Radeon 9800xt on its second last wings?

I've owned a Radeon 9800xt from ASUS nearly since it came out, and it gave me absolutely no problems at all.

Untill, one fateful day, there was a power surge. No biggie, restart. While playing Everquest 2: Trials of the Island, the computer crashes in mid frame. I've never seen it do this before, and I'm a bit worried to say the least. Restart. I notice that while Windows is in its loading screen, the small scrolling train of three squares is distorted in ruined. I am welcomed to the login screen by a horrendously distorted login screen, like someone decided to use the "speculate" tool in a program like photoshop or IRFANview on the display.

This was a major issue, so I started up in safemode, intent on reinstalling the drivers. Under VGA mode and Safe mode, the computer displayed the same symptoms - horrible blurriness. Any move I made to uninstall the drivers was completely thwarted - I simply couldnt see what I was doing. At this point, I fear there is very little I can do, so I run a hard drive backup program from the "Ultimate Boot Cd." Since this hard drive backup program from Western Digital is quite graphic, in that it looks that its atleast 256color vga, I wonder whether it may actually be a driver problem and not a computer problem, but to no avail.

A few aggravating nights later, I install a Geforce MX4400 to suprising results - no graphical errors at all. Not in AGP mode, safe mode, or any mode. I return the ATI card immediately to Asus, and MONTHS later, they finally get back to me.

Tonight, I plugged in the newly returned ASUS 9800XT graphics card to the same problems as before, with absolutely nothing even remotely different. This leads me to believe the problem is software - can anyone help me?

ABIT IC7 Max3 Motherboard
Intel P4E 3.0GHZ (non-overclocked)
Mushkin Black lvl 2 PC3500 Ram, 1gb
Geforce MX4400, ATI Radeon 9800xt from ASUS.
Antec 550 Truecontrol Powersupply


*edit* seeing as that this is my first post, I'd like to say that MajorGeeks is one of the greatest web services I've ever used.. having a compilation of everything one would need to kick their computer back into shape.

 

in that case, Welcome to Majorgeeks!

First for troubleshooting sake, I'll walk you through a 'proper' reinstallation of drivers.

1.) Download and install DriverCleaner We'll use this later.

2.) Open windows Add/Remove programs from control panel. Locate your graphics driver (hopefully you dont have both nvidia and ATi still on there) and remove them. In some cases it will just say generic "nvidia drivers" or ATi likewise, but when you click remove, you can select the 'display' or 'graphics' driver.

3.) reboot your computer into safe mode.

4.) in safe mode, open DriverCleaner and select the proper driver to clean up
For nvidia, select 'nvidia' or nvidia display if there is one. Likewise for ATi. Click the 'Clean' button

5.) once DriverCleaner finishes, reboot the computer to normal mode.
ignore any 'new hardware wizard' or simply close it.

6.) get the latest drivers from either ATi or Nvidia and install them, rebooting when finished.

Often, the problem you are describing is a result of having 'left over' drivers on your system. DriverCleaner will remove those and hopefully fix the problem.

if this doesnt work, have you had a look at your BIOS? perhaps during the suge, your BIOS were reset to defaults and might have changed some of your AGP settings?

let us know if the Driver reinstallation works, so we can help you get this solved

 

Thanks so much. I will try this when I get home from work tomorrow.

Unfortunately, vision in safe mode is just as skewed and distorted as it is in normal mode, it may be quite hard to accomplish.

 

well just to clarify, if you have the GeForce MX in there right now, you should do the add remove programs, turn off your computer, and then put the ATi card in and boot to safe mode to run driver cleaner.

if there is distortion even with no drivers present, there is probably a hardware issue at hand

 

Are you sure they have repaired your card or have they just sent it back to you?Also have they repaired your old card or sent you a new one?Have you any documentation to cross reference the serial numbers?

 

I did not believe it was the same card, but upon closer inspection, I now see that it is the same card I recieved earlier. Great, another month of rma. The serial numbers match. However, I will still try the technique listed, in a last ditch hope that it will work. thanks.

 

To no avail. My card does not work, and will now take another 2 months of cycling through their timely circulation system just to get the thing in my computer. I should simply sell it and buy myself a new card, hopefully not from Asus, and not from ATI. After all, a graphics card that physically injures its self during a power surge, especially when that graphics card is on a protected line, isnt worth maintaining.

Thanks for your help, regardless of the present circumstances.

 

Bummer! Make some noise and maybe they will upgrade you to x800 xt pe!