9800 Pro Problems - Help needed please...

I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers and installed the ATI Catalyst drivers.
The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

My spec:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
400W power supply

Sorry for the long post but I'm concerned I've bought a dud card.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Perhaps a way to rule out the drivers would be to do a windows update and
install any drivers that it offers you!

Did you follow the instructions for install as in the ati read me? I seem to
remember that it wanted you to make xp load a standard vga adaptor before
installing drivers......check this out I could be wrong.


"Peter" wrote in message
...
I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer
which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode
is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers and installed the ATI Catalyst
drivers.
The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

My spec:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
400W power supply

Sorry for the long post but I'm concerned I've bought a dud card.

Any ideas what the problem is?

re-install the MB drivers..I have seen upon vid card switching that the
drivers..(mainly gart) leaves too...if it is a VIA based board..dl the
Hyperon drivers and install them..Nvidia..etc..

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 14:31:20 +0000 (UTC), "Lazarus"
wrote:

Perhaps a way to rule out the drivers would be to do a windows update and
install any drivers that it offers you!

The best way to rule out drivers is *never* to use windows update to
install video card drivers.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

"Peter" wrote in message
...
I bought a second-hand Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro off Ebay and I'm having
serious problems with it.

I put the card in my PC and Windows XP detected the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
and
automatically installed the default drivers for it.

I then went on and installed the latest Omega drivers for the card - the
install seemed to go OK at first and it asked me restart the computer
which
I did.

After it restarted I logged into Windows and the desktop displayed at
800x600 for a few seconds then went blank. The hard disk accessed very
intermittently for about 25 seconds, during which the screen was still
blank - eventually it returned to desktop (after making the clicking noise
it makes when changing res about 10 times) at 800x600.

Instantly noticed that everything was moving very slow (like a 10 year old
graphics card is in it). Dragging windows around, for example, caused a
noticeable lag.

I tried to increase the resolution but it no other resolutions worked. I'm
stuck at crappy 800x600.

I tried to run Counter Strike and it said that the "current graphics mode
is
unavailable" and it changed to "software mode". I tried a few different
OpenGL and Direct3D graphics modes and non of them worked - the same error
message.

I then ran DXDiag to see if it reported anything and it says "Direct3D
functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final
version from the hardware manufacturer."

I then uninstalled the Omega drivers and installed the ATI Catalyst
drivers.
The exact same happened as with the Omega drivers.

My spec:

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
512MB RAM
400W power supply

Sorry for the long post but I'm concerned I've bought a dud card.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).
- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.
Everything should work perfectly now.

ElJerid wrote:

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).

At this point, if the New Hardware Wizard appears, I just Cancel it -
the default Windows VGA driver is already running (else you wouldn't be
able to see the screen ;-) ). It's always WFM.

- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.
Everything should work perfectly now.

"ElJerid" wrote in message
...

Your problem comes from the fact you installed the wrong drivers. With
ATI,
there is a special procedure to install.

- First remove all the previously installed drivers (with add/remove
programs):
- Then remove the VGA hardware in the device manager;
- Reboot; the system will detect the VGA card and ask for drivers; install
the Windows default driver. Reboot if necessary (depends of Windows
version).
- Finally, install the latest Catalyst drivers (to download from ATI) and
reboot again.
Everything should work perfectly now.

I tried that but it doesn't work.

I forgot to mention earlier on - I'm getting strange characters in the
screen after the BIOS screen (the one that displays the hard-disks,
dvd-drives etc.) - some characters are swapped around and there's random
gibberish text all over it. I'm also getting this gibberish in the Windows
Boot Options screen (after pressing F8).

I'm seriously starting to think I've been sold a dud....

the last time I seen gibberish was on GeoForce2 Pro...just before it
fried...I would hazard a guess that someone OC'd the crap out of it and it
is on it's last legs.(I may be wrong)
but the gibberish isn't driver related.

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 18:07:09 -0000, "Peter" wrote:

I forgot to mention earlier on - I'm getting strange characters in the
screen after the BIOS screen (the one that displays the hard-disks,
dvd-drives etc.) - some characters are swapped around and there's random
gibberish text all over it. I'm also getting this gibberish in the Windows
Boot Options screen (after pressing F8).

I'm seriously starting to think I've been sold a dud....


That's a pretty good sign that you've got a bad video card.

A couple of things you could try, though...

1. Upgrade the BIOS.

2. Check the site where yer gettin' your drivers...and see if they
note any OS or BIOS conflicts/fixes.

Good luck.


Have a nice one...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!

I would hazard a guess that someone OC'd the crap out of it

That gets my vote too.