Lots of questions about 9700 Pro problems

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

As I mentioned in another post, I've just received a used Radeon 9700
Pro. I've only just installed it but I've seen some strange problems
already. I have a 30 day warranty on it so I need to get to the
bottom of it pretty fast!

I only installed the card last night so I haven't got much to go on
yet but I wanted early suggestions.

Problem happened when I tried to run Doom3. When the game itself
finally gets going, suddenly the screen was overlaid with random
dotted yellow lines arranged into a checkerboard block pattern. When
I closed the game, they were still there.

I rebooted and fired up again. Everything looked fine. Tried
Halflife (version 1), no problem. Tried Doom 3, this time it runs
fine. So I run it for a minute or two, just to check it out. I close
the game and hit the sleep button. The PC goes to sleep, but then
instantly clicks back on and the screen is filled with colourful
vertical lines. There is an overlaid block which moves with the
mouse. It seems to be responsive to keys, in the HD is blinking and
so on, but in the end I had to hit the power to shut it down.

Any ideas what this could be? I bought and fitted a 450W PSU
specifically for this card. I wonder if it could be motherboard
compatibility. My mobo is an MS-6367 nVidia based one. Obviously I
need to run the PC more over a few days and see if it's just Doom 3
that causes problems or if they happen more commonly.

(Specs here:
http://www.priyagroup.com/ithome/products/mth_products/ms6367.shtml )

I used the latest catalyst drivers (I've just seen on here about the
Omega ones - should I use these instead?).

Another question - in the ATI control panel, it shows it has set the
AGP speed to 1x. I tried setting it to 4x (it told me I would have to
restart and allow it to redetect capabilities) but after a reboot it
had gone back to 1x. What's with that??

Sorry about the lengthy post - I am a S/W engineer but a bit of an
idiot about hardware although learning fast

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

As I mentioned in another post, I've just received a used Radeon 9700
Pro. I've only just installed it but I've seen some strange problems
already. I have a 30 day warranty on it so I need to get to the
bottom of it pretty fast!

I only installed the card last night so I haven't got much to go on
yet but I wanted early suggestions.

Problem happened when I tried to run Doom3. When the game itself
finally gets going, suddenly the screen was overlaid with random
dotted yellow lines arranged into a checkerboard block pattern. When
I closed the game, they were still there.

I rebooted and fired up again. Everything looked fine. Tried
Halflife (version 1), no problem. Tried Doom 3, this time it runs
fine. So I run it for a minute or two, just to check it out. I close
the game and hit the sleep button. The PC goes to sleep, but then
instantly clicks back on and the screen is filled with colourful
vertical lines. There is an overlaid block which moves with the
mouse. It seems to be responsive to keys, in the HD is blinking and
so on, but in the end I had to hit the power to shut it down.

Any ideas what this could be? I bought and fitted a 450W PSU
specifically for this card. I wonder if it could be motherboard
compatibility. My mobo is an MS-6367 nVidia based one. Obviously I
need to run the PC more over a few days and see if it's just Doom 3
that causes problems or if they happen more commonly.

(Specs here:
http://www.priyagroup.com/ithome/products/mth_products/ms6367.shtml )

I used the latest catalyst drivers (I've just seen on here about the
Omega ones - should I use these instead?).

Another question - in the ATI control panel, it shows it has set the
AGP speed to 1x. I tried setting it to 4x (it told me I would have to
restart and allow it to redetect capabilities) but after a reboot it
had gone back to 1x. What's with that??

Sorry about the lengthy post - I am a S/W engineer but a bit of an
idiot about hardware although learning fast

Have you checked the temperature of the video card after you start
getting the artifacts? This card runs very hot and unless you have
adequate ventilation you will have problems. Mine got almost too hot to
touch running Morrowind. Adding a PCI slot fan below the video card
solved the ventilation problem and ended the problems.
Also, do you have a floppy power connector connected to the card, and is
it on its own lead from the power supply?

 

[doug.drodskie]

Is your mobo very old? A friend (upgrading from Voodoo3 PCI to Nvidia 5200
AGP) found his mobo only capable of 1xAGP, downloaded and tried to install
the latest bios which were supposed to add 8xAGP capability but the PC died.
He said he followed the set procedures to the letter, but had to replace the
mobo.

My 9700 Pro behaved the same as yours for a long time (e.g. mouse-block
appeared when Outlook Express crashed online, lovely coloured
'space-invader' style screens and in my case solid hang-ups in games) and
nobody could find the problem, including ATI (sent it back to them). I just
lived with the bail-outs and appreciated the wonder of the card when it was
working. Win XP magically fixed the problems over time and today it's 100%
stable. Never did find the problem.

 

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

Have you checked the temperature of the video card after you start
getting the artifacts?

I forgot to ask about this - can I do this from software? I would
guess there are OC tools that do temperature monitoring. Or do I have
to do it the old fashioned way?

