My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the time in
games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).

We have tried:
Running with the case open
Reinstalling the OS
Underclocking by 60Mhz

the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
powercolour, based on the reference design.

Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so cannot
remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old but he
cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!

9700Pro wrote:
> My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the time
> in games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).
>
> We have tried:
> Running with the case open
> Reinstalling the OS
> Underclocking by 60Mhz
>
> the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> powercolour, based on the reference design.
>
> Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so cannot
> remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old but
> he cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!

Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that.

Did you want help?

I'll assume something along the lines of "Why might this be happening/How
can I fix this?"

Well, what do the artefacts look like? Does it look like some calcs have
been done wrong, or like random pixels are the wrong colour?

I noticed in Aquamark, that when the memory was overclocked too far, I would
get lots of random white pixels. With the GPU overclocked too far, I would
get weird looking explosions, especially on the last "Massive Overdraw"
scene.

When you underclocked "it", what exactly did you change the clock speed of?

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

Every time that happened with my 9700 it was the memory giving up. After 2
warranty replacements, the last one with a 9800, I hope the problem is
fixed.

"9700Pro" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the time
in
> games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).
>
> We have tried:
> Running with the case open
> Reinstalling the OS
> Underclocking by 60Mhz
>
> the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> powercolour, based on the reference design.
>
> Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so cannot
> remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old but
he
> cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
>
>

> 9700Pro wrote:
> > My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the
time
> > in games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).
> >
> > We have tried:
> > Running with the case open
> > Reinstalling the OS
> > Underclocking by 60Mhz
> >
> > the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> > powercolour, based on the reference design.
> >
> > Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so
cannot
> > remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old
but
> > he cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
>
> Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that.
>
> Did you want help?
>
> I'll assume something along the lines of "Why might this be happening/How
> can I fix this?"

Why it is happening is easy to answer. ATI cards are unstable. You fix one
problem, and another problem comes up. it is better to return the card and
get Nvidia.

I rest my case...

--
Ryan Atici
(E-Mail Removed)
To send email, remove _osmanli

"Ben Pope" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> 9700Pro wrote:
> > My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the
time
> > in games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).
> >
> > We have tried:
> > Running with the case open
> > Reinstalling the OS
> > Underclocking by 60Mhz
> >
> > the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> > powercolour, based on the reference design.
> >
> > Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so
cannot
> > remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old
but
> > he cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
>
> Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that.
>
lovely

> Did you want help?
>

I wouldn't have posted otherwise

> I'll assume something along the lines of "Why might this be happening/How
> can I fix this?"
>
Well duh

> Well, what do the artefacts look like? Does it look like some calcs have
> been done wrong, or like random pixels are the wrong colour?
>
> I noticed in Aquamark, that when the memory was overclocked too far, I
would
> get lots of random white pixels. With the GPU overclocked too far, I
would
> get weird looking explosions, especially on the last "Massive Overdraw"
> scene.
>
Problem seems to match your second sentence

> When you underclocked "it", what exactly did you change the clock speed
of?
>
well there is only 2 things to underclock, core and memory. I didnt specify
I underclocked one or the other as I underclocked the entire card (core+mem)
by 60Mhz


> Ben
> --
> A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
> Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
> I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...
>
>

> the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> powercolour, based on the reference design.

I guess you have already confirmed that the fan truns round, and that the computer hasnt had
anything else added to it that would affect the power supply to the card...

If your card is still salvageable, then you shoudl find that the problem doesnt occur for a bit when
you boot from cold. If you see the problem from the word go, then it sounds like the problem is
permanent.



If you are ok for a bit after cold book, then...

Does the heatsink actually get warm? If it does, then it should be working ok (a stock ATI heatsink
gets hot enough to make it uncomfortable to touch for too long, although it isnt so hot it burns...
rather like a hot cup of coffee you have to put down for a minute so it cools down
If it isnt that hot, check the *back* of the card. The heat has to escape somewhere, and a lot more
of it will be going through the back.

