RADEON 9700 PRO AGP Problems

[SiNz]

(P.S. - my first post )

I am currently having a problem with my ATi Radeon 9700 PRO when AGP is enabled to 8x. It is not a major problem as I can just turn off the AGP, but I am demanding the true performance and quality of my graphics card so it can make gaming a better experience. The problem with my graphics card is that whenever I am playing a Direct 3D game (Joint Operations, Call of Duty, etc.) and the AGP is set to 8x with Fast Write enabled, the game will unexpectingly hang at random points of the game, and the VPU of my Radeon 9700 PRO will recover my graphics card (most of the time) without crashing the system itself. Not a major problem but it sure is annoying me. The game will be able to run for about a minute and thats when the graphics card will hang and reset itself, thus crashing the game (luckily not the entire system). I do have the latest graphics drivers and DirectX 9.0c drivers available, and I also updated my CPU drivers so that it knows how to handle AGP settings. Right now, I have the RADEON 9700 PRO on an ASUS P4P800 Motherboard and a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz w/ Hyper Threading as the CPU. If you want more information about my computer, check out my user profile (SiNz). If anyone can help, please feel free to drop in suggestions. Thanks! :grinthumb

 

[PreservedSwine]

1st of all, WELOCME!:giddy:

When you say you've upgraded to the latest "cpu drivers" do you mean either your chipset drivers or mobo BIOS??

Anyway, as long as it's stable at AGP4x, you'll notice no discernable difference in perfomance, but if it really bothers you "just because," there are a few things you can try, if you haven't already....

Update chipset drivers
Update BIOS
Update GPU driver

Try turning off fast writes
Try turning off "write combing"
Up the AGP voltage to 1.6v

Good luck

 

[SiNz]

tried a few

What I meant by CPU Drivers is the Chipset (my Intel P4 3.0Ghz). Well, for AGP: It's either on or off. If its on, then I get crashes (even at 4x, which is my lowest possible before off). If its off, I get half the performance than I wish to have. So its a lose-lose situation. I've already tried turning off Fast Write but yet still have to try to turn off write combining. Anyways, I'll try a few of those suggestions and let everyone know soon the results. Thanks!

 

[SiNz]

Write Combine Off Failed

Write Combined isn't the solution - even if its off: still have the same problem where the graphics stops sending information to the screen and then has to reset itself. Btw - how do I increase the AGP voltage? My next step right now is to update the BIOS.

 

[Ea$Y]

Hey man

U can use a free downloadable utility called powerstrip.

www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

I have never been much on overclocking but i have used it -if i can figure it out anyone can. what resolution are you playing at? i play cod and the expansion pack @ 1024x768 disable aa and af. After my first siezure on the 9700 pro I knocked down some of the visual eye candy like deadbodies and gore lil things like that . these thing u wouldn really miss and it is an amazing game even without all the bells and whistles. The ati 9700 pro is still a sweet card too- prob will be for a while.

Hope this helped.

 

[bruiser]

Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 XT (Radeon) Graphics displaying causing memory dumps

Hi,

If anyone can give me info or suggestions for solutions on this it would be greatly appreciated, since none of the manufacturers seem to know.

My Machine:

Pentium 4 2.8GHz Processor
MSI Neo-2 PFS (Platinum) Mobo
Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 XT
512MB Ram
160GB HDD
16x LG DVD-ROM
CD-RW drive ( Cant remember the speeds, not that it matters)
17" 16ms BenQ LCD Monitor
Windows XP Professional

The Problem:

I run the graphics on AGP 8x as per the recommended setting.
I have being struggling for sometime now trying to figure out why my machine performed a memory dump or rebooted when even the smallest amount of graphics was used, this ranged from Windows Media Player Visualisations to the graphics is FarCry or UTK4. I had contacted Hercules, MSI, especially ATI and even Microsoft and none have come back with any solutions or suggestions. I then took a chance and disabled the AGP Fast Write, AGP Write and Read, as well as PCI Read and Write via the Control Center. Thus my problem was resolved. BUT, now i cannot view DVD Movies, re-enabling the settings allows me to view the DVD for about 5 Minutes and then it reboots or performs memory dumps. I have tried different combinations but it does not seem to help.

Does anyone have any sort of suggestion or solution for me?

 

[SiNz]

Still Trying.....

Well I tried the PowerStrip and still figuring how to fine tune the gadgets. I did some basic stuff though like disabling the Buffer Z for D3D and seeing if that would work and increasing the Memory Speed and Engine by like 5 Mhz up for safety. But I still get the same results though: Game plays (any game) perfectly fine for about roughly 20 seconds and then the screen freezes, leaving a "screenshot" like image on the screen. Then it goes black and the graphics resumes (or it goes black and crashes the entire system). So yea, I'm not sure what to do next. Might as well just turn off AGP until I find a solution or whatever but bleh. :blackeye: I'll find a way....hopefully. I already sent the crash report from the VPU Recover to ATi and I'm still awaiting a reply. But yea, thanks to those who're tryin' to help. Strongly appreciated!

