You guys with the 9800s

[johns]

I'm a tech too. I'm finding a bunch of mobos that are
absolutely not compatible with the 9800 when it is
run hard. Also, if the psupply is weak, the 9800s will
give garbage on screen at boot up. Those mobos seem
to be the cheap all-in-ones with onboard video plus
AGP. The best boards I've found so far for the 9800
have the nVidia chipset. The el-cheapos with the VIA
chipset are just not getting it right .. and they still crap
out trying to copy big data chunks to zip drives. I think
the problem is the BIOS is just not complete. It is a
kluge to make the mobo run. I have one mobo that
has been back 4 times ... and the BIOS over 6 months
has gone from revision f4 to f9 !!!! That's a lot of fixing.
Almost every time, the problem looks like a bad video
card.

johns

 

[Julian Richards]

I'm a tech too. I'm finding a bunch of mobos that are
absolutely not compatible with the 9800 when it is
run hard. Also, if the psupply is weak, the 9800s will
give garbage on screen at boot up. Those mobos seem
to be the cheap all-in-ones with onboard video plus
AGP. The best boards I've found so far for the 9800
have the nVidia chipset. The el-cheapos with the VIA
chipset are just not getting it right .. and they still crap
out trying to copy big data chunks to zip drives. I think
the problem is the BIOS is just not complete. It is a
kluge to make the mobo run. I have one mobo that
has been back 4 times ... and the BIOS over 6 months
has gone from revision f4 to f9 !!!! That's a lot of fixing.
Almost every time, the problem looks like a bad video
card.

Garbage? What like? Checkerboarding would indicate a bust pipeline.
Have you tried underclocking the 9800? My motherboard is an L7S7A2 and
it is absolutely stable with a very overclocked softmodded 9800SE.
--

Julian Richards
computer "at" richardsuk.f9.co.uk

XP Home
L7S7A2 motherboard
Powercolor 9800 SE 8 pipelines 438/364 with Omega drivers
1 GB RAM
10 GB + 80 GB HDs
CD+DVD/CDRW drives

 

[First of One]

A bit ironic, isn't it?

 

[NightSky 421]

I'm a tech too. I'm finding a bunch of mobos that are
absolutely not compatible with the 9800 when it is
run hard. Also, if the psupply is weak, the 9800s will
give garbage on screen at boot up. Those mobos seem
to be the cheap all-in-ones with onboard video plus
AGP. The best boards I've found so far for the 9800
have the nVidia chipset. The el-cheapos with the VIA
chipset are just not getting it right .. and they still crap
out trying to copy big data chunks to zip drives. I think
the problem is the BIOS is just not complete. It is a
kluge to make the mobo run. I have one mobo that
has been back 4 times ... and the BIOS over 6 months
has gone from revision f4 to f9 !!!! That's a lot of fixing.
Almost every time, the problem looks like a bad video
card.

johns

I got by built-by-ATI 9800 Pro in the late summer of 2003 and it's been
working for me 100% so far. Of course, this is just one 9800 in a sea of
9800's, but my experience has been solid. I've used this card in two
boards, an Asus P4B533 and my current Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro (original
revision).

Another thing worth considering is the old saying, "you get what you pay
for". If you're dealing with cheap parts in a computer (including cheap
9800s), I shouldn't be surprised if there is a higher than usual problem
rate. I think the power supply is a big factor, as you elude to. Most
people don't give much thought to power supplies, when in fact it is one of
the most important components you can buy.