ati radeon x1650 pro

Hi all,

I have an ATI radeon x1650 video card installed. I'm running a agp 775 pin motherboard, 2 gig ram and have a new 450 psu. The card is running normal temp at around 70 degrees, however when gaming on low graphics, it can get to over 100 degrees, lock up or black screen.

I have also just today cleaned the comp case out with the compressor, so there is no dust and have an external fan running on it full time.

Can someone plz advise me on what they think might still be up... I'm starting to think the card has been damaged by previous overheats but not sure.

Kind Regards
:wave

 

Whats your airflow setup?

 

Some models of 1650 have been known to have low-quality fans that fail quite easily. With your PC powered off and the power cord unplugged, remove the side panel from the case. Then plug in, and power up. If you can get a visual of the video card fan, check to see how it's spinning: does it look slow or off-balance? is it making any noise? is it even spinning at all? I have had a bit of experience with the AGP 1650 cards (and the PCIex versions too), and it seems that the fans are not designed for more than about 2-3 years of use. So, if you haven't done this already - power down, remove the power cord from the PC, and remove the video card from the motherboard. Clean the fan and heatsink on the video card. Give the fan a 'flick' with your finger; if it doesn't make at least 4 or 5 full revolutions easily, and if it doesn't have a bit of 'bounce back' when it stops spinning, then it is failing or has failed completely. 'Bounce back' means that after the fan has stopped spinning in the direction it was 'flicked', it will momentarily spin the opposite direction for about a quarter-spin or eighth-spin (or less - but it should have a tiny bit of "back spin"). If the fan/heatsink is totally clean, and the fan spin seems OK, then it could be that removing the heatsink, cleaning the GPU and all the old thermal paste and replacing it with new, fresh, quality paste will help. However, it could be that since it's an old card, that it has hit its EOL (EOL = End Of Life). Unfortunately, PC components tend to not last forever, and this applies to GPUs and hard drives more than anything else (IME).