Yikes! Radeon 8500 freezes!

[Gunnar]

I am not sure what is going on, but my radeon seems to freeze and hang the system when I try the Demos or Screensavers that came with the card. Several of them seem to work fine(Rachel), but the others run for some time, then stop(Dolphin, Nature, etc.), or do not finish loading. 3DMark2001SE also freezes exactly during the Nature test (with the trees, and the farmer...), but everything else seems to run fine until that point.

More weirdness is that the radeon seems to take about 2 seconds longer to POST than my old G400Max, and everything worked FINE with the Matrox, tests and all (even when I oc'd my previous Cel433 to 488). Serves me right for not sticking with Matrox. In any case, here is my current configuration:

Pentium III 800
Asus CUBX
288MB Ram
Hercules 3D Prophet 8500 128MB
Original drivers that came with radeon (7.74 was even less stable)
Adaptec 2940UW couple to 4 gig Seagate (which the demos run off of)
Fujitsu 4 gig on IDE
Sound Blaster 64PCI
Diamond SupraMax 56i
SMC Etherfast
Running Windows 98 original that hasnt been reinstalled in over 2years <gag>

Any help appreciated, I know I should reinstall windows once every 6Months, but I havent gotten around to it....

 

[Wolfsraider]

sounds like driver remnants left over from the matrox card

did you remove all traces of the matrox card?
did you then set it to a standard agp card
reboot then load the drivers for the 8500?
here is a program that may also help radeonator

i still recommend a clean install of the os as the best method for video cards to be sure no left over drivers cause system incompatabilities
ymmv
hope this helps
mike

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Wolfsraider
sounds like driver remnants left over from the matrox card did you remove all traces of the matrox card? did you then set it to a standard agp card reboot then load the drivers for the 8500? here is a program that may also help radeonator i still recommend a clean install of the os as the best method for video cards to be sure no left over drivers cause system incompatabilities ymmv hope this helps mike

That site really is suck! If you won't let it download MacromediaFlash 6, it won't let you go - pops up all kinds of garbage.

Anyway - I fully agree with your comment about residual Matrox drivers - they are sometimes tough to get out.

 

[Gunnar]

Well, I uninstalled the Matrox stuff using Matrox's Powerdesk uninstaller. But it still isnt working right. I booted up warcraft 3, and i browsed through the menus, viewed cinematics, and played with the settings all fine, but when I started the game it froze again! The card seems to work about half the time.

Ah jeez, could the card be hosed?

I upgraded the drivers for the card to ATI's 7.72 version (from hercules site). Still no dice....

How the heck do you get rid of the drivers, or the old install then? Is there a way to list the display associations (other than the stupid System Panel?)?

 

[CharlieMike]

you got demos and screensavers with your card???

hmm... i got an OEM 8500 (it rocks, btw)...but no demos or screensavers....

may i download these ATI demos/screensavers online somewhere?

thanks...

 

[Gunnar]

well, mine is a retail version of the Hercules 3D Prophet 8500 128MB, so I got them on the driver disc. But supposedly you can download the latest ones at ati.com

 

[vetteguy]

Welcome to my (former) world. My 8500 was nothing but trouble, even with a clean XP install. Finally switched to a G44600, and will never look back to ATI again!

 

[CharlieMike]

heh!

i had a GeForce2 GTS that did the same for me--lockups in WC3, driver issues, etc. I installed on clean Win2k system and linux.

no consistency, etc. ATI is schweeet so far...

-cm

 

[Markfw]

Try the new Catalylst drivers version 2.1 or 2.2 from the ATI site. One of my systems likes the 2.1 drivers, and the other seems to like the 2.2 drivers (wierd) I have two 8500 128 meg cards, one retail ATI mfg'ed, and one "white box".

 

[Duvie]

Need to a full reg clean or reformat to insure old matrox drivers are removed...

Reinstall direct x 8.1

And remember, thisis a power by ati board not an ati original...I have an le version by Apollo...IMO crap I will never by a non ati product or a ati product anyways...

I am going to get a ti4400 here shortly when prices drop a little...The tv-out was so much better with nvidia....

DRiver installs are a PIA with ATI, and they shouldn't have to be...

 

[Acanthus]

just buy a 9700, then format everything, and play doom on DOS at 1900fps

 

[BFG10K]

and play doom on DOS at 1900fps

Software rendered games are not affected by hardware acceleration.

 

[hclarkjr]

you need to install the catalyst 2.2 driver, that will solve your problems for you. go to ATI website to get them. i had the exact same problem until i installed the catalyst driver. and BTW i am running WindowsXP and radeon 8500LE

 

[Gunnar]

Well, this is an old issue, but Im having the same problem, and I think its better if I reuse the same thread.

Gone is the Hercules, I now have a Built by ATI radeon 8500 LE 128mb, running with the 2.2 catalyst drivers. The damn thing still freezes. I wasnt sure it was the video card until I swapped my old G400Max back in and my problems disappeared.

For the record, it runs games fine, I havent crashed or locked up a single time while running warcraft3, Medal of Honor, RTCW, Quake, FIFA Soccer, or anything else. Ill just be browsing the web, when it just freezes, beeps and wont do anything until a hard reset.

I thought I remembered someone mentioning a 60Hz radeon bug, which incidentally was the refresh rate at which I was running my radeon (old monitor). Is this true? If I switched refresh rates will it become stable?

 

[Markfw]

It sounds like you haven't installed Directx 8.1 (required for some things, not others) That may explain why some things are fine, and others lockup.

 

[Gunnar]

Actually, I have to install 8.1 for Warcraft 3, and for 3Dmark2001SE. So I am sure that I have the latest DirectX in there.

There are supposedly new catalyst drivers out, maybe Ill give them a shot.

 

[hclarkjr]

yes there are new catalyst drivers out, just installed them. noticed no improvements so far with them but there is nothing broke either. so far so good. get the new driver here