ATI Radeon 9600 mess up

[BV]

Hi, I bought an ATI Radeon 9600 non-pro card about 2 months ago. For the 1st month, it worked perfectly with games. Then all of a sudden, it slowly started to mess up, and i get frustrated.

Whenver I play a game, it's either an object in the game gets stretched like crazy and/or I get this weird "matrix" mess up (see the pic below whenever i try to play Halo). And Halo isnt the only game that screws up like that. I'm not running anything else....



My specs:
Intel 2Ghz
WinXP
512 ram
ATI RADEON 9600!!
/w driver CATALYST 3.1 (latest, and i reinstalled it many times)

Please help me.

[tony_j15]

well son, where be you gettin these here drivers? Cuz CAT 3.1 is horribly outdated. You need to go to http://www.ati.com and git the latest.

[BV]

But that's what I don't get.

I go to www.ati.com 's site, and when i follow those links (Window XP > Graphic Driver > RADEON Family), it directs me to Catalyst 3.1! And that's what I've been using.

Help?!

[Epyon9283]

I think you mean 3.10 because that's a different version than 3.1.

I would make sure the card isn't overheating.

[tony_j15]

OK, you gots the 3.10's then, your OK. I doubt there is heating issues with a 9600. Hows the wattage on your PSU? Over 300? Also, make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers.

[BV]

I've got all WinXP updates, im like a windows update whore. But everything was working perfectly like a month ago. I'm not "overheating" my card.

My PSU? Well, on the back of my comp where the power supply is, it says 115V. Is that okay?

EDIT: How do i link an image when i post it up?

[Xtreeme]

Need to know the watts of psu not the outlet volts its set to on back. This lable is on the side of the psu. Must remove cover of case to see it. 9600-9800 should use 350watts and up per ATI's recomendations.

[Roselvr]

Can you take the side off of your computer, then take a fan and let it blow into your computer. If this stops your problem, then you can pretty much say it is over-heating.

Here's a link I found for the http://www2.ati.com/drivers/catalyst_310_release_notes.html#169870