9600xt...worst piece of hardware i've ever owned

[FataLFlaw]

I recently purchased a Retail 9600xt and installed it in my PC. I have a gigabyte motherboard, an Athlon XP 2800+ processor, and a stick of samsung pc 3200 DDR ram. Also running on win XP by the way. My problem is this...ever since I installed the card I have had constant problems with my computer freezing, and countless video errors. If the computer doesnt lock up completely, then whatever program (Game) I am in will exit and that ATI VPU Recover program will inform me that the video card was reset because it stopped responding to commands, or something to that effect. This doesnt happen only in games either. Sometimes if I browse through folders too quickly it will cause my VPU to reset!!! Yes thats right, I said browsing through folders will cause my video card to reset. I have even gotten the blue screen of death recently which I havnt seen in probably years, and it identified the cause of the error as ati2XXX something. Ive tried countless driver versions and none seem to change the situation in the least. Am I the only 9600xt owner who has run into these problems? If I dont sort this out then this card will be the last piece of ATI hardware I ever buy.

 

[pauldh]

First off, what card did you have before? An NVidia I bet. Did you uninstall the nVidia drivers before pulling the card and putting in the ATI? If not there is your problem. You have to get the old drivers off there. Also good to use detenator RIP to fully get rid of the old remains left by the NVidia drivers. when Upgrading, Never pull a video card out and leave the old drivers behind.

9600XT worst piece of hardware... I'll swap you an FX5200 for it.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9500 Pro, Santa Cruz, Antec 1000AMG, TruePower 430watt

 

[Ion]

He probably gonna love my ancient voodoo banshee better...

Asus A7N8X Deluxe, Xp 2500+(3200+), 512MB RAM, Radeon 9500Pro

 

[FataLFlaw]

Yes, I did used to own an nVidea card. My last card was an MSI geForce4 mx420 and I have nothing but good things to say about that card. It was getting a little old though so I replaced it with this 9600xt and I recieved minor benchmark boosts, and also a ton of instability. I uninstalled all nvidea drivers from the add/remove program list, then used a registry cleaner, and then installed the ATI drivers. I would rather have my old mx 420 than this 9600xt that makes my games crash constantly.

 

[Vapor]

What kind of registry cleaner? Norton's or Detonator RIP?

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[phial]

Yes, I did used to own an nVidea card

no wonder your system isnt working right, you cant even spell the companies correctly




the problems you are having are no fault of the ATI card. Nvidia's drivers are known for not un-installing correctly (if youve even done that much, wouldnt suprise me if you just installed ATI drivers right over top lmfao) and causing people to use Driver-Cleaners


funny thing is, when i posted about that over at Nvnews (about needing to use driver cleaners), i got banned!

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

 

[tombance]

1) Uninstall all of the video card drivers on your system
2) Download Driver Cleaner (search in google)
3) Use it to remove both Nvidia and ATI Drivers (ATI aswell to be safe)
4) Use any other cleaning programs (regcleaner, regseeker, dustbuster xp etc)
5) Reinstall the latest ATI Drivers (3.1's either from ATI or perhaps the Omegas would be best)

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=7454540" target="_new">Yay, I Finally broke the 12k barrier!!</A>

 

[FataLFlaw]

Alright let me tell you what ive done...repeatedly.
1)Uninstalled all video drivers and control panels off of my system.
2)Restart my computer and run a registry cleaner (RegSupreme) and also detonatorRIP (which only found and removed one empty nvidia folder btw).
3)Restart system again after unplugging internet connection (I read XP will search for and download its own drivers when none are present) and I then install the separate drivers for my card, then without restarting I install the control panel. I tried the all in one package before also but I read this helps to give you a cleaner install.
4)Restart my computer, configure everything in the control panel, restart again.
5)Proceed to play a video game and watch my system crash at random intervals.

 

[phial]

haha sorry Fatalflaw

i missed the post where you said what you did to clean the drivers out


hmmm.. i dunno man. sometimes, when you add new hardware, the best thing to do is format. i know alot of people will say that they have swapped video cards 100 times with no problems..

but its windows were talking about here. the O/S that corrupt files from word processing

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

 

[georgebeee]

I've also got a 9600xt. I also replaced an nvidia card, goforce 4MX440. I also own a gigabyte mobo..ga-7va. I have 256MB of pc2700. my new card operates beautifully. makes my old geforce pale in comparison to put it mildly. only thing I did that you haven't mentioned which I believe they mention in the manual that accompanied my card is I reinstalled XP, which I also have by the way.

good luck

 

[phial]

you haven't mentioned which I believe they mention in the manual that accompanied my card is I reinstalled XP, which I also have by the way

ha, told ya!

