Chiaotzu

Hi, there is a thread with a problem similar to mine at the following link, but it seems to have died. http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/video-card-support/168435-screen-going-crazy.html

My computer specs are:

Intel P4 3.0ghz
1024MB Kingston RAM
Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB video card
400watt PSU (can't think of the brand off hand)
Windows XP Home service pack 2 (with all updates)

I've been using the card for well over a year now with no real issues, but recently it's been *I believe* overheating and/or freezing. In some games I would get a message that says that the VPU had to be recovered from a serious error, though everything worked fine after the message. Other times I would come back to my computer and it'd be locked up and in need of a hard reset. Then, when I turned on my computer after one of these lockups, the screen looks like it did in the other thread I linked. Basically, a garbled mess of colors.

The card is still outputting, I know because I can see the blinking cursor through the mess of colors and it'll eventually get to the Windows log-on screen, though the mouse is simply a little block of garbled colors inside the big mess on the screen.

I made sure that the power connection was in securely and directly from the PSU with no other components on the line. I checked that the card's fan was still working, and it was, though a bit nosier than usual, like it was hitting something, but it wasn't.

I swapped out the card with an old NVIDIA TNT2 I had lying around, and that works perfectly. When Windows starts I get an error message saying something along the lines of ATI drivers being unable to initialize or unable to be found. I can get the exact message if needed, I'm using a different computer at the moment.

After working up the courage, I took off the Radeon's fan and heatsink and reapplied thermal grease to it. I think I did fairly well, I've done the same thing to my processor and it's working correctly. Sadly, this didn't do anything and it still displays the same garbled mess.

After all of this explanation, my real question is: is my card fried, or is there a way to fix this?

koala

Hi, welcome to TSF

Post a screenshot of your desktop so we can see the artifacts. It sounds like damaged video RAM caused by overheating or a weak PSU.

Have you tried the card in another computer?

Chiaotzu

While the following screenshot isn't of mine, it's exactly what I see.

If it's truly needed I can put the card back in and take the best shot I can, but this shot is nearly identical to what happens on mine.



Unfortunately, I don't have another computer to test the card in. =\

koala

Do you have a local computer shop who could do a quick test for you? It looks like your V-RAM has gone.

Do you get this problem during POST before Windows loads?

Open the case and see if blowing a desk fan towards the inside has any effect.

Chiaotzu

It happens as soon as the computer is powered on and continues to the Windows Log-On screen. I can't get any further as everything is far from legible.

I've tried the desk fan option when the problem first started. No good...

The only computer shop nearby would be Best Buy's Geek Squad. Do you have any idea how much a test would cost, or if they'd even do the test? I don't want to spend too much since I'll be going abroad to study in a month and unable to use the computer for a year.

koala

I don't live in the US so I don't know how much Geek Squad would charge. Hang on for some more replies about this or give them a call. I can't see them charging too much to stick your card in one of their test machines for a few seconds.

I had a similar problem last year with a 9800 which had to be replaced. The artifacts on mine were more like flickering vertical bars in Windows and random characters during POST. Bad VRAM.

JTJB

Hello all, I fixed the ATI 9800 garbled screen problem tonight.

This problem has plagued me for quite sometime as I could run the card flawlessly at boot up most times, but it seemed that if I even breathed on the card or brushed it in the slightest, the screen would get garbled. I grabbed the card while it was running in the PC and I could easily manipulate the intensity of the garbled pixels on my video display by simply flexing the PCB in the motherboard while it was running. This led me to one conclusion. Poor solder contact somewhere on the card.

I removed the fan and heatsink from the card and placed it into a PREHEATED oven set to 385F (solder melts around 364F). I left the video card in the oven until I could smell the solder fumes PLUS another five minutes for good measure. I then shut the oven off, opened the door and let it cool down. After that, I re-applied thermal paste to the GPU and heatsink, re-attached the fan and plugged it in. Viola! NO MORE GARBLED SCREEN!!

NOTE: DO NOT AGITATE YOUR OVEN AT ANYTIME DURING THE BAKING PROCESS AS YOU CAN EASILY DISLODGE A COMPONENT WHILE THE SOLDER IS VISCOUS!!

In all fairness, I got my "oven" idea from other people on the net having success fixing their XBOX 360's Red Ring Of Death (RROD) problems by wrapping them in a towel for 20 minutes causing them to internally overheat and cause the low quality solder all over the motherboard to remelt and fuse any "cold solder" joints that had cracked from frequent cooling and heating cycles back to the mainboard.

I suspect this series of video cards was prone to cold solder joint cracking, similar to what MANY XBOX 360's have been experiencing.

Thimble

omg, that's a scary solution! lol, congrats!