This card runs very hot and unless you
have adequate ventilation you will have problems. Mine got almost
too hot to touch running Morrowind.

Currently the side of the case is off so there shouldn't be heat build
up in the box. AFAICT the fan on the card is working OK.

Also, do you have a floppy power connector connected to
the card, and is it on its own lead from the power supply?

Yep, and yep.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

I forgot to ask about this - can I do this from software? I would
guess there are OC tools that do temperature monitoring. Or do I have
to do it the old fashioned way?

The old fashioned way with this card. There is no onboard temperature
monitoring. Of course if your motherboard has a temperature monitoring
port and you have the correct cable you could use those. The only one I
have ever had was an ASUS P2B-S which had a port for monitoring the
temperature of the CPU (before this was built in).

Currently the side of the case is off so there shouldn't be heat build
up in the box. AFAICT the fan on the card is working OK.

The design of PCI cards places all the heat generating components on the
bottom of the card when it is installed so they need a way to move the
air out of the space between the cards. Feeling the card will tell if
you have adequate ventilation.

 

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Is your mobo very old? A friend (upgrading from Voodoo3 PCI to
Nvidia 5200 AGP) found his mobo only capable of 1xAGP

According to the docs, it's AGP 2.0 4x 1.5V.

 

[Sleepy]

As I mentioned in another post, I've just received a used Radeon 9700
Pro. I've only just installed it but I've seen some strange problems
already. I have a 30 day warranty on it so I need to get to the
bottom of it pretty fast!

I only installed the card last night so I haven't got much to go on
yet but I wanted early suggestions.

Problem happened when I tried to run Doom3. When the game itself
finally gets going, suddenly the screen was overlaid with random
dotted yellow lines arranged into a checkerboard block pattern. When
I closed the game, they were still there.

I rebooted and fired up again. Everything looked fine. Tried
Halflife (version 1), no problem. Tried Doom 3, this time it runs
fine. So I run it for a minute or two, just to check it out. I close
the game and hit the sleep button. The PC goes to sleep, but then
instantly clicks back on and the screen is filled with colourful
vertical lines. There is an overlaid block which moves with the
mouse. It seems to be responsive to keys, in the HD is blinking and
so on, but in the end I had to hit the power to shut it down.

Any ideas what this could be? I bought and fitted a 450W PSU
specifically for this card. I wonder if it could be motherboard
compatibility. My mobo is an MS-6367 nVidia based one. Obviously I
need to run the PC more over a few days and see if it's just Doom 3
that causes problems or if they happen more commonly.

(Specs here:
http://www.priyagroup.com/ithome/products/mth_products/ms6367.shtml )

I used the latest catalyst drivers (I've just seen on here about the
Omega ones - should I use these instead?).

Another question - in the ATI control panel, it shows it has set the
AGP speed to 1x. I tried setting it to 4x (it told me I would have to
restart and allow it to redetect capabilities) but after a reboot it
had gone back to 1x. What's with that??

Sorry about the lengthy post - I am a S/W engineer but a bit of an
idiot about hardware although learning fast

Wow - a lot to take in but I'll do my best
The PSU should be fine at 450w - dont worry about that.

Stick with Official drivers until you sort the problem - Omegas are tweaked
for
performance but not to solve problems. Uninstall the latest drivers and get
the 4.8s
from ATI - they are the most stable and compatible of recent drivers and
definitely
work fine with Doom 3. (ATI release a new set every month and they regularly
screw up one thing as they fix another - once in a while you get a driver
that works
with most things and is pretty solid all round - the 3.7s 4.4s and 4.8s fall
into that category)

Havent used a nforce chipset board myself but on my VIA chipset board I have
to
enable 4x AGP in the bios then install the motherboard drivers before I get
4x AGP
showing up in Windows so start with bios and motherboard drivers. Checked
with my brother
as he has a nforce board and he knows of no compatibility issues - he has
Abit NF7 and 9700pro.

I would put the issue of PC coming out of Sleep mode to one side - thats
generally a mobo/OS/driver
thing and unlikely to be caused by a graphics card.

Make sure the old graphics card drivers are uninstalled - install the 4.8s -
install the latest mobo drivers
for AGP port and IDE etc ... and check your bios settings - 4x agp enabled
NOT 8x (if you have it)
and not Fast-writes. Play Doom 3 for half an hour to get temps up and if its
okay put the lid back
on the case and try it for another half an hour.

If you want to check temperatures then use somthing like Motherboard Monitor
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7309,00.asp
and if your CPU temp is in the 40s and your system in the 20-30 range then
those are
average and show you have decent airflow in your case - provided the fan on
the card
is working you should be okay. That does remind me tho - my card was 2ndhand
and I
took the heatsink off to put fresh thermal paste between it and the GPU - I
found a
plastic label on the underside of the heatsink! Obviously it had a new
heatsink fitted and
the idiot didnt take the label off before fitting the heatsink - that
wouldnt help heat to transfer
from GPU to heatsink! So you could check for that I suppose.

