Radeon 9700 Poor Image Quality

[Jason Clark]

I've had a 9700 pro for awhile now, and ever since day one it's had some interference that moves up the middle of the monitor. It's not the monitor as I've tried another vid card and it works fine. Has anyone seen or heard of this? Or possible remedies? I've heard that these cards are known to have EMI interference issues.

Any feedback is appreciated

Cheers

 

[John]

Send the card to me so I can test it out for you.

Raise the spread spcetrum setting in your mobo bios to the max setting.

 

[Crimson]

My guess would be interference as well.. try wrapping aluminum around the card? Heh.. But seriously, maybe try moving the other peripherals away from the video card in your case, or removing them temporarily to see if one of them is causing interference...

 

[winterlude]

Is your case next to the monitor? If so, try moving it further away.

Hope that helps.

 

[Rectalfier]

I have a similar problem, but this only occurs with a certain refresh rate and resolutions. I would try changing the refresh rate, it works for me.

 

[sharkeeper]

I'm willing to bet your power supply is at fault.

-DAK-

 

[oldfart]

I've heard that a power supply can cause it. Try removing the external power connector as a test.

 

[Rand]

Have you tried enabling Spread Spectrum in the BIOS?
I presume you've tested the R9700 in another system to ensure it's not simply a faulty board?

 

[Jason Clark]

Yeah i have, but its a refresh rate thing at 1154x768 no problem or 1280 at 70Hz but anything over 70hz at 1280 boom lines, from what I'm reading the 9x series has had alot of issues with this.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=16c75a9915bf8e861d31a7295f810b30&threadid=33636561&perpage=20&pagenumber=4

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=16c75a9915bf8e861d31a7295f810b30&threadid=33670789&highlight=toroid

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Crimson
My guess would be interference as well.. try wrapping aluminum around the card? Heh.. But seriously, maybe try moving the other peripherals away from the video card in your case, or removing them temporarily to see if one of them is causing interference...

Damned aliens affecting electronics too?! :|

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Zuni, too bad you didn't get too much help so far.
This problem is not at all limited to The 9700Pro. It affects Saphire and ATI cards from the All in wonder VE all the way up through the 8500-9xxx series.
I have some suggestions but first could you please provide your:
Power supply
type of monitor
type of motherboard
what fans are in the computer
are there any splitters used with the cable from the power supply?

If you could answer these questions I can probably point you in the right direction.

 

[Jason Clark]

Hi trog, thanks for the reply.

Motherboard: ASUS P4B533
Vid card: ATI 9700 PRO
Monitor: IIYama 510 pro
Fans: just cpu stock intel fan
Splitter: direct from supply also has the large 12v connector on it
Power supply: ACHME 300 Watt

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

I haven't seen a clear-cut fix for every single card with this problem so far. In fact, even the AIW VE has this issue which is a PCI card with no external power and no fan.

Somtimes this issue will start happening when people migrate from a board with great components (say, intel or ASUS) to a cheaper board like PC chips or ECS.
That doesn't seem to be the case here.
You case isn't over-run with fans so I doubt that's a problem.
If your power supply is one that regulates fan speed not only within the power supply but also those attached to it, you may need to replace it!!!!
Aside from checking that point, what I would recommend is using a bank directly from the power supply to the 9700 Pro with nothing else hooked up to it. In fact, for the sake of troubleshooting, remove any PCI devices, optical drives, hard drives not needed to boot up into windows and anything attached to the computer except the monitor, mouse, and keyboard. If your 9700Pro is sharing that bank with the 12v line to the motherboard, use another line just for the 9700Pro.

If that fails, try plugging your monitor into a different outlet in your house.

Update your motherboard's BIOS if not already done.

If your power supply does not regulate the speed of your case fans and you've tried all of the above yet you still have the same problem, even in BIOS, I would recommend contacting ATI about an RMA. I realize that you only get this issue at a certain resolution with your monitor but I think you'll find that using TV-out will demonstrate the same flaw at any resolution.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Oh, and there's always a work around involving the use of a DVI-VGA adapter but it does not work in all cases either.

 

[Jason Clark]

Thanks, I've tried most of this but will try again sometimes it goes away then its back. Powersupply isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, hard to know if it regulates the fan speed or not. Problem is it's at the resolution I work at 70Hz is too low and it happens at 80 and above. It's not the house power, as i've tried other cards and they are totally fine its definitely this card. I uplugged the power connector from the card and the interference goes away.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

I agree that is' probably not the house power.
Many people would say that they can plug their geforce whatever in there and the problem goes away therefore it's not the card. Well, that logic is somewhat true.
But...all that proves is that the geforce may be better at filtering rotten power than your 9700. It doesn't mean that the power coming from your motherboard, power supply is clean.
Just consider the idea that maybe the 9700 might need a little extra consideration
If you've tried all of the above esp the stripping of the system and monitor in extra outlet, replacing power supply yet the problem persists, I would look at an RMA personally. Again, you can test using TV-out to see if the effect is noticeable in your system's BIOS.

 

[Jason Clark]

Yeah the only thing I haven't done is replace the power supply.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Hmm....I just realized that you must be located here in Ontario. That should make the RMA painless if it becomes necessary.

 

[Jason Clark]

Yep, ottawa.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

Rogers Cable @ 3Mbit

I'm in Ottawa at the moment actually. Will be for another week or so.

 

[Jason Clark]

Cool beans.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

I uplugged the power connector from the card and the interference goes away.

 

[Jason Clark]

Scrap, yeah but from what I'm reading on rage3d people with expensive powersupplies antec, etc have the same issue. Unplugging it just confirms it's interference from the power, could be the power supply itself, or it could be the card not filtering it well enough.

 

[TROGDORdBURNINATOR]

I've heard of someone leaving the power unplugged while the system is powering on and then plugging it in later fixing the problem until the next reboot but I've been completely unable to verify that with any other system not that I've tried.
It's true, this issue is reported with high-end power supplies even with nothing else on the bank. I've also seen replacing the power supply fix the issue as well. If you can borrow one which doesn't alter external fan speeds it might save you a lot of headache. I have a feeling that you're going to have to RMA it anyway though. Sorry to say.

 

[Jason Clark]

Are the antec power supplies one of the supplies not altering fan speeds?