If the heatsink is ok, then it might be the memory. Powercooler cards are the low end of the Radeon
range in terms of build quality, and they sometimes tend to use slower memory. Memory doesnt
actually get that hot, so is less likely to die in the way you suggest (when it fails, it tends to
do so because of timing issues, not heat issues... and would be more likely to start failing out of
the box, not after some months). I suggest you seriously underclock the memory to see if that fixes
the problem, although I would expect that the memory would have failed a long time ago if that is
the case.

Another thing, which is a long shot, but might be worth a try, is to press all the memory pins down
with a pin. I had a bad memory problem occur on an old voodoo card some years ago, and it was due
to a bad solder on a memory chip. Pressing the pin down was enough to get the chip leg back in
contact

hope at least some of that helps...

S

Remove the heatsink, remove old and dry white stuff, re-apply some thermal
compound (arctic silver is better), re-set the heatsink. Problem should get
solved. If not, talk to the place you purchased the card, they might rma it.


"9700Pro" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the time
in
> games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked it).
>
> We have tried:
> Running with the case open
> Reinstalling the OS
> Underclocking by 60Mhz
>
> the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> powercolour, based on the reference design.
>
> Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so cannot
> remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old but
he
> cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
>
>

"Ryan Atici" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > 9700Pro wrote:
> > > My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the
> time
> > > in games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked
it).
> > >
> > > We have tried:
> > > Running with the case open
> > > Reinstalling the OS
> > > Underclocking by 60Mhz
> > >
> > > the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> > > powercolour, based on the reference design.
> > >
> > > Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so
> cannot
> > > remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old
> but
> > > he cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
> >
> > Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that.
> >
> > Did you want help?
> >
> > I'll assume something along the lines of "Why might this be
happening/How
> > can I fix this?"
>
> Why it is happening is easy to answer. ATI cards are unstable. You fix one
> problem, and another problem comes up. it is better to return the card and
> get Nvidia.
>
> I rest my case...
>
>

So nVidia cards have no problems at all hardware wise?

Lets see... There are more than a million 9800 cards out there and how many
of them are defect? 1000 or maybe 3000? That does not mean ALL ATI cards are
bad. I had 2 nvidia cards dying on me (Gf2-GTS, and GF4 ti4200) and 1 ATI
card 8500LE. I don't say nvidia or ati make bad / faulty cards.

"Ryan Atici" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > 9700Pro wrote:
> > > My mates standard 9800 has gone funny. Its showing artifacts all the
> time
> > > in games like its been overclocked (albeit he has never overclocked
it).
> > >
> > > We have tried:
> > > Running with the case open
> > > Reinstalling the OS
> > > Underclocking by 60Mhz
> > >
> > > the problem is still evident after all this. I think the card is a
> > > powercolour, based on the reference design.
> > >
> > > Is it worth reseating the GPU cooler? I am not at his at the mo so
> cannot
> > > remembr how the heatsink is attached, card is less then 12 months old
> but
> > > he cannot find the receipt for it to try and return under warranty!
> >
> > Thanks. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that.
> >
> > Did you want help?
> >
> > I'll assume something along the lines of "Why might this be
happening/How
> > can I fix this?"
>
> Why it is happening is easy to answer. ATI cards are unstable. You fix one
> problem, and another problem comes up. it is better to return the card and
> get Nvidia.
>
> I rest my case...
>
> --
> Ryan Atici
> (E-Mail Removed)
> To send email, remove _osmanli
>
>
>
>

Ryan Atici wrote:
> Why it is happening is easy to answer. ATI cards are unstable. You fix one
> problem, and another problem comes up. it is better to return the card and
> get Nvidia.
>
> I rest my case...

How many times can you rest your case and then continue to comment?

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=...eocards.nvidia

Looks like there are 1770 "driver problem"s for nVidia

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=...videocards.ati

And 713 for ATI.

Guess ATI must have less than half the driver problems of nVidia.

Absolute, indisputable proof that ATI has at least half the number of
problems of nVidia

:-p

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...