Radeon 9800 pro problems

I built a new computer recently, and purchased an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB DDR, and every time i try to play a graphics intensive game, like Half-Life 2 for instance, it will play normally for anywhere between 5-10 minutes and then crash my computer causing it to restart. the error message windows told me was "STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER"

ive been playing Unreal Tournament 2004 with not problems, but when i play a more graphics demanding game like HL2 it will freeze and cause the computer to crash. i tried reinstalling all sorts of drivers, including the latest one off the ATI website to no avail. has anyone encountered this problem before or have any suggestions? feedback would be greatly appreciated.

my specs are:
Asus A8V Deluxe Athlon64 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1024 MB DDR PC 3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

 

update: now it is crashing even when im not playing a game. this is really annoying me now

 

got a big enough psu right?...at least 400watts?

 

I dunno if this is relevant, but my 9800 pro had some problems displaying stuff on a TV when using the new drivers, so i had to downgrade to catalyst 4.7 or something like that. I found it at Omega Drivers. google it.

 

Download and run "drivercleaner"in the driver tools section,follow the instructions in the readme to the letter.Then install the latest drivers from ati.

 

This sounds exactly like the problem I am having in my thread "Random reboots" I have the same card as you. I am going to try the drivercleaner and than download latest drivers from ati, this may fix my problem also!

 

That sounds like a compatability issue with the ATI driver. Generally speaking it's never a good idea to use the driver that comes on the CD rom, always download the latest one, because the original ones are already out of date. Do as Rikky suggest.

 

well i tried running driver cleaner and installing the latest drivers, and it didnt work like i predicted. like i said before i already tried the latest drivers, i think this problem goes deeper than that, does anyone have any better insight then install the latest drivers?, i mean the indian guy on the help line could have told me that, haha

 

The Indian guy gets paid,I cant beleive you can insult free advice?

 

not so much of an insult, but i had previously stated that i already tried the latest drivers, no hard feelings, this stuff is just really pissing me off, lol

 

You state you have the latest drivers,but you havn't stated that you have used drivercleaner,it is important that you state this,as this could solve all your problems.

 

yeah i tried drivercleaner then the newest driver, my computer still crashes when i play HL2 for about 3 minutes

 

what about mobo driver + bios?

 

hey good idea merc, ill try updating those

 

Hi Corfious

Try ATI's Catalyst (and any other software from ATI) remover.
ATI Catalyst Uninstaller https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27 Utilities >Various >CATALYST – ATI Maintenace Utilities > cat-uninstaller.exe

If you use the CCC (Catalyst Control Centre) version package, you need MS .NET Framework v1.1 already installed.

Try the non-CCC package and see how that goes.

I know you are no noob but here are the steps I use to change drivers and I never have Catalyst issues:
1. Start >Control Panel >Add or Remove Programs >ATI Control Panel >Remove.
2. Do not Restart when prompted.
3. ATI Display Driver >Remove.
4. Restart when prompted.
5. Upon return to Desktop in Windows Standard display drivers, cancel offer to install drivers.
6. Start >Run >browse to where you downloaded the new ATI Catalyst driver package and run it.

I also force the use of my monitor mfrs' ICM files.
Samsung for my LCD and ViewSonic for my CRT.

Test your DirectX (should be v9.0c)
Start >Run >dxdiag

Test your video and see if there are any suggestions here:
http://www.pcpitstop.com/default.asp

The card's fan appears to be rotating properly?
You connected the power connector to the card?

Happy trails,