Help please, new system with 9800 pro 128 problems

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adman2345

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I looked around for a solution to this problem online and happened upon this forum, you guys seem really knowledgeable so I figured I would try my luck here. I just put together a new system:
Radeon 9800 pro 128
512 megs DDR400
AMD Athalon XP 2800+ 64 bit
MSI K8T Neo-V
XP home edition w/SP2 and .net framework
The hard drive is a 2+ year old Western Digital 100 gig ide. I'm not sure if such bugs can be attributed to an old hard drive, it seems to run fine. I wanted to make sure it shouldn't be contributing to my problems before I run out and get a new one.

I just reinstalled windows with SP2, then promptly installed the newest VIA drivers for my motherboard from www.viaarena.com, installed the newest Catalyst (5.7) drivers for my graphics card, installed pccilin antivirus, installed the drivers for my onboard sound, and let windows update and steam do their thing so that everything should be current. Oh and the newest directx drivers came with my SP2 install(9.0c)

Any help would be VASTLY appreciated.

I relize this isn't a stellar system, but from what I understand it should be able to run HL2 without glitching like this(some pictures were cropped so they were within file size limitations):
 

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Is the game choppy like that when you first start playing it or does it start after a few minutes of play ? Try some different drivers and see if that helps
 
It's like that all the time, I'll try going with Catalyst 5.6 and see if that amounts to anything. I should be able to run this game with my system shouldn't I, is anyone else playing HL2 using these drivers and a 9800 pro?
 
nope nothing is overclocked, the only change I made to the system was setting the virtual memory paging file size to 1536 megs. I'm going to try to install HL1 and see if there are similar problem even with a much older game.
 
My last computer was about equal to what you have now, actually a little slower (but with more ram). I had an Athlon 2500+, a gig of ram, and the 9800pro. Ran HL2 very well. That video card is more than enough to run HL2 at decent settings. Something is messed up. You say that that pixelation happens right away, right? It looks like overheating, but if it is happening right away, then I guess it can't be....

How about your bios? Is it current?
 
Has your bios got a turbo or overclocking setting for video if so cut it off ? What kind of power supply do you have in that pc ?
 
I havn't updated my bios this install, my first install of windows (a few days ago) I updated the bios right away and the same thing hapened. Is there any way to check the temperature of my GPU? I'll check the bios settings soon and report back what I find. The power supply is a 400 watt Macron MPT-400. It's a few years old as well. Besides the fan on the graphics card, I have the side of my case open with a 6 inch fan blowing in there as well.
Thanks for the suggestions
 
No I don't currently have the ability to throw it in another system. Are there any other ways to tell if it's a bad card? I installed HL1 and bumped the resolution all the way up, it looked great except when the graphics mode was set to Direct3D, then there were all sorts of the same distortion boxes all over. I thought I read somewhere that the 9800 was strongest in at Direct3D. When I run the DirecX diagnosis tool, the Direct3D does perfectly fine, all the way through.
Here's a link to the HL1 screenshot.
 

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In the advanced Chipset Features portion of my motherboard setup utility:
AGP Timing Controls:
AGP Fast Write - Disabled
AGP Aperture Size 128MB

VLink 8X Supported - Enabled
LDT to AGP Lokar Frequency - 800Mhz


The primary graphics adapater settings is set to AGP, should I change it to PCI?
 
Ok, I removed the fan and heat sink on the graphics card, applied some new flux, reinstalled it, and still have the same problem. They heat sink is still warm to the touch as it was before. Any other ideas?
 
flashed bios with newest drivers, still the same glitches. Could this at all be caused by my old hard drive, it may only have a 2 meg buffer. I think I will run to best buy tomorrow morning and see if I can pick up one of their 160 gig for $30 Western Digitals.
 
adman2345 said:
In the advanced Chipset Features portion of my motherboard setup utility:
AGP Timing Controls:
AGP Fast Write - Disabled
AGP Aperture Size 128MB

VLink 8X Supported - Enabled
LDT to AGP Lokar Frequency - 800Mhz


The primary graphics adapater settings is set to AGP, should I change it to PCI?
Click to expand...