 

[PreservedSwine]

OMG- that blows!

You've got to get that fixed. Even 4x is far better than nothing.

Download and the latest BIOS for your mobo, re-install your chipset AGP drivers, and re-install your GPU drivers after that.

Then, DIS-able gpu recover, and run it in AGP4x mode. Sometimes, GPU recover can be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back.
Running without AGP acceleration is tantamount to...umm... well, something really crappy!

Perhaps try different AGP (chipset) drivers. Have you checked intel's site?

 

[SiNz]

Hmm, I'll try disabling VPU Recover and what is GPU Drivers? I know I sound dumb asking that but really what are GPU Drivers for? Well anyways, yea I know it sucks but I'm trying to fix it. Well yea, going to try a few and come back with results later....wish the best...

 

[PreservedSwine]

GPU=Graphic processing unit, ie your Videp card drivers :slurp:

 

[SiNz]

Tried All except BIOS

I've tried all except the BIOS part and its a pain in the **** just to update one small file, oh well whatever. It's still in my "to do" list. But other than that, I've tried everything else and still no fixer. So yea, I just hope the BIOS is the key to all my steamy heads and back-aches - Anyways, thanks for the help, and lets hope for the best tomorrow!

 

[TurboHatch]

sins...i had the same problem you had fortunately for you...but UNFORTUNATELY i didnt know how to fix it...i simply reformatted my computer and now i dont get the problem ur having where it freezes and vpu has to recover...i play counter strike 1.6 and i get 30-100 fps but never steady...i also play warcraft 3 online and lemme tell ya, for some reason wc3 makes the comp work harder than counterstrike...anyhow i think you should reformat and start from scratch...but im having a problem now where my computer freezes only in wc3 when it gets a lot of stuff on the screen and gets laggy...maybe its my weak little 1.2 tbird athlon but it could also be a possibility that my drivers arent up to date...but i dont know where to get up to date drivers...i search and search and search...nothing...i need current drivers for 9700pro...also...another thing id try if i was u...drivers for ur agp port...my friend didnt have drivers installed for the agp port and it didnt use complete capability of the card he had...also in counterstrike he was getting 30-150fps...this is actually CS source im talking about now...it wasnt ever steady fps...but now that he installed those agp drivers...he gets a steady 70 on firefights with grenades galore and with nothing at all he is getting 250fps...im gonna check out this powerstrip thing i saw you guys talking about, maybe that will help me get some more fps that ive been dying to get, that i havent yet got with this card...ive expected to get steady 100 but its nothing close anyhow, lemme know if u have any drivers for today's date or not far from it cus that might solve some of my problems...thanks, hope u solve ur problems

 

[Ea$Y]

Hey turbo.

Good point about the motherboard drivers.
Agp drivers northbridge and so on.
If these drivers are not installed/installed correctly there will be hardware conflicts and confusion in the o.s - Xp dosent need any more confusion lol.
Go to the boards manufacturer site and download the chipset drivers north/southbridge and agp interface drivers - it may be in one zip package.
If this is done already ignore my ramblings lol.

If you are gonna use powerstrip you are gonna need a better heatsink then stock there are loads of aftermarket heatsinks out there.

here are a few for you consideration.

http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/chipset/cl-g0003fanless/cl-g00003.htm

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=46&pr_name=zm80c-hp

Good luck in your fps quest - hope you get your vidcard probs worked out.

 

[SiNz]

ATi RADEON 9700 PRO Updates

Hey turbo, for the ATi RADEON 9700 updates, go to www.ATi.com and check under CUSTOMER SUPPORT for drivers and select the drivers for your O.S. and Graphics Card and download.

 

[TurboHatch]

sinz...thats my problem i downloaded drivers from there and it gives me more problems then the drivers that came with the card....everytime i download one of those i get into wc3 and it freezes like....eeeee, blip...blip...blip... eeeee, blip...blip...blip and so on...ive found that gaming with the current drivers ive found are garbage and the ones on cd work the best but still...are garbage...it lasts longer in wc3 with cd drivers but it still freezes in a softer noise way and screen doesnt go black...just freezes with current screen display...so im still in the process of finding something that works...my radeon was made by powercolor...it might make a difference reference to the ATI brand...correct me if im wrong b/c maybe that will help hehe...i cant even play "Total War: Medievil" without the screen getting choppy and jerkin along with noises that chop while the screen chops...bleh ive figured out other problems with my comp but this one has got to be the most pain...

