On 14-Sep-2004, wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

Hi

I am hoping that someone can help. I am hainvg all sorts of Problems
with my
gfx card. It is a Link3D 9600Pro. I'll give a quick overview of what I
am
running in my box before I start:

ASUS P4P800E Deluxe (BIOS 1002) with 3.2Ghz Prescott P4
1024Mb Corsair TwinX XMS RAM
36Gb Raptor, 80Gb Maxtor, 120Gb WD
Link3D 9600Pro
19" LCD Screen
Various CDR/DVD's, floppy etc
WinXP SP2 (slipstreamed install)

The problems are as follows

1) When I boot up, the ASUS logo and the WinXP have dashed lines
running
thru them from top to bottom of the screen with each set of lines
being
about 1.5 - 2 cm apart, all the way across the screen, once in windows
things seem ok, i.e. no dashed lines.

2) When I ran UT2004, the Nvidia logo at the start was all crupted,
and
in
the game there was a chequred pattern of horizontal lines over parts
of
the
scenary. This chequred pattern also appeared in WWIII Black Gold, in
the
start up video and during game play as well. During playing old UT
there
were a large amout of artifacts, abit very small ones all over the
place.

3) I am unable to load Halo due to Halo failing to start up Direct3D,
and
asking me to look at the DirectX setting in DXDIAG, all seemed fine,
but
when doing the Direct3D tests I got the chequred pattern on the
spinning
box
that it displays.

4) Lots of driver issues. I have tried the latest Catalyst and Omega
drivers. After restarting the machine the display goes crupt (large
amounts
of black, with the odd bit of a window here and there) after several
restarts, all I get is a black screen as soon as I get past the WinXP
screen. With the omega drivers I eventually ended up with a pink and
blue
screen, half of each I am now running with the drivers that came with
XP
SP2, which at least allow me to use the computer for work.

I have also tried the display with my old CRT and still had the same
problems, so it is not the monitor

I can't think of anymore information to provide.

Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions.

TIA

Rik

Things to check:

1) P4P800 family can have issue with video artifacts - when overclocking
the FSB. Mainly a problem when ram is in 1:1 ratio, and CPU clock is
250MHz or so (nominal is 200MHz for FSB800). Problem is largely
solved
by running the CPU:RAM ratio at 5:4, or by going back to nominal CPU
clock.
2) There are no details on your power supply. In any case, enter the
BIOS power monitor page and check the voltages. A video card can
become annoyed if +3.3V is on the low side, and sometimes artifacts
can be cured by increasing Vagp.
3) Assuming no progress at this point, time to feel the heatsink on
the video card while the computer is running. If the heatsink
is cold to the touch, that implies the heatsink isn't touching
the GPU on the video card. Some video cards come with software to
monitor the GPU temperature, and that would be a good tool to use
to check for the GPU overheating. The RAM on a video card can also
overheat, but generally that requires some overclocking or
volt-modding the video card RAMs. (You might also check that
the video card cooling fan is running, as many of these are
cheap sleeve bearing fans that can die in a matter of days.)
4) If still no progress, I'd pop the video card into another
computer, and see if the symptoms persist. If they do, look
into a warranty claim (RMA) on the video card.
5) The motherboard can also contribute to this problem, but
to prove it, you'll need to try some other video cards in
it, and if they all don't work properly, it could be one
of the voltage regulating circuits on the motherboard is
bad, or it could be the Northbridge AGP interface is fried.

HTH,
Paul

Thanx Paul

I shall try these ideas this evening, or the ones that I can try. I am not
doing any form of over clocking and left the bios pretty much as it was
when
I got it, but I shall check, just in case. The 3.3V supply reports as
3.408V
using ASUSProbe, and the fan on the card is running. I just ripped the
back
off to have a look.

I'll dig out my old GF3 this evening and pop it in this machine and see if
it is ok and pop the 9600 in my old box and see what the results are.

I'll let you know what the results are....

Cheers

Rik

p.s. power supply is a 480W Tagan

Hi All

Its the card, RMA here we come....

I followed the suggestions that Paul made and swaped cards over with another
machine. The GF3 works a treat in the P4P800E Del, so that is where it is
staying. The 9600Pro is now in my old machine with the same symptoms as it
had in the new machine, dotted lines etc.

Martin - thanx for your suggestion about changing the AGP speed, but it is
still a problem, as in the old machine the 9600Pro is forced to run at AGP
4x, by the design of the Mobo

Thanx again for your help, Paul

I know that this is not the place to ask, but does anyone have any
suggestions for a 'good', quiet graphics card?

Cheers

Rik