I have a 4.5 year old Radeon 9700 pro (AGP) and in the middle of a game, it turned into this:



I quit and rebooted the computer and it didn't help, and here are some examples of what WinXP graphics look like now:

Mpegs are unaffected. I pulled the card out, dusted it, and reseated it and the cable connections with no change. Switched to a different bootup drive and it still had the problem. Cooling fan was running fine, too.

Quote: Originally Posted by Merkwurdigliebe I have a 4.5 year old Radeon 9700 pro (AGP) and in the middle of a game, it turned into this: I quit and rebooted the computer and it didn't help, and here are some examples of what WinXP graphics look like now: Mpegs are unaffected. I pulled the card out, dusted it, and reseated it and the cable connections with no change. Switched to a different bootup drive and it still had the problem. Cooling fan was running fine, too.

i dont think it's your graphic card it's probably your VGA cable or your PSU this last one happen to my sister once , i though it was the graphic until one day the computer kept on rebooting , so i change the PSU & now the computer & graphic are all working fine

It could also be a bad driver...

Does rebooting into "Safe Mode" look the same? (Hit F-8 while booting up)

I know you tried another boot drive, but ya never know.

If it looks fine in safe mode, remove your old driver and reinstall...might want to get the latest version from ATI too!

Could be a bad PSU as previously mentioned, or it could just be dying because of running for so long on a bad/weak PSU.

Did you try another power connector from a different leg of the power supply?

I'm beginning to suspect it is a heat issue. The cooler on that card has always been a wee bit flaky, but after the computer idled for a couple hours, the issue has resolved itself.

But, ya, all the components are over 4 years old, so any one of them could stand a replacing.

Oh, and Catalyst 7.7 is the newest driver I can use that will work with both my card and my favorite game, hehe. Anything after that and I get Render Creation errors.

heat is what I was gonna call it as.

Possibly a rogue driver or app setting an incorrect clock speed (since it doesn't occur in safe mode).

My 9600XT I had did exactly that when I tried to volt mod it, then realized I had drew the traces a bit too large. When I kicked on the control app and saw the voltage report my intial reaction was something along the lines of ( @_@ )


A corrupt or borked driver is a strong possibility also. I am led to believe this because (To the best of my knowledge) in safe mode, windows loads the ordinary VESA driver instead of your dedicated display driver.


A remote possibility is a failing pipe, but if It's not doing it in safemode, then I doubt that.

When I rebooted (the first time, which did nothing to solve the graphics problem), Windows ran a disk scan and found a few things off. And my clock had been set back one hour when the system finally booted up.

Mayhaps a new bios battery is needed...

Try underclocking it and see what happens.

Quote: Originally Posted by Merkwurdigliebe When I rebooted (the first time, which did nothing to solve the graphics problem), Windows ran a disk scan and found a few things off. And my clock had been set back one hour when the system finally booted up. Mayhaps a new bios battery is needed...

If you unplug the pc and let it sit overnight, and the date and other bios settings go back t default, then it's time to replace the battery.

Or you could just pop it out and check it's voltage with a meter.

I used to get similar anomolies when I had ATI Overdrive enabled on my X-800 Pro, but would go away when reset to stock and rebooted...Unless you have the XT version of the 9800, that is not an option for you however.

Could be heat yes...but usually that happens after playing a game for a while, and will go away after it cools down...unless the card was permanently damaged.

Have you been able to get it to go away at all so far?

The fact Windows had to repair itself leads me to believe you may have a PSU problem too.

Ya, it's very odd. I haven't had a computer spontaneously fix itself so much since my Mac IIsi. No new problems in a few days now, and the issue hasn't returned. Maybe it was just a heat issue.

A very similar graphical glitch occurs about 1 in 10 bootups (and has occurred ever since the system was first built over four years ago), but a simple restart always fixes it.

Did I mention that my USB ports are going kinda iffy? Sometimes my USB hub/card reader and my usb drives are recognized, sometimes not. The USB printer is always recognized, no problems there. If it keeps getting worse, I may spring $10 for a USB card, just to eek out a little more life on this compy.

Are usb-powered devices the only ones with the trouble?

Quote: Originally Posted by Seyeklopz Are usb-powered devices the only ones with the trouble?

Well, the hub/card reader and the printer are both powered by their own ac/dc supplies. Like I said, it's just the hub and the usb drives that give intermittent "hardware not recognized" errors from WinXP.

I should note that I was using a 19-inch Hanns-g flat-panel, LCD monitor with a dsub connector. I recently switched from the dsub to the DVI cable and even though the picture quality much better, I still get this graphics glitch about once a month.

If it happens only once a month then I'll say things just happen every now and then.
If it's happening every day or every other day "of use" then you need to order a new
cooler for it.
This one will do wonders for you :-)
Newegg.com - ZALMAN VF700-CU 2 Ball VGA COOLER - Retail