 

[TurboHatch]

sins, im confused as to where the prices are for these heatsinks...and what would they benefit me with? is it hard to assemble in ur opinion...any pros or cons on this heatsink? it looks to be as if it'd be a great addition, but i wanna know everything about any computer piece before i buy it or ill run into problems like the ones im having...trying to learn from past mistakes hehe...thanks

 

[SiNz]

Alternate Way to Heatsinks

Well, you can take an alternate way of evading installing/purchasing somewhat expensive heatsinks, by installing fans instead if you can, or installing stronger fans that have a higher output. I installed a seperate Front Drive Bay Fan that takes the spot of one of my CD Drive Spaces and it well ejects alot of heat by sucking the air out through the front and it dropped the computer's overall chassis temperature by at least 8 degrees fahrenheit. If thats not enough, maybe try lowering down you overall room temperature if you can by 3 degrees and it does have a big impact even though it doesn't seem like it. Computers do run best when the overall room temperature environment it is in is cold. Thats why the little T-38 flight simulator I rode in the Air Force base over near Valdosta, GA is so f'ing cold! Well anyways, heatsinks aren't really that hard but I recommend just doing the smaller parts first if that will help before proceeding into bigger parts.

 

[TurboHatch]

well guess what, im having the same problems again as the other guy here...my screen freezes up in wc3 and makes weird noises...i cant keep it from freezing if i play...who knows how long it will last everytime i start a game...i have yet to finish one online wc3 game....this is making me upset...grrr i dont know what to do ive tried reinstalling countless drivers for ati radeon 9700 pro...nothing works...at one point i had a msg saying it could be the drivers...but the driver i was using when i got that msg worked the best! thats the one off the cd...go figure, what to do... :dead:

 

[Ea$Y]

Driver confilicts sounds like?


http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3214.html

download this tool - driver cleaner.
Remove any previous nvidia driver(s) or other gfx card drivers.

Cheers

 

[SiNz]

Driver Conflicts

Yeah, thats true - it could be driver conflicts. Sometimes it does happen where one driver from another device can interrupt flow with another. Have you installed any other devices lately like any USB external devices or anything before the conflict with your graphics occured? If so, try disconnecting them for a bit a testing them out because I've had conflicts with that before when I installed a Launch Pad USB Port for my Sony Ericsson phone but it kept messing up some other devices as well, such as my Sound Card (don't ask how) and after I disconnected it and uninstalled the drivers, the problems went away. Anyways, double check by disconnecting any devices/drivers that you've installed that might have caused the graphics to be this way.

 

[IoA]

An Idea

I've been trying to solve this same problem for the past couple of days with an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro, and have found what appears to be a solution.

My problem: Call of Duty wasn't working properly; it'd dump to the desktop, giving me the standard .EXE error message.

So, at the suggestion of others in various forums, I increased the power to the AGP card in the BIOS by .15 (standard should be 1.5 or whatever, and the next increment is 1.6+). It appears to have solved the problem, as I played for hours tonight at high quality for a couple hours without a dump.

It's worth a try.

 

[Ea$Y]

I dont know much about increasing voltages to gpu but i know if u increase voltage to the cpu it increases heat output and if u cant dissipate this excess heat usinf a stock gpu cooler- u will shorten the life of the component. But if it works - it works lol.

 

[IoA]

True Enough

I dont know much about increasing voltages to gpu but i know if u increase voltage to the cpu it increases heat output and if u cant dissipate this excess heat usinf a stock gpu cooler- u will shorten the life of the component. But if it works - it works lol.

You do indeed produce more heat across both the card and cpu (I added a little extra to both). However, it isn't a significant amount and it isn't running more than a degree or two warmer for me. So, it's a good trade off for working components

 

[Ea$Y]

Sweet Thanks fer the tip
-Cheers man
I used to love my radeon 9700 pro
I went with the x800
bah lol

Price vs performance lol

 

[Miolnir]

Hey people,
I just joined this morning to reply to this thread as I had this exact problem when I upgraded from my Athalon 2600 XP to my AMD 64 3500+ a few days ago.
It was driving me nuts as I thought it was the 9700 overheating and I have tonnes of cooling, I even went so far as to open up my case and have a 17 inch desk fan blowing directly onto the card (BTW that works really well but sort of defeats the purpose of having the Antec sonata case).

I found the only thing that worked was to set it to 4X AGP until I read this thread. I just wanted to say that increasing the voltage of the card to 1.6 worked a treat.

Although, having said that, I ran 3dmark03 on 4X AGP and fast writes disabled and the score was only 2 points different compared when they were enabled.