Video Problems Need Help

[mrbunny]

I have had alot of trouble with my new computer. First I had a 3850 agp powercolor video card that whenever I played any games it would lose video signal but the game would continue to play (audio, cpu usage). Sometimes it would crash right away and other times it would take 10-20 mins. I sent that card in for a replacement and the new one did the same thing. However the computer works fine with an 8600 gts and a nvidia 6600. The motherboard should be compatible with my card (my mobo was specificly designed for agp cards) and I have tried raising and lowering agp voltages, lowering bus speeds, underclocking my card, turning the card settings way down, and at least 3 differrent drivers. In World In Conflict I was getting ~120 fps and it would lose signal. The only thing I can think of is either RAM or my DVI-VGA adapter has a pin half pushed down (pin 5). I have also tried it on xp 32 bit and 64 bit.

Specs-
q6600 2.4 quad core
AsRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115
Powercolor hd 3850 agp http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131141
1 gb ddr2 ram
500 watt power supply
1tb wd black drive

Any help would be greatly appreciated as this been going on for about 4 months now.
Ps- I am avoiding powercolor from now on. I ordered their card, it came with nothing and didn't work. It has horrible driver support and customer service is a joke. They lied to us 3 times with shipping, it took them a month to ship another card that doesnt work.

 

[r_manic]

Well, if what you say is true, maybe the Powercolor card is just incompatible with your motherboard? In any case, buyers at NewEgg seem pretty satisfied with the vid card.

 

[mrbunny]

Where could I find a list of compatible agp video cards for my board? I searched their site and only found a list of pci-e cards. I checked the voltages and specifications of my mobo and it would seem the card is compatible. I read somewhere that the card uses RAM when it runs out of onboard memory, and my RAM could be bad. What is the best way to test RAM?

 

[mrbunny]

I just figured out that my card is running at exactly half the advertised speed, does that mean the card is junk or its a problem with my motherboard?

*EDIT- Nevermind that was just bad drivers. I tried playing World in Conflict again and the video shuts off, comes back on, says "World in Conflict is reloading rescources, please wait" and it crashes again 2 mins later. When that happens I get a pop-up saying "my video card has stopped responing and ATI smartsave has restarted it. It makes the game unplayable.

 

[r_manic]

So you have been able to update your drivers? Have they fixed the problem?

 

[mrbunny]

Thanks for the help, but it wasn't drivers. It was agp 3.0 calibration. All I had to do was turn it off in bios and now my computer works perfectly....thats like 4 months wasted trying to get this thing to work. And to think that was the only thing I didn't try because I didn't know what it was. But Im just happy it works at all

Sorry Powercolor

 

[r_manic]

How'd you find out about it? Thanks for the share btw.

 

[mrbunny]

I found it on some crazy forum that I didn't even know about. Some guy had the exact same problem as me. It took forever but its there. I think I went to google page 6, thats the farthest I've ever searched