odd problem with 9700

  • Thread starter Thread starter Iain Robinson
  • Start date Start date
I

Iain Robinson

Recently my faithful 9700 has started acting strangely when I start up
games. For example, when I start up HL2 as soon as the 1st logo clip
appears (the Valve one I think) the screen goes all funny - distorted
and the size stretches horizontally in and out, accompanied by a strange
squeaking sort of noise that goes in time with the horizontal stretching
and shrinking. Very bizarre. Age of Empires 3 is the same but on Call of
Duty 2 it happens when the first logo clip appears (activision?) but
when the second one comes on (infinity ward?) it stops and the game
plays as normal. Until fairly recently this card played everything
without a problem.

The rest of the time the display is fine. I don't know what it is. This
happened around the time that I updated the drivers (I may have updated
the drivers because of this, I really can't remember). I'm on the Omega
3.8.205 drivers. When I installed them first I had an error box open
whenever I first logged in so I uninstalled everything, used Driver
Cleaner Pro to uninstall everything then installed the omega drivers again.

Any thoughts on what this might be? Hardware? Software? My next step I
suppose would be to go back to the drivers that came with the card and
see how they work but thought I'd ask here before I do that.

TIA
Iain
 
Iain Robinson said:
Recently my faithful 9700 has started acting strangely when I start up
games. For example, when I start up HL2 as soon as the 1st logo clip
appears (the Valve one I think) the screen goes all funny - distorted
and the size stretches horizontally in and out, accompanied by a strange
squeaking sort of noise that goes in time with the horizontal stretching
and shrinking. Very bizarre. Age of Empires 3 is the same but on Call of
Duty 2 it happens when the first logo clip appears (activision?) but
when the second one comes on (infinity ward?) it stops and the game
plays as normal. Until fairly recently this card played everything
without a problem.

The rest of the time the display is fine. I don't know what it is. This
happened around the time that I updated the drivers (I may have updated
the drivers because of this, I really can't remember). I'm on the Omega
3.8.205 drivers. When I installed them first I had an error box open
whenever I first logged in so I uninstalled everything, used Driver
Cleaner Pro to uninstall everything then installed the omega drivers again.

Any thoughts on what this might be? Hardware? Software? My next step I
suppose would be to go back to the drivers that came with the card and
see how they work but thought I'd ask here before I do that.
Click to expand...

Couldn't hurt, although I suspect the hardware is going bad.
9700's (and 9800's) run close to their designed tolerances
(speed and temp-wise) and have relatively high long-term
failure rates.

Have you checked/cleaned its fan recently? Might be a
heat problem.
 
Buck said:
Couldn't hurt, although I suspect the hardware is going bad.
9700's (and 9800's) run close to their designed tolerances
(speed and temp-wise) and have relatively high long-term
failure rates.

Have you checked/cleaned its fan recently? Might be a
heat problem.
Click to expand...


Hi Buck

No, I haven't checked the fan recently - I don't think I had to open the
case once last year (and long may it continue). I'll check that now
though. I did suspect it was hardware. I had been overclocking recently
- only slightly, but I know that's the sort of thing that would cause a
card to go bad.

thanks,
Iain
 
What kind of monitor do you have. It could be it doesn't like certain scan
rates that the games display thier logos at.
 
Chris said:
What kind of monitor do you have. It could be it doesn't like certain scan
rates that the games display thier logos at.
Click to expand...

Chris, it's an iiyama vision master pro 451 (19" CRT). It tried lowering
the refresh rate from 85Hz to 75Hz but still got the problem. Also, it
used to work okay with these games/logos but then just stopped.

Iain
 
I still would suspect the monitor. Even if though you
changed the refresh rate, that wouldn't necessesarily fix
the problem. The CRT monitor has several components
that it switches between on the fly depending on the signals
it recieves from the video card. You may sometimes hear
a slight clicking sound when booting up or otherwise
changing resolutions. The problem may be caused by the
fact that alot of games still use a standard VGA 640x480
screen for thier logos for legacy reasons. Your monitors
components for that type of screen may have detuned
or failed over time so it looses sync with those signals.
I would suggest you could try lowering your desktop to
640x480 @ 60Hz to verify. Then call around for
a tv repair shop that might be able to retune it.
If its still under waranty call for support or an RMA number.
 
Chris said:
I still would suspect the monitor. Even if though you
changed the refresh rate, that wouldn't necessesarily fix
the problem. The CRT monitor has several components
that it switches between on the fly depending on the signals
it recieves from the video card. You may sometimes hear
a slight clicking sound when booting up or otherwise
changing resolutions. The problem may be caused by the
fact that alot of games still use a standard VGA 640x480
screen for thier logos for legacy reasons. Your monitors
components for that type of screen may have detuned
or failed over time so it looses sync with those signals.
I would suggest you could try lowering your desktop to
640x480 @ 60Hz to verify. Then call around for
a tv repair shop that might be able to retune it.
If its still under waranty call for support or an RMA number.
Click to expand...

Chris, thanks for your reply - I did as you suggested and changed the
resolution and refresh rate. When I changed the refresh rate to 60Hz the
monitor gave a quick squeak and then was okay. When I then changed it to
my lowest possible resolution (800x600) everything was okay.

If what you suggest is actually happening then surely the loading screen
for HL2 (where you see a blurred image that then sharpens up when the
game has loaded) would be okay, as I'm sure that's not a clip at 60Hz?

Iain
 
You could try starting windows in 'safe mode'
for which windows uses a standard VGA mode for
display. It could be like I said that your monitor is slightly
out of tune to certain scan frequencies. Thats what that
squeaking sound is about, the monitor is struggling to
lock on. There is a narow range of frequencies a
particular set of the monitors components can handle
before it will try switching to a different set in order to
lock onto the signals. If it can't find a suitable combination
it will keep switching and you probably wouldn't see
much. If it settles on a combo that should normally work
for the given signals but the circuits aren't tuned good
enough then you'll experience the symptoms you
described. An unstable picture and strange high pitched
noises. It could be just a simple turn of a screw or two
inside the back of the monitors case will solve it.
ONLY by a Qualified Service Technician of course!
Fatal potentials inside there! You should also try running
the same games with your monitor on a different
computer to eliminate your 9700 as a suspect.

Chris
 
Chris said:
You could try starting windows in 'safe mode'
for which windows uses a standard VGA mode for
display. It could be like I said that your monitor is slightly
out of tune to certain scan frequencies. Thats what that
squeaking sound is about, the monitor is struggling to
lock on. There is a narow range of frequencies a
particular set of the monitors components can handle
before it will try switching to a different set in order to
lock onto the signals. If it can't find a suitable combination
it will keep switching and you probably wouldn't see
much. If it settles on a combo that should normally work
for the given signals but the circuits aren't tuned good
enough then you'll experience the symptoms you
described. An unstable picture and strange high pitched
noises. It could be just a simple turn of a screw or two
inside the back of the monitors case will solve it.
ONLY by a Qualified Service Technician of course!
Fatal potentials inside there! You should also try running
the same games with your monitor on a different
computer to eliminate your 9700 as a suspect.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks again chris - I'll try it in safe mode. At the moment I can't
afford a new screen or a new card. Last month I had a bit of 'spare'
cash (which I had earned in the evenings) and bought a new digital
camera. Ho hum.

cheers
Iain
 
Back
Top