ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

[rider]

Just purchased the subject video card from an acquaintance. The seller
insists the card was working properly in his system.

I installed it into a custom built PC with an Intel D845WN motherboard, P4
1.6Mhz CPU, and 1.3GB PC133 SDRAM. I have connected the system to three
different monitors. In each situation, the display on the monitor is
corrupted. Reinstalling my old Radeon 7200 card corrects the display on each
monitor.

The corruption is observed immediately upon starting the system, and nothing
on the monitor is discernable. The screen consists of five vertical columns
of repeating patterns. Windows does appear to start. After a few moments,
the patterns change, and I observe a white blob which moves in response to
my mouse. As I cannot properly read the screen, I am unable to install
drivers or otherwise tweak the system.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

 

[Greg]

Did you fully "uninstall" the old video card and its drivers before
installing the new card??? Even if you are swapping one ATI Radeon card for
another you still MUST uninstall the old drivers COMPLETELY before
installing the next card.

 

[SL]

also, is your motherboard and the line in from your power supply itself
sufficient? It gets voltage both ways. On older motherboards especially, I
have heard the same kind of things. You can check your bios to make sure
the agp voltage is good. Also try another power supple on the card if you
have another one. And It might not hurt to double check the card to see if
its seated properly.

Hope it helps,
SL

 

[Augustus]

Just purchased the subject video card from an acquaintance. The seller
insists the card was working properly in his system.

I installed it into a custom built PC with an Intel D845WN motherboard, P4
1.6Mhz CPU, and 1.3GB PC133 SDRAM. I have connected the system to three
different monitors. In each situation, the display on the monitor is
corrupted. Reinstalling my old Radeon 7200 card corrects the display on
each monitor.

The corruption is observed immediately upon starting the system, and
nothing on the monitor is discernable. The screen consists of five
vertical columns of repeating patterns. Windows does appear to start.
After a few moments, the patterns change, and I observe a white blob which
moves in response to my mouse. As I cannot properly read the screen, I am
unable to install drivers or otherwise tweak the system.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

You did connect the supplemental 12V Molex connector to the back of the 9800
Pro card, right?

 

[GTD]

Did you fully "uninstall" the old video card and its drivers before
installing the new card??? Even if you are swapping one ATI Radeon card for
another you still MUST uninstall the old drivers COMPLETELY before
installing the next card.

It CAN NOT be a driver issue if he is getting IMMEDIATE display
corruption.

 

[GTD]

Just purchased the subject video card from an acquaintance. The seller
insists the card was working properly in his system.

I installed it into a custom built PC with an Intel D845WN motherboard, P4
1.6Mhz CPU, and 1.3GB PC133 SDRAM. I have connected the system to three
different monitors. In each situation, the display on the monitor is
corrupted. Reinstalling my old Radeon 7200 card corrects the display on each
monitor.

The corruption is observed immediately upon starting the system, and nothing
on the monitor is discernable. The screen consists of five vertical columns
of repeating patterns. Windows does appear to start. After a few moments,
the patterns change, and I observe a white blob which moves in response to
my mouse. As I cannot properly read the screen, I am unable to install
drivers or otherwise tweak the system.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

This is NOT a driver issue, so for now, don't bother with them.
make sure your PSU is up to snuff, and that the required molex
connector is indeed connected properly. Make sure the fan works and
that the heatsink is making proper contact. If you could check the
card in another system it would (hopefully) eliminate it as the cause.

 

[rider]

I agree that this problem is not a driver issue as the corruption occurs
before Windows loads. And previous drivers had been completely removed prior
to installation of the newer card.
The 12V connector is properly installed, and power is available at it.
The fan does work properly.
The card appears to be properly seated. And as I have physically installed
it several times, it has probably been properly seated at least once.
The motherboard specifications state that it will accept a 1.5V 4X AGP card.
The power supply is 350W. I am not observing any further problems that may
be related to power supply issues.

I think the next step is to find another system in which to test the video
card.

 

[tod]

Sounds like the card is defective.....or?
Try remove other cards from your system.
Clear the motherboard bios and then reset everything in the bios
Turn off anything in bios that you do not use (serial or parallel ports,
etc.)
Remove/unplug anything extra you can from the system that uses power ( 2nd
HD,CD, DVD, etc)
Update the motherboards bios, (risky)

Does the ATI card have a bios that can be updated?

Ask the "Acquaintance" if he has a system that the card can be plugged into
to show the card works for him.

Email ATI tech support, see if they think the card is defective
and can be sent in for warranty repair.
(Does the Acquaintance have the original bill of sale)

It really does sound like the card is defective.

 

[Kevin C.]

