Massive Display Corruption on 9700PRO

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chalky
  • Start date Start date
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Chalky

I have been overlocking this card for a while, but nothing extreme. Today,
out of the blue, I started getting massive display corruption that comes and
goes. Right now for example, it is fine, but if I run 3dmark 03, it will
totally go haywire about 1 minute into the game test, with large columns of
green and purple vertical bars and a horizontal pattern of multicolored
squares that takes over the whole screen.

Sometimes, the drivers kick in and reset the card.

Now, coincidentally, I ordered a VGA silencer heatsink/fan last night
because I have noticed a high pitched wine coming from the fan--is it
possible that the fan is burning out, slowing down, and the card is
overheating? The card seems to work for a while and then go bad. It only
seems to go bad when I'm pushing it with a Direct3d application or game. I
haven't been able to get it to go bad using UT2004 demo, but it goes crazy
over 3dmark and battlefield 1942.

Can anyone suggest a course of action other than kicking myself for
overclocking with a stock fan?

~G :-(
 
Are you sure that the card is not still overclocked ?

If the card is under warranty try to replace it
before you start messing with fan.
 
try running w/o the vpu recovery turned on.
I have to run stock clock speeds on 3dmard03, but can oc up to 400/400 w/o
artifacting on 3dmark2001 and aquamark3. wonder why that is?

--


David MacLeod
Etna, Maine USA
P4 2.8 OC to 3.13
1 GB DDR 466
Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB
2 Seagate 120 RAID 0
 
I have been overlocking this card for a while, but nothing extreme. Today,
out of the blue, I started getting massive display corruption that comes and
goes. Right now for example, it is fine, but if I run 3dmark 03, it will
totally go haywire about 1 minute into the game test, with large columns of
green and purple vertical bars and a horizontal pattern of multicolored
squares that takes over the whole screen.

Sometimes, the drivers kick in and reset the card.

Now, coincidentally, I ordered a VGA silencer heatsink/fan last night
because I have noticed a high pitched wine coming from the fan--is it
possible that the fan is burning out, slowing down, and the card is
overheating? The card seems to work for a while and then go bad. It only
seems to go bad when I'm pushing it with a Direct3d application or game. I
haven't been able to get it to go bad using UT2004 demo, but it goes crazy
over 3dmark and battlefield 1942.

Can anyone suggest a course of action other than kicking myself for
overclocking with a stock fan?
Click to expand...

Run down to your local electronics store and buy a can of Freezit
(or similar). Spray it on the GPU heatsink when you get the problem
and see if the problem goes away. If it does, you will have definitely
confirmed the root--cause as a damaged or just overheated GPU.
If not, spray the memory and see if the problem disappears.

If the source of the problem is the GPU and the fan is noisy, remove
board and squirt in a very little Sherwin-Williams Triflow(TM) teflon
lubricant. The question is whether the fan is noisy and SLOW.........
If it turns out that the fan is just noisy and the speed has not
changed, then you may have had irreversible silicon damage
when you overclocked.

I believe that the 9700 Pro has no built-in thermal monitoring/
protection....?
If so, that is unfortunate, as the heat-sink and cooling design is
marginal, particularly if there is a card in PCI slot #1. I recommend
just a perforated backplate in PCI Slot #1, which together with either
a side or front case-fan will promote outside air-flow over the card
(assuming a tower-style case). Also better cooling will prolong the
life of the fan lubricants.

John Lewis
 
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