Radeon9800 Pro problems

[MordenGiest]

Ok, its gotta be something I;ve overlooked...something really stupid that just hasnt smacked me in the head yet so I need help if anyone can give it.

Here's the problem: I just made a $3k + system with the radeon 9800 pro in it. Since the first run I;ve had little graphic anomalies in the form of little green pixels all over dark areas or at edges of an effect....like inMW4, for example, at the edge of the spotlight. In black or very dark areas, these pixels gather into checkerboard like patterns and make everything really unplayable.

Now, I've emailed ATI like 5 times and all I get back is the same old 'automailer' with "handy links" that do absolutely jack-sh!t to fix the problem. I figured it was an installation problem so I uninstalled twice now, reinstalled DX9.0a, got the latest drivers for the card *and* motherboard and installed. Still same little green pixels everywhere and in places it looks like I'm in 256 color mode even though I have display settings at 32million @ 1024x768!

I am about going outta my fargin skull here...ANY help to fix this would earn eternal gratitude (and a pitcher of beer if you live close to Jacksonville Aransas).

Oh, almost forgot...system specs since those are almost always asked for:

OS: XP Pro
MB: ASUS P4P800 deluxe DDR 800mhz FSB w/ 4x/8x AGP
Processor: Intel P4 3.06ghz, 533 FSB
RAM: Matched Corsair 1gb DDR
Sound: SOund Blaster Audigy II
HDD: Western Digital 120mb 7200rpm w 8mb cache
CDROM:
1) 56x liteon cd-rom
2) Plextor DVD R+RW/ CD R+RW combo drive
Video: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128

Last note: I've been building my own systems since 1991 and have never had this problem and anything similar was fixed with a driver update. As mentioned, I have all the latest drivers and it still happens. My knowledge base is tapped...someone out there knows the fix...throw me a bone peeps..lemme hear it!

 

[10GHZ]

hummmm... disable fastwrite??

 

[MordenGiest]

Yeh, did that....dumbed down all the accelerations settings and all that too...still same problem...

 

[Crashman]

Did you try reinstalling the chipset drivers (including the AGP slot driver), then reinstalling the video card driver?

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[bigtesla99]

okay...It definitely sounds like you know what you're doing, so I'll assume that absolutely everything has the latest drivers (including bios reflash...if not, you might want to try this). The only problem I can think of is with the RAM, although this would probably give you other system anomalies as well. Bottom line is Corsair has been having major problems with their matched sticks. I just put together a similar computer with an I875 board and a corsair twin pack; I was having all sorts of problems ranging from hangups to graphics. It turned out my twin pack was bad, so I returned it...low and behold I got another bad twin pack. I thought the third time would be a charm, but when I exchanged my twin pack again, I got another bad one. I talked to my wholesaler, and he said that >75% of all the corsair twin packs he's seen have had bad addresses, etc. However, the single sticks, as always, are superb. So I replaced my 1GB twin pack with a pair of 0.5 GB singles and everything worked fine. Moral of the story...you may want to consider testing your RAM. You can go to www.memtest86.com to download a free utility that will thoroughly check all of your RAM in probably 5 or 10 minutes (I've learned to use this religously every time I put a system together). Other than that, maybe you just got a bad 9800...is it too late for an exchange? Hope you get to the bottom of this.

 

[MordenGiest]

Hey peeps, thanks for the help so far. I got Sandra and checked things out on it. Never gonna guess...hell I wouldnt have. Check this out:

Sandra gives two error codes to check out and both have to do with the AGP port. It seems that the port is inop. Yeh, wierd, since I never messed with those except to check and see if they were even on to begin with in the BIOS settings. Now I'm friggin stumped hard. In the BIOS it says it's on and have the port set to accept 128 (had it at 64 as well...still same problem)....Sandra says the MOBO is full of sh!t and its not on. I trust Sandra pretty good since its an industry standard benchmarking software.

Here's exactly what it has:

"Warning W2513 - The AGP bus is disabled.
Fix: If you have an AGP mainboard, you should get a AGP video adapter to take advantage of it. An AGP adapter would greatly improve 3D performance. However, it should still have at least 8-16MB of local memory."

....and....

"Tip T2525 - Current AGP data rate not optimal, i.e. less than chipset’s maximum AGP data rate. E.g. current AGP data rate is 1x while the chipset and the AGP card both support 2x. You should get better performance with a higher data rate but this depends on the application.
Fix: First, use the PCI & AGP Information module to confirm that the AGP card also supports the maximum chipset data rate. If it does not, don’t worry about it. For non-Intel chipsets, make sure you install the latest version of their AGP mini-drivers. You should update the video card drivers as well. Some non-Intel chipsets can only work in 1x mode with some video cards."

Toldyou it was funky. First problem is wierd because I've got the 9800 pro...which is AGP and should be taking advantage of the port. Second is wierd because the latest drivers, to include latest catalyst drivers ARE installed.

Sighs...

-MordenGeist







"He Makes a Lovely Corpse."

 

[MordenGiest]

Oh yeh...Crashman: Yes, I've uninstalled and reinstalled *in order*: MOBO updates/drivers, DirectX9.0a, 9800 drivers, then catalyst software *3 times now* and still a no-go....plus did all the driver/software tweaks I know how to do that are accessible.


Oh....as for the Corsair Memory...its good...Sandra gave it thumbs-up.

"He Makes a Lovely Corpse."

 

[TWC]

You do have the 12v connector hooked up to the card I assume? and preferablly not to the same line as the HD.

"I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints."

 

[bigtesla99]

Glad to hear the memory is okay...after all that I went through. Yea...it sounds like a purely hardware problem. You might check that the card is seated correctly and try unseating and reseating it a couple of times. It also wouldn't hurt to look over the card slot pins and mobo connections and make sure that everything looks in order. If you are still having problems, I'd recommend exchanging your hardware via your vendor (if still available).

You can't solve current problems with current thinking... current problems are the result of current thinking. -Albert Einstein

 

[pIII_Man]

I have had a problem where i would not get any video on post...the problem was that the mobo was sitting to low and the agp card could not fit well into the slot...this is because the bottom of the metal support thingy (for lack of a better word) was touching the computer chasis...the fix was to insert washers underneath the motherboard standoffs. What could be happening is your gpu doesn't have all of its pins in contact w/ the slot.

Another thing make sure that the monitors plug has no bent pins...this could cause color distortion if a pin goes in the wrong slot.

 

[rower30]

Well, what about your power supply? I've seen several instances of late with so called 400 watt supplies causing video cards to scrabble, not boot, and go "black" randomly. A new Enermax supply fixed the problem just fine. The old supply would run the system with the old Ti4200, but not so a Ti4800.

Swap to a REAL good power supply if you don't have well rated ANTEC, Enermax or Turbo-Cool type supply.

Regard,
rower30@earthlink.net