PC keeps freezing after installing ati radeon 5670

[jjxn7]

I just purchased a new psu and a gpu. the xfx radeon hd 5670 from NCIX, 1gb. I upgraded my old 220 watt psu to 300 watts to give me the extra 80 watts, as the card only uses 63 watts. I installed the latest drivers from ATI, but when I was playing star wars battlefront II, it froze. Now, starwars battlefront II does not require good graphics, as I was using integraded onboard graphics before, and I could play the game fine. But now, when I play the game it freezes after a few minutes of game play.

I do have a pci e 16x extender cable that i bought from ebay, i need this cable, though am not sure if it is pci 2.0 or 2.1 or what ever. I can browse the internet and do simple stuff fine, but any higher graphics causes it to freeze.

 

[mlcaouette]

2.1 is backwards compatible with 2.0 so as far as that goes it does not matter. Why do need that cable? You are just inadvertantly adding more heat to your system by running electricity through the cable. Second question: did you uninstall the ati drivers prior to installing the new ones? Try uninstalling and reinstalling drivers before anything else. You can also just try using the default windows drivers and if the problem persists with no Ati drivers installed than you will know the issue is somewhere other than the drivers.

 

[jjxn7]

I need the cable because my computer case is only 10 cm wide, so basically, i have a tiny case and the gpu does not fit. it is definetly not over heating, it doesn't take too long before it crashes, and it is barly warm, not even close to hot. also, the graphics card is outside the case (because the case is too small, so i use the extender) so there is great airflow. I will probably remove the drivers and install them again, and if it still freezes, I may just uninstall the ATI drivers and install the microsoft drivers. If that doesn't work, then i guess it is the extender cable? i mean, the gpu is 2.1, and i dont know if the cable is 2.1, the cable could be 2.0 or something... would that cause it to freeze?

 

[apache_lives]

hows about test your hardware?

FURMARK
PRIME95
MEMTEST

also what brand is that psu of yours?

the extender cable might be causing resistance/loss on a card that gets all of its power from that cable - any way of trying temporarily without it?

what os you running? perhaps also try a fresh install, and if you say xp, dump that dinosaur seriously.

 

[jjxn7]

its windows 7, 4gb ram, 750 gb HDD, tripple core 2.9 ghz processor.

I tried to update my windows expierience index, and it didn't work, I tried this because it tests the graphics. Then I uninstalled the drivers, and reinstalled them, and battlefront didn't work. I was able to play battlefront before on the integraded graphics, but not now. After reinstalling the drivers, I tried the windows expierience index again, and it worked. surprisingly, so i put on a stronger game called civilization V, and i tried that on medium settings, and I was able to play for around 20 minutes, and then it froze, the gpu was not hot, so i highly doubt it overheated.

The psu is shuttle, i got it from ncix. could it be a power problem? it ONLY freezes when I do something involving stronger graphics. and why did the windows expeirience index work the second time...?... and why did civ V let me play for 20 minutes before freezing....?....

my computer was working brilliantly before the upgrade, and now i cant play any games... what could possibly be the problem? if its a power problem, then how come it only freezes when i am using graphics, and why did i get to play civ v for 20 min... so it cant be a power prob. it cant be overheating... and the extension cable? well that must be working fine cuz theres no reason as to why it would work for 20 min, and then suddenly quit...

 

[jjxn7]

It's fixed! the problem was actually the extension cable, the cable was six inches, and that extra length probably caused a delay, and the delay caused it to freeze.

thanks all for your help!

 

[jjxn7]

Best answer selected by jjxn7.