X850 crashing

[H_O_D]

Here's my dilemma I have an x850 pro vivo that would occasionally crash in BF2. I recently upgraded BIOS to the x850xt then back down to stock to x850 with 16 pipes and also tried x850xt pe BIOS. I get no artifacts visually or in testing i run 3dmark 05 and make it halfway through second test and freeze. ATItool crashes 2 seconds after box comes up. 500 / 500 speed settings before this i could o/c to 540/625 in testing. I have restored computer installed latest drivers reset heatsink on video card verified all fans working water cooling is operational and still have this crash issue. Again i can not see any visual problems no black boxes no checkerboards nothing like that everything else is fine. Upon upgrading i did get confirmation tone and verified no cut on board and reported 16 pipes with atitool. So there it is I'm open to any suggestions short of a new computer. I restored original BIOS and everything works okay don't really see a difference in FPS during testing original to 16 p but I am able to o/c to 540/ 550+ with no problems. Bad pipes will show visibly right?

system is a 3.2 P4 w/NEW H20 system]
ASUS p4 c800-e Mobo
RAID 0 raptors 2 36 GB (striping)
X850 pro vivo
SB X-fi gamer
2GB corsair XMS memory
Ultra X- connect PS 500 W
6 fans in and on case for cooling so it's definitly not heat related
Graphix is seted w/ AS 5

[dolf]

Your unlocking experience shows that the unlocked quad is bad. You can probably run with 16 pipes and lower clocks 475/XXXMHz or to have 12 pipes and higher core clock which will compensate the missing pipes.

[H_O_D]

My question is wouldn't i see some kind of visual artifacts or missing pixels or something

[~MUFF~MuNcHeR]

is this agp or pcix card?

[dolf]

My question is wouldn't i see some kind of visual artifacts or missing pixels or something

It isn't obligatory to see visual artifacts because the frequency is not very high but it is beyond the max. stable of that bad pipe which limits the overclock potential of the entire core.

[H_O_D]

It is an AGP card and I did set the clocks lower than stock with xt bios seems to work but saw no beneficial difference. Is it possible that atitool is reporting 16 p but not actually running 16p because my friend unlocked his and noticed major improvements immediatly without even looking at test scores. Ihave it set at 496 510 with 16 p and see really no difference than 500/500 12p setup except stability. It doesn't crash in 3dmark05 with lower settings now. On another note i tried omega drivers and tried it again and when running dxdiag it would not let me run direct draw i then reinstalled omega's and reinstalled dx and was able to run draw but it crashed then lowered clocks and was able to run through all programs but with no noticeble gains. My card is a year and a half old maybe 2 it is r480 and no cut. so there is a little more info i have most options enbled on card and tried them disabled also. another ? i remember there used to be a smartgart remover does this help anything it used to but i stopped using it with newer drivers that came out and newer card.