ATI 9000 Pro - video slowed down?

[ohaya]

Hi,

My son had an ATI 9000 Pro card in his PC, and he said that the video
performance has just recently been really slow, e.g., if you dragged a
window, you could see it lagging. I checked his system, and it indeed
was doing what he described.

We checked to make sure that UDMA was enabled on his drives, etc., and
everything seemed to ok, so I loaned him an old Geforce MX 32MB that I
had as a spare, and he put it into his system and installed the
drivers. Once he got that done, the video seemed to be working all
right (no lagging).

He mentioned that the fan on the ATI 9000 Pro card was making a lot of
noise and he thought might have either been slowed down or stopped, and
was wondering if maybe the video processor might be getting to hot and
causing the slowdown.

Has anyone heard of something like this with the ATI 9000 Pro cards?

Also, can anyone tell me where he might get a new fan for the card?

Or, can we get a generic VGA cooler setup, pull the heatsink off the
video processor and use the generic cooler?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

 

[First of One]

My son had an ATI 9000 Pro card in his PC, and he said that the video
performance has just recently been really slow, e.g., if you dragged a
window, you could see it lagging. I checked his system, and it indeed
was doing what he described.

Normally this indicates basic Windows GDI hardware acceleration isn't
kicking in. Go into Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced ->
Troubleshoot tab, and make sure the slider is cranked all the way to the
right.

Also, on some systems, the Win2000/XP service called "ATISmart" needs to run
for hardware acceleration to activate.

He mentioned that the fan on the ATI 9000 Pro card was making a lot of
noise and he thought might have either been slowed down or stopped, and
was wondering if maybe the video processor might be getting to hot and
causing the slowdown.

Usually an overheated graphics chip will start giving visual artifacts
onscreen, or cause Windows to hang altogether. One way to quickly check is
to take off the case cover and point a large household fan at the 9000 Pro.

Also, can anyone tell me where he might get a new fan for the card?

It's not worth the trouble.

Or, can we get a generic VGA cooler setup, pull the heatsink off the
video processor and use the generic cooler?

Yes. ATi's heat sink bolt pattern for all pre- Radeon 9800 cards should be
the same. Of course, the card's strange behavior may or may not be
attributed to a failing fan...

 

[ohaya]

Comments below, interspersed...

Normally this indicates basic Windows GDI hardware acceleration isn't
kicking in. Go into Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced ->
Troubleshoot tab, and make sure the slider is cranked all the way to the
right.

Ok, I'll have him put the card back in and check that.

Also, on some systems, the Win2000/XP service called "ATISmart" needs to run
for hardware acceleration to activate.

When you say "Win2000/XP service", did you mean that "ATISmart" would be
listed as a service in the Administrative Tools -> Services applet?
Just trying to clarify where to look.


Thanks for the hints!

Jim

 

[First of One]

When you say "Win2000/XP service", did you mean that "ATISmart" would be
listed as a service in the Administrative Tools -> Services applet?
Just trying to clarify where to look.

Yep, that's the place. "ATI Smart" should be set to Automatic startup.