ATI 9700 AIW Pro Problems a many!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wondering
  • Start date Start date
W

Wondering

I really am in need of some help.

First of all I did a stupid thing. Last Feb, that's 2003, I bought
the card for a new system I was going to build but never got around to
building until just last week.

Ok, the system is:

ASUS P4PE (not 800FSB)
Intel P4 2.4gig
1 gig of Corsair memory
2 Maxtor 120 gig HDs on the primary
CD rom drives on the secondary.
An Adaptec 2910 SCSI card
No sound card - using onboard sound
Networked with onboard NIC
Windows XP Pro SP1

Other than the 'cold boot' problem this board has it runs nice other
than that ATI video card.

I am using the original drivers that came with the board, version 4.2
I think.

I tried installing and running Jimmy Whites Qball World. It would not
run, video was all screwed up, I tried all sorts of combinations of
resolutions etc but most times all I got was a hung system and black
screen.

Next I installed Quake 3 with latest updates. It runs fine except for
issues that I find hard to describe. It's like verticle bars that look
like transparent textures, meaning I can see through them. I screwed
around with video card settings in the DirectX (version 9,x) and can
change the size of the bars, even turning them into a checker board
pattern. It happens in all the levels I have tried, the ones that came
with Q3,

Also I notice that during boot up the windows logo screen with the
loading progress bar has short black verticle lines in it. They are
about 1/2 inch apart and about 1/2 inch long. These have been there
from the start. It's a Viewsonic 19" monitor running at 1280 x 1024.

I am at a loss - I fear that the card has hardware issues and I paid
$377 for it when I bought it and I also think ATI will NOT do anything
for me no less even talkk to me about the possible issues.

Anyone got any suggestions?

BTW - I was wondering about the PS. I disconnected everything in the
system other than the two HDs just to see if it was overloaded but no
help or change. It's an ACER case with a 300 watt supply.

Thanks,

Gene
 
Your PSU may or may not be enough as power supplies vary in quality, but
since the card works, we'll assume it's output is adequate.

Having said that, I've found that the best way to install drivers for an AIW
is as follows:

Capture Driver & Video Driver
**Reboot
Control Panel
**Reboot
DAO (database software)
Multimedia Center
Gemstar EPG
Remote Wonder
**Reboot

I've found these drivers to be VERY finnicky and the best way to install
them -- regrettably -- is with a clean OS install.

In one the my machines I use has an AIW 9700 Pro attached to a 17" Viewsonic
monitor and it has faint horizontal lines about 1/8" to 1/4" apart. They're
difficult to see, but they're there. I don't know if this is an issue
related to:

Monitor problem,
Noise over coaxial cable (for TV) attached to AIW,
PC internal electronic noise (parasitics) picked up over the AGP bus, or
Dirty AC (although no other monitors I use exhibit the problem)

Have you recorded TV yet? Any dropped frames in the recording?

HTH.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I have not recorded TV yet as it is not hooked up to an antenna and
gets no tv reception. I am built a couple machines using this AC
hookup and don't think that's the cause of my problems. The lines on
my screen only show up during that WinXP logo screen while booting and
they are verticle black dashed lines spaced about 1/2 inch apart about
1/2 inch long. I have never seen anything like that before myself, I
have other machines, not with the ATI, and they are fine.
 
I'm still at a loss on this problem. I have followed the instructions
to the letter and upgraded to the latest ATI drivers. I still have the
video issues as before, no change at all.

It's hard to describe the problem in Quake III but I have verticle
bars on the screen and they allow me to see thru everything and they
move with me, not in one place.

The windows logo during boot also has some short verticle dashed
lines, black, running thru the logo. There are many of them about 1/2
inch apart.

I am going to replace the PS with a new one but I suspect that is not
my problem as I disconnected everything in the system and tried it
and it did not fix the issue. The PS is 300 watt.

ATI support seems to be of no help and they charge per minute for
support. The card is one year old but just put to use last week.

I also cannot get Jimmy Whites Pool game to work at all with this
card.

Any help would be appreciated.

One other point. By fooling around with settings for DirectX I can
change the verticle bars into checkerboard pattern, the size of the
checker board varies with settings but it still follows me around and
I can see through the textures.
 
I am at a loss - I fear that the card has hardware issues and I paid
$377 for it when I bought it and I also think ATI will NOT do anything
for me no less even talkk to me about the possible issues.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Your card has a 3 year warranty. If you are certain it is bad hardware
then get an RMA from ATI and get it exchanged or fixed. You are
certain all your power connectors and the card is seated properly? I
ask that because I thought I had video card troubles a couple of times
and once was because I didn't have the PSU connector to the mb solidly
plugged in and another time was because I didn't have the video card
seated correctly in it's slot. Also try another PSU too if you can as
it may be a case of not getting enough power. You did mention
something about a cold boot issue which also points to an inadequate
PSU.
 
Your card has a 3 year warranty. If you are certain it is bad hardware
then get an RMA from ATI and get it exchanged or fixed. You are
certain all your power connectors and the card is seated properly? I
ask that because I thought I had video card troubles a couple of times
and once was because I didn't have the PSU connector to the mb solidly
plugged in and another time was because I didn't have the video card
seated correctly in it's slot. Also try another PSU too if you can as
it may be a case of not getting enough power. You did mention
something about a cold boot issue which also points to an inadequate
PSU.

Thought I would post a follow up here. I did get an RMA as you
suggested and sent the card in along with a screen shot of the Q3
issue and a good description of the lines in the boot up logo in XP.
About two weeks or less, card came back - different card that is and
it works just perfect so far. No lines, Q3 works great. So the card
must have been bad. Someone said maybe a bad pipe...

I'm happy....
 
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