I miraculously resuscitated a 9700Pro tonight!

[SickBeast]

My friend was playing F.E.A.R. on his 9700Pro card then suddenly things went berzerk and he got all kinds of clipping errors on his polygons (his image was totally garbled, and it seemed heat related).

With my years of hardware experience, I assumed that the card had fried itself because it had been running flawlessly for years up until now.

I took the card out of the computer, blew a tiny bit of dust off the HSF and inspected it carefully. The HSF was snuggly attached, and the fan was spinning when the machine was on. There was no physical damage to speak of.

Then it occured to me that the AGP voltage may be too high. Sure enough, his ASUS P4 motherboard set to "automatic" on the AGP voltage was over-juicing it. I set it to 1.5v and voila! It was fixed!

I remember reading about a guy RMA'ing his card due to issues similar to this not long ago. Just a heads up for people having issues like this. :beer:

 

[JimmyH]

That's sweet. Nice troubleshootin' :beer:

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: JimmyH
That's sweet. Nice troubleshootin' :beer:

Thanks.

My friend couldn't believe it. He posted his problem on a board similar to AT and they reccomended him to RMA the card and buy a new rig with PCI-E. He was really happy that I fixed it.

 

[JimmyH]

Friend just threw my ole 9800np oc'd to xt+ in trashcan with similar clipping probs. He got same results w/ P4 I got w/ my a64. Never checked the apg voltages on either system. DOH!

 

[Paratus]

Sickbeast my Asus board is giving my 9600XT 1.7 V AGP Vddq I'm betting this is high isn't it?

 

[n7]

I hate to be a downer, but what if the card was overheating, & that's why it got temporarily fux0red?

FEAR could certainly do that to a card, if any game could.

Taking it out would allow it to cool down, which would of course then allow it to work fine when installed again...

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: n7
I hate to be a downer, but what if the card was overheating, & that's why it got temporarily fux0red?

FEAR could certainly do that to a card, if any game could.

Taking it out would allow it to cool down, which would of course then allow it to work fine when installed again...

It was having the glitches every time it heated up during FEAR until I changed the voltage.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Paratus
Sickbeast my Asus board is giving my 9600XT 1.7 V AGP Vddq I'm betting this is high isn't it?

Sounds high. You might want to try 1.5v. The auto setting on my friends' board was 1.7v IIRC.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: n7
I hate to be a downer, but what if the card was overheating, & that's why it got temporarily fux0red?

FEAR could certainly do that to a card, if any game could.

Taking it out would allow it to cool down, which would of course then allow it to work fine when installed again...

It was having the glitches every time it heated up during FEAR until I changed the voltage.

Ah okay...i thought this just happened once.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: n7
I hate to be a downer, but what if the card was overheating, & that's why it got temporarily fux0red?

FEAR could certainly do that to a card, if any game could.

Taking it out would allow it to cool down, which would of course then allow it to work fine when installed again...

It was having the glitches every time it heated up during FEAR until I changed the voltage.

Ah okay...i thought this just happened once.

Ha! My troubleshooting prowess scoffs at you!

 

[nts]

interesting...

ASUS undervolted my RAM (enough to cause the system to become unstable at load) and the only way to fix it was to set the RAM speed, timings and voltage manually. The BIOS doesn't like my manual voltage (2.1) very much (colored differently, dangerous) tho

Gotta check my X1800 PCIe voltage now... ASUS quality has gone down

 

[apoppin]

actually it wasn't a miracle

. . . cool, nevertheless
:thumbsup:

[if you still believe it was a miracle, i will send you my 9800xt]

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

A miracle would be if you doubled the voltage and corrected the problem. MMMMM 3.0V on AGP . Good job though.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: apoppin
actually it wasn't a miracle

. . . cool, nevertheless
:thumbsup:

[if you still believe it was a miracle, i will send you my 9800xt]

What was the problem with the 9800XT?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: michaelpatrick33
A miracle would be if you doubled the voltage and corrected the problem. MMMMM 3.0V on AGP . Good job though.

I'll bet that could cause a power failure in my office.

See this thread, point #5.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: apoppin
actually it wasn't a miracle

. . . cool, nevertheless
:thumbsup:

[if you still believe it was a miracle, i will send you my 9800xt]

What was the problem with the 9800XT?

i knocked the vga cooling fan connection loose and then wondered why it was artifacting
:Q



it hit 100C by the time i pulled the plug . . . and managed to work for a few more weeks . . .

shall i send it back to ATi?




[it was a 256/256 Radeon 9800p modded to true XT with a Arctic-Cooling VGA cooler to keep the case temps in line . . . the one i got a great deal on - also - 2 years ago - for $223 . . .

damn, these 'off the edge' cards get cheaper and cheaper as the newest cutting edge cards get more expensive.:Q

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: apoppin
actually it wasn't a miracle

. . . cool, nevertheless
:thumbsup:

[if you still believe it was a miracle, i will send you my 9800xt]

What was the problem with the 9800XT?

i knocked the vga cooling fan connection loose and then wondered why it was artifacting
:Q



it hit 100C by the time i pulled the plug . . . and managed to work for a few more weeks . . .

shall i send it back to ATi?




[it was a 256/256 Radeon 9800o modded to true XT with a Arctic-Cooling VGA cooler to keep the case temps in line . . . the one i got a great deal on - also - 2 years ago - for $223 . . .

damn, these 'off the edge' cards get cheaper and cheaper as the cutting edge cards get more expensive.:Q

She's dead, Jim. Maybe if you have it blessed by a rabbi it will work again.

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: michaelpatrick33
A miracle would be if you doubled the voltage and corrected the problem. MMMMM 3.0V on AGP . Good job though.

I'll bet that could cause a power failure in my office.

See this thread, point #5.

Gulp :laugh: How come the eccentric psychos are never hot? Well there is Paris Hilton so maybe that isn't such a good example.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: michaelpatrick33

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: michaelpatrick33
A miracle would be if you doubled the voltage and corrected the problem. MMMMM 3.0V on AGP . Good job though.

I'll bet that could cause a power failure in my office.

See this thread, point #5.

Gulp :laugh: How come the eccentric psychos are never hot? Well there is Paris Hilton so maybe that isn't such a good example.

Her daughter's hot but she's taken. She tried to set me up with this cute Russian girl at the client's office but by the time she got around to it I had a new gf already.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SickBeast

Originally posted by: apoppin

i knocked the vga cooling fan connection loose and then wondered why it was artifacting
:Q



it hit 100C by the time i pulled the plug . . . and managed to work for a few more weeks . . .

shall i send it back to ATi?




[it was a 256/256 Radeon 9800o modded to true XT with a Arctic-Cooling VGA cooler to keep the case temps in line . . . the one i got a great deal on - also - 2 years ago - for $223 . . .

damn, these 'off the edge' cards get cheaper and cheaper as the cutting edge cards get more expensive.:Q

She's dead, Jim. Maybe if you have it blessed by a rabbi it will work again.

My whole point is that is is a GREAT time to get a decent card for a good price . . . and it can't get worse as the x1900/g71 is released.

Realistically, if you game at 10x7 to 12x10, a $200 videocard is sufficient for most anything at Max [except FEAR . . . reminds me, i gotta load the demo again] . . . the relatively inexpensive 6800GS or x850xt see to hit a good price-performance point for most AGPers . . . still wish[ed] for faster AGP cards, though.



ANYway, good job with that 9700p . . . at least your friend now has "options"
:thumbsup:

 

[Paratus]

Thanks Sickbeast I knocked it down to 1.6 and I'll try1.5 later.