Help!!!! Radeon LE problems

[Duvie]

I have a radeon Le I had oc'd it time to time with powerstrip to benchmark the performance, but for the most part since I don't have a registered or full version of the program it is usually at the default of 148/148. My wife turned on the computer early in the morning, had it on all day long with large amount of time on the internet.

When I got home I went to run a benchmark at 148/148 to see my bottom range and I got snow...At that stock speed? I let it cool down for several minutes tried to run it at 183/183 and the snow was plenty and it blacked the screen...but it wasn't frozen up...I could escape and the desktop would flash back up...What the hell!!! That doesn't act like a heat problem.

Is this an overheating problem?...card didn't feel that warm. Is the monitor going bad? All my other benchmarks for memory and cpu were exactly the same. I unistalled then reinstalled 3dmark...

I tried backing the fsb back down...no diff
I tried backing agp down to 2x...no diff
I got a lareg fan blowing on the card, felt actually cold, restarted...no diff

Need help!!!I can't belive I could break the card...

 

[hans007]

ram probably cant handle 183. try a lower setting. also at 148mhz the timings on the ram could actually be faster than a normal 183mhz radeon, so trying to run 183 would be tougher.

 

[Duvie]

I am getting snow at 148/148 now...never did before

I was able to run at 185/185 with loops for long period, on several occasions over the last couple days...I had yet to see snow

So why now? And why at stock speed? That is the true question.

Chips on card are cold and yet still snow...cpu and fsb at defaults...still snow.

Somebody got any ideas?????

 

[Duvie]

I am thinking it is my monitor...reasons

1) my monitor flickers like it is the wrong freq.
2) when my computer first starts the screen is overly wide with icons off the visible screen but over the course of 5-10 minutes the screen slowly shrinks back to original size...

3)the computer never freezes in 3dmark...screen acts like a monitor shutting off...screen collapse to a black screen with a rainbow stripe in center that slowly goes away. However I hit esc and the screen fires back up to the desktop...chips not hot!!!

4)more snow in 16 bit then 32 bit...can run 1024x768 16 bit (w/ snow)
can run 800x600 16 bit (w/ snow) 800x600 32 bit (no snow) 1024x768 32 bit screen collapses...can no 1280 screen resolution to work screen collapses.

Is it the monitor or still the vid card? I need help here...

 

[bigbootydaddy]

put your old video card back in and that way you can tell its not your monitor.

 

[Duvie]

bigbootydaddy, I would if I didn't already trade it on a forum one week ago...it was a voodoo3 2000. My best bet is to try another monitor...I might take home my 19" work monitor and try it out.

But for now does anyone have other ideas...like to try many ideas in case this one doesn't work.

Do you think it is monitor, vid card, hardware, software, winsuck or 3dmark?

 

[Hawk]

If you see snow, it's probably the card running too fast. If the monitor flickers, and shakes and stuff, then it's probably the monitor. You can try your monitor somewhere else, or set your refresh rate in Windows/3D apps to something else and see if that helps.

Also, 3dmark isn't a very good benchmark, get a game or something...=)

Oh, and I guess you can try lowering the clock speed of your Radeon to something ridiculously low and see if you still get snow. If you don't, then that would suck, cause 148 is still too high (though if you had it at that before, there's no reason why it didn't do it then and would do it now).

 

[Duvie]

Before when I clocked it to 185/185 I never got snow and card remained very cool, not overly hot at all for just a hs. When i tried to push it to 193 the card started and froze during testing. I would reboot card would default back to 148/148 and I would know my limit.
When it was too fast it just froze no snow no nothing. Now I get snow at stock speed and picture seems jerky with horizontal bands like it is not refreshing fast enough.

I played a dvd no difference...but not sure if it would.

No settings have changed since monday and it worked fine until thursday...I didn't add any software and/or hardware

monitor has flickered and acted funny at boot-up since powerstrip told me my monitor settings were wrong and changed them...since changed back no diff.

Funny sidenote: Newegg the place I bought the card emailed me two hours ago on a special for a monitor...huh...is there a big brother here reading the post, especially the recent ones slamming them and business practices?

 

[dawgfan]

My brother had a similar problem w/ a Geforce 2 GTS. He reinstalled the .inf file specific to his monitor, and removed all other monitor entries (in his case there was a 'generic' monitor listed)from his control panel: system: device manager after rebooting into safe mode. Then he booted normally and the problem was fixed.

 

[Duvie]

I am going to install the monitor using the specific adi microscan driver on the windows98 disk...see if that helps...

How do I make sure I clean up all the monitor references?...since I have used plug n play successfully for quite awhile with no problem up to this point and have tried to reset it back to plug n play with no success...How do I know I am geting a good fresh driver install?

Is there something in regedit that I can clean up?

 

[Taz4158]

Go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\DISPLAY, click the plus next to DISPLAY and you will see at least one sub key, normally labelled 0000. If your registry is dirty, you will likely see multiple keys, such as 0001, 0002, 0003, and so on. If you have only one video card in your system, it is now safe to delete every sub key of DISPLAY, including 0000.

 

[Duvie]

How about the monitor sub directory...in services subdirectory?
Display isn't that the vid card only?

I noticed the one at work has 0000 0001 under monitor with different inf files listed...

 

[Duvie]

Bad news...I think I used a new monitor tried to clean up registry which it didn't need.

While the monitor cut down on the flickering the snow continues, but noticeably less...that would suck if both are bad...

The funny thing is that the snow happens more at 16bit 3dmark default 148/148 than at 32 bit 1280x1020 175/175...What the hell!!

Is this sometype of hardware conflict or software problem? I can't imagine monitor and radeon le are both bad...

I need to figure this out so I can RMA this radeon...there is no way by enabling hyper z and oc'ing a little at brief periods and it always sets itself back to default that I can screw this thing up...

Are Radeon Le owners going to notice any adverse effects by tweaking as many of us have to get the performance we want.

 

[Duvie]

note: I dropped the card to 120/120 with powerstrip and there still was snow...more snow than is present at 1280 32 bit 175/175.

Should I reformat and start over...Is something a conflict here.

I can't believe card cant do 120/120 now when it use to do 185/185 without a hiccup.

 

[Taz4158]

Hi Duvie, try the card in another machine. Sounds like you may have to RMA.

 

[Taz4158]

<< I need to figure this out so I can RMA this radeon...there is no way by enabling hyper z and oc'ing a little at brief periods and it always sets itself back to default that I can screw this thing up... >>


Once enabled in the registry HyperZ is there to stay. As for overclocking just run c:\windows\pstrip.exe /clk (value) /exit. Save it as a batch, create a shortcut to it and run it from your startup.

 

[Duvie]

update: I disable the hyper z back to le standards and snow went away at 148/148...I then enabled it again it still no snow...I boosted it to 166/166 retail level and the longer I looped into testing it I got snow...maybe the card is overheating!!!! Hyper z may put a tremendous load on it.

My case is well cooled...750 cpu 34 celsius, 2 case fans, side removed right now with large fan blowing across the vid card.

I noticed that the first ram chip on the card (closest to the back)is hot hot, while the other 3 are mildly warm. Is there something there? I just want to get stable performance at retail 166/166 level, otherwise I am better off getting retail card.