Interesting situation with a Saphire ATI 9800 128

Capt. Buko · 02-10-2005, 03:39 PM

OK here's the deal...4 mouths ago I buy parts from newegg and build a computer....
P4 3.0
1 gig ram
80 HD
Soyo Dragon MB
ATI Radeon 9800 128

So, four months ago I could play Call of Duty "awsome-ly", ran perfect! WoW, and SIMS 2 had horrible screen corruption in the form of long flashing patches of screens (something that I know most have had happen to them)

At that time I updated drivers and AGP support on the MB...the new ATI drivers made ALL of my game unplayable so i was forced to roll back to 3.9 and just live with it..over time it really started to piss me off...

So I go out and buy an artic coller for my card...now even with the old drivers all my games suck..when i put the stock fan back on..games are still f'd up....

What did I do, I' promptly went out and bought a new vid card (Gforce 6600GT), and a new MB that cost about 100 bucks I tried all of the combinations of old hardware w/ new and nothing worked, corruption still exsited!!! Then I grabed an old MX440 and there was the same screen corruption....ok--returned all newly bought stuff and RMA'd the ATI

Got the new one from Newegg last night plugged it in ...runs WoW pretty dam good, except I see the same corruption in the water only?! And now i CAN'T run CoD AT ALL...GRRRRRRRR

what could cause this?
Heat?
physical connection to MB? (loose)
bad system ram?

I really dont' know..just throwing this out there...

**UncleMacro** · 02-10-2005, 08:36 PM

Is your power supply any good? If it happens on lots of video boards with different motherboards then that could be the cause. Operating in 3D mode can drag the 12 volt rail down on some power supplies. It's during 3D games that your power supply is most strained (especially the 12V rail) because both your CPU and video board are sucking up lots more power than usual. Don't let the rated wattage fool you - power supplies with the same wattage ratings can deliver very different max currents on one particular rail.

If you want to really load down your power supply you might try downloading 3DMark and prime95. Run prime95 in torture test mode and then run 3DMark again while prime95 is running. Other than not using your sound board, that combination basically maxes out power consumption.

To check bad RAM (doesn't sound likely for your artifacting) just download and run MemTest86. It's very thorough.

The only other thing I would try is underclocking your AGP port. I've seen lots of machines which have problems when your AGP is at full speed. Generally they crash rather than get artifacts but it's worth a try. I think you can use powerstrip to underclock NVIDIA boards.

**UncleMacro** · 02-11-2005, 03:30 AM

Oh, and by the way, you can check out the possible power supply problem by running a motherboard monitor program (which probably came with your motherboard) and check the supply voltages. The voltages those programs report is not all that accurate but it may be helpful.

Capt. Buko · 02-11-2005, 12:14 PM

Thanks, I will try the MB monitor...I did just upgrade from 400w to a 450w because when I tried to run the gforce 6600GT it prompted me that my Pwr supply was low....another note...

a few days before I got my RMA back....i reinstalled the the MX440 and the game ran fine, no corruption..***.....

**UncleMacro** · 02-11-2005, 05:40 PM

Quote:

when I tried to run the gforce 6600GT it prompted me that my Pwr supply was low...

I wish all video boards were that clever. When I hear someone is having "the flakeys" no matter what components they swap, it almost always turns out to be the power supply. You might just consider the possibility that the power supply is still your problem. There's 450 watts, and then there's 450 watts. If your video board was whining then you may still be on the edge. I've seen 450 watt generic power supplies with weaker 12 volt rails than high quality 350 watt supplies. On the other hand, if you got a good 450 you can probably rule it out. If your 6600GT was giving you a message, the 12V rail was probably WAY low for quite a while. But all it takes is low for a short spike to cause the board to "twitch". And unfortunately you can't see low spikes using motherboard monitor programs. They can only report average voltages over large fractions of a second. I don't mean to drone on about power supplies but it still seems to fit your symptoms. Did your MX440 get artifacts with your old supply and then work properly with your new supply or did it have problems with both of them? An MX440 is going to use less juice than a 6600GT when they're in 3D mode.

