Radeon 9800 PRO graphic card bugs

[JohnFa]

I have a problem with my ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 256 MB card.

Using drivers 7.11, 7.10, 7.9 games don't even start up, they just crash back to the desktop. Drivers earlier than that the game starts but the graphics are buggy. Textures have white or red dots all over them. Some backgrounds are ok, but most of the surfaces just have this dots.
I've tried different control centers, but same problem.
In some games there are more dots, and in some there are less. Sims 2 and NBA Live 08, for example, work but still have some dots.
I've tried Omega drivers, but I get the same problem.

I have a AMD 2.2 Ghz, 512 mb RAM and I use windows XP.

 

[JohnFa]

Here's a screenshot of how it looks.

Really would appreciate some help.

 

[bobwya]

Hi JohnFa,

That looks like the classic 'snow' that all overclockers dread as they have hit the ceiling of their RAM chip clock!! A core failure often results in black screen with the PC continuing run without a display or similar!! This thread is in the wrong forum category as it is definitely a hardware problem - probably related to overheating chip(s) on the GPU.

I would trying ventilating the GPU (i.e. side panel off and point a massive desk fan at it) if this doesn't work you could check that all the RAM heat pads are actually still in place under the heatsink ... Replacing these with new ones as necessary... Arctic Silver the core chip of course getting rid of any crap on there. If you don't want to do this yourself maybe you have some geek friends that like to build phase-changed cooled, octi-core systems before breakfast!!

If that doesn't work you are looking at one screwed GPU I guess!! Old electrolytic capacitors do die and chips can be knocked about, etc.

Those Omega drivers were the best weren't they!!

I moved on to a Nvidia 7800 GS+ (512Mb) AGP card on that system. I would certainly advise a GPU upgrade if your card is screwed. I never looked back... I became much better at BF2 when I was no longer playing at 20FPS!! Being able to play Doom 3 at full Ultra quality settings was a joy as well...

Bob

PS I would also move this forum to Hardware -> Graphics Cards... You won't get anyone here reading your post...