9800SE and video "sparkles"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Magwheelz
  • Start date Start date
M

Magwheelz

I put in my new Sapphire 9800SE OEM today and ran 3DMARK2001 SE. The
"high polygon count" benchmark shows square and rectangular boxes
sparkling around the edges of the dragons and buildings. It did it
with the stock 3.6 drivers and I upgraded to the 3.9 drivers and it is
still doing it. I haven't done any soft moding or overclocking. I did
turn off fast writes in the bios but no help there. Any suggestions
please??

AMD 1800+ 768ddr ram WinXP pro SP1





Gotta go,
Magwheelz
 
Sounds like it is overheating. Happened to me a while back on my
GeForce 2 GTS card that I had just installed. Especially on dark
backgrounds I saw light dots all over the screen. I returned it, and
the replacement (same model) has been fine.
 
Ryan Evans said:
Sounds like it is overheating. Happened to me a while back on my
GeForce 2 GTS card that I had just installed. Especially on dark
backgrounds I saw light dots all over the screen. I returned it, and
the replacement (same model) has been fine.
Click to expand...

You could experiment with underclocking memory.

-Kent
 
You could experiment with underclocking memory.
Click to expand...

Thanks. It doesn't help. Should I return the card? or is this
considered "normal". My old NV card didn't do this!
Gotta go,
Magwheelz
 
Magwheelz said:
Thanks. It doesn't help. Should I return the card? or is this
considered "normal". My old NV card didn't do this!
Gotta go,
Magwheelz
Click to expand...

Go to the shop that sold you the card and use your garantuee!

A card, non overclocked, should just work normally!
 
I put in my new Sapphire 9800SE OEM today and ran 3DMARK2001 SE. The
"high polygon count" benchmark shows square and rectangular boxes
sparkling around the edges of the dragons and buildings. It did it
with the stock 3.6 drivers and I upgraded to the 3.9 drivers and it is
still doing it. I haven't done any soft moding or overclocking. I did
turn off fast writes in the bios but no help there. Any suggestions
please??

AMD 1800+ 768ddr ram WinXP pro SP1
Click to expand...

The boxes, are they every 4th position, like checkerboarding? I had
this with my 9800SE. I sent it back under warranty (mail order) and
they told me that there was nothing wrong. Nothing else I could do
except pay a surcharge for a different one (guaranteed 8 pipelines)
and had no trouble since. I still reckon that one of the 4 pipelines
was bust. Take it back to the shop and get it exchanged.


--

Julian Richards
julian-richards "at" ntlworld.com

"My son has asked for a pair of Nike trainers.
He's ten years old, he should make his own"

"I bought a CD of whale music. Imagine my
disappointment when I got home to discover
that it was actual a cover version by a tribute
band of dolphins"
 
I had
this with my 9800SE. I sent it back under warranty (mail order) and
they told me that there was nothing wrong.
snip Take it back to the shop and get it exchanged.
Click to expand...

I am doing that now. Should be back from newegg tomorrow (replacement)
I will test it and probably return it for exchange anyway. I found
some info and will probably get a 9800 non pro after the holidays.
The expected price drop should make up for the restocking charge.
http://www.ixbt-labs.com/articles2/radeon/sapphire-4.html

Gotta go,
Magwheelz
 
I used to get the sparkles till i tossed out the ati heatsink and replaced
it with a artic cooler vga silencer. (mine was running too hot)
 
I've had this on several cards. Returned them, get the form letter
saying nothing wrong sometimes, other times saying that there was indeed
something wrong. Regardless, even if they send you the letter saying
that nothing was found to be wrong, they still send you a "serviced"
board back (different board), and the problem WAS fixed.

The form letter that says that there was nothing wrong also says that it
is a cursory test only. I've gotten that letter about 2/3 of the time
that I've returned a board to ATI (the other 1/3, they said that the
board was defective). However, returning a board for service has fixed
my problem in every case. In one instance, I sent in a board with a
digital camera photo of the problem (which was fairly gross). They said
"no problem found), but the [different] board that they sent back did
not have the problem and worked fine.
 
I've had this on several cards. Returned them
Click to expand...

I just got the replacement card. It doesn't sparkle either in
performance or pixels. Looks like a 95-9600.
I did the soft mod and my scores from before and after :

Aquamark3 Score: 20566 ... old

Aquamark3 Score: 23575 ... new

AMD Athlon XP1800+ Asus A7V266-C 4x agp mobo
WinXP Pro SP1
Gotta go,
Magwheelz
 
Back
Top