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9800XT Problem

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airforcemook

New Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
9800XT Problem (Actual 9800XT, not a modded card :p)

Ok, this is going to be long, but bear with me, please...

System:
AMD Xp 3000+ on Soyo KT600 Plus v1.0 Dragon board
ATI 9800XT Pro 256MB (Default clock speeds)
WinXP Pro w/ Service Pack 2 and all updates
1GB DDR400 (2 different brand 512MB sticks)
DirectX 9.0c
Creative Audigy 2 ZS w/ newest drivers
ATI Catalyst drivers (Tried various versions)
OMEGA latest WinXP drivers

Background:
9800XT was working fine. I had an issue previous where it seemed like it may have been overheating, due to constant lock-ups, etc. I had chilled my room way down and put a fan on the side of the comp, and it seemed to work fine for a while. After some time I noticed I didn't even need to use the A/C or put the fan on it, so I decided it WASN't a heat issue and that I had unknowningly fixed the problem. My card runs about 65'C (up to 150 or so Fahrenheit) idle... I thought this was a bit much, but then I saw a post stating that a lot of people have cards that run so hot during normal ops that they can barely even touch them, and mine never even approaches that, it seems warm - but that's all.

Issues:
Since I tried using D3D/GLQuake and D3D/GLQuakeworld Client's (my friends wanted to play some classic Quake), I started getting kicked to desktop with exception errors for those programs, and then later started getting complete system lock-ups and sometimes even a reboot. This has spread to ANY Direct3d or OpenGL program I attempt to run, sometimes locking up upon immediately rendering an environment, sometimes lasting up to a min or so.

Attempted Fixes: (This is by no means a complete list)

#1. Put MOLEX connecting the ATI card to one that has ONLY the floppy drive, which draws no power while not in use.

#2. Flashed mobo bios to latest

#3. Tried the A/C + fan blowing on it... lowered temps to about 51'C but still had the exact same problems.

#4. Tried reinstalling ATI drivers in about 15 different variations :p (4.9 Driver only, 4.10 full install, 4.9 full install, 4.9 full w/o CCC, 4.10 full w/o CCC, 4.8 driver only, etc etc etc - On each attempt I removed the display adapters from device manager and uninstalled all drivers and ATI software, rebooted, then installed, followed by another reboot)

#5. Completely fresh install of WinXP onto a clean h/d, and installed all WinXp updates using microsoft's site, then installed DirectX 9.0c again, followed by sound and video drivers

#6. Used the "Driver Cleaner" utility (I think from www.driverheaven.net, that's a link in the readme), and it's CAB cleaner utility to clean SP2.cab, Drivers.cab, and then removed all ATI files using it's driver-cleaner portion, followed by installs again of ATI stuff.

#7. I've removed the Audigy card believing it may have been a conflict, was not, but atm I haven't put it back in.

#8. Removed individual sticks of RAM thinking it could be a memory problem, no affect. (Both are back in at this point. I've also run MemTest until it had a few thousand percent coverage, no errors)

#9. Tried using the OMEGA drivers, still exact same issue.

#10. I've tried changing some various BIOS settings, nothing seems to affect it there.

#11. Severly underclocking using ATI Tool, no affect (still locked up, and heat really didn't drop at all)

#12. Noticing (using MBM5) that the voltages on the power supply were a little off, I changed to another Antec TruePower (350W, instead of my normal TruePower 380W), and it has better voltages, much closer to the 5v,12v, etc... but no affect, still locked up, etc.

=====
Other things to know:

Thinking it was a heat problem, I set up ATI Tool to record the temps every second to a logfile and then initiated Morrowind. The temps never changed by more than .5'C, IF that. Yet the lockups continued...

The fan on the video card HAS made an odd noise once in a while -- however, like I said, the temps are just warm to the touch, not hot really - and someone said in a post I found that ATI even tests their cards up to 127'C, which I am doubtful of, as that is REALLY freakin' hot, but nonetheless from what I can tell 150'F isn't that bad for a card. It also is running very smoothly, it's not stopping and stuttering/etc like a normal dying fan, nor making the noises constantly.

At this point, because I've tried SO many different things, I'm just going to get the VGA cooler for it off NewEgg.com when I get paid, which is supposed to be a better than stock cooler anyhow, and see if that changes anything.

My only other thought it that maybe the mobo has in some way become problematic -- but with the fan making a noise I'm leaning towards video card issue... and I can't be without a computer for 2 or more weeks while ATI "fixes" it. :p I need something of an immediate solution, and if a new cooler is all it takes great, but like I said, from what I've seen online the temps don't look that bad...

If you need any other information I'll do the best I can - this has aggravated me for days...

Thanks everyone,
-A poor airman who can't afford another card...





:cry: :cry:
 
Last edited:
I have a similar problem when running Quake 3 with any ati driver newer than 4.7 . If I use Catalyst 4.7, all the games seem to run great.

As soon as I switch to one of the newer catalyst versions (4.8+), I can get into quake for 20 seconds or so and the computer locks making me have to reboot.

I would try running 4.7 for now and see if that works.

Tim
 
If you are overclocking your fsb on a motherboard with no AGP/PCI locks then higher agp frequencies are harder for the card to tolerate. especially for ati cards that dont like high agp frequencies. if you are overclocking your cpu, try setting it to default settings. if that doesnt help or is not the case, try increasing your agp or chipset voltage.. if these dont help, then your card might be defective.. or try decreasing your agp speed to 4x which i've heard helps fix some crash problems
 
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