it gets the lower the out put of the psu until failure - the more crashes the weaker it gets

take off the door does it work better? put a fan on it - even a room fan and point it as the gpu and get more air too the psu - does it work longer?

you need a bigger psu

450w is small for that card that card can suck up 125-150w, 100w for the cpu and bam!

My 8800GT 512MB runs on a Antec NeoHE 430W with 3 16amp rails. I even overclocked to 3.0 GHz for a while until I realised I need a better cooler than stock. Clean your case using compressed air especially your VGA card. Install at least 1 intake fan and 1 out take fan. If you have good airflow, opening your case will make cooling worse. You want a wind tunnel coming from lower front to top back.

Your temps are too high. My 8800GT idles at 61C which is hot, but yours is 75C, up to 90C idle? Holy crap, mine only reached 81C max. Most dual slot VGA cards hit about 60C load.

Definatly sounds like the power supply to me. you never mentioned brand if its a generic cheap one that came with the PC its almost certainly not up to the job. Also the beeps are telling you there is an issue. Never ignore the bleeps. You can look them up on the web or post what noise its making IE 2 long 1 short etc and we will tell you what it is but i recon dragonsprayer is right to say its the power supply.
Mactronix

Get some canned air and dust that sucker, probably full of dust bunnies by now. I wouldn't spend much more on that card, seeing as you can find 9600GSO with upgraded cooling for $90 after rebate as of today (which will rape that X1950 of yours). I would also look a bit more on the power supply, but those temps are not normal.

yeah, there is something definately wrong with your rig. I am gonna agree with the powersupply having trouble. I have my rig and it never, even with the windows open and it being almost 27 degrees celsius, has problems. Keep in mind my system IS overclocked, I have an afterstock cooler, and a 9600gt all on a decent Antec 550w psu. Even before I removed the stock cooler I never had trouble.

You might consider checking all fans and the cpu heatsink. Make sure all connections are secure and the heatsinks are clamped down. Clean as necessary (it gets surprisingly dusty no matter how long you went without a cleaning)

Also, I would suggest the 9600gt if you were looking for an upgrade. $150 for the stock Evga one isn't bad since you can oc it to the SSC edition's speeds for at least $30 less. just my 2 cents worth.

Hope you can solve this problem.

Get a Zalman VF-900 for $32.
http://forums.sapphiretech.com/showthread.php?t=10468&p...
like I did for my X1950 Pro agp.
That piece of **** stock cooler never did cut it.
Does your 1950 Pro have digital vrms(sink em!) or the analoge ones ?

What should I get, then? Please specift WATT and brand name, if possible.


I dis-assembled the card, and dusted it real good. No dust in there now.


I looked at the 9600GSO - it's 192bit VS. the X1950's 256bit, and clock\RAM frequency are similiar.. and it's not that cheap over here (around 200$). For that price, looks like I could get better cards.


They look clean enough.. and I don't have heating problems with my CPU (God bless Duo Core). The surroundings of the card are warm, but certainly not hot - while the center of the X1950 (where the core is) is too hot for the touch.


I'd get a new card, if it meant a serious improvement in performance, plus no more worries about overheating. Could you direct me to something with good in-the-box cooling?


Will it fit other cards too?

Maybe I need an over-all PX box cooler, something to make a fridge out of it..  


What are those, and what's the difference?

I have exactly the same problem with x1950 on 450W PC .Will buying a new power source solve the troubles?My computer is about 35-50C MAX (MB + CPU) (cant get the card temperature but it is even hard to touch the socket so i supose it will be very high)

I tried to add 3 more coolers with external PS around a card but its still hot as hell

Power supply is not too small for a 1950 pro. I've been running one on a poor quality 400w supply for over 2 years, and that's with an 3.4ghz dual core.

It's heat, the fan needs a good cleaning or replacing. Personally I'd just upgrade to a 4770 which is exactly what I'm gonna do tomorrow.  

Stock speed X1950Pro consumes 66w of power.



Source:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/x1950pro...


Stock speed E6750 should consume just a little more power than the E6700 which has been measured to be 62w.



Source:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2extre...

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To the OP,

Your PSU is fine.

The most likely cause of your issue is the thermal compound has degraded to the point where it no longer transfers heat properly from the GPU chip to the heatsink itself. Clean off the old thermal paste from the GPU and the heatsink, then apply a thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. That should take care of the problem.

You might as well do the same for the CPU as well, chances are the thermal paste has degraded as well.


The Zalman VF-900 is a good HSF, but it is a third to half the cost of a new card. For example you can buy a brand new HD 4670 512MB (47w power consumption) card for $60 after rebate, or the HD 4830 512MB (85w power consumption) card for $77 after rebate and excluding shipping charges. At least those are the prices in the US.

HD 4670 512MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

HD 4830 512MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Based on a resolution of 1920 x 1200, my X1900XT's performance is on average 33% better than your X1950Pro. The HD 4670's performance is roughly 15% better than my X1900XT. The HD 4830 is roughly 20% - 25% faster than the HD 4670; on average. Although it seems there's hardly any difference in Crysis between the two cards at 1920 x 1200.

Hi,

my PC is totaly clean.I disassembled, cleaned and assembled it again - Same results.'

But If I downgrade catalyst drivers from 9 to 7 I am able to play
World of Warcraft 1 or 2 hours without troubles. With 9 version it burns down after few minutes of play...

And first half year after I buy the card, it worked without any problems. I think it was
due to catalyst upgrade  . But how the hell should I know the version that I had 2 years ago ? ???  

Help please anyone
If I don't make it work this week I will buy a new card definitely not ATI (which was my favourite since)

Any card is going to have troubles in such a hot system. You've got almost 2 years out of it (have you checked the warranty btw?) so you're doing pretty well imo.

You can help your temps a little by buying a pci-extractor fan. They are cheap and will help to draw out some of the heat in your pc.

Another alternative is just buy another 1950pro on ebay - they are dirt cheap now and if you're happy with the performance then why not? Check and see if you can get a powercolor with the artic cooler, that's what I have and the card is extremely cool.