Did you fully "uninstall" the old video card and its drivers before
installing the new card??? Even if you are swapping one ATI Radeon card for
another you still MUST uninstall the old drivers COMPLETELY before
installing the next card.

Not really, I used to do hardware testing and I swapped a dozen odd Radeon
cards ranging from the 8500 to the X800 without ever uninstalling the
drivers and they worked fine.

 

[BigJim]

test the card in another system disconnect the hard drives
so as not to screw with his drivers all you need to know
is the boot good or bad

 

[cannonfodder]

Just purchased the subject video card from an acquaintance. The seller
insists the card was working properly in his system.

I installed it into a custom built PC with an Intel D845WN motherboard, P4
1.6Mhz CPU, and 1.3GB PC133 SDRAM. I have connected the system to three
different monitors. In each situation, the display on the monitor is
corrupted. Reinstalling my old Radeon 7200 card corrects the display on
each monitor.

The corruption is observed immediately upon starting the system, and
nothing on the monitor is discernable. The screen consists of five
vertical columns of repeating patterns. Windows does appear to start.
After a few moments, the patterns change, and I observe a white blob which
moves in response to my mouse. As I cannot properly read the screen, I am
unable to install drivers or otherwise tweak the system.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

It looks to me like your 9800 is using a refresh rate that is out of your
monitors range.
Try to boot into safe mode, (press F8 while booting and select safe mode
from the menu)
If the screen looks ok then go into properties / settings /advanced /
monitor and reduce the refresh rate to 60khz.
Re boot your system and all should be well.
Repeat the properties etc but increase the refresh rate one setting at a
time until you again see the corruption.
At this point if you do nothing for 15seconds then the setting will
automatically roll back to the last one.

 

[rider]

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

The seller of the card has agreed to reinstall the card into his machine to
test it. Unfortunately, our schedules are not going to permit a meeting for
at least a week. In the meantime, I'll pester a few friends to allow me to
plug the card into their machines to test it.

I'll post the results.

 

[rider]

I cannot get into the safe mode with a readable screen. I may try to map the
keyboard commands to get me into the refresh screen and make the adjustment
blindly.

 

[Randy]

This happend to me and it was a weak power supply (noname 350w). I also had
a 9800 pro.. New PS and all was fine. Get a name brand 400w at least.

Randy

 

[patrickp]

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

The seller of the card has agreed to reinstall the card into his machine to
test it. Unfortunately, our schedules are not going to permit a meeting for
at least a week. In the meantime, I'll pester a few friends to allow me to
plug the card into their machines to test it.

I'll post the results.

It's quite possible the card was working in the seller's machine, and
has been damaged by static charges from careless handling in the
transaction, rider. Did you and the seller both observe antistatic
precautions when you were removing, packing, unpacking and installing
the card?

Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[bart]

Try this, start your system, let it run for a few minutes, kill the
power with the switch on the back (a reboot will not work) turn on the
power and restart.
I can show you a screen shot of exactly the same as what you see, mouse
an' all.
ATI and I went through a weeks work of e-mailing and suggestions, all
of which didn't work, then they suggested that the motherboard and
video card were not compatible, it turns out that this is so.

Try it and get back with your findings.

Ray

 

[rider]

That the card got damaged in the processes of removing it from his machine
and installing in mine is currently the main suspect in this whole ordeal.
But, admittedly, I am not religious about observing strict anti-static
techniques.

Just for the record, I do not doubt the seller (who is also an occasional
business acquaintance) when he states that the card was working in his
machine.

 

[rider]

An inadequate power supply is the second suspect in this ordeal. As I am
upgrading my system piece by piece, I am likely to purchase a new case and
power supply in the next few months anyway. If the card tests properly in
another machine, I may accelerate that purchase.

 

[DDC]

I cannot get into the safe mode with a readable screen. I may try to map the
keyboard commands to get me into the refresh screen and make the adjustment
blindly.

Have you check the plug connector the vga one maybe it's your 9800pro
hardware to be the trouble.

I know that there is 9800pro that has the rv360 gpu core and those can
be updated with a bios or can be tweaked... so maybe there is
something there....

normally a video card should work in dos, is it working good on boot
up.

Is your mobo an agp4x or lower...

 

[Guest]

Just purchased the subject video card from an acquaintance. The seller
insists the card was working properly in his system.
snip

In addition to the PSU suggestions, has your system ever had an nVidia card
in it? I had an old 32Mb nVidia which I upgraded to a 64Mb Radeon 7000.
Worked fine. I then upgraded to an 8500Pro and had display probs. Turned out
I'd left some nvidia drivers lurking in my machine that the 7000 was
unaffected by.