Try disabling VLink 8X Support, and see what happens.

Leave the primary graphics adapter setting set to AGP.


The stock ATI 9800 Pro, comes with a pitiful GPU cooler, I put a Vantec Iceburg 5 on mine and haven't had any problems from it since.

Having the side of the case off with a fan blowing in it is a sure sign of pitiful case air flow, you need to look into why you're having to do that especially since you're not OCing.

Airflow through the case is essential to the necessary components running cool, changing from ribbon cables to round cables and routing all the wiring to clear the air path, is good if you're running ribbon cables, you may be running SATA I don't know that, I just know your airflow has to be seriously restricted or you don't have enough case cooling fans to do the job.

I never take the side off my case.
 
I have been going in and out of my computer quite a bit in the past few days, I posted that the side of the case is off and there is a fan blowing in so that it is understood that the chances of overheating is at a minimum. I don't have anything against buying a aftermarket cooling device for my graphics card, but I would hate to do so if the card itself was malfunctioning and I would be replacing it due to that fact. Could this problem be in any way due to a small hard drive buffer?
Another glitch I have noticed is when I delete files or transfer files from one partition to another, the transfer window is messed up:
 

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Just because you have a fan outside the case blowing on the card doesn't mean it still cannot overheat after its first overheating it can cook the thermal compound if its a lesser grade type, the stock GPU coolers on the 9800 pro are lame.

If the GPU cooler is not making solid contact with the die or the thermal compound is cooked, its not going to do the job, I don't think you realize just how hot the die can get on the 9800.

Have you pulled the GPU cooler from the 9800 and inspected the contact surfaces of the GPU and the cooler?

These cards come off an assembly line and the person mounting your GPU cooler could have been mounting it at 4:45 getting off at 5:00, with your Graphics card being the last thing on their minds, check it out for yourself!

You should be able to see right off if theres a problem with heat, contact surface, or thermal compound, the evidence will be there, just pulling the cooler cleaning the contact surface and going back with a thin layer of Artic Silver 3 or 5 will improve your results if cooling is the problem.

Remove the GPU cooler by carefully compressing the locking points on the backside of the card [with needle nosed pliers, forcepts, tweezers or whatever you have being extremely careful not to scratch the wire surface of the card], and allowing the locking pins to go through the holes. you must have some type of thermal compound to put it back together, the better the quality of the thermal compound the better.

Clean carefully with isopropyl alcohol and Qtips, making sure no cotton from the Qtip is left behind, I like to use a quick shot of canned air to make sure nothing is left behind. Reassemble with the thinnest even layer of Thermal compound you can apply, do not goop it on less is best.

Retest and see if your results improve, and post what happens.

The HDD buffer really shouldn't matter the 9800 has 128mb of its own RAM.
 
Ok, I replaced the thermal paste with Artic Silver 5, and after a few minutes everything looked beautiful. But then after a few days it was back to it's old choppyness. Should I just replace that little fan that came with the card? It's really sad that they couldn't supply the card with an adequate cooling system.
 
I just joined today - mainly because I seem to be having the same issue. My screen looks similar as the pictures posted in HL2 - same card.

I not only get his type of pixel-chopping and flashing, but in Windows, I get some cyan pixels and blocks where theres supposed to be shading. It happens inside text too. It also shows up alot when I scroll. A couple cyan lines appear in the xp startup screen image too... wacky.

I've changed video drivers - no change. Not sure how far back I should go with that one.

Abit KD7
Athlon 1.3
512 DDR266

My case has been getting pretty warm inside, but not out of this world hot - I've added extra fans to the front to help give more airflow but it's still warm. If this doesn't clear up, I may RMA the card. I can't see spending money on a fan for something that should keep itself cool under reasonable conditions. Hope yours works out for you.
 
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