Major help please.

[GeoXx]

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2775/arti5bl.jpg

i've been getting major artifacts such as this whenever i play BF2. also some parts of text is cut off at POST. what i did was install my fresh out of the box arctic cooling rev 2 vga cooler. i took off the heatsink after 2 hours of trying to force the barbs through the holes. i may have put 1 or 2 scratches, very small scratches on the card. i installed it right i believe, i was wondering if these artifacts are permanant? is there a way to fix them? i also found out my card has the r360 core and can be softmodded, so to lose this card would kinda suck.

[GeoXx]

errrrrr... also , my video card is an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro from sapphire

[IWasHungry]

Looks like the memory is overheating to me.

[GeoXx]

my system memory?

[RJARRRPCGP]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears that the GPU is overheating or damaged. (when installing the GPU heatsink)

[GeoXx]

:{{{

[IWasHungry]

my system memory?
video card.

[Quailane]

No, the memory is NOT overheating.

Videocard memory doesn't do that, not unless you heat it or overclock it INSANELY high (tested that out). When it overheats on the 9800pros it snows on the screen (amount depending on overclock + heat)

It is the core. I had two MSI 9800XT's like that and nothing could fix it, at least nothing too drastic. I rma'd them one after another. Funny thing was, it produced only errors on the water in rome: total war and it made call of duty look exactly like your screenshot and completely unplayable.

[IWasHungry]

Coulda sworn it was the other way around...

/babbling
Well I'll admit it's been a while since I touched clocks on a video card. Right I'm in no rush in OCing my X850XT-PE, since it's plenty powerful.
/babbling

[JigPu]

For me (9500), it IS the other way around :D Snow = GPU, "Trangle Mania" or screwed up textures = Mem. Weird.

Regardless, something is borked. Depending on exactly how it's borked, it may or may not be permanant. If it's just an issue of the heatsink making insufficient contact, then reseating (or temporarily replacing with the original) may correct the problem. If you were unlucky enough to zap your card with static or break a trace somehow, then the damage is permanant.

JigPu

[GeoXx]

ill try reseating the hs. if that doesn't work, thenn i am doooooomed. oh well, i'm trying to get a job so i can afford to fix things like this... god it sucks being 16