Radeon 9700 Problem...

[htimst]

I know this is an overclockers forum, and I'm doing something that would be considered INSANE...I'll give a tad bit of background.

Stock ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
D850MEV2 Mobo
1G PC1066 RAM
PIV 2.53
PS Antec 400W
CPU Fan, 4 Cooling Fans in Antec Case

3D games like America's Army, Unreal etc. crash to BSOD almost immediately on a newly built system. I can't even bench the system using 3DMark2001 without it crashing to a hard boot or BSOD.

I thought...what if I underclock it (I know, it hurts more to type it than it does to read it).

I took Radeonator and moved the sliders all the way back so it read 212/212. It benched at 10712 and played America's Army for 35 minutes with no incident. This leaves me scratching my head...

I turned the sliders up to 250/250 and it benches at 12780 and runs the 3D games stable.

What does this tell me? <--- That's my question

Thanks!

 

[AbraM]

I do not really know what it should tell you. Sound like the cooling is out of order or something. Perhaps the heatsink is not properly seated? Did you remember to hook up the extra powercable? It might be too obvious but the obvious often get forgotten....

You could also take a look at the Rage3D forum:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php?forumid=58

There you might find some helpful hints. Hope it helps!

/Abe

 

[tragic_monkey]

perhaps your 9700 is sharing IRQ's with too many other devices

 

[htimst]

Well, I've been through all the IRQ hoops, running this thing with only the radeon in it and having the same crashing problems. I am just confused as to what the information that I have tells me at this point. As for heat, case temp is at 41C and processor temp is at 40 while running a 3D bench. There is no voltage drop from the power supply.

I guess the card could be heating up too much, but I swapped it out for another Radeon and the problem still existed.

So as for the obvious stuff, I posted in this forum after rebuilding this thing twice, checking the card, the heat sinks, the fan, temps, powersupply.

But I was wondering...by underclocking the card to stabilize the system, I just do not know what that points to. Does that point to the card, the power supply, the mobo? I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

Thanks!

 

[PreservedSwine]

Perhaps you mobo isn't getting enough juice to the R9700. Can you raise your AGP voltage up a notch?

ALSO, it is extremely important to have the LATEST BIOS from your mobo manufacturer, as well as the latest CHIPSET drivers for your mobo. And, of course, the latest 2.3 cats from ATI

 

[funnyperson1]

did you plug in the floppy connector to the video card?

this could be a faulty card, or an underpowered card....so its either card or psu...try raising the AGP voltage if you can that may help

 

[Default]

check your 5 volt line, i fixed mine and you can see in my sig what i'm running at.

 

[htimst]

I've been through the entire driver lineup from the current published catalyst 2.3 drivers (6166) through the 6293 unpublished ones with no affect.

I don't know how to change the voltage to the AGP slot on this mobo...any hints would be great.

The card is plugged in correctly with power going to the card correctly. I checked this out a couple of times too.

Thanks

 

[Big Nuttz]

check your 5 volt line, i fixed mine and you can see in my sig what i'm running at.

Nice sig. I'm gonna get mine soon.

 

[OC Noob]

"I guess the card could be heating up too much, but I swapped it out for another Radeon and the problem still existed."

Which Radeon are you swapping the 9700 out with, I'm assuming you didn't have problems with that card before this.

If that is the case I would bet your mobo is going nutty for some reason. There is a small piece of paper that came with your 9700 that tells you, you need Microsoft versions of certain mobo drivers and certain mobos like VIA don't use them by default, but you can download them from you mobo manufactuerers web site.

If you have a card that worked fine before in the rig and are still getting these problems I doubt it would be a problem with the 9700, hence the Microsoft drivers aren't your problem.

What kind of mobo is that (D850MEV2)?

 

[htimst]

That's a Genuine Intel Mobo.

As for swapping the card out, I swapped it with another identical Radeon 9700 Pro and produced the same error. The other card is in an AMD based system with a gigex mobo...otherwise the same periphs.

 

[telescope]

Fargazer here - my email is down, so registered Telescope while I fix it

Per ATI support personnel posting at 3DRage, the most common cause of your issue (only being able to run if underclocked) is the power supply. Wattage and power quality are both important factors.

You had stated an Antec 400W power supply. What model is it? Normally Antec makes good stuff, but they do have several lines of PS, and not all are of equal quality. Might want to swap the PS for another one, just to check that.

Also, if possible, try to give the 9700 Pro it's own power lead; if you can't do that, don't put it on the same power lead as your case fans. Try to share it instead with things like the CD ROM, floppy, or both, things not constantly running.

Odds are it's not your settings, since your card is working fine at slower speeds. I would be curious what happens if you run your PC1066 RAM as PC800 (multiplier 3, not 4), but with your motherboard you would need to actually put PC800-40ms RIMMs in it; the Intel D850EMV2 does not allow you to change this in the BIOS. It's probably worth trying - I hope you can borrow some RIMMs rather than buy new just to diagnose.

Do be aware, Kingston did have a bad batch of PC1066 (and I think Corsair gets their PC1066 from Kingston). If that's your brand, it could be a memory problem. Here is the information I got from Kingston, posted at Rage3D:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33643740

In the course of troubleshooting what turned out to be memory issues, I ended up getting replacements for enough components to build two rigs, based on the Intel D850EMV2L and the Asus P4T533-C. In the process, ATI cross shipped me a second 9700 Pro. I kept both long enough that, once I found the memory problem, I could test both cards on both rigs. Each computer allowed me to loop 3dMark2001SE (build 330) extensively with either Radeon 9700 Pro. Details are in links at the above thread.

The setup on the machines, during testing, was:

Intel D850EMV2L
2.53GHz PIV
a pair of 128MB PC800-40 RIMMs
Adaptec SCSI controller with a 10K SCSI drive
Enermax 550W power supply
Stock HSF

Asus P4T533-C
2.8GHz PIV
a pair of 512MB PC800-40 RIMMs
Adaptec dual channel SCSI controller with 2 15K drives, one 10K drive
PC Power and Cooling 475W Turbo Cool PS
Swiftech MCX4000 with Tornado 80mm fan

The pertinent differences I see between your Intel setup and mine are the power supplies and the RAM. I can't try PC1066 until I get my new RIMMs from Kingston, which will be in 4 weeks or more.

 

[htimst]

My power supply is the Antec SL-400

 

[telescope]

I did find at least one person with an Antec 400W power supply that cured his issues by going to a True Power (he had the Smart Power). The link is:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33633283

I don't know what part number the SL-400 is in the Antec lineup, if it's the Smart Power, True Power, or Psychodelic Flashback Power . Hope this helps though...

 

[htimst]

It's a smartpower 400. I'd get amped if I wasn't running another smartpower 400 in the AMD/Gigabyte/Radeon setup that is working just fine...I am going to swap out the PSU with a 530W that I have and see what happens. Intel is sending a new 850 in the meantime...so I guess I'll see.

Thanks