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

 

[FataLFlaw]

lol...actually I also reinstalled winXP when I installed my new hardware. Im wondering if a low level format is in order. Its going to be a bitch losing all of my music and game files though. I would be more than willing to do it, but im afraid I will go through all the trouble and its going to be a hardware conflict that cant be fixed.

 

[pauldh]

Curious, even though the 9600XT is no power hog, what brand power supply do you have and how many watts? If you happen to have a cheapo power supply such as the ones that come in most cases, that can account for alot of instability people complain about. If you have a name brand(Antec, Enlight, Enermax, Sparkle, etc.)300watt or better than you should be OK. 350watt if you have alot of drives. But a Powmax or Deer or no-name cheapo 400watt isn't even good enough to bank on reliability.

So what do you want to swap for that piece of Junk Radeon 9600XT? FX5200, GF4Ti4200, GF3Ti200, GF2Ti? I don't want you to suffer with that junker when you could trade for one of my nice NVidias.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9500 Pro, Santa Cruz, Antec 1000AMG, TruePower 430watt

 

[FataLFlaw]

Power supply is a 300watt Enlight

Maybe we can negotiate a trade for that ti4200.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Fatalflaw on 01/22/04 12:59 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[phial]

Its going to be a bitch losing all of my music and game files though

right click "my computer" , select Management, and then goto Drive Management

you can make another partition to throw your stuff on. theres nothing erasing a partition wont do that a low level format will, aside from gettin rid of boot sector virus's

but im afraid I will go through all the trouble and its going to be a hardware conflict that cant be fixed

i hear ya.. it could be an IRQ thing. have you checked that?


-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A>

 

[Coyote]

Try Driver Cleaner <A HREF="http://www.driverheaven.net/" target="_new">http://www.driverheaven.net/</A>
I've switched back and forth between nVudua and ATI (9600pro) without problem. If nVidia driver remnents are the problem this proggy will fix it.

Good Luck

XP 2000+
MSI KT3 ULTRA-2 KT333
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB PC2700
9600 Pro
Win98SE

 

[FataLFlaw]

Im somewhat computer literate but I dont really know what the IRQ thing is. Ive seen it in my bios before, and if I remember its set to "auto"

Update: Just now I hit refresh and attempted to scroll down this page and my VPU reset itself lol!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Fatalflaw on 01/22/04 01:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[FataLFlaw]

Driver cleaner did find about 4 nvidia files that the others did not. I removed them but I would be amazed if that solved my problem. Guess i'll restart and find out.

 

[Vapor]

How about a Ti4400?

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[pauldh]

I hope it works for you. I have never had any irq conflicts on a Windows XP machine, but plenty with Windows 98. Click start/programs/accessories/system information. Under hardware resources, look and see if the video card is sharing an IRQ, or if it is alone on it's own IRQ. (look under conflicts/sharing, as well as just IRQ) The video card should not be sharing an IRQ with anothe device.

Good Luck. Otherwise, Yes I would be willing to work out a trade with you.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9500 Pro, Santa Cruz, Antec 1000AMG, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Lemme Guess, VIA based Gigabyte board?

Update your BIOS! Seriously.

Try disabling FastWrites first (in the control panel under SmartGart), that helped for me, but a BIOS update gave me back the ability to use Fastwrites.

The card's drivers are kept up to date, and that is a major source of conflict on older board. I experienced exactly what you did, moved to F12, no problems.



- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[HardWareBoss]

Have you installed lastest Cat's from ATI?

 

[Nights_L]

Nothing is better than a fresh Windows' installation
I always do a fresh installation whenever i got a new video card

 

[dhlucke]

It's tough to take these threads seriously anymore.


Seriously people, do a fresh install of windows when you get new hardware like this. It's the same thing if you replace your motherboard. Do a fresh install.

_________________________________________
<font color=red><b>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS</font color=blue> <font color=red>AMERICA</font color=red></b>

 

[phial]

lol...actually I also reinstalled winXP when I installed my new hardware.

Driver cleaner did find about 4 nvidia files that the others did not. I removed them but I would be amazed if that solved my problem. Guess i'll restart and find out.

a re-install is utterly useless. it removes nothing, merely re-copies the system files and resets a few settings

those files wouldnt be there if you did formatted, and i bet you woulndt have this problem

-------
<A HREF="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html" target="_new">please dont click here! </A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phial on 01/23/04 01:21 AM.</EM></FONT></P>