are you thinkin what i'm thinkin?(radeon 8500)

[h20link]

alrighty...i'm running an xp1700 on a soyo k7ada w/ 256mb pc2100 and a radeon 8500OEM which i bought from newegg.

For some reason, this machine locks up completely while i'm playing tribes or ghost recon. When i play counterstrike i don't have any problems(i figure that's because it's not so graphics intensive). I run my video settings on the high side in tribes and GR.....so i'm thinking the video card is overheating. The comp just freezes and i can only recover by hitting the reset button to turn the computer completely off........I'm running XP so i don't think it's an OS issue because i've heard that you can usually recover from a freezeup that's OS related.

I'm going to ditch the ati stock fan for a blorb soon.....but i thought i'd confer with you guys and see if you're thinking the same thing I am. I didn't buy retail, unfortunately. It even locked up when i was hosting a game of rogue spear. I'm downloading installing new drivers tonight, to see if that helps. If you guys have any ideas/suggestions i'd like to hear 'em, thanks.

 

[funnyperson1]

sounds like a driver issues to me...but cooling always helps

 

[h20link]

i just downloaded drivers from omegacorner, i'm gonna give them a shot. It's kinda funky.....sometimes when i click on the start menu as the scroll bar comes up the letters under the icons don't fully display. This happens occasionally when i'm online, i only get parts of the letters. Even weirder today was when rogue spear developed vertical lines running down the whole screen....it was like looking through the bars of a jail cell lol.

So when i quit that program i got to the desktop and the start button was displayed in the middle of the page but i had to click in the corner to get it to come up.....the edge of the screen was right in the middle of my monitor. so i rebooted and things got better.........we'll see if these new drivers help at all.

 

[Starfoxer]

seems like drivers to me. id go with the 6032's or www.ati.com
has some new beta drivers that should work fine.

 

[Oni]

Smells like you need new drivers. Beta's are always good. Check out www.rage3d.com for a whole lot of em!

 

[WyrmMaster]

If you suspect cooling as an issue just stick an 80mm fan on the card to cool it as a test. If it doesnt lock up, thats your issue. Try the 6043 drivers, they work great for me.

 

[h20link]

okay well i tried the 6043's. I'm still getting the lockup or, even wierder, in the middle of the game my computer goes into sleep mode........I disabled sleep mode in the screen>settings box but in the middle of the game a couple times the screen went black, and the monitor power light went from green to orange...sleep mode, right? i had to reset to get out of it. I only have these problems when gaming.....it never locks up when i'm on IE or working in one of my web design programs.

Now i'm really confused.........what's my next step? I'm half ready to junk my video card, sell it to someone who can use it w/o problems, and just get a gf3ti200.....it may not be as fast but i'm willing to bet i'll have less problems w/ nvidia. Of course I hate to keep throwing money at this problem.....because if it turns out not to be the video card i'm gonna be really p*ssed.

Anyways what's the next step i should take? any ideas.

 

[funnyperson1]

okay well i tried the 6043's. I'm still getting the lockup or, even wierder, in the middle of the game my computer goes into sleep mode........I disabled sleep mode in the screen>settings box but in the middle of the game a couple times the screen went black, and the monitor power light went from green to orange...sleep mode, right? i had to reset to get out of it. I only have these problems when gaming.....it never locks up when i'm on IE or working in one of my web design programs.

Now i'm really confused.........what's my next step? I'm half ready to junk my video card, sell it to someone who can use it w/o problems, and just get a gf3ti200.....it may not be as fast but i'm willing to bet i'll have less problems w/ nvidia. Of course I hate to keep throwing money at thi

s problem.....because if it turns out not to be the video card i'm gonna be really p*ssed.

Anyways what's the next step i should take? any ideas.

try the MX and see if it has the same problem...

 

[Starfoxer]

make sure the old drivers are totally gone. you can go to
control pannel/ add remove programs/ and remove the ATI
DISPLAY ADAPTER thing. then install the new drivers if
ya havent already done this.

 

[h20link]

make sure the old drivers are totally gone. you can go to
control pannel/ add remove programs/ and remove the ATI
DISPLAY ADAPTER thing. then install the new drivers if
ya havent already done this.

yeah i did that........thx though. the MX is pci......will that make a diff? i doubt it but maybe there's somethin i don't know

 

[scotto46]

mx pci s/b fine .. except

it won't tell you if you have an agp bus / slot problem.

It will , however , tell you if it's vid related at all. IE , if it still acts up, you know it is NOT the 8500.

I'd try it.

 

[Yodums]

Consider an IU Cooler, cooling perhaps can be an issue, as well as drivers.

Don't try the BLORB! Blorbs cause nothing but more problems, their uneven, ya lap em and everything is flat thin, especially the metal holding the clips since it is lapped so much. If you can't get an IU cooler, consider a Corb.

Also, if possible, do a format, clear all drivers, then install everything with new drivers. I think your drivers seem to be mixing or something..

 

[Maximus Nickus]

It sounds like its faulty.

RMA it, you should never have any problems like this with the new drivers.

I'm suprised no-one has thought of this


M_N

 

[h20link]

well i put in for an RMA.....we'll see. I asked 'em if they'd let me exchange it for a gf3ti200 w 128mb of ram. I know it's not as fast but i doubt i'll even see a difference.

 

[Staz]

I doubt your card is faulty. It probibly just stuborn. I was having the same exact problem with the same card. I tried everything I could think of. 4 diferent sets of drivers and all kinds of bios settings. The card just wouldn't work.

My solution was to steal the GF2mx 400 out of my wifes system and swap it with the 8500. The 8500 works absolutely awsome in my wifes system and the GF2mx is playing nice with my system.

So maybe your mobo just doesn't like your card. Defiantly RMA it. This has happened to me befor. Back when I couldn't get a viper550 to play nice with my Pentium233 system. I tried everthing with that one too. Diamond said it was a problem with my system and IBM said it was a problem with the video card. The retailer wanted me to pay a $25 restocking fee because the card wasn't faulty. After I explained everything I did to try to get ti to work he agreed to take the card back and send me a Monster fusion card and the $50 price diference.