9800 Pro Problems - Help needed please...

[Peter]

I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers and installed the ATI Catalyst drivers.
The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

My spec:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
400W power supply

Sorry for the long post but I'm concerned I've bought a dud card.

Any ideas what the problem is?

 

[Lazarus]

Perhaps a way to rule out the drivers would be to do a windows update and
install any drivers that it offers you!

Did you follow the instructions for install as in the ati read me? I seem to
remember that it wanted you to make xp load a standard vga adaptor before
installing drivers......check this out I could be wrong.

 

[dino]

re-install the MB drivers..I have seen upon vid card switching that the
drivers..(mainly gart) leaves too...if it is a VIA based board..dl the
Hyperon drivers and install them..Nvidia..etc..

 

[Andrew]

Perhaps a way to rule out the drivers would be to do a windows update and
install any drivers that it offers you!

The best way to rule out drivers is *never* to use windows update to
install video card drivers.

 

[ElJerid]

I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers and installed the ATI Catalyst drivers.
The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

My spec:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
400W power supply

Sorry for the long post but I'm concerned I've bought a dud card.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).
- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.
Everything should work perfectly now.

 

[Parish]

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).

At this point, if the New Hardware Wizard appears, I just Cancel it -
the default Windows VGA driver is already running (else you wouldn't be
able to see the screen ;-) ). It's always WFM.

 

[Peter]

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With
ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).
- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.
Everything should work perfectly now.

I tried that but it doesn't work.

I forgot to mention earlier on - I'm getting strange characters in the
screen after the BIOS screen (the one that displays the hard-disks,
dvd-drives etc.) - some characters are swapped around and there's random
gibberish text all over it. I'm also getting this gibberish in the Windows
Boot Options screen (after pressing F8).

I'm seriously starting to think I've been sold a dud....

 

[dino]

the last time I seen gibberish was on GeoForce2 Pro...just before it
fried...I would hazard a guess that someone OC'd the crap out of it and it
is on it's last legs.(I may be wrong)
but the gibberish isn't driver related.

 

[Trent©]

I forgot to mention earlier on - I'm getting strange characters in the
screen after the BIOS screen (the one that displays the hard-disks,
dvd-drives etc.) - some characters are swapped around and there's random
gibberish text all over it. I'm also getting this gibberish in the Windows
Boot Options screen (after pressing F8).

I'm seriously starting to think I've been sold a dud....

That's a pretty good sign that you've got a bad video card.

A couple of things you could try, though...

1. Upgrade the BIOS.

2. Check the site where yer gettin' your drivers...and see if they
note any OS or BIOS conflicts/fixes.

Good luck.


Have a nice one...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

 

[Bobby]

I would hazard a guess that someone OC'd the crap out of it

That gets my vote too.

 

[recursor]

That gets my vote too. #

Almost a racing certainty, the OP should check/recheck the ebay seller's feedback rating.

 

[theyak]

I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I didn't need to read any more of your post. Why would anyone buy a
piece of hardware that's so easy to overclock and likewise so easy to
damage while overclocking?

The person you bought it from fried it.


You can delete the drivers and delete the card in the device manager and
let windows install it's drivers again and see what happens.

Also, use the real ATI drivers instead of Omega's until you know the
card works? Eh?

 

[Aussie]

I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay

That's good.

and I'm having

serious problems with it.

No you are not.You r having problems with shitty omega rubbish.Get rad of
the piece of dirt.All will be OK.Trust me i had the same (well, very
similar) problem...

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers

Yeah right,thats what you think.I've spend nearly one hour going thru the
reg. line-by-line only then un-installation was complete.


and installed the ATI Catalyst drivers.

Me 2. (4.11)

The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

All well now,no problems what-so-ever..Can do/play anything )

 

[Aussie]

mode
Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers.

Yeah,a piece of shit called omega dirt.

With ATI,

there is a special procedure to install.

You mean to uninstall the omega shit (1 f.... hour,line-by-line)

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):

No,u dont have to,

- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;

No,you dont have to.

- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).

Total waste of time.

- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.

Always install the new version over the old one.NEVER had any problems (2
Years on).

Everything should work perfectly now.

Always will...

 

[Bitsbucket]

Gibberish at boot (after or during Hard drive detection) has nothing to do
with drivers, the card IS BAD, that you can count on. I have been a tech for
many years and most likely the memory on the card is damaged, I have fixed a
few of them back in the old days when memory was swappable, but even then
that didn't always fix them......in that case I guess the GPU was bad.
(never really tried to fix one after swapping memory)
As stated here above, (and by others who know) the card is bad, contact the
jackass that sold it to you and see if you can get a refund. Otherwise you
are stuck with a screwed card. I did get Gigabyte to replace a card that had
the EXACT same symptoms for me, you might also try contacting Sapphire, you
may be pleasantly surprised!
Good Luck
Bitsbucket

 

[dino]

actually if you read his second post...he is getting artifacts prior to
windows loading..so it is not an Omega..or ATI driver issue. Just because
Omega's don't work for doesn't mean they don't work for others.

 

[kony]

Gibberish at boot (after or during Hard drive detection) has nothing to do
with drivers, the card IS BAD, that you can count on. I have been a tech for
many years and most likely the memory on the card is damaged, I have fixed a
few of them back in the old days when memory was swappable, but even then
that didn't always fix them......in that case I guess the GPU was bad.
(never really tried to fix one after swapping memory)
As stated here above, (and by others who know) the card is bad, contact the
jackass that sold it to you and see if you can get a refund. Otherwise you
are stuck with a screwed card. I did get Gigabyte to replace a card that had
the EXACT same symptoms for me, you might also try contacting Sapphire, you
may be pleasantly surprised!
Good Luck
Bitsbucket

It might be a hardware defect but then again it might be
worthwhile to try flashing the (video card's) bios.

 

[Bitsbucket]

Didn't think of flashing the bios on the card....it certainly is worth a
try!

 

[J. Clarke]

Yeah,a piece of shit called omega dirt.

With ATI,


You mean to uninstall the omega shit (1 f.... hour,line-by-line)


No,u dont have to,


No,you dont have to.


Total waste of time.


Always install the new version over the old one.NEVER had any problems (2
Years on).


Always will...

You're funny. Off-base, but amusing.

 

[Clob]

Never once have I had a problem with Omega drivers.

Like others have said, the card is faulty. If you try and get a refund and
the card is flashed, you may not get money back!

I would concentrait on getting my money back rather than trying to make the
card work.