Serious 'system lockup' problem: WHAT could be the cause???

[goddude]

Hi, i'm having my pc for about 1 yr now, and never experienced any problems until 'bout a week ago. First of all, i don't know what PSU i got but didn't change anything on my mobo since the beginning, and my graphics card is a Radeon 9800XXL, recognized by windows as an 9800XT.. The error is as followed: My screen goes black, and i can c (the led on my lcd goes orange) it's going in 'standby' mode, and once in a while that's it. Mostly my screen turns back on (led to green), and finally all i can c is a static freezed screen that is really messed up. it's alike you take one row of pixels over your screen and duplicate it parallel along the original row upwards and downwards your screen. so i just get a couple of lines/planes. Another thing: most of the time at the end of the error, my pc's beeper beeps once... The only thing i can do next: HARD restart The time it takes just depends, about one hour usually, but when i turn the system back on, it'll be probably less. If i play a 3D-game (alike Wolf3D) it goes quick, when playing a windows-based game (alike CM03-04) it can take more than a couple of hours. Nevertheless, it's also common when just windows explorer running . And when i let my system turned on for more than a day - screen off - (to download stuff etc.) , it will definitely be locked up when i turn on the screen. I just would like to know if anyone recognizes / ever heard about this problem or could tell me with any certainty what's my problem?

[goddude]

After searching the web and a lot of forum's i can see 1 common thing: the 9800 Pro / XT - card. Most of the errors were like 'freeze after windows returns from 'screen saver-mode' or by playing a 3D-intensive game'... I just wonder whether it's broken or jammed in a kind of way. All those discussions never really were solved so it seems to be a serious problem though i'm starting to think it's a f***ing broken 9800XT-card!! I'm really searching for an electronics pro who knows something bout graphics cards (and i know there are ) or someone who's got this problem and knew how to solve it.. My warranty's expiring soon so i'm not gonna wait really that long but would like some discussion plz... Goodnight

[richh0323]

Check out you're fans too, could be over heating, blow out case, see if it helps and let us know.

[pathachio]

the 'Computer freezes occasionally' topic is about the same kind of problem and they all have ati 9800s but the conclusion there seems to be that the mem is not compatible with the mobo so i dunno....

[goddude]

Hiya, if the mem isn't compatible with the mobo, my pc should be freezing from the beginning all on i guess, and i never changed anything on this mobo (llright, i did put in a wireless network pci card but also right on from the beginning ) and my pc worked great for about 1 yr.. Seems to me this don't make sense huh? And i'm also quiet sure it ain't directly an overheating problem, cuz when i set my screensaver to 5 min,after startup windows will last for five minutes, start in screensaver mode and yup, everythings f***ed up... If i set it to 2 hrs it'll last 2 hrs before 'project mayhem' is there again but when playin 3d game right after startup it won't last 5 mins...