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[Dilbert]

I was using my computer yesterday (browsing the web, not even gaming at the time) when Firefox completely froze up. A couple of seconds later, the screen went blank, and my computer rebooted itself, which has NEVER happened since I've owned it. When it came back to life, Win XP gave me a message saying that my system had recovered from a serious error and that the display driver for my Radeon 9800 Pro was to blame. I figured, "Hmm, that's strange," and went back to browsing the web. About two minutes later -- freeze again, followed by a reboot. THIS reboot never even made it past the login screen without shutting down again.

At this point, I figure that I DO have some bad problem with the driver, so I reboot into safe mode to delete and reinstall the Catalysts. The first time I went into safe mode, I had to leave the room for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, the screen was corrupted and the system was non-responsive. The second time, I managed to delete the existing drivers, but then it went down again.

Given that this happened out of the blue, I'm guessing that the display driver is a red herring -- this feels like a hardware problem. As readers of the Gaming Forum know, this card has been a bit sketchy for a while. I recently (few weeks ago) installed an Arctic Cooling solution to rectify some heat-related artifacts, and it had been operating fine since then. For it to go down in the middle of web browsing is a complete head-scratcher.

So, a couple of questions:

1) Do you agree that it's a hardware problem, or is there something else I can try to investigate a potential software issue?

2) If the card IS dead, it doesn't make a lot of sense to replace it with another Radeon 9800 Pro -- I'd be tempted to get a newer card. What is the difference between an X800 Pro and an X800 XT in terms of price, performance, and availability?

3) Since my computer is FUBARed with the constant shutdowns, I'm without a computer at home...assuming that the answer to #2 is, "You have to wait a while." If I remove the bad card, can I run my computer, or do I have to wait for the new card to arrive? (I have an nForce3 motherboard.) If so, will I be able to run it in anything above 640x480?

Thanks for your help...

 

[fart]

is the card's fan still spinning?

 

[Dilbert]

is the card's fan still spinning?

As far as I know, yes. There was an exhaust going out of the back of the case -- that was one of the first things I checked.

If the fan STOPPED spinning for any length of time, wouldn't that mean that the card was fried anyway?

 

[All Hail C-Webb]

check all the fans, check the cpu temp.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

Another 9800 Pro bites it. That makes at least three similar cases posted in the last seven days.

9800 Pros destroy themselves. Doom3 pushes them over the edge. It happened to me.

I think I'll let this die now

 

[DrEvil]

use ATi's warranty service, they'll fix er up for ya free of charge.

ati.com

 

[Slo]

I doubt ATI will help since you've modified the card.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Go to Best Buy. Buy another 9800 Pro. Install it. Take the one that doesn't work, return it.

Money spent $0.00

This is assuming you have an OEM 9800 Pro.

 

[Dilbert]

Go to Best Buy. Buy another 9800 Pro. Install it. Take the one that doesn't work, return it.

Money spent $0.00

This is assuming you have an OEM 9800 Pro.

As mentioned, I added a cooler to it, and I don't think doing the "Best Buy swap" is ethical. Still, thanks for the suggestion.

Any input on questions #2 and #3? What are my prospects for scoring a recent-model card in a hurry, and if I do decide to get another card, is my computer down until the new one arrives?

 

[CueTheMusic]

As far as I know, yes. There was an exhaust going out of the back of the case -- that was one of the first things I checked.

If the fan STOPPED spinning for any length of time, wouldn't that mean that the card was fried anyway?

You shouldn't be able to feel the video card fan's exhaust through the back of the case (should you?). You need to open the case up and look to see if it is still spinning. It is very possible that if the fan stopped spinning, it wouldn't necessarily damage the chip, depending on how good the heatsink on it is.

 

[Killthee]

As mentioned, I added a cooler to it, and I don't think doing the "Best Buy swap" is ethical. Still, thanks for the suggestion.

Any input on questions #2 and #3? What are my prospects for scoring a recent-model card in a hurry, and if I do decide to get another card, is my computer down until the new one arrives?

I haven't done it, but you can make a X800 Pro with VIVO into a X800 XT using this soft mod. Don't blame me if you fuck up though.

