Is this when video cards die? :(

[cpetaling]

*R9800pro*

or am I looking at Power Supply problem?

 

[FeareX]

I'm sorry, i think its dieing.

Because you get the artifacts in windows, i dont think its your PSU. The GPU doesn't need much power then.


---
Or maybe im wrong and somebody with more knowledge then me tells you what it is.

 

[techgeek]

I had a very similar thing happen with my Radeon 9700Pro when I first got it. When I assembled my system I had the same thing your seeing in Windows. I wiggled the auxiliary power connector (a floppy drive power connector, I believe the same as the 9800) and it went away. I shutdown and reseated the connector and my system was fine for a week. Then the problem returned and I could get it to go away by wiggling the power connector, but it would re-appear shortly after. I ended up replacing the card. I would try re-seating the power connector and see if that fixes it for you. Unfortunately it's likely that you'll end up replacing the card. Depending on when you purchased your card (they were first available spring 2003), you may still have warranty (if ATI built it should have a three year warranty). If you purchased it before May 2004, you'll be outta luck and have to pay out of pocket. Seems a shame, not a lot of sense in replacing an AGP card when at this point it would make sense to completely upgrade to a platform that supports PCI-E. Good luck. If it does turn out to be a dying card, you have my sympathy. Those were the best cards around in their day.

 

[rickzor]

*R9800pro*

or am I looking at Power Supply problem?

Pretty much yes, it tends go get worse over time.
It's remarcable the quantity of ati radeons 9xxx that died like that in the last 3 years, memories get to hot imo, and that could help killing the card..
My ati9500 died the same way, sometimes the artifacts disappear and in the next day they would be back even worse..not worthy try to fix it

 

[cpetaling]

I do intend to replace this card but since I do less gaming now than I used to, I most likely would settle for a mid-range card: no better than a 7600GS perhaps. My plan for a total upgrade would be by late 2008 or early 2009, and then to make this current PC a secondary machine.

BTW the specs of my 3-year old machine are: P4 3.0, 1GB mem, ASUS P4P800, Radeon 9800Pro (which is made by Sapphire so I can't RMA at this point.)

It must be a heat problem then, is it not? As some of you here and in other forums had observed, this must be familiar to quite a handful of Radeon 9700/9800 owners. I wonder if other cards get this kind of problems.

 

[thornado]

OMG I cannot believe this 8O
Just this morning my old pc had the same artifacts in windows. Now I get into the forums and see this thread

Anyway, looks like my Fx5200 (great cards too :lol I share your grief mate (maybe a little less )

 

[techgeek]

I'm not sure it's heat related. You are seeing artifacting in Windows, does this happen all the time? Or is it just after exiting a game? And does it go away over time? If the answer is no to both questions, I doubt if it's heat related because on the desktop, your card will be using very little power. If it is heat related, it may not be too late for your card. Try cleaning the heatsink, and make sure your fan is spinning. A dirty heatsink will hold the heat in and make it difficult for the air being pushed over it to get to the actual heatsink. Of course if the fan isn't spinning at all or fast enough, that will cause similar problems to. I had a GeForce 3 Ti200 that the fan died on. On the desktop it was fine, but if I run DX Diag, I would get similar artifacting like what you see on the desktop. I replaced the fan and the problem was solved.

 

[cpetaling]

It appears during startup, it appears during windows and it also appears during games. On windows, the longer I go, the less seldom they appear. Yet as soon as I switch to a game, they appear almost every minute...

 

[cpetaling]

any tips to avoid that next time around?

 

[smokedyou911]

If your going to be looking at a new AGP one I would recommend the 7600gs. Im using it on a p4ht 3.0ghz, 1 gig of ram and it runs every game ive played at highest settings.

 

[scorch]

I have a PCI-e 7600gs and have been playing doom 3 for a couple of weeks. I have it on the highest settings and also have not had any problems. According to the game I am running at 62 frames per second.