Please Help with Radeon 9500 Pro and image problems

[Zanfib]

I installed my Radeon into a Dell 8100 and soon after I noticed some funny things going on. The problem is I have this weird "bubbly" oscilations on my monitor.
They look kinda like what you get from EMI but I never had a problem with my old card in the same setup with the same monitor in the same room. I've been blaming my ps but I thought I should get more/better opinions before I set fire to the ps in a fit of rage.

It's a dell 8100 with a very old P4, 384Mb PC800 RDRAM, maxtor hdd, on a 423-pin Dell i850 mobo, the ps is a 250watt which *is* slightly below spec.
However since Dell continues to use identical ps in the new models (8200,8250,8300) and they are sold with Radeon 9700/9800 cards I thought I should be ok.

This fall I plan to use the card in a brand new system and I want to be sure I don't have a broken 9500 Pro.

I tried another monitor and it seems to have the same problems, so something in the case is likely at fault.
Could such a low-watt power supply (even with such a light load) be at fault? Are there any issues with old-school P4s on i850 motherboards I should be aware of?

Please any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks.

 

[Zanfib]

Help meeeeeeeeee,
I even sunk to using the Dell website troubleshooting guide and now there's disconnected scanners, speaker systems, printers and any other thing that conducts electricity (including my pencil sharpener) sitting outside the computer room. I'm rapidly losing my sanity!! How should I go about trouble shooting components inside the case? I'm nearly positive its the Radeon 9500 Pro as my old Geforce2 doesn't have problems, but I'd like to establish whether the problem is the video card by itself, or the video card and something else not getting along.

Thanks.

 

[KROME]

what have you tried ?

i was having problems with mine i ended up lowering my AGP setting to 4X using riva tuner
and that took away the problems i had. there was some sort of issue with my mobo chipset and the 9500 Pro that was resolved using this fix
there was also a intel chipset that had the same problems but i couldnt find the info on it. give it a shot its worth a try


Download link 4 Riva Tuner

 

[Zanfib]

My monitor is too old for AGP8x, it's currently running at 4x with fast writes.

I've tried all the different drivers, changing which connector the card uses (for power), as well as swapping monitors. Performance doesn't seem to be a problem rather it's something to do with the quality of signal the card is sending to monitors. At 85Hz and 1024x768 (I have only a 17") it is the worst, dropping to 75Hz seems to help alot, also going down to 800x600 and 100Hz also looks fine but 800x600 @ 85Hz shows the same problems. The monitors are both pretty old, is it possible the (fairly) high-quality DAC on the Radeon 9500 is too good for older cheap monitors?

The problem is most prevalent when I'm in windows, not gaming, and is like a ripple working it's way down the right side of the image. I removed every source of EMI I could think of, like my scanner, printer, joystick, speakers/sub, but the problem remains. It could be the electical system in the house but I never had a problem with my old Geforce2, and I didn't change the system in any way other than adding the R9500.
What on a card other than the DAC could effect the 2D image going to the monitor, heat?
The card should be well cooled, and I'll keep looking but I havn't found any reported conflicts between the Radeon 9500 and intel 850 mobos (423-pin, old-school).

Thanks for the help, at this stage any suggestions would be great.

 

[Creig]

Your power supply could definitely be the culprit. The whole Radeon R300 line use a LOT of juice. So much so that the AGP slot is unable to provide enough, hence the floppy power supply connector. I would upgrade to a respected name (Antec, Fortron Source, Vantec, etc) 350watt or larger power supply. It will help not only your video card, but the stability of your system as a whole.

 

[Zanfib]

I would agree but I just checked out the ps itself and the sticker on it says its maximum power is 330w. On the Dell forums there are numerous threads that ask if the ps has the juice to run 9700/9800 cards and the answers are mostly yes. So I'm totally confused! Now I know quality is often better than quantity for power, are Dell power units decent or should I move to a better brand? Also I still can't figure out why the problem is so evident at some refresh rates and why it is so intermittent.

On final thing is it possible I'm hurting the card? If it is running with low power or dirty power could I be causing irreparable damage to it?

Thanks.

 

[Keysplayr]

Disable fast writes.

 

[WHipLAsh13]

This is a common problem with ATI cards. For more info try here. .

 

[Zanfib]

Thanks!
I'll try what they said, I actually considered going to the DVI/DB-15 adaptor but it struck me as something that wouldn't do much, I'll try the fast writes too. It still is unclear if fastwrites help much right? Like by deactivating them I won't get crappy performance?

Anyways thanks for the help, if it doesn't work maybe I'll have to quit computer gaming (gasp!!!), naw I'll use a Voodoo2 on Windows Me before I quit gaming!