 

[AntoneM]

2) If the card IS dead, it doesn't make a lot of sense to replace it with another Radeon 9800 Pro -- I'd be tempted to get a newer card. What is the difference between an X800 Pro and an X800 XT in terms of price, performance, and availability?

6800 GT's and X800 Pro's are readily available

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Here's a question...

Why on Earth do people w/ 2.+Ghz CPUs and tons of RAM even bother OC'ing?! That's so stupid and very costly (obviously).

What's the point? A frame or two? There are many non-hardware tweaks that can be done to the OS to improve performance. Think it makes more sense to do that first.

 

[fart]

you've modified the card? what is an arctic cooler whatsamajiggit anyways

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Replaces the OEM heatsink and fan. A waste.

 

[fart]

uh oh.

how does it interface with the chip. that would be my #1 suspicion.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I highly doubt Jinx fucked up the install. But if he did, that kind of makes this humerous.

That's not even the VGA Cooler to get. There's a better one.

 

[fart]

if he'd fucked up the install it would have died a while ago. i'm thinking it came loose somehow and lost interface.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Then it's really poorly designed.




Kids. Don't fuck w/ your grfx card.

 

[The Shadow]

1) Do you agree that it's a hardware problem, or is there something else I can try to investigate a potential software issue?

2) If the card IS dead, it doesn't make a lot of sense to replace it with another Radeon 9800 Pro -- I'd be tempted to get a newer card. What is the difference between an X800 Pro and an X800 XT in terms of price, performance, and availability?

3) Since my computer is FUBARed with the constant shutdowns, I'm without a computer at home...assuming that the answer to #2 is, "You have to wait a while." If I remove the bad card, can I run my computer, or do I have to wait for the new card to arrive? (I have an nForce3 motherboard.) If so, will I be able to run it in anything above 640x480?

1)Always investigate further, and a brief story as to why. I had a GeForce 3 Pro in a PC and it started to display artifacts too. After reinstalling drivers and repositioning some PCI cards, it still did the same thing. I popped it out and put in my ancient nvidia TNT card and it worked fine. I just assumed the GeForce 3 Pro went bad and that was that. (Coincidentally, the fan on my card had gone out a month or two earlier and I had to modify the card with a new fan as well)

About 3-4 weeks after installing a new card(an ATI 8500le), I saw the same artifacts. Turns out my SB Live! card is very sensitive to static electricity and somehow was causing artifacts on the display. As soon as I removed the SB Live!, the artifacts disappeared. I probably tossed a perfectly good GeForce 3 Pro because that damn sound card.

2)No clue. I'll leave that up to the resident ATI experts to field that one. They're available though, at newegg. I've seen some models in stock anyway.

3)If your motherboard has on-board video, there's no reason why you couldn't use windows normally(if I understand your question anyway). You probably couldn't play games like Doom 3 (obviously), but something like Enemy Territory should still run alright. UT2004, you might have to cut some detail down. Assume the video is roughly equivilant to the performance of a GeForce 2.

 

[element]

if you can wait, get an x700 XT

 

[Dilbert]

Here's a question...

Why on Earth do people w/ 2.+Ghz CPUs and tons of RAM even bother OC'ing?! That's so stupid and very costly (obviously).

What's the point? A frame or two? There are many non-hardware tweaks that can be done to the OS to improve performance. Think it makes more sense to do that first.

Well, as it turns out, the card was running at stock speeds. I have no interest in overclocking. The replacement fan was put on at the recommendation of others the LAST time I posted a videocard problem thread, since the consensus seemed to be that a) it was exhibiting heat-related artifacts and b) stock ATI Radeon 9800 Pros had a reputation for running hot even at STOCK speeds. The install went perfectly fine -- the card has been working normally for the last MONTH with the new fan, and the visual artifacts in all games except Halo (who knows WTF is going on with that game) went away with the new fan.

I will check the fan when I go home...but if it's spinning, I'm at a loss to explain what the heck happened. There was no smell of anything burning, which I would expect if the cooling solution suddenly went dead.

Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[fart]

you might not smell it. that's my best guess anyway. sounds like a heat-related failure. second option: power-related. it doesn't sounds like software per se