Capt. Buko · 02-28-2005, 11:03 AM

Well after much fidling....I was able to get the card to work for CoD and WoW by cleaning out the old drivers and then installing 3.9 drivers..YES 3.9!! These are the only drivers that will work with my card for some reason...the newest drivers botch everything up....and I set the Win Vid Bios size to 64 (it was at 256 for some reason) I haven't tried to put it up to 128 yet...

I didn't test for power like I should have becuase I tried this first...I'm still going to though, since my sims 2 still runs with some corruption?! I'm not real happy with either my ATI card or my soyo MoBo....

Capt. Buko · 03-28-2005, 11:52 AM

My system is not underpowered or over heating...so I'm a little stumped.

02-10-2005, 03:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
Capt. Buko Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 16 OS: xp pro	Interesting situation with a Saphire ATI 9800 128 OK here's the deal...4 mouths ago I buy parts from newegg and build a computer.... P4 3.0 1 gig ram 80 HD Soyo Dragon MB ATI Radeon 9800 128 So, four months ago I could play Call of Duty "awsome-ly", ran perfect! WoW, and SIMS 2 had horrible screen corruption in the form of long flashing patches of screens (something that I know most have had happen to them) At that time I updated drivers and AGP support on the MB...the new ATI drivers made ALL of my game unplayable so i was forced to roll back to 3.9 and just live with it..over time it really started to piss me off... So I go out and buy an artic coller for my card...now even with the old drivers all my games suck..when i put the stock fan back on..games are still f'd up.... What did I do, I' promptly went out and bought a new vid card (Gforce 6600GT), and a new MB that cost about 100 bucks I tried all of the combinations of old hardware w/ new and nothing worked, corruption still exsited!!! Then I grabed an old MX440 and there was the same screen corruption....ok--returned all newly bought stuff and RMA'd the ATI Got the new one from Newegg last night plugged it in ...runs WoW pretty dam good, except I see the same corruption in the water only?! And now i CAN'T run CoD AT ALL...GRRRRRRRR what could cause this? Heat? physical connection to MB? (loose) bad system ram? I really dont' know..just throwing this out there...

02-10-2005, 08:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	Is your power supply any good? If it happens on lots of video boards with different motherboards then that could be the cause. Operating in 3D mode can drag the 12 volt rail down on some power supplies. It's during 3D games that your power supply is most strained (especially the 12V rail) because both your CPU and video board are sucking up lots more power than usual. Don't let the rated wattage fool you - power supplies with the same wattage ratings can deliver very different max currents on one particular rail. If you want to really load down your power supply you might try downloading 3DMark and prime95. Run prime95 in torture test mode and then run 3DMark again while prime95 is running. Other than not using your sound board, that combination basically maxes out power consumption. To check bad RAM (doesn't sound likely for your artifacting) just download and run MemTest86. It's very thorough. The only other thing I would try is underclocking your AGP port. I've seen lots of machines which have problems when your AGP is at full speed. Generally they crash rather than get artifacts but it's worth a try. I think you can use powerstrip to underclock NVIDIA boards.

02-11-2005, 03:30 AM	#3 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	Oh, and by the way, you can check out the possible power supply problem by running a motherboard monitor program (which probably came with your motherboard) and check the supply voltages. The voltages those programs report is not all that accurate but it may be helpful.

02-11-2005, 12:14 PM	#4 (permalink)
Capt. Buko Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 16 OS: xp pro	Thanks, I will try the MB monitor...I did just upgrade from 400w to a 450w because when I tried to run the gforce 6600GT it prompted me that my Pwr supply was low....another note... a few days before I got my RMA back....i reinstalled the the MX440 and the game ran fine, no corruption..***.....

02-28-2005, 11:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
Capt. Buko Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 16 OS: xp pro	Well after much fidling....I was able to get the card to work for CoD and WoW by cleaning out the old drivers and then installing 3.9 drivers..YES 3.9!! These are the only drivers that will work with my card for some reason...the newest drivers botch everything up....and I set the Win Vid Bios size to 64 (it was at 256 for some reason) I haven't tried to put it up to 128 yet... I didn't test for power like I should have becuase I tried this first...I'm still going to though, since my sims 2 still runs with some corruption?! I'm not real happy with either my ATI card or my soyo MoBo....

03-28-2005, 11:52 AM	#7 (permalink)
Capt. Buko Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 16 OS: xp pro	My system is not underpowered or over heating...so I'm a little stumped.