Video Card frustrations, ATI Radeon

[zorc da pork]

Hello, I have been reading the board, looking for a fix to a strange video card issue I am having!

Well, strange because my NEW video card crashes me but my old one does not!

I am running the following system:

AMD 3000+ Barton (400 MGhrtz FSB)
Asus `A7V600-X` Motherboard
1 Gig of 400 MGhrtz DDR RAM
Win XP SP2
Soundblaster Value Live card (my old one)
Latest BIOS and drivers for the motherboard

I got my nVidia FX5200 (Siluro board) 128 MB RAM board to run after getting the latest drivers from the www.abit.com.tw website (not the nVidia drivers, they did not work...even though the abit drivers are not "micro$oft certified") the game ran ok, it is a bit slow, I have to keep the video resolution down but it runs for hours without `hiick-ups`.

I do not like some of the aspects of the videocard in general, as there is a slight green colorr to the screen at all times, and the screen has a flicker than adjusting the refresh rate just does not seem to change. The flicker is particularly annoying if I am surfing the web with a bright background on my browser.

I thought it is time to try an upgrade, a "real direct X 9" video card so, I bought a new video GPU. For $169 US I got a brand new ATI Radeon 9600 XT videocard (128 MB of 400 mghrtz DDR RAM), the board the gamesites are saying is by far the best board for the price right now. I set the board up with the latest drivers, I was like WOW! Screen has GERAT color, no more flicker, the software is a bit overwelming but very complete.

I cannot get Sid Meier's game (Pirates) to run for more than 10 minutes now! ARRRGHHHH!

I have tried the drivers that came with the card, the latest drivers (4.12). I have tried older drivers (4.10) which worked better, but still failed after a few minutes.

I tried the drivers from www.omegadrivers.net on the suggestion of someone on this site in an old post...they made the game last longer before crashing, but there was an annoying flicker and I could not get the game to run for more than 10 minutes.

I have tried the video resolution all the way up (works better) and down...still crashed.

The crashes usually result in a black screen (with a sword pointer), and usually have a sound repeat a few times in the background, like the video card is stuck in a loop. The computer hard freezes, and even `crtl-alt`-del does not work, I have to press the programer's switch to reboot.

Anyone succeed with a 9600 XT with similar specs? What drivers are you using? I can return the card, but I'd like to keep it, I like how other programs run with it.

I saw that people running win 2000 were having similar issues with soundblaster cards...I may just try to remove the soundcard and use the motherboard soundcard to see if that helps.

 

[hafensaenger]

Dear Zorc <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hi.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":gday" border="0" alt="hi.gif" />

Can it be that you have some NVidia FX5200 driver remains in your registry that might screw up your Pc? I have a ATI Radeon 9600 XT videocard with the newest catalyst drivers and none of your mentioned problems. I also heard that some mainboards that were more made for Nvidia Cards start making troubleshooting if you install a ATI Card on them.

It could also be your Version of pirates that´s some kind of buggy. It´s strange that some people have major or minor problems and some don´t. Does "
<b>dxdiag"</b> show up some problems?" Do you have other similiar problems with this card on your Pc or does it only accure if you try to start pirates?Ever tried some cleaning tools like "tune up" to solve some registry or other possible problems on your machine?


<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" /> Hafen

 

[zorc da pork]

Thank you for the suggestions.

I have run dxdiag with both video cards. I did not have any issues with either video card. I have even turned off my audio accelleration to see if it would keep the system from crashing.

I tried to run the ATI radeon 9600 XT with 800x600 screen size, but that did not work.

I have downloaded aquamark3 and have been running it on my Radeon card. The card has frozen up around one in three tests, so I am hoping it is just a bad video card.

A very frustrating issue. Very difficult to understand. I will trade in the card for another 9600 XT. If that does not work I will wait for another nVidia card.

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[zorc da pork]

I returned my Radeon 9600 XT card....I could not decide for awhile what card to get to replace it. There were so many nice video cards, so many nice ones, but with my system I did not feel that I needed a extreme high end card.

I bouth the same card again (ATI Radeon XT 9600) and it has worked fine for over 6 hours.

I tested the card with Aquamark3, it scored slightly lower than the old card (30,000 against 31,000) but the card did not `lock-up` in 10 straight runs. The prior card locked up in `one-in`-three runs.

I believe the original card must have been defective in some way. It turns out I have had a bit of bad luck with this computer that I have built. The original power supply failed. Now it seams the new video card was bad.

It is too bad that the card manufacturers do not tell you how to stress test a card, to see if it is good or not.

All this time I was worried that I had:

1) A Software issue with the video card
2) A conflict between the video card and the motherboard.

SO frustrating!