Alright, I've exhausted everything I know to try, anyone have a better idea? I picked it up used off this forum, so RMA'ing will be difficult.
Sapphire 128MB RED PCB AGP Radeon 9700 NON-Pro.
Has been running great for about 2 months. One day I turn it off, come back a few hours later and turn it back on and I've got a corrupted bios screen. All further screens including windows are corrupt. Corruption equotes miss colored character blocks, random characters across the screen, a "garbage" screen, not flashing just continuous garbage. NOTE: This garbage screen also comes up on the Radeon's default screen that states you must plug in the external power connector if you didn't plug it in before power-up. This indicates it is not a power problem with the external (floppy power) connector.
Here is what I've done attempting to solve the problem,
-Remove/Reseat the card
-Check/Clean the heatsink fan
-Clean card's AGP contacts
-Reflash the default bios
-Use a can of compressed air to clean the card of dust/materials
None of this helped, except, strangly leaving the card out of the system or cleaning it with compressed air. If I leave it out of the system long enough (20-30 minutes, 5 minutes doesn't help), it will work initially. The computer is completely stable in Windows and 3D with no artifacting when the system comes up with no garbage (about 1/10 tries). If I reset, or restart the system it continues to work. However, powering it off and back on again causes the garbage to come up immediately.
I have verified it is the video card specifically by removing the 9700 and replacing it with a Radeon 7500, it works perfectly fine. I have also installed the 9700 in another system where it continues to produce garbage.
Does anyone have any advice? This 9700 has 3.3NS Infineon RAM.
Thanks!
Sapphire 128MB RED PCB AGP Radeon 9700 NON-Pro.
Has been running great for about 2 months. One day I turn it off, come back a few hours later and turn it back on and I've got a corrupted bios screen. All further screens including windows are corrupt. Corruption equotes miss colored character blocks, random characters across the screen, a "garbage" screen, not flashing just continuous garbage. NOTE: This garbage screen also comes up on the Radeon's default screen that states you must plug in the external power connector if you didn't plug it in before power-up. This indicates it is not a power problem with the external (floppy power) connector.
Here is what I've done attempting to solve the problem,
-Remove/Reseat the card
-Check/Clean the heatsink fan
-Clean card's AGP contacts
-Reflash the default bios
-Use a can of compressed air to clean the card of dust/materials
None of this helped, except, strangly leaving the card out of the system or cleaning it with compressed air. If I leave it out of the system long enough (20-30 minutes, 5 minutes doesn't help), it will work initially. The computer is completely stable in Windows and 3D with no artifacting when the system comes up with no garbage (about 1/10 tries). If I reset, or restart the system it continues to work. However, powering it off and back on again causes the garbage to come up immediately.
I have verified it is the video card specifically by removing the 9700 and replacing it with a Radeon 7500, it works perfectly fine. I have also installed the 9700 in another system where it continues to produce garbage.
Does anyone have any advice? This 9700 has 3.3NS Infineon RAM.
Thanks!
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