Big problem with MSI 9800pro

[piesang]

Hi, I just bought my RX9800PRO-TD128, installed it and ran 3dmark03. The first tests ran fine but Nature bought on extreme artifacting. I mean you cant see anything familiar just random colored pixels all across the screen. I then quit 3dmark and windows was also displaying in a very distorted way. After a restart it was ok again (not nature)

I formatted and reinstalled my system but the problem still exists.

I dont overclock so it cant be that.

Any help will be apreciated

 

[StrangerGuy]

Try removing your PC casing cover and run 3dmark again to see whether the artifacts still occur. If it doesn't your card is overheating due to insufficient case cooling.

 

[Regs]

Yeah, something is overheating. Or your going to have to RMA your Video card for a new one.

While the case is open and running, make sure the fan on the heat sink is spinning.

 

[jhurst]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
Try removing your PC casing cover and run 3dmark again to see whether the artifacts still occur. If it doesn't your card is overheating due to insufficient case cooling.

Nothing is overheating. When you buy a 9800pro, it doesn't say on the box "Will only work in an optimally cooled environment". The card itself is what generates most of the heat, and they manufacture the things where its own heatsink is enough cooling for the card. Case air flow, which is a good thing don't get me wrong, is not what is messing up his graphics. RMA it bud.

 

[TrailerParkKing]

I suppose that it's possible there was a problem during manufacturing as well. Maybe someone forgot to add thermal paste on the underside of the heatsink. Don't risk removing the heatsink though, since it would void your warranty. Unless you have removed that heatsink before and are 100% confident you won't damage anything, just RMA it and get a new one.

 

[piesang]

Just want to mention the system on which the problem exists is an Epox 8RDA+ mainboard, 2500+Barton, 768Mb Kingston memory, 300Watt KME psu. I tested it on my own machine, Gigabyte 7VAX, 2500+barton, 512Legend memory, 480Watt Antec, and it worked fine. There is no cooling problem as it barely gets warm compared to my 9500pro. The fans all work.

Would you say there could be insufficient power, or compatibility issues with the EPOX board?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: piesang
Just want to mention the system on which the problem exists is an Epox 8RDA+ mainboard, 2500+Barton, 768Mb Kingston memory, 300Watt KME psu. I tested it on my own machine, Gigabyte 7VAX, 2500+barton, 512Legend memory, 480Watt Antec, and it worked fine. There is no cooling problem as it barely gets warm compared to my 9500pro. The fans all work.

Would you say there could be insufficient power, or compatibility issues with the EPOX board?

So it works fine on one system and not the other?

Both systems were recently formatted?

Is the 300w system - the one it doesn't work with - a generic PS? KME? - i am unfamilar)

OUCH!

The place to go for really thorny ATI problems - compatability issues, etc. - are the Forums at Rage3d . . . .

 

[piesang]

www.kmepc.com.

Bought the case and PSU together.

 

[BlindBartimaeus]

Your PSU is most likely the problem...a lot of juice is needed and prolly isn't getting enough to the card therefore it is like undervolting the ram therefore the ram won't run at rated speeds therefore artifacts.

JMTC

 

[Sonic587]

What model is the PSU? Some of those makes are REALLY weak on the 3.3V line....14 amps. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken, but I do believe graphics cards draw their power from that line. To give a contrast, a 300watt Antec has 20 amps on the 3.3V.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Sonic587
What model is the PSU? Some of those makes are REALLY weak on the 3.3V line....14 amps. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken, but I do believe graphics cards draw their power from that line. To give a contrast, a 300watt Antec has 20 amps on the 3.3V.

Graphics cards actually draw from the +12V line -- but that's where most cheap PSU's cut corners (since only users with high-end graphics cards or tons of hard drives will ever need extra amps there). You want at least 15A on the 12V line -- cheap PSUs have more like 10. A high-end graphics card can draw up to 100W@12V -- which is just over 8A by itself.

+3.3V and +5V are used for PCI cards, some motherboard components (the rest run off of +12V, like the voltage regulators, but draw little power), and your CPU and RAM.

 

[Sonic587]

That's right, thanks for the correction , Matthias. I remember seeing 3.3V in a AMD doc a while ago Probably was about PCI videocards.

 

[Pete]

Try pluggng your 480W PSU into the other MB. If you still get artifacts, something else is the culprit; if everything works fine, then start researching new PSUs.

 

[magratton]

I know of another person on this forum who was also artifacting at speeds even lower than stock with this card. He had a decent psu and quality rig. Troubleshooting is always my first choice, but if you don't find anything that could be wrong, I would soon consider an RMA.

 

[whattaguy]

I finally got my MSI working. The Catalyst 4.7 drivers rendered my card unstable. I reformatted, and tried many other things to get it to work, but my system would often crash. I finally removed the 4.7 drivers, and used the 4.6. So far, everything's been working nicely.

 

[Ilmater]

myrigissick? Is that you?

 

[piesang]

Using a Antec 480W TrueBlue, power is not the problem. (Upgraded the PSU)

The problem only exists on that PC, runs fine on mine.

 

[piesang]

Don't compare me to that idiot!

The card looks to be overheating but I could be wrong (cool to the touch). In my PC it runs ok, overclocks to about 430 core before artifacting.

Its difficult to explain how it looks on the EPOX board its not like the artifacting on my PC (White spots ocassionally) on the EPOX its nothing familiar on screen, just weird triangles and multicolored pixels all over the screen.

Just to clarify I don't usually overclock, just did this time to see if the board was at fault (maybe a reject)

 

[eleventy]

I was reading this while waiting for my rx9800 to be delivered and getting nervous because I have the same motherboard (8RDA+). I installed it today and had the same issues when running aquamark. I removed the supplied 4 pin molex to floppy passthrough cable and just plugged in a regular floppy power lead from the power supply (antec 350W), works fine now. I've completed both benchmarks (aqua and 3dmark03) and have been playing with ATI Tool for several hours with no problems.

 

[piesang]

Really????

I will give it a try then.

Thanks

 

[Cawchy87]

I would assume that it is just a bad card. That sounds like too much stress on the componants rather than overheating. Because a card wouldn't overheat at the exact same time everytime you ran 3dmark03. RMA it

 

[eleventy]

Originally posted by: piesang
Really????

I will give it a try then.

Thanks

Let us know if it works for you.

 

[piesang]

Well well well... that actually worked, how in heavens name did you think of that????

maybe I will let MSI know their adapter does'nt work...

Thanx everyone