Dell 400SC / 9800Pro problems.

[nordlaw]

I recently got in on a Dell 400SC deal, and I was pretty excited about using this as a little gaming desktop, but I keep having video problems that I can't solve. I would appreciate any suggestions.

I'm running a whitebox Sapphire 9800P 128MB card that keeps locking, kicking to safe mode or just spontaneously rebooting my computer at seemingly random intervals. It happens in games, surfing, sitting still, you name it.

The 400SC is a P4 2.8, 1GB Kingston PC2700 Value Ram, Maxtor 80GB HD, XP SP2 (and tried SP1).
The card and all the other equipment works fine in my other computer, a P4 1.6 @ 2.1, 4X AGP.

I've tried every ATI driver in the 3.x's and 4.x's, Omega's, Fastwrites on, off, turned off XP visual transitions, hooked the 9800Pro's molex connector to a secondary power supply. I've rebuilt the OS 3 times, used 2 different HDs and different RAM.

The system events log shows that ati2mtag (something just like that, it's not in front of me at the moment), the display device, is to fault. It suggests a different driver, or that the device is failing.

Again, the card works perfectly in the other box.

Obviously, Dell isn't going to help me with XP or AGP problems, so there's your drawback to the 400SC deal.

I've about decided to just turn it into a home server, but I'd love any help you folks can give.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: nordlaw
I recently got in on a Dell 400SC deal, and I was pretty excited about using this as a little gaming desktop, but I keep having video problems that I can't solve. I would appreciate any suggestions.

I'm running a whitebox Sapphire 9800P 128MB card that keeps locking, kicking to safe mode or just spontaneously rebooting my computer at seemingly random intervals. It happens in games, surfing, sitting still, you name it.

The 400SC is a P4 2.8, 1GB Kingston PC2700 Value Ram, Maxtor 80GB HD, XP SP2 (and tried SP1).
The card and all the other equipment works fine in my other computer, a P4 1.6 @ 2.1, 4X AGP.

I've tried every ATI driver in the 3.x's and 4.x's, Omega's, Fastwrites on, off, turned off XP visual transitions, hooked the 9800Pro's molex connector to a secondary power supply. I've rebuilt the OS 3 times, used 2 different HDs and different RAM.

The system events log shows that ati2mtag (something just like that, it's not in front of me at the moment), the display device, is to fault. It suggests a different driver, or that the device is failing.

Again, the card works perfectly in the other box.

Obviously, Dell isn't going to help me with XP or AGP problems, so there's your drawback to the 400SC deal.

I've about decided to just turn it into a home server, but I'd love any help you folks can give.

Thanks in advance.

Check out my .sig, do those steps, and then once done, if you still get a BSOD, feel free to run MPS Reports and send me the resulting .cab file and the minidump files so I can look at it and see if I see anything else.

Quick question - if you replace the 9800P with, say, another Radeon card with that same driver, what happens?

If you replace it with another brand/model of video card (not ATI-based) what happens?

If you boot in safe mode with networking and do all those things you mention above, what happens? BSOD?

 

[nordlaw]

Thanks for the reply; I'll run through that tonight.

I don't have another card to try, except the PCI Rage XL that came with it - it appears fine, but that doesn't help much, I know.

I haven't tried to recreate in safe mode.

 

[dclive]

Got the cab file, but where's the dmp file? Send those when you can....

 

[dclive]

The error suggests a bad video card or bad video card driver, but let's get the dump to find out more.

 

[dclive]

And you mention the system is fine with the ATI Rage card - right away that suggests that the problem is the card or driver, too - so everything's pointing at that one issue.

So - can you borrow a Radeon from someone else ?

 

[nordlaw]

Dump sent, but I only got one after I reselected the auto reboot - otherwise, I just stay frozen.

That particular one is from an attempt to run 3DMark03, which freezes me everytime, but so do the other mentioned things, randomly.

Thanks.

 

[nordlaw]

Would any AGP Radeon do?

I could go buy a cheapy at Wallie World, real quick, I guess.

If it's a 9800 Pro, that'll take a bit - I'm still eligible for RMA on this one... could try that, too.

LMK and Thanks.

BTW. why would it be solid in one machine but not in this one?

 

[nordlaw]

Okay, running an 128MB ATI Radeon 9200 8X AGP like nothing was ever wrong - everything the same except the card.

