ATI video card problems

I have a ATI X1900 PCI-E video card in my AMD X2 4200+. I use this
machine as a media PC mostly so it's connected to my TV. I'm currently
driving my monitor at 1600x1050 and my TV at 1280x720. Over the last
few months I've been getting VPU recover messages as well as my video
display just dropping out (reboot required). Also I have bunch of
different color pixel covering about 5% of my screen. It's not the
monitor since it's brand new and they do change locations. All of
these things indicate that my video card is dieing. I thought I would
post here and check if there are any diagnostics that I can run.
I have checked the video card and the fan does appear to be spinning
and I don't believe it's overheating. Is it possible to query the
temperature from the ATI tools?

thanks.

"cypher_key" <cypher_key@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8e98c39c-d247-4be5-aa08-47212c406223@i36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> I have a ATI X1900 PCI-E video card in my AMD X2 4200+. I use this
> machine as a media PC mostly so it's connected to my TV. I'm currently
> driving my monitor at 1600x1050 and my TV at 1280x720. Over the last
> few months I've been getting VPU recover messages as well as my video
> display just dropping out (reboot required). Also I have bunch of
> different color pixel covering about 5% of my screen. It's not the
> monitor since it's brand new and they do change locations. All of
> these things indicate that my video card is dieing. I thought I would
> post here and check if there are any diagnostics that I can run.
> I have checked the video card and the fan does appear to be spinning
> and I don't believe it's overheating. Is it possible to query the
> temperature from the ATI tools?
>
> thanks.

Rivatuner is a better utility - stable - error free. Works with ATI and
Nvidia cards.
Heat could be one cause - another could be inadequate power supply.
So check your temps and the details of the PSU and report back.