Video card crashes

Hey all,
I'm running a 2.16 ghz athlon XP 3000 with 1 gb of ram and a radeon 9550 on windows xp, when I run any 3d application it will run for about 2 minutes and then my computer locks up and the screen goes completely blank. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the latest drivers for the thing and the problem persists. Could this be a problem with my monitor? should I get an entirely new card? any input is appreciated

 

:wave Welcome to Major Geeks! :major
Sounds to me like the card is overheating. Have you checked the fan and heatsink on the video card? Make sure they're totally clean and dust free, and make sure the fan is spinning free and easy. Unplug the power cord from the PC first, then unplug the monitor and all other cables from the back of the PC before opening the case. While you're in there, you might as well blow all the dust out, and check all the fans too... You could try running a temp monitor like HWMonitor or use the sensor checker in PCWizard. I know that ATI Tray Tools has temp monitoring, but I'm not sure if it works with the older 9000 series Radeon cards; I'm not sure if any of these will list the temp for the old of a video card, but they will provide system temps and voltages which could also be the cause of your issues. Anyway, monitor your temps through a variety of tasks, and if you're unsure of hat is considered 'too hot', just post here and we'll try to help... you could also check the Event Viewer and look for any errors or warnings, and post the details here or look up the errors at the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Right click 'My Computer' and select 'Manage' to get to the Event Viewer, then look in the System list, and in the Applications list.

[dlb]

(buying a new video card may not be a good idea even if the card is faulty; you're running an AGP video card at best, and a PCI video card at worst, and both formats are basically obsolete and out-of-date; if you need a new card, this would be a good time to invest in an entirely new platform with DDR2 or DDR3 memory, and PCIex 2.0 video capability, and SATA2 drive connectors)