Urgent help!

[lordsaytor]

The computer worked fine, then all of a sudden the screen gets terribly distorted.
There are now four bars of weird colours coming down vertically over the screen. I tried restarting, made things worst. Even at the bootup bios screen, there are dots all over the screen in a grid pattern. I do not know what to do, if it's with the motherboard or the video card. Someone please help! =(

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Check to see if the fan is still spinning. Looks like your 9800Pro is overheating.

If you've had it for a long time, it's possible that dust has accumulated in the heatsink, and busted the fan (happened to a couple of GeForce2 Ti's I've encountered). Take the card out of the PC, grab a compressed air can, and shoot the dust out of the heatsink.
While you're at it, spray some air into your AGP bus, too. A friend's 9700Pro was getting corruption, so he took the card out and found a civilization of dust. Sprayed it out, never had a problem (not until the fan died on it, at least).

If you're still getting corruption, something's burnt. Time to upgrade.

 

[moonboy403]

have you tried restarting again?
cause my old radeon does that once in a while
but restart a few times would solve the problem

 

[lordsaytor]

Time to upgrade I guess. I have dusted it with a tiny paintbrush and then blew it out with compressed can.
I seriously don't want to upgrade, as AGP is being phased out fast. What are my options?

Hey moonboy, you have an awesome system, everything you have is top notch, the memory, the vidcard, the mobo. But your cpu is only a 3000+ ?? And how on earth did you OC it to 2.79?? That's like 1GHZ more than it's stock speed isn't it? Is it even safe even if you have watercooling?

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: lordsaytor
Time to upgrade I guess. I have dusted it with a tiny paintbrush and then blew it out with compressed can.
I seriously don't want to upgrade, as AGP is being phased out fast. What are my options?

Hey moonboy, you have an awesome system, everything you have is top notch, the memory, the vidcard, the mobo. But your cpu is only a 3000+ ?? And how on earth did you OC it to 2.79?? That's like 1GHZ more than it's stock speed isn't it? Is it even safe even if you have watercooling?

The A64 3000+ Venice chips are incredible overclockers. Look at my sig. All on air cooling to! 33*C lidle 45* load.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

ur options depend on what ur current systems looks like and on ur budget.
i guess u have somethin like an athlon XP or P4? if so u could either buy a mid- to high budget AGP card (x800gto for 170,- or the 6800gs for around 230$ which is supposed to hit the market in 3 weeks, or a x850xt for about 280,-) or u sell ur current stuff and upgrade to S939. Lets say Asrock Sata2 mobo (60,-), A64 3200+ (150), 2x512mb Value Ram PC3200 (2x50) and add whatever card u like.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

AMD 90nm cores are sick overclockers.
I got similar results with my Sempron 3400+ (in Valar, see sig). 2.7GHz stable at 1.52V, 2.6GHz stable at 1.46V.

 

[lordsaytor]

Okay. The bottomline is this. I have heard great reviews everywhere about the DFI LanParty mobos, about their ability to OC cpus. But I really am a newb at this OC business. So seeing someone OC their cpus several hundred mhz or even 1ghz faster is intimidating.

But I suppose I should just simply stick in something crappy vidcard like a FX5200 to at least allow me to use my computer for now. And then when I have the money simply buy a brand new socket 939 computer. But I will die having to wait months, not being able to play any new games (namely Elderscrolls: Oblivion)

But dammit my 9800Pro was top of the line when I first got it two years ago. I got it when it was the equivalent of today's 7800GTX 512.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

9800pro costs about 110,- or if ebay is an option for you even less.

 

[rbV5]

The 9800 could still be under warranty, check with your Manufacturer, or ATI for an RMA for the worst case scenario.

It could be your powersupply is pooched as well, and your card would still be fine. You've verified that the fan itself is actually turning on the card correct?

I've had sudden, severe artifacting with both my AIW 9700pro and my X800XL cards more than once.

The AIW 9700pro twice, fan died..replaced it myself with a VGA cooler. Powersupply went south on the 12v Rail, replaced with enermax PS. Card is still runnning great.

X800XL, Powersupply...again 12v rail (antec 480 true power) replaced with Fortron unit...card still runnning great.

 

[lordsaytor]

Yeah I just submitted my warranty claim and requesting a RMA. But in all likelihood ATI will tell me to screw myself. And the powersupply is fine, I actually just replaced it with a more powerful one.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: lordsaytor
Yeah I just submitted my warranty claim and requesting a RMA. But in all likelihood ATI will tell me to screw myself. And the powersupply is fine, I actually just replaced it with a more powerful one.

If its within the warranty period and you haven't voided it by your own actions, there's no reason at all to expect ATI to not treat you right.