Crashing Problem with ASUS X1950 Pro

[greenclaws]

Hello everyone, I've just got an Asus eax1950 Pro and it likes to crash the PC randomly in games. By this I mean the monitor goes into standby mode and the PC locks up and either the Pc resets itself or it locks until it's turned
off then turned back on again. Occasionally the monitor goes into standby but the audio from the game keeps going.

The situations in which this happens are:
1. the moment the game goes from a 2D menu or video to 3D 'in game graphics'
2. just completely randomly after an unspecified amount of time
and very very rarely it doesn't crash at all.
In Windows just using the PC for browsing or working, it's never crashed the system.

I've managed to replicate the crashes on command, by running ATITool and clicking 'Find Max Core' or 'Find Max Memory'. ATITool switches to a full screen version of the furry cube for a fraction of a second and then the system freezes and the monitor goes into standby.
If I change the core or the memory clock up or down by any degree and click 'Set Clock' the monitor stays on but the screen goes black and the system freezes. It doesn't matter if the GPU is at its idle temp of 44C or not, click, instantly does it.

I notice that at default, which I can't change because the PC crashes, the Core is 580.50 and the Memory is 1404.00, if that's of any use, they're both a tiny bit above this particular model's defaults

Does anyone know what the issue is? I'd hate to RMA it and then find out it's just a driver issue and get charged for returning a non faulty card, but I've tried a few different drivers now and nothing changes.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

[Dreaming]

Sounds like the overheating VRM issue, again. I had to buy a new card altogether

[greenclaws]

One snag with the causing it to crash on command though, I've realised that you can't use ATI Tool to overclock an x1950 Pro... so maybe that's a dead end. I really don't know how to diagnose what's wrong.

[Tetras]

It could also be your PSU. What is it?

[greenclaws]

Seasonic 500W

[Dreaming]

Have you tried using ati tray tools? I think its a bit better than ati tools - you might be able to 'underclock' to get it a bit more stable.

[DJWillis]

Looking at the symptoms I would all but guarantee that it is the overheating VRM issue. Am I correct in thinking that the ASUS card has the stock 'reference' cooler on it?

The ATI reference cooler is a totally appalling piece of design and does little to cool the monster digital VRMs on the reference design (they have a 126oC shut off level and most of my x1950 pro's can hit that in about 20-60 seconds in 3D environments).

This is as close to a 'well known design flaw' as your going to get with these cards unfortunately but it's not totally without hope. I managed to 'fix' one of my Connect3D cards by remounting the heatsink and cleaning up the mess of putty that counts as thermal paste on these things and putting some decent ceramic compound on there, next up was to ensure there is good contact from the heat sink to the VRMs (they are at the back of the card, I will try and find pics later). There are thermal pads that sit between the VRMs and the copper heat sink. Make sure the contact with the RAM chips is good at the same time.

After all of that give the card a test, this may be enough to keep the core down and as such keep the card stable but if not your into stage 2 .

Usual rules apply, it's a BIOS flash, if it goes wrong I will help but its not my fault etc. etc..

Get hold of ATI Winflash 1.25 (I think) and Rabit 2.2.1 (again, I think) and use Winflash to read the BIOS off your card, open the BIOS in Rabit and consider setting the fan speeds to ramp up to 75% at 50oC, 100% at 55oC and 100% for all default temps from there up.
You then need to flash this BIOS back to your card with the new fan speeds using Winflash, reboot, let it 'settle' for a few mins at a windows desktop and give it a test. ATITools 3D cube is perfect for this test.

These instructions are a tad vague I realise (writing this in a rush) but should give you some pointers for research.

Another possible solution is to fit an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 and add the custom VRM cooler they sell to deal with that little problem. This also seems to work well but is going to set you back £20+ and is not a sure fire fix.