I just got ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and it locks up my computer every time I try to play 3d game.
AGP 4x, Fastwrite off in ATI control panel. There's only AGP aperture size setting in my bios: set to 64mb.

BUT, I can play Half-Life (original) without any problem for hours. Is it because it's an old game? (could be the openGL setting...)
Gonna try few suggestions from this thread tonight when I get home.

msi 648 Max-L (ms-6585) - bios v1.5
SiS AGP 1.17e
cat 4.9 (tried 4.8, 4.7, 4.4)
directx 9.0c
350w psu

It could be your SiS mobo causing the problem.

try updating the bios and if there is a chipset mode of sync or async in bios, set it to sync, turn off vpu recovery, turn off Windows error reporting and automatic restart, make sure cachemode is set to USWC if there is a setting like that, also make sure to set aperature size to 128(match the ram if have like 1 gig)

All of my drivers are up to date (including BIOS, agp chipset drivers).
There are no IRQ conflicts with my video card.
I thought it might be the heating problem; tried blowing a 16" fan in the case with the side panel open, kept the system temp at 30~32c, cpu temp at 43~45c, still crashed without any improvements.
My bios is lacking lot of settings and it's an old mobo so I thought it was the cause of the problem until I saw someone posted exact same problem with same mobo. He resolved his problem by updating agp chipset drivers (SiS) - which isn't working for me.
Then I looked at my PSU and it reads +12v 10a - which doesn't sound too good. Could it be the power?
* I got my case for $40 and the 350w psu came along with it.

Well it seems I am also the lucky one to have an ATI Radeon 9800 XT. I knew I shouldn't have changed from my Nvidia 5700 Ultra. Oh well here goes. My system locks up and then reboots just like everyone else. I am playing Everquest when it happens. One of the issues I notice and can't get it corrected is that under "Graphics Adpater" in the Hardware profile it always shows Primary: ATI Radeon 9800 XT and it also installs itself as a primary: 256 meg Radeon 9800XT. I am using a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000-G Mobo that is fully updated. I am using only the onboard accessories, sound, network, etc. So even when I disable sound, USB 2.0 it will still lock up when playing EQ after about 10 minutes. Of course, after locking up it then auto reboots. If I disable the secondary card, it doesn't boot up correctly and if I delete the secondary driver, it reinstalls it automatically on boot up. HELP! When I look at the IRQ, etc. the setup for both (really only one card) are identical.

well considering there were many updates that really did help users of windows XP after Service pack 1a was applied, they are now part of Service Pack 2.

Ken,
What is your PSU? amps for +12v, +5v?
Can you change the AGP voltage in the bios? (to 1.6v or 1.7v)

460 W L & C, one of the better Low End PSUs actually, runs well but suggest going with Antec/Enermax/Thermatake.

actually i wouldn't recomend enermax or coolermax or antec.. i tried them all there all low class modding powersupplys.. woooo dogg..... get a A+GBP or many of the other brand psu's the run about 100.00 to 200.00.. that actually push about 20-28amps on the 12v leg and 40-55amps on the 5.5v leg...

I bought mine and it made my system rock solid.. when it boots up the voltage will peak around 14.5 volts.. its awesom.. the 12v molex power runs around 12.11 and never shifts cept when my fans are up and then runs about 12.07......

Also it could be your ram cas settings.. use sisoft sandra and make sure cuz they can cause alot of games lockups when it comes to sharing with the vcard....

Umn.. SMARTGART using the RUN command.. turn of agp read/write try that.

Fastwrite makes no difference in the restart... although it does allow for faster framerates.

Turn off automatic restart and error reporting in windows

Turn off VPU Recover

Crank your grpahics settings all the way up in your graphics card control panel

Leave your agp buffer at 64mb in the bios... it does nothing relavent to game crashing

Up your cpu, ram, or vcard power. THis has been a fix about 40 percent of the time

umn....drivers don't really mean nothing.. the older the less graphics the less power used,... the newer drivers the more intense grpahics the more power used.. kinda explains itself.. and why power is so much an issue..

umn.. updating your bios doesn't matter... since it hasn't helped one person yet as i've seen.

Cooling can help as it reduces power consumtion and stabilizes circuitry.. but thats also a given... cuz if your cpu gets to how your system lags and eventuall restarts...

other then that best of luck to everyone and yes your going to have to spend some money.. deal with it.

dude, i ran a P4 rig off of my Old 300 Watt PSU without a P4 connector and it was just fine and could overclock it without a problem.

so u would recommend that i set my Aperature back to 64 as i was using 128 for long time, no problems with it tho, just heard that it does take the system ram and converts it into graphics ram, additional that is.

Why don't you just try another card to see if the card is faulty, thats what happened with mine.

My previous card (geforce 4 mx440) works fine.
Now, if I play Day of Defeat (Half-Life mod) with OpenGL, I can play for hours. If I switch to Direct3D, it crashes within 5 minutes. So I decided to try rolling back to cat3.10 and ran 3Dmark03.

3Dmark03: I ran the test twice, each completed successfully. Then I ran the demo in loop to see how long it will take to crash. Completed the first run and on its second run during the 'Mother Nature' test, screen went black and computer locked-up. Then ran the test again, and it completed successfully. I'm starting to lose my mind over this. Will try some games and post the results.

I find that older Nvidia drivers work a lot better with older NVidia cards. Newer drivers don't work as well in the performance side of it. But for quality, the newer drivers are better. Oh, I speak only for NVidia cards, not ATI.

Now my ATI 9700 Pro seems to run very well with the newer drivers.

Played some games with cat3.10.
Day of Defeat - HL mod: no prob (ogl)
Call of Duty - UO: 2 hrs without crash.
Rise of Nations: 1hr without crash.
Warhammer 40000 demo: about 2.5 hrs before crash.

I didn't play these all in a one go. The crash on Warhammer demo isn't due to overheat; I have the case open with house fan blowing right in. System temp at low 30s and CPU temp at high 30s.
I can touch the card and there's isn't a single spot on there that's hot.
I think I will have to do some more testing with other cat drivers, but I'm finally beginning to see some light.
It wasn't the power supply, it was the damn drivers. I heard my co-workers saying that ATI drivers suck but I've never imagined it would be this bad.

whoa this post is wayyyyy to long

Why dont you get an X800 Pro or 9800 Pro? 9800 XT is just an OCed 9800 pro

ive never heard of ATI have problems like that

seroiusly guys

seroiusly guys