Issues with my ATI X800 XL video card

[DEredita]

I got my ATI X800 XL video card that I preordered from ATI lastweek. I installed it and also the catalyst drivers disk. The Catalyst software is a PITA!!!!! I mean, I touch a setting and my pc locks up immediately. I open the Anti-Alising window and immediately everything locks up and I get green artifacts all over my green - had to reboot.

Doom3 locks up only 1 to 3 minutes into the game - it doesn't make it though the trailers.

I have my resolution set up at 1024x768.

Help!!!!

- Mike

 

[ScrewFace]

Did you umistall the old drivers properly? You have to uninstall the 'Control Panel' 1st and then reboot and then uninstall the drivers in that order. You could try a reformat and if that doesn't work than you'll have to RMA it.

 

[crazyeddie]

Wow, DEredita, I don't know what to tell you except your problem isn't common or usual. I got my X800XL from the ATI Online Store about the same time you did and it installed flawlessly and has been running perfectly.

I didn't bother with the install CD though, I just downloaded the Catalyst 5.2 drivers from ATI's web site.

Your problem sounds more like either a defective card, a massive video driver problem of some kind, or a motherboard driver isssue of some kind.

Good luck.

 

[DEredita]

I'll see if there were any video drivers, but I installed this in a system I was building, so when I installed Windows - it played video where it recongized that there was some video card in it but didn't know what it was until I installed the Catalyst.

- Mike

 

[DEredita]

I think the CD had Catalyst 5.1 drivers. The website now AFAIK now has version 5.3.

- Mike

 

[DEredita]

Is the problems caused because I am using an nForce4 motherboard? Anyone else using a nForce4 chipset with an ATI video card?

 

[Aonghasan]

Download and use driver cleaner 1.1. I just did a reinstall of winXP pro, and encountered a problem with my 6800gt. I ran driver cleaner, and the problem has not happened since. Hope it works, good luck with your new system.

 

[willyg43]

I had similar problems, fed up everything, I found that the catalyst center was the issue after uninstalling that, and upgrading the driver only to 5.3 everything is smooth with my Nforce4 Ultra setup.

 

[DEredita]

This is one of those things that drive you nutty. I forgot my usb key at home, but believe I have version 5.3 I downloaded to it the other day at work. I will try the Driver Cleaner to get rid of the version 5.1? drivers I have installed on my machine now.

- Mike

 

[DEredita]

Originally posted by: willyg43
I had similar problems, fed up everything, I found that the catalyst center was the issue after uninstalling that, and upgrading the driver only to 5.3 everything is smooth with my Nforce4 Ultra setup.

Knowing that you had the same issue and it cleared up with 5.3 is giving me a lot of hope. I been absolutely sick over the crashing X800 XL card. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this fixes all the problems.

Thanks a million.

 

[Aonghasan]

Make sure you clean all video brands with driver cleaner. I found that after the clean install of winXP, windows has some base driver extensions for alot of video cards.

And have to ask to make sure... Do you have Microsoft .net Framework 1.1 installed and patched? It is mandatory for ATI's CCC to work. If you dont, that could be your entire problem.

 

[DEredita]

What's CCC? Also, I downloaded .net framework on my thumb drive installed oon my new pc - then rebooted - ran windows updates and it said I needed the .net 1.1 framework - installed it thinking the first install didn't work or this was a new version - windows took a dump after this install and took a few tries of "Boot from when windows last worked" to get Windows running again. So I may not have the .net framework on there.

- Mike

 

[Aonghasan]

The CCC is ATI's special "Catalist Control Center". You need .net framework installed for the CCC to work properly. On the main page for ATI, in the lower left of the screen where you can do a quick download of the drivers, the first option is the one with CCC bundles with the download. Below that is where it say .net framework is required. Now there is an option to download the driver without the CCC and you dont need .net framework for that.

CCC just offers some advanced options for the driver, like disabling some optimizations. But I hear is a huge resource hog. My wifes puter has a 9700pro, but i just use the regular driver without the CCC. Up to you though.

 

[mooncancook]

I got my card from Frys and had no problem so far. I previously had a 6600GT in it. Removed the driver and install ATI drivers from the included CD. I only install DVD/VCD player functions for the media center though.

 

[DEredita]

I'm really itching to get home to fix this. I get off now and hour and a half commute home. Can't wait to get this working.

- Mike

 

[willyg43]

Any luck?

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Aonghasan
The CCC is ATI's special "Catalist Control Center". You need .net framework installed for the CCC to work properly. On the main page for ATI, in the lower left of the screen where you can do a quick download of the drivers, the first option is the one with CCC bundles with the download. Below that is where it say .net framework is required. Now there is an option to download the driver without the CCC and you dont need .net framework for that.

CCC just offers some advanced options for the driver, like disabling some optimizations. But I hear is a huge resource hog. My wifes puter has a 9700pro, but i just use the regular driver without the CCC. Up to you though.

Yes, CCC seems to be a resource eater on my box. Next time I dl the new catalyst im gonna get the non-CCC version. I believe the difference is like 40MB of ram usage.

 

[pfd161]

I just put together my system and am having a similar issue with the X800XL. When I play my game about 45 min into it everything freezes and I get an annoying noise through my headphones. 1 time my card did a gpu recover. The other 5 times I had to do a hard reboot.

Working on better case cooling. Installed drivers off the disc and then updated them. Card still locks up but before update only lasted 5 minutes. After driver update lasted 45 minutes. CCC is running...may try and uninstall that. Do not have the net framework stuff installed.

Any other recommendations? Wonder if we have an issue with this card and the Nforce 4 ultra chipset?

Thanks for any help....pfd161

 

[DEredita]

Ok the new drivers worked like a charm. Thank you willyg43!!!

The drivers the ATI's X800 XL comes with are not good with the nForce4 chipset. Download the newest drivers from ATI's site. I played Doom3 for about 45 minutes to an hour last night and it ran find - had a misplaced pixel once or twice but nothing I'm gonna get all annoyed about - the game ran smooth as butter for me.

Cooling is everything pfd161!!!! Since this is my first week of my PC - I am constantly observing my temps - and I went overkill with making sure the air flow was perfect - I have no wires in the path of the air flow in my case - the wires are twisty tied very tight and run along the bottom of the case and along away from the mobo, ram and video card. Like I said air flow is key. My processor runs between 33C-34C and under full 100% load for periods of over and hour it'll top out at around 41C-42C. After an hour of running Doom3 my processor was at 37C and the GPU on the X800 XL was 41C. I'm quite pleased.

- Mike

 

[Aonghasan]

Glad everything is workin for yah!

 

[willyg43]

Sweet, glad it worked man. Heh you'd figure with a basically brand new card they'd have sent new drivers that work with our MBs. Man I keep having issues with nvidia so I switch to ATI then I have issues with them and switch back....heh its a constant struggle

 

[mooncancook]

what program do you use to read the X800XL GPU temp? I don't see any temp info in the ATI control panel.

 

[pfd161]

I am having freezing issues as soon as I launch 3dmark03 with my X800XL. Going to try 3dmark 05 and see if it still happens....
Any ideas? New card for me and running latest ati drivers...
thanks.....

 

[willyg43]

dump the catalyst control center, ie: uninstall it from your add remove programs control panel.

 

[pfd161]

Okay I figured it out...ran memtest and got an error...removed 1 of my 512 sticks and viola! no more freezing. !!!!
YEAHHHH!!! glad it's not the radeon!!!!
Thanks for your help everyone.