Any Ideas for my problem?

[dreadlord79]

I just purchased a Radeon 8500 from an online dealer and have checked with ATI which told me that this was one of their "own" cards. I got an OK deal on it. The question is this, I put it in my system and the screen was fuzzy In the start-up screens (BIOS check, system check, ect) I would get blocks of color that would move around from screen to screen and in BIOS it would leave "traces" of the color when ever I moved the cursor. I couldn't get it to work properly (after my gf decided to download and install 6 diffent drivers!). I did a complete re-install and the card didn't give me any problems until I got Win '98 installed on the system. After it restarted for the final time, the problem came back! I used the drivers that came with the card but it didn't seem to help. :( Could some one please help me with this problem?! I am upgrading to XP here very soon and my cousin's computer was able to get rid of all of his problems after doing the XP upgrade and the newest drivers for the card for XP.

Thank You for taking the time to help!

[Monaco]

that actually sounds to me like your card has a problem with it's memory. Take a close look at the traces going to the memory chips, be sure nothing is shorting one out. Couldn't hurt to give it a shot of compressed air, too.

If that don't help I would immediatley return that thing for a new one, if possible. It sounds broken to me!

It can't be a driver issue because you saw the problem in BIOS, and your BIOS doesn't use any drivers at all to run the card. :)

[dreadlord79]

Thanks for the input Monster! I had a friend give me the same diagnosis and figured I should see if some one else would give me the same responce. Thank you again! :)

[ken257]

Yes that sure sounds like a bad card I would exchange it for another one!