Bad video card!

[nvalhalla]

I just bought a 9800 pro on the internet, used, and it doesn't work right. The card has some pixel errors when booting, but works fine when windows loads. The problem is when I play games. The textures are badly corrupted and the polygons are ****ed. The card is identified by windows as a 9800 xt, so I think it has been soft-modded. I tried turning the Core/Mem speeds way down thinking it was heat, but no change. I used the newest ati drivers and Omega drivers for soft-modded cards, with no luck. Updated mobo bios, nvidia drivers for mobo, turned up the voltages, no effect. Does anyone know something that might save this card? The person I bought it from won't return my money. Any advise would be great

A7n8x Deluxe
9800 pro > xt
512 pc3200
nec 3500A 16X DVD
400W PSU
120 GB WD SATA

 

[josepavento]

Who / Where did you buy it from?

JOse

 

[HappyNic]

I want to know who and where you got it from too.
after that
What is your current core/mem speed?

 

[BFG10K]

Try flashing the card to a 9800 BIOS.

 

[effee]

was it 2nd hand?

 

[nvalhalla]

Yes, the card is second hand. Got it on ebay (I know, but I've never had a problem BEFORE!) The speed it tries to run at is defult XT speeds of 365/412. I also clocked it down to Pro speeds and then 290/290, with NO change. One thing I can say about the card is that the corruption is consistant. The polys and textures draw wrong exactly the same each time I run 3dmark03, regardless of what I do to the card. Haven't tried reflashing the bios, do you guys think that will fix it? The only thing I've seen with bad flashes is COMPLETELY dead cards. If the card is recognized as an XT by windows, then the only time I've heard of corruptions is because if heat, which I eliminated as a problem. If the bios is the problem, where can I find a 9800 pro bios? It's a "MADE BY ATI" card, not MSI, Sapphire, ect.

 

[HappyNic]

If it's ebay, what is the name of the seller so I can avoid him/her if I decides to get some videocards on ebay.

You can find some bios over here
http://www.rojakpot.com/defaul...amp;var1=92&var2=1

And since it's a build by ATI card you can just reflash it back to a Original Pro bios and RMA the card. I remember the Radeon 9800s come with a 2 year warrenty.

 

[Matt155]

I just bought a used 9700 pro from ebay too, and when I removed the stock heatsink, the paste was all dried up and I bet it was over heating at any clock speed. I would check that first, and replace with artic silver if you have some. If you don't mind spending a little more money, buy a arctic silencer cooler for you card, not only will it cool it better, its silent, and
it will exhaust the hot air out of you case.

 

[Killrose]

I beleive 9800pro's with the R360 core will show up as 9800XT by default. So it may not be a "flashed bios" issue. Also, have you re-loaded your chipset AGP drivers? and what card did you have before this? And did you have a third party overclocking utility that you were using on your old card? These are not removed automatically when you remove the video card drivers. That would cause corruption.


oops I see now that it is running XT speeds by default so the bios may have been flashed to an XT. Still could have the XT core though. Also, I would contact the seller and tell him /her you want a re-fund. I would not go flashing the bios and messing with heatsinks and stuff. It should have worked out of the box.

 

[nvalhalla]

Ok, first, the seller's name I'm not going to post yet, because I'm trying to work out a refund deal, but the person is hiding behind "no warrenty". If I get screwed I'll let the WORLD know about him. Seceond, yes I did reload the AGP drivers for the Nforce chipset, no change. The system is a new build, no previous overclocking utilities. I had my own 9700 Pro AIW in the system when setting it up before getting the card. Reflashing the bios and RMAing it will work? I would think that ATI would know something had been changed... I do have artic silver 5 laying around, but I don't want to try and rip the HS off unless I exhast all other options. Those things are stuck on well!

 

[Pete]

Surely eBay has some fraud protection? Even if you "work something out" with him, let eBay know that they have a wannabe scammer causing trouble.

Was he the original owner? Did he flash it to an XT BIOS? Did he advertise it as running at XT speeds?

 

[nvalhalla]

It was advertised as a pro. Clames to be selling off stock from computer store, but in an email the person told me it was a computer REPAIR store, a small detail overlooked in the auction discription

 

[nvalhalla]

well, this thread sure died off fast. Is there no one with the knowlege I need? I reflashed the bios back to pro, still no change. Thinking the cards dead. Anyone else have any ideas?