MONITOR GOES BLANK Computer totally non responsive!

When I play GW, there is no choppiness whatsoever. I have 128 mb ATI Radeon 9200 series with up to date drivers (I think) Ati drivers are a pain in the ass to find. 1 gig of ram. AMD Athlon processor. I bought a 480 watt power supply cause I thought that was the problem(300 watt b4)...it wasnt....$160 down the tube. I have no clue of what to do. When the monitor goes blank, its totally random, the light doesnt change color. The only way to recover from this is to shut down from tower. This is the only issue I have within the game. I will be doing HoH soon adn I cant have this problem. Someone please help me! Wont let me include DxDiag for some reason in this post....

Sounds to me like that card is on the end of its rope, but don't give up on it yet, someone else will probably have a better solution.

I'll check back later. It's 4am, I've just got up, so I can't really think straight about it right now. Seriously, though, it sounds like it's simply dying to me.

I'd agree on the card being on it's last leg. Check the fan on it to make sure it's spinning or not extremely dirty. I had an old Ti200 that would do the same thing only because the fan went out. When the card got hot it would do exactly what you describe.

I keep my case off so I can closely check things, the fan is running and the card isnt hot. The fan is a little dirty but nothing to get upset about. Ive only had this card about 6 months. Also... When I played Neverwinter Nights, my ATI wouldnt play it well, really sketchy. I tried a Nvidia Geforce 256mb and it worked perfect, except it did the exact same thing GW is doing now, but on NWN Ati card never did it... IM lost lol

Could be a number of things. Do you have a spare monitor lying around to try? If you've been switching cards in and out sometimes directx can get confused so to speak. You could try something like dxbuster or another tool to remove dx9 and reinstall. Also make sure only the most recent drivers and only for the current card are installed. Best way to do this is boot into Safe Mode and remove all of the others in your Hardware Profile Manager.

Thanks for the help everyone, I really appreciate it, I'll see what can be done!

Just one thing, as there seem to be a lot of people on this Forum reporting problems with ATI 9xxx's series cards and all with similar symptoms.

Screen goes dead, graphics go bad, machine reboots itself etc, etc.

Maybe this is something we need to hear about from ANet themselves. Have they experienced any of these problems with these types of cards, or don't they use them, or tested them??

Try this. I know it sounds stupid, but i have found it to work on older graphics cards whether ATI, Nvidia or Matrox when the new drivers are really made for newer graphics cards, and no real benefit to older cards.

Go back to your original Graphics card drivers that came with the card. Remember to uninstall the drivers first, then reboot and then reinstall.

Not sure it's a DX9 issue, as I've done so much swapping out over the years with different monitors, and i've never had that type of problem. Most it would be, with monitor swap out, is the connector at the back of the card becoming lose and losing it's connection to the card itself.

You did say you've only had it 6 months. Was this from New or 2nd hand??

If new, and you do have problems, you should have a warranty that you can replace it with if there is a major fault on the card.

But see how the drivers work for you first.

Anet techs got back to me about the issues. (My comp has also rebooted itself while playing GW, I forgot) They say try out the new catalyst from ATI site and make sure all other drivers are gone, so Ill try that out and see what happens. My card, i suppose was new. from Compgeeks.com Im really tired of this ati card, it gives me vertical lines nearly everytime my comp starts up and I have found no remedy. I much prefer Nvidia. Thanks again for all the help guys!

I have a 9600 series ATI with no catalyst installed believe it or not, and I run full blast 4xAA just perfect.

I have had this happen to me.. I would play video games and alll the sudden my monitor would go blank aswell.. I messed with the cabel connecting to my Monitor and bought a new one and it hasn't messed up since

Catalyst didnt work, go figure. I think I will just buy a Nvidia card now, first Ill try older drivers for ATI. If none work out, Ill look into trying different monitor or monitor cable. Thanks again for input.

You should try a different monitor cable first. As Fryley pointed out, the problem could lie there.

I tried old driver that came on disc with the card. Blacked out right away. I took the ATI card out and Im now using ProSavage DDR integrated card on my Mboard with GW. Everything is all screwed up and choppy of course, but ill be able to see at least if the problem is with the card.This is all a fairly new setup.(My computer) It was custom built by a hobbyist. :/ I got the card shortly after getting the comp(About 6-12 months ago) Ill see if a friend has a cable I can use of it still blacks out with integrated.

If you're not having the problem anymore now that you've switched to your onboard graphics processor, then that graphics card seriously needs to go back. At least, if it's still under warranty.

I think it was only a 90 day thing Another note, The blank screen thing didnt start till after the first few GW Builds were up.... Then it happened about 1-5 times each game session. Im leaving it on for awhile without that card, its been about an hour so far. Nothing yet. Ill leave it on overnight, if it doesnt go blank or restart then I will be the proud new owner of a Nvidia Geforce FX 5200

It seems for the most part the problem has been solved.....ATI SUCKS THE END!


Thank you all for the help!