Graphics problem?

[smokeyadam]

Hello

I have a 9800se that has been clocked with the extra pipelines open for 18 months. The problem i am getting is that when using games (mainly) the computer is coming up with bsod and frequently just resetting itself.
i have updated to new drivers and clocked back to stock but problems still occur. Is my card headed for the big component graveyard in the sky?
I know i need to test with another reliable card for a day but dont have one, what can i do? ati tool runs for hours artifact free but a game borgs the rig in mins.
Rest of rig is a 2800 barton with 1gig ballistix 3200 @ 200*10.5 on an asus a7v600 mb, an aging computer at best.
Any suggestions people

 

[Cerberous]

Could be your RAM causing the BSOD, have you tried running a mem test?

Cerb

 

[smokeyadam]

not properly, except prime95. what program should i use?
also i do get errors in ati tool sometimes...just got one five mins ago and had a vpu recover warning?

 

[AMD2800]

have you looked at the heatsink on the graphics card ?? Mine seems to get very dustu quickly. I just take the card out and use a cotton bud to get oall the dust out inbetween the heatsinks prongs. Compressed air might get it out as well

 

[smokeyadam]

has an arctic cooler thingy and cross flow from a zalman 92mm fan on a mount, cleaned it about an hour ago so no dust but still problems?

 

[Cyber-Mav]

test the cpu using snm and make sure you test the ram since thats the most common cause of the bsods along with the cpu. gfx card is very rare to cause bsods unless it has been hammered silly on the clocks.

 

[smokeyadam]

doing a memtest now. the memory was new three months ago so i hope it isn't that.
Cpu also has an uber hsf set up and hasnt been clocked in ages but ill prime95 it tonight maybe
The card has been hammered, four extra pipelines, a 10% memory and clock overclock and been on 99% of the last two years.

 

[smokeyadam]

okay so memtest ran error free all night, what can i try now?

edit; i just ran a mates 9800 pro thats never been clocked (that works in his machine fine) for half an hour on age of empires and had a lock up type error so had to power off manually.
could it be my cpu maybe? but why would it crash only in graphics programs?my cpu is at 1.65 volts, should i up it to 1.7 for stability?

 

[smokeyadam]

Okay, ive had the bsod with the 9800 pro now so i guess its not my gfx card (sigh). could it be that because i havent reformatted in a while (2 years) the computer is just getting old? i keep update with scans etc but i just dont know what this could be now?