Graphics Error causes computer to inconsistantly crash at startup

superherontherun

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Sep 2, 2008
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When I first put vista 64bit onto this homebuilt rig, there is no problem. I put in the drivers for the motherboard, still no problem. When I put in the drivers for my Radeon 4870 video card however, the problems start. When the computer is booting up, from a fresh start, or from a restart, or from standby, the computer will inconsistantly crash. At first i was getting the BSOD, but after i reformatted and got the hotfixed video drivers from the ati site, i dont get that anymore. The computer crashes and restarts itself after the green loading bar in bootup. Occasionally, it wont restart itself though, and i have to manually shut it off and turn it back on. The funny thing is though, when it gets to desktop, its fine. I have run games like portal, titan quest, neverwinter nights 2. and the computer will not freeze. The crashing only happens when its booting up.
I have some ideas as to what the problem could be, but i'm not sure, and i dont want to have to go to any drastic measures... after i installed the hotfixed drivers 8.8 for catalyst, the problem actually went away for a couple days, and i thought it was fixed, but it just happened again this morning, turning it on for the first time today. The obvious things that COULD be wrong, are that the 500 watt powersupply is insufficient, the ram is faulty, the video card itself is faulty, the video drivers have incompatibility with some of my other hard/software. Or maybe, i installed all my drivers wrong? i just dont know, but i'm tending to lean toward the video drivers are the main problem as opposed to the other things because in my problems history window before i first reformatted were all video driver errors. and now that i have reformatted are mostly video hardware errors that caused the system to crash. I have only just built the computer, seeing as its about 4-5 days old.
Some preemptive thanks to those that care to respond.
 

IH8U

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Dec 29, 2007
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Download and use Driver Cleaner, then re-install the drivers. (fixed my issues with bad drivers and Vista 64)

P.S. a 600W or better PSU is recommended
(Zalman, Antec, PC P&C, OCZ, and Corsair are all good brands)
 

major53

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Sep 19, 2007
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superherontherun the 500 watt power supply should have a sticker on the side telling you what the different rails have,what those the 12 volt rail have as far as amps,that video card probably uses 22 amps or 28 amps,also does it have more than 1-12 volt rail ?