Is my 9800 Pro Dead? Help me, please.

[EdLev]

I just got back from a trip to the US (I live in Costa Rica) and got myself a shiny new Radeon 9800 pro 128MB while I was over there. I came back, opened my case, took my (amazingly good for its age) Geforce 3 out of the machine, and inserted and plugged in the new monster card. I booted up, everything was fine, and when I was about to run the driver setup, my screen went crazy. The image became a grainy mess of colors and lines, and although I could see the mouse, it was only a square.

After many, many restarts in safe mode, installs, uninstalls, and more restarts, here I am, using the Geforce while the Radeon sits on the desk in front of me and my computer is on the floor with its guts open. The Radeon does the same thing every single time I start windows: it works perfectly fine for about a minute, then goes ballistic.

Here are my machine's stats, if they're any use:

Pentium 4 2.53ghz 533 FSB
Intel D850EMV2 motherboard
512 MB of PC800 RDRAM
13 GB hard drive (i'm waiting to get the Radeon working to install an 80GB drive)
350W power supply

Also, my case has pretty good cooling, and my CPU temp is always around 30°C. I don't know about the Radeon though, that heatsink looks so small.

[bunta]

I hope you removed the old GF drivers ie: detenator destroyers before installing the ATi card and catalyst drivers.

[The Heretic]

/\

That seems logical.

[EdLev]

Yes, I did uninstall the Detonator drivers before putting the Radeon in. I'm not THAT dumb. :p

I also got an old fan which was too big to fit in my case's slots and set it up blowing directly across the Radeon's heatsink...it still crashed.

[ZeroRadius]

My only thought might be that your 350 Watt PSU is too small, I have a 450 Watt on mine. Other then that I am stumped.

[The Heretic]

Thats what I was thinking, but PCPP's "beastie" has a 9800 and it uses a 350 PSU (Or It did, at one stage).

Id reccomend posting in a completely computer based forum so that you can get a greater range of ideas.

[EdLev]

Well, I experimented further, and have decided that it's probably the lack of RAM heatsinks that is causing my card to crash. After getting another of my case fans blowing directly on the back of the card (i.e 4 of the chips) my computer operated normally for about 20 minutes, and then the display started slowly to get garbled. Any ideas on where I can get a better cooling solution?