Sapphire 3650 AGP Video Card Problems

[KiTtiAK]

So I just installed the previously mentioned graphics card on my computer. Started off fantastic, did everything I expected it to do for the price. theres always a but though, after letting a family member use the computer to play a game, it froze and crashed. After cursing the computers existence and checking all the connections and such, I tried to start it up with little success... The screen turned on, told me what motherboard I use, as usual, then proceeded to sit in blackness until I turned it off. This happened a couple times and after unplugging and replugging the power chord and such, it is now working. I hope this isnt a short term thing but I doubt I fixed the problem with my 'expert' troubleshooting, but with these problems only occurring with the new graphics card and after decided this was definitely not just a coincidence, these are my questions...

What can I do to figure out whether this was an epic waste of money on my part or not?
Is this a frequent problem with this model graphics card?
Could the problem be with any of the other hardware in my computer?
Could it possibly be a problem with software?
Why do things always have to work amazingly for 4 hours then absolutely crush your happiness by crashing?
And finally, why is sapphires customer service so damn bad? 'Use our bug fixer here before placing a ticket!'... 'Ummm, there is no link, and i cant find it on the rest of the site, also i cant place a ticket with confirming my account, which you still havent sent me an email for, thanks though'.

As you can tell im frustrated as hell, and desperately need you incredibly knowledgeable people to help me =[
Any help appreciated...

 

[decode]

If you get past the bio, but not into windows it may be an OS/HDD issue, Copy over any important data and then reinstall Windows/Linux... It'll also run faster after this.

 

[KiTtiAK]

Well, I got into windows eventually, but since the post it has crashed again. Do you know anything about this video card? Like are there alot of people who've had problems with it?

 

[Jaeden Hudson]

I had the same problem and i managed to fix it. It is a software problem. Follow this link
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sapphiretech.com%2Fpresentation%2Fproduct%2F%3Fcid%3D1%26gid%3D4%26sgid%3D337%26pid%3D82%26psn%3D%26lid%3D1&ei=MFZUUfD8I8X22QXn1IC4Bw&usg=AFQjCNG1dbi7qC2A7aaj3km6SZnE7Dbfbg&sig2=EZGpPiWtcDiDpH9CCW0JRg&bvm=bv.44342787,d.b2I

Now assuming you got the machine going, stay away from multitasking and be patient with the machine. Dont rush into things. uninstall all drivers and software for the card.
Now on the website you will see some pictures of the card. They may not look exactly like the card you have but it is the same thing. Click on the download button below the pictures. Expand the drivers tab and you will see a list of drivers but dont get excited yet. Above the drivers is the operating system list click the os you have and download any one of the drivers. The top one is the latest one. Let it do its thing and just do what the software says. If it dosnt tell you to restart do it yourself and it should work without problems.

On my PC (Windows XP) when i downloaded the driver on top i lost the catalyst software but it may not on yours. But it works without any problems. Hope this helps.
Sorry its so long.