Help with ATI 9800 Pro in "graphics" mode

[justin.seiferth]

I have an ATI 9800 Pro 128MB installed in a Gigabyte 939 Motherboard
with AMD 3000 processor. have 1G dual-channel, using ATI 5.8 drivers in
Fedora 4 and MS W2k (all updates) and DX9. Problems occurs with/without
fan blowing on card, with/without card mem heatsinks and with/without
artic VGA cooler.

Problem is this: Card seems to work fine in Linux and MS Windows
"normal" modes- word processing, web browsing, etc at 1600x1200.
However at bootup the text characters for the BIOS are "blocky" with
bits missing from characters and a few character bits aliased to the
right of the CRT. Same deal if I open a full screen virtual terminal
under Linux. Under W2k the card passes all dxdiag tests and works fine
starting up into games such as BF2 and Delta Force BHD but becomes
unusable when the game actually starts a mission. Screen immediately
becomes scrambled blocks with only bits of correct background visible.
This happens in all resolutions 640x480-1280x1024 with various video
options (aliasing, texture levels, etc). This started last night- card
worked previously sort of- there were periodic episodes of this
problem.

I'd rather not spring for a new card so any suggestions on fixes or
causes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Augustus]

.. Screen immediately

becomes scrambled blocks with only bits of correct background visible.
This happens in all resolutions 640x480-1280x1024 with various video
options (aliasing, texture levels, etc). This started last night- card
worked previously sort of- there were periodic episodes of this
problem.

I'd rather not spring for a new card so any suggestions on fixes or
causes would be greatly appreciated.

You have a faulty memory module somewhere on the card. RMA the card. It
won't get better, and will likely progressively worsen over time.