Radeon hd 4850 crashing in games, not in stress tests/benchmarks

gorwell

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Mar 27, 2010
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18,510
So grabbed my parents a cheap computer ( Gateway FX6800-01E) as an upgrade from some old athlonxp system.

Everything appeared ok. I installed win7 64bit on it, and installed new ati drivers... Ran stress tests, benchmarks, everything kosher. I even installed bf:bc2 for my dad (who likes to play an occasional game) and played that for 15 minutes to make sure it worked.

I come back after a week. And the computer is now crashing in battlefield, and even crashes when I try to load up Chess Titans (windows chess game).

But I can run 3dmark2006 without problems and do Prime95, Sisoft, and other benchmarks without issue. I downloaded OpenArena and it runs fine, and then played some QuakeLive, runs fine.

Anyone know why this could be happening? I dont understand why I could run 3dmark without problems and not games.

Thanks

PC Specs:
http://shop.revonate.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C-PT.G410X.001&Show=TechSpecs

except it has a 500w powesupply.
 

nhvzr

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Aug 2, 2010
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18,510
I'm dealing with exactly the same problem: gateway i3 with an increased power supply, 4850 crashes in the middle of games. Sometimes it reboots itself and lets me keep playing after 30 seconds, other times it crashes the game or even gives me a blue screen.

I tend to doubt that it's a heat issue (at least for me), since it will crash immediately after startup sometimes but other times I can play for several hours without it happening.

Still running through all the possible problems and searching the net for ideas, but I thought I'd check in here and see if you'd found a solution.
 

gorwell

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Mar 27, 2010
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18,510
Hi:

I am sorry to say that I did not find a solution. My friend had a spare 8800 GT (GTS, GTX, I forget) and I threw that on and it worked flawlessly.

It's my parents computer (my dad does play BF2) so it doesn't bother me that it's reduced quality a bit. One of these days I will get them another card.

I was going to test the 4850 on my friends computer, but I got lazy and never did.

My remaining conclusion was that either the card itself was defective, or the power supply wasn't powerful enough to handle it.

My only thought for you is to try it on another computer to see if it works properly (one with a bigger power supply), or try a different card on your computer. Of course, this doesn't help if you don't have access to either.