Display Scrambling with 9800 Pro

[ObviouslyUnsure]

Hi
I've got this configuration:

1 gig (2 x 512 samsung) PC3200 DDR ram
benq 767 17" LCD
MSI radeon 9800 PRO
Asus K8V SE Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
WD 160 gig ATA
WD 160 gig SATA

Nothing is overclocked.

My screen keeps scrambling whenever I start up games, and then continues to sketch out even after I exit from them. At first, it even persisted after I restarted and shut down. Then I went inside and tightened things up, and checked all the connections. After this, it started up normally, but would continue to sramble if I tried playing any games (ie nhl 2006, WoW)

If I change the resolution after it starts scrambling, it fixes itself, until I try to play a game again.

I went into my Catalyst Control centre, and the little car preview was scrambling. I can see polygons and vertical lines of fuzziness.

Movies and such play fine though.

Any idea what's going on?

Chris

 

[mdd1963]

It sounds as though the card is acting up, but you could start by downloading/installing the latest Catalyst driver set...

If new driver doesn't help, the video card might be 'losing it' in it's 3d frame buffer area...

 

[ObviouslyUnsure]

Update:

I downloaded the latest ATI drivers, and uninstalled the old ones. When I went to restart the computer, everything was scrambling.... even my BIOS.

I installed the new drivers, and restarted, but nothing changed....
I got fed up and just shut it down and did a couple Sudoku's to cool down....

I started it up a couple of hours later and everything seemed fine...
I didn't try any games or anything, because I've got a big assignment due tonight, and I don't want it to be screwed up when I try to do that...

 

[ObviouslyUnsure]

It was originally on DVI, and I took it off but nothing changed.

Everything seems to be working fine now...... No idea, but at this point it seems as though the Sudoku fixed everything

 

[baracuda73]

Try reseating the video card. Then use drivercleaner to clean out the video drivers. Then install the latest catalysts. If that doesnt cure it then it is RMA time.

 

[ObviouslyUnsure]

Wow!

I just found something that is definitely contributing...

It seems as though my CPU fan just STOPS going after a while...

I watched the speeds in the BIOS (and I could visibly see) that when I first turn on the computer, the fan goes full blast, but as seconds pass, the RPM just gets lower and lower.... What the hell???

I tried having QFan enabled/disabled and AMD Quiet n Cool Enabled and DIsabled, but nothing is changing....

How can I fix this???

Thanks

 

[AntiHax0r]

I'm using the latest drivers from ATI/Omega for my Radeon 9700pro, I only experience visual artifacts like that when the card overheats.. which I'm assuming that your 9800 is.. try opening your case, and direct some airflow(like a fan) onto your video card, and see if it changes anything.
If you don't see them afterwards then you have an overheating situation.

 

[ObviouslyUnsure]

It's weird... I've had these settings consistent for the longest time, it just seems that in the last week everything is screwing up!

My fans are working fine now..... AMD Cool N Quiet seems to have fixed it... I'm monitoring it and heat with SpeedFan though.

As for the video card.... It was sketching out all last night and this morning. At first I could play WoW for a while, but then if I minimized the game, it would sketch out, then do a VPU recover, and things would be normal. After a couple times of this though, it began to scramble even after the VPU recover.... and then even during restart. All this morning I got the same results, where no matter how long I let it cool down with the power off, it would always start up with everything scrambled.

However, just on some kind of whim, I unplugged the SATA drive (just has TV episodes on it), and everything seems 100% OK now.
I'm thinking maybe the vid card wasn't getting sufficient power supplied to it maybe? I'd also been having some random HD crash errors....

Think my PSU is screwing up? It's got 420W output (I forget what it is... but it didn't come cheap, and wasn't stock)