Hi
My card has just broke. I think.
I've been having a lot of trouble with my Hercules 3D Prophet RADEON 9700 PRO 128 MB.
Every time I start a game (and sometimes in Windows) I get artifacts on the screen. It is hard to describe them, but bassically it looks sometimes like a chess board, or vertical lines, or magic pictures.
At first I thought it was the drivers, so I got the latest ones and it still does it. I've even tried some older drivers that I had since before the problems started, they made no difference. I got to the point of reinstalling Windows, since nothing would work. That didn't help. I've even turned the heating off one day thinking that it was overheating for some reason, and opened the case, and still the same problems.
I've looked up the issue on the internet in search engines, and found message boards with a lot of other people are having the exact same problem. Some say it's some kind of inherent defect with the memory?
This problem isn't limited to the Hercules brand. I've seen complaints from almost all the other brands.
It could be worse, apparently Sapphire card users are totaly enraged at Sapphire because they won't reply to their emails. Probaby overwhelmed:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=20
Mine lasted well over a year, others only a few months. A friend's cousin also has a Hercules 9700 PRO and he's got the same problem, just under one year of use.
I think it's hardware related, but I'm willing to bet that maybe some of the later drivers perhaps made more use of the piece of hardware than the older drivers did, perhaps increasing the chance of failiure. That might explain the sudden problems. Or maybe it was kept quiet at the start. Don't know.
Then again, I've been overclocking mine ever since I've got it, so I'm willing to bet big money that it didn't help.
I've looked in the manual and no applicable advice there apart from the 3 year warranty and returning the product. I've already contacted www.hercules-uk.com and alerted them of the situation. Now awaiting a reply.
IMO the Hercules is the best 9700 PRO (that's why I bought it hehe), so as long as Hercules do their bit to replace it, I won't be anoyed with them. Time will tell. :suspiciou
I wanted to post this just to alert people, and for some advice.
My card has just broke. I think.
I've been having a lot of trouble with my Hercules 3D Prophet RADEON 9700 PRO 128 MB.
Every time I start a game (and sometimes in Windows) I get artifacts on the screen. It is hard to describe them, but bassically it looks sometimes like a chess board, or vertical lines, or magic pictures.
At first I thought it was the drivers, so I got the latest ones and it still does it. I've even tried some older drivers that I had since before the problems started, they made no difference. I got to the point of reinstalling Windows, since nothing would work. That didn't help. I've even turned the heating off one day thinking that it was overheating for some reason, and opened the case, and still the same problems.
I've looked up the issue on the internet in search engines, and found message boards with a lot of other people are having the exact same problem. Some say it's some kind of inherent defect with the memory?
This problem isn't limited to the Hercules brand. I've seen complaints from almost all the other brands.
It could be worse, apparently Sapphire card users are totaly enraged at Sapphire because they won't reply to their emails. Probaby overwhelmed:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/pop_printer_friendly.asp?TOPIC_ID=20
Mine lasted well over a year, others only a few months. A friend's cousin also has a Hercules 9700 PRO and he's got the same problem, just under one year of use.
I think it's hardware related, but I'm willing to bet that maybe some of the later drivers perhaps made more use of the piece of hardware than the older drivers did, perhaps increasing the chance of failiure. That might explain the sudden problems. Or maybe it was kept quiet at the start. Don't know.
Then again, I've been overclocking mine ever since I've got it, so I'm willing to bet big money that it didn't help.
I've looked in the manual and no applicable advice there apart from the 3 year warranty and returning the product. I've already contacted www.hercules-uk.com and alerted them of the situation. Now awaiting a reply.
IMO the Hercules is the best 9700 PRO (that's why I bought it hehe), so as long as Hercules do their bit to replace it, I won't be anoyed with them. Time will tell. :suspiciou
I wanted to post this just to alert people, and for some advice.
