Ok, this problem has spanned some time in various forms so this will take some time to explain. No one has any idea what to do to fix this (responses range from "burn your computer" to "it's your own fault for having ATI and AMD in the same computer" but I don't take either of these as too highly credible) and that's why I'm here...maybe you guys can help?
Current system info:
Windows 2000sp3
Epox 8k7a motherboard
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4ghz (not overclocked)
512mb pc2100 ram
AGP 128mb Radeon 9000 Pro (ATI built)
2x60gb hard drives, SBL5.1, 3com LAN, Modemblaster, WinTV card, Pioneer DVD-RAM, Plextor CD-RW (this stuff shouldn't matter but who knows)
Hardware when the problem started were mostly the same although I did not have the DVD burner and I had a Gainward 64 Mb GeForce 3 for a videocard.
And...here's my chain of events:
1. Computer starts putting itself into standby mode and not coming back while dealing with video applications (dvd2svcd, Winamp milkdrop plugin)
2. After reseating the video card, computer fails to boot with video drivers; can only boot into safemode or with drivers uninstalled
3. I tried a new power supply, the same problem occurred as described
4. I tried a new video card (switching from the GeForce to the Radeon), the problem was resolved. Note that the GeForce 3 worked fine in two other individual's computers--it is just my computer it fails to work in.
5. The new video card created new problems with some video applications--scrolling in Microsoft Word results in immediate display corruption, scrolling in Internet Explorer can also result in display corruption in rarer occasions, Milkdrop plugin causes lockup/bluescreen/reboot
[Details on that corruption--
Basically what happens is the display becomes unreadable. It starts out with either specs or horizontal green lines and then they spread to everywhere in the window, and then eventually to everywhere the mouse pointer goes or touches. If I click on another window it is immediately corrupted. The only way to fix this problem is a reboot. A significantly lesser version of this is pictured here:
http://www.handicrapped.com/~fett/problem.jpg
but the real deal is far worse than this, bad enough that I can't get into Photoshop to paste the thing because I can't see what's going on. This is clearly not normal.]
It is worth noting that DVD2SVCD now performs flawlessly. So not everything fails to work right.
6. I installed the newest ATI drivers, doublechecked I had newest motherboard agp drivers (I do), reformatted and did it all again, still no luck. I also tried increasing my AGP aperture size to 256mb and it only worsened the problem so I put it back to 128mb.
7. I tried Word from Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 97 (living in a dorm helps for testing these things) and all failed. WordPad and OpenOffice work fine, however. I tried getting the Office Updates too and that also did not help.
8. As advised by ATI tech support, I returned the card, got a new card (same type)--still the same result
9. I tried someone else's ram in my computer last night, windows failed to boot three times (getting to deskop then rebooting) then when it finally booted, all programs crashed, then I reopened them and they stayed open. Word still corrupted my display.
10. My BIOS POST default setting is to skip over some startup features, like my memory check. When I turn on the full POST, the memory counter goes all the way up to 512mb and then starts over. It does this in an infinite loop. It did this with the other guy's RAM too.
It's a hum dinger of a problem I would say. Right now I'm looking at maybe a new motherboard...? But I'd rather avoid the $100 expenditure, especially since I already blew $80 for the vidcard (after selling the GF3 and a rebate).
So...sound familiar to anyone? Or is this just my bad luck? Any help would be immensely appreciated.
Current system info:
Windows 2000sp3
Epox 8k7a motherboard
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4ghz (not overclocked)
512mb pc2100 ram
AGP 128mb Radeon 9000 Pro (ATI built)
2x60gb hard drives, SBL5.1, 3com LAN, Modemblaster, WinTV card, Pioneer DVD-RAM, Plextor CD-RW (this stuff shouldn't matter but who knows)
Hardware when the problem started were mostly the same although I did not have the DVD burner and I had a Gainward 64 Mb GeForce 3 for a videocard.
And...here's my chain of events:
1. Computer starts putting itself into standby mode and not coming back while dealing with video applications (dvd2svcd, Winamp milkdrop plugin)
2. After reseating the video card, computer fails to boot with video drivers; can only boot into safemode or with drivers uninstalled
3. I tried a new power supply, the same problem occurred as described
4. I tried a new video card (switching from the GeForce to the Radeon), the problem was resolved. Note that the GeForce 3 worked fine in two other individual's computers--it is just my computer it fails to work in.
5. The new video card created new problems with some video applications--scrolling in Microsoft Word results in immediate display corruption, scrolling in Internet Explorer can also result in display corruption in rarer occasions, Milkdrop plugin causes lockup/bluescreen/reboot
[Details on that corruption--
Basically what happens is the display becomes unreadable. It starts out with either specs or horizontal green lines and then they spread to everywhere in the window, and then eventually to everywhere the mouse pointer goes or touches. If I click on another window it is immediately corrupted. The only way to fix this problem is a reboot. A significantly lesser version of this is pictured here:
http://www.handicrapped.com/~fett/problem.jpg
but the real deal is far worse than this, bad enough that I can't get into Photoshop to paste the thing because I can't see what's going on. This is clearly not normal.]
It is worth noting that DVD2SVCD now performs flawlessly. So not everything fails to work right.
6. I installed the newest ATI drivers, doublechecked I had newest motherboard agp drivers (I do), reformatted and did it all again, still no luck. I also tried increasing my AGP aperture size to 256mb and it only worsened the problem so I put it back to 128mb.
7. I tried Word from Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 97 (living in a dorm helps for testing these things) and all failed. WordPad and OpenOffice work fine, however. I tried getting the Office Updates too and that also did not help.
8. As advised by ATI tech support, I returned the card, got a new card (same type)--still the same result
9. I tried someone else's ram in my computer last night, windows failed to boot three times (getting to deskop then rebooting) then when it finally booted, all programs crashed, then I reopened them and they stayed open. Word still corrupted my display.
10. My BIOS POST default setting is to skip over some startup features, like my memory check. When I turn on the full POST, the memory counter goes all the way up to 512mb and then starts over. It does this in an infinite loop. It did this with the other guy's RAM too.
It's a hum dinger of a problem I would say. Right now I'm looking at maybe a new motherboard...? But I'd rather avoid the $100 expenditure, especially since I already blew $80 for the vidcard (after selling the GF3 and a rebate).
So...sound familiar to anyone? Or is this just my bad luck? Any help would be immensely appreciated.
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