I'll keep testing and let you know more.

 

[dclive]

So the 9200 works every time, like in the 3d program that was previously a problem in the 9800?

 

[nordlaw]

So far - several runs through 3DMark03 and 01SE - except for horrible performance, no freezes.

However, the 3DMark03 did fail to load levels a couple of times and crashed to desktop, but not the same video freeze - different 'syntax errors in physical_blahblah.txt line <number>

I'm about load a game - see how it does - no freezes so far.

What did the memory dump tell you?

 

[dclive]

That there's a problem with ATI drivers. And since you've tried all the drivers, that suggests there is a problem with the ATI card. And since you can try another ATI card and it's fine, that suggests the problem is with your card. The best test would be another 9800.... that would tell us if it's the card or the machine can't handle the card for some reason (power supply, etc.)

But I bet it's the card. But I don't have a good explanation for why it's fine in one machine and not the other. That's the one thing that makese no sense and leads credence to the power supply bit, so another 9800 pro in a test would help us narrow that down...

 

[nordlaw]

I did run the 9800P off an entirely separate PS while to test that.

I set my other machine next to the 400SC, connected the 9800's molex to the old machine, while it was in the 400SC, and I had the screen freezes. Unless there's something I'm missing, that should have ruled out the PS shortage theory.

My current theory is that perhaps the greater processor and memory speeds are causing a greater pull on the card than in the old machine; just enough to drag it to failure. Plausible?

Either way, if this 9200 stays stable, I'm going to RMA the 9800PRO - only way I have to test it, at this point.

Thanks so much for your help.

I'll update if anything changes... or stays the same for any appreciable length of time.

 

[dclive]

avgcore AVG6 Kernel \??\c:\progra~1\grisoft\avg6\avgcore.sys Kernel Driver Yes Auto Running OK Normal No Yes
avgfsh AVG6 Rezident Driver \??\c:\progra~1\grisoft\avg6\avgfsh.sys Kernel Driver Yes Auto Running OK Normal No Yes

Remove that and re-test.

 

[nordlaw]

Do you mean uninstall AVG?

And re-test with the 9800Pro after it's unistalled?

 

[dclive]

Please. Thanks. Just to test... And with the 9200 for now.

 

[Adn4n]

Just a quick question: Isn't the Saphire Radeon 9800Pro the one that's not really a 9800Pro due to half bandwith?

 

[Fencer128]

Hi,

You mention quite a few things that you've tried - you don't mention any BIOS video settings?

Have a look at the BIOS video settings - try turning off some of the video options one-by-one (presuming you know what you're doing) especially disabling AGP sidebands if available.

Good luck,

Andy

 

[nordlaw]

Originally posted by: dclive
Please. Thanks. Just to test... And with the 9200 for now.

I was stable prior to removing AVG for several hours playing some games, surfing, etc.

I removed AVG, and didn't notice any improvements, but as mentioned, I was stable anyway, except that 3DMark's won't run - syntax errors in 03, locks in 01SE - different behaviours and don't know what's causing that - but again, everything else seems stable.

I've reinstalled AVG.

Originally posted by: Adn4n
Just a quick question: Isn't the Saphire Radeon 9800Pro the one that's not really a 9800Pro due to half bandwith?

There were some 128 bit Sapphire 'Pros'. This is a 256 bit.

Originally posted by: Fencer128
Hi,

You mention quite a few things that you've tried - you don't mention any BIOS video settings?

Have a look at the BIOS video settings - try turning off some of the video options one-by-one (presuming you know what you're doing) especially disabling AGP sidebands if available.

Good luck,

Andy

The only relevant BIOS settings I can find on this board are the aperature size, which I have set to 128.

--- Thanks to all of you for the replies and suggestions.

I think I'm going to RMA the board, if the 9200 is okay all night tonight.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: nordlaw

Originally posted by: dclive
Please. Thanks. Just to test... And with the 9200 for now.

I was stable prior to removing AVG for several hours playing some games, surfing, etc.

I thought it rebooted while playing CS? Is that not the case?

 

[nordlaw]

The 9800Pro did; so far the 9200 I'm using to test has been stable in CS.

 

[dclive]

OIC. That's why I posted what I did about AVG. I was confused for a bit there.