ATI X1900XTX 512MB problem

[ginit]

Hi guys,

System specs:
CPU: DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 4600+
Mobo: Sapphire PC-A9RD580Adv (it's a crossfire xpress 3200 chipset mobo)
RAM: 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Gfxcard: ATI Radeon X1900XTX 512MB Ram

I've been trying to solve this problem for a while now and I can't find a solution.

That's why I'm attending to this forum, where people with more knowledge of things might help me out.

Here is my problem:

ATM I've got Omega drivers installed.

I've just played DiRT and when I want to start up CS:S the game won't launch. I double click on the CS:S icon and I get a black screen + the sound of hardware being removed and added again. And then the screen pops back to my desktop. No game gets launched, no error is displayed ... I can go online and type this very text.

The reason why it's doing this is because the res of CS:S is 640x480 and the res of DiRT is 1280x1024 (as is my desktop). I have this problem with EVERY game. Even when CS:S crashes I have this problem. So whenever I close a game and try to launch a different one, problems occur.

Another thing:
I just tried 2 more things:
PES2008 (res = 1280x1024) starts up fine.
When I try my desktop resolution, it asks me to reboot to confirm settings. (the advanced settings "adjust settings without rebooting" (or something) is checked)

Let me just give you a list of what I already tried:
For a while now I've been searching the right driver for my gfxcard.
I've tried:

• ATI Drivers: version 7.3, 7.12 - 8.6 even 8.7 beta
• Omega Drivers: Radeon Omega Drivers 4.8.442 (Catalyst 7.12)
• NGO ATI: 7.3

I've tried the latest ATI drivers (8.6), but it's the same story as with the Omega drivers, except of the sound of HW being removed and added again. It just pops black, and back to the desktop.
When I had 8.6 installed, I uninstalled them using the special tool of ATI and afterwards used DriverCleaner to clean all ATI related files.
Then I've installed the drivers again, but I still have the same problem.
I tried the Catalyst 7.3 (2007) and it worked, for a while, until I got bluescreens. Steam notified me btw that this driver was out of date and could cause problems...

I've already come up with some posibilities what might be causing this:

• The gfxcard could be semi-dead.
• The mobo before this one (sapphire) was dead so I had to replace it with a new one. But this new one is a Crossfire xpress 3200 chipset mobo, but I've only got one card ... maybe some settings have to be changed?
• Overheating? My card reaches 88°C when playing for example DiRT. (I looked it up and it seems to be normal.)

I've tried somany things, is there anyone PLEASE, who has got an idea/ideas what might cause this headaches :sigh:

[Apoptosis]

why in the world would you be playing CS:S at 640x480?

Does it crash with games when you play them at the native resolution?

[DMB2000uk]

Try to force CS:S to start with a higher resolution:

To access the Launch Options for any game you should go to the Play Games list and right-click on the game. Then go to Properties and click, Launch Options, in there you can add the commands that are listed in the following posts, in order to force the game to start in various modes.

Try -autoconfig as a tag first, and if that doesn't work, try -w 1280

Dan

[ginit]

@ Apoptosis

With native do you mean default resolutions?
Anyway, for as far as I've tested, games with a resolution which differs from the desktop resolution wont boot.
There is also another thing what I think might cause some problems. The 3D modes ... OpenGL or Direct3D ... I also think this has got something to do with it.
Because I now played PES2008 and I can change my resolution and boot CS:S with no problems. But the problem is, I dont know what game uses what setting.

@ DMB2000uk

I haven't tried yet, but I think that, after I forced the reso and launched the game and I wanna change my reso again, the game will crash.
I want to play it at 640x480 due to a performance boost.

@ both of you

Thankyou for trying to help!