Video problem

I was playing MOHAA last night online and after about half an hour the game crashed.  I started up the single player and the game froze when it autosaved and I had to reboot.  I was running it at high settings with 1024 X 768 resolution.  I reinstalled the game and it would only run at 800 X 600 without crashing.  

Finally I checked my driver and it wasn\'t current, as I installed a new hd last week and overlooked updating the drivers.  I ran the game afterward and it worked at higher resolutions.  So what is my question you ask?

I am wondering if this was a driver issue or a case of my card overheating?  I haven\'t moded it in any way so the only way it could do that is if it wasn\'t getting enough air.  My card is in the AGP slot with my Audigy 2 card directly under it.  It doesn\'t leave much of a gap between the two and I was wondering if that might cause problems?

My card is:

ATI 9700 Pro

Somehow I think it was the old driver that was causing the problem since it is ATI after all and I do have an AGP fan on the side.  Any thoughts?

It very well could be an overheating problem or it could not be. Either way leave some room for you 9700pro and see what happens.

[Kurt Angle]

I would think that the 9700pro should be able to operate at 1024*768 without overheating. At a higher resolution than this then it could be possible. Hmmmm... very strange.

I assume you think it was a driver problem then Kurt.  It would lock up right away if I changed the resolution at one point to anything higher than 800X600 and that was after the computer had been off for an hour.

does yer card have hardware monitoring? if so u can easily tell the temperature of the card.
but it was most probably a driver issue, the R9700 is a very powerful and stable card and running a game at 1024*768 is like a walk in the park for it.

*EDIT*
if it locked up directly after the resolution change then it was definately a driver problem, it takes some time for a card to over heat.

I leave an empty slot between my first pci card in my comp and my agp slot.  Of course this isn\'t possible for people who have their pci slots full, but if you have the room it couldn\'t hurt...

Thanks for your help guys, I am positive it was a driver issue.  I am now debating on moving my audigy down a slot, but I know it really isn\'t necessary due to the size of my case and all of the fans I have in it.

if u can then definately move it, i have 3 pci slots free under my card (well one is covered by the cards heatsink).

Giga- did you try the auto-configure EXE in the MOHAA directory?  It should also be in the start menu with the game\'s shortcut.  It\'ll tinker with inernal settings when you switch hardware.  When I switched from a Radeon 7500 to a GF4, MOHAA actually ran slower until I ran the AC exe.  It still thought my card was a Radeon. :P

If that\'s not the problem then it most likely *is* the Audigy.  My friend has a 9700 Pro with an Audigy 2 and all those driver packs Creative make you install sometimes cause incompatability issues.  His just rebooted when it felt like it, until he got rid of the Creative drivers.

You could try uninstalling everything Creative, reboot, and say your card is a standard 2-channel card then try and play your games.  Or even before that set your audio quality to low to put less strain on the card.

Thanks for the help Tyrant and THX... I moved the Audigy down a slot and now there is some breathing space for the 9700.  I am positive it was a driver issue THX.  After updating my drivers I played online tonight for 2 hours without a problem.  I also called ATI and they said the latest driver update (which I have now) corrected known problems with MOHAA.  I swear I thought I had  updated it when I put the new HD in last week, but maybe I forgot since I have been upgrading so much.