Video Card Going Bad?

CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
edited June 2005 in Hardware
I have an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro and just now the colors have been going all funky. I noticed it earlier today in MVP 2004 there were little artifacts of black flashing every now and then but now theres like pink lines running through the screen and playing video games is unbearable cause theres flashing and crackling in the games, its pretty ridiculous.

I've never encountered this before. At first I thought i was just some weird software thing so I restarted the comp but I noticed even at the boot screen there were artifacts.

This suck, I dont have the dollahs to buy a new video card and I just made it into the postseason in MVP 2004! :)

Any insight into what may be causing this would be great/ Thanks in advanced to anybody who knows about these things!

Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    omg dude that blows :(
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Yup, gotta dig out the ol' Voodoo5 5500, actualy I dont think it fits in the new AGP ports for some reason, I ran into this problem when I upgraded my last mobo, so I guess I'll dig out one of my vintage PCI video cards until I can spend some funds for a new good one.

    Speaking of which, anybody know of good ones that aren't too expensive? I haven't followed developments in forever cause I didn't plan on upgrading for a while, guess that's down the drain, here's one I'm looking at, if theres a better one around roughly the same price then point me in the right direction :)

    http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814123150
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814108148
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    Thrax wrote:
    http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814108148

    that is a pretty nice looking card, says HDTV ready??? I'll have to look at it some more. I noticed it is 128mb and the ATi was 256mb. Does this matter, like will it affect performance much? Consider me a video card total newb cause I havent bought one in so long and I never really got into reading alot about different cards so I dont know anything.

    I'm sorta partial to ATi but not really because my money goes to the best bang for the buck.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited April 2005
    The best bang for your buck card right now is the nVidia 6600 series. The 6800GT is the next step up from that.
  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    the 256mb is pretty much a gimmick
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2005
    It'll help in games like Doom 3, but IMO the 9600 XT is just too slow make good use of it.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    leishi85 wrote:
    the 256mb is pretty much a gimmick
    You are confusing the amount of memory with the operational interface of the memory. 256mb is the amount and 256-bit is the speed of the interface.
  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    no i'm not, i was talking about the amount of memory on the video card. it's an advertising gimmick.

    EDIT/ now i know why you say that i was confused, i was refering to the 9600xt, and answering camman's question in post #6, all good now. :D
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited April 2005
    Hey Camman sent you a PM.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited April 2005
    wow, here's a ridiculous update to this problem.

    I have been playing MVP 2004 for a long time and thats when I first noticed the problem with the slight corruption and then it went totally wacky. I was in the post season so even though the textures got corrupted sometimes and there were lines running through the screen, I kept playing while I was waiting for somebody to loan me a 3D card before I could buy a new one. So I'd played the last few days probably a total of 4 or 5 hours of the game all corrupted with lines going through the picture and bars and stuff but i could still see what was going on.

    Well this afternoon in the middle of the game, all the lines just dissapeared and the picture went back to normal. So i kept playing for a while. I started up a whole bunch of different games, maxed out the graphics, restarted the system, messed with the settings and upgraded the drivers and it still has stayed working fine. I wanted to make sure it wasnt just a freak thing that it started working again, but I've been playing for several hours now and the picture is 100% back to perfect after several days of running all broken and corrupted. How weird is that?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2005
    Voodoo. As in "Black Magic" (not 3dfx). :cool:
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2005
    Sounds like the hsf on your 9700pro isn't making good contact with the gpu. A slight bump here or there could make it looser/tighter, and that is why your problems seem to come and go. I would remove and re-install with a fresh coat of as5 just to be sure.

    Good luck! :thumbsup:
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    update:

    card started acting funky again with lines through it that never went away, decided to RMA my 9700 Pro to ATi and this afternoon I received a brand new 9800 Pro in the mail, w00t for free upgrades.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    are you overclocking the card or running higher voltages (9700 or 9800)? If so don't expect it to last more that several months. The one thing I have to say about my nvidia card is that it held up on overclock setting 24/7 but the 9800's always crapped after several months. I'm on my 4th rma 9800 now.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    nope, I dont overclock anything, I dont see the point, but thats another topic. the 9700 pro just went bad and the picture had bars running through it, but im pretty pleased with the free upgrade
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    it's a great card you should be! how many bits?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Er, how can the point not be seen? You get more than what you paid for, and a computer that performs better...
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited June 2005
    Thrax wrote:
    Er, how can the point not be seen? You get more than what you paid for, and a computer that performs better...

    Yeah but from people I've known that have tried to overclock it's not worth the risk for what can go wrong. I mean, for some people thats their thing, I'm just not into it is all, my comp at regular speeds plays games fast enough and it works out pretty well.

    So, to rephrase, not that theres "no point", its just that I, personally, am satisfied without it.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2005
    I don't know if I missed any problem solving with you're card as I just skimed through it. I had the same problems with my 9500pro. It was all heat related. Give it a good cleaning. The heatsinks that come on ATI cards are rediculasly puny.

    I took the card out and cleaned between the fins and there was gunk(my wife and doughers hairs) rapped around my fan. Cleaned it up and worked like new. If the lines are still there when you put it back in put the card in an antistatic bag over night and try it again. I think the silocone in the chips get a tad bit warped and once they cool fully everything realines. Atleast that's my theory and as I have seen it happen with 3 different cards(2 ati and 1 nvidia) I'm sticking with it.

    Why buy a new card when you can RMA? Most cards come with a 5 year to lifetime warrenty. You don't need the reciept just the numbers off the card.

    If you wanna get a new card the beter bangs for a buck are the ati 9800pro and the 6600gt. I lean a little more towards the 6600gt because it supports more of the newer eye candies out. Just don't see it wise to stick with last generation stuff unless you're planning a big upgrade not long after.

    If you decide to buy a new card and would like to sell me you're 9700pro for cheap PM me.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited June 2005
    That is awesome that you got a 9800 pro as a replacement card. Overclocking these ATI cards is quite safe, so long as you cool the card properly. Heat seems to be the real killer. I know the 9700/9800 pros get REALLY hot with the oem cooler. ATI's OEM heatsinks/fans are some of the worst out there (at least on their older gen cards, the leaf blower on my x850 is a big improvement :D). I ran my old 9800pro (r350, not 360)at 480core/365mem 24/7 for over a year without a single glitch. This was with stock vgpu and vmem, and a simple maze4 gpu block. With the oem sink, I could barely break 400mhz core, and because of the pcb heat, the memory could barely clock either. Those Arctic silencers are a great cheap upgrade that may prolong the life of your card.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited June 2005
    Camman wrote:
    update:

    card started acting funky again with lines through it that never went away, decided to RMA my 9700 Pro to ATi and this afternoon I received a brand new 9800 Pro in the mail, w00t for free upgrades.

    Opps didn't see that bro! going to OC the crap out of my 9500 and rma that bish back lol.. JKing no flames please
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