Hope this helps

 

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

Stick with Official drivers until you sort the problem - Omegas
are tweaked for performance but not to solve problems. Uninstall
the latest drivers and get the 4.8s from ATI - they are the most
stable and compatible of recent drivers and definitely work fine
with Doom 3. (ATI release a new set every month and they regularly
screw up one thing as they fix another - once in a while you get a
driver that works with most things and is pretty solid all round -
the 3.7s 4.4s and 4.8s fall into that category)

That's useful to know - thanks!

That does remind me tho - my card was 2ndhand and I
took the heatsink off to put fresh thermal paste between it and
the GPU - I found a plastic label on the underside of the
heatsink! Obviously it had a new heatsink fitted and the idiot
didnt take the label off before fitting the heatsink - that
wouldnt help heat to transfer from GPU to heatsink! So you could
check for that I suppose.

I will Thanks..

Can you - or anyone else - advise me on BIOS/firmware for the card
itself? Should I try flashing the most recent version? Are there
updates? Are they available from ATI?

 

[J. Clarke]

Is your mobo very old? A friend (upgrading from Voodoo3 PCI to Nvidia 5200
AGP) found his mobo only capable of 1xAGP, downloaded and tried to install
the latest bios which were supposed to add 8xAGP capability but the PC
died. He said he followed the set procedures to the letter, but had to
replace the mobo.

Since AGP 8x requires voltages that AGP 1x boards don't have the hardware to
provide, it's not possible to add the capability with a BIOS change.

 

[doug.drodskie]

5200 AGP) found his mobo only capable of 1xAGP, downloaded and tried to
install the latest bios which were supposed to add 8xAGP capability but the
PC died. He said he followed the set procedures to the letter, but had to
replace the mobo.

Since AGP 8x requires voltages that AGP 1x boards don't have the hardware

to provide, it's not possible to add the capability with a BIOS change.

Soz, quite right, I checked with him and the new bios were meant to enable
4xAGP, not 8x. Didn't work though.

 

[First of One]

Unlike motherboards, there's never a need to touch the video card BIOS.

The "updates" you see on the web are from other users who dumped the image
from their own cards; they are definitely not from ATi.

Then again, since your card is used, there is a possibility that the
previous user flashed the card with a different BIOS...

 

[Sleepy]

That's useful to know - thanks!


I will Thanks..

Can you - or anyone else - advise me on BIOS/firmware for the card
itself? Should I try flashing the most recent version? Are there
updates? Are they available from ATI?

dont do it - its easier to stuff up a graphics card with a bios flash than a
motherboard. either you can sort your problems with drivers or return the
card under its 30 day warranty. if you flash the bios the warranty is void.

 

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

dont do it - its easier to stuff up a graphics card with a bios
flash than a motherboard. either you can sort your problems with
drivers or return the card under its 30 day warranty. if you flash
the bios the warranty is void.

Great - I'll leave that well alone.. thanks!

 

[John Carlyle-Clarke]

Havent used a nforce chipset board myself but on my VIA chipset
board I have to enable 4x AGP in the bios then install the
motherboard drivers before I get 4x AGP showing up in Windows so
start with bios and motherboard drivers.

Are there any settings in Windows anywhere which show AGP speed, or
just the ATI control panel?

Make sure the old graphics card drivers are uninstalled - install
the 4.8s - install the latest mobo drivers for AGP port and IDE
etc

I've uninstalled the later ATI drivers and the nForce VGA drivers,
and installed Catalyst 4.8 and the latest nVidia nForce platform
drivers (which includes the GART drivers).

... and check your bios settings - 4x agp
enabled NOT 8x (if you have it)
and not Fast-writes.

I checked the BIOS settings - these are the choices I have which look
relevant. Can you advise on the best values?

CAS Latency Override (2, 2.5, 3, Auto)
AGP Aperture Size (32, 64, 128, 258, 512MB)
AGP Bus Driving Control (Auto, Manual) -> if manual then:
xAGP Bus Driving Value (Weakest, Medium, Strongest)

Frame Buffer Size (Auto, 16MB, 32MB)
Internal AGP Clock (66MHz, 100MHz)

Play Doom 3 for half an hour to get temps up
and if its okay put the lid back
on the case and try it for another half an hour.

If you want to check temperatures then use somthing like
Motherboard Monitor
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,7309,00.asp

I think my Mobo is too cheap and nasty to support that I am
seriously wondering if it's time for a better mainboard ...

By the way - which bit of card am I checking for heat? I assume it's
the main big ole chip which gets hot, but I can't feel that directly
because of the fan etc.