Possible issue with Zotac 9800 GT

I've ordered and installed a Zotac 9800 GT in order to run FSX, and
right after installing 178.24 drivers (which came with the product) FSX
started crashing with `Fatal Error´ message box (send / don't send
report). Have upgraded to 182.08 drivers and FSX is still crashing right
at the end of `Loading Scenery´ progression box ( at 100% loaded).

Is it the video card? Should I order another brand? return the Zotac?
There were no crashes with the original 128 MB ATI FireGL card.

-ed

wrote in message
...

I've ordered and installed a Zotac 9800 GT in order to run FSX, and
right after installing 178.24 drivers (which came with the product) FSX
started crashing with `Fatal Error´ message box (send / don't send
report). Have upgraded to 182.08 drivers and FSX is still crashing right
at the end of `Loading Scenery´ progression box ( at 100% loaded).

Is it the video card? Should I order another brand? return the Zotac?
There were no crashes with the original 128 MB ATI FireGL card.


Highly unlikely there's anything physically wrong with the video card. Very
likely that in the switch from the ATI card that there's remnants of the
Catalyst drivers causing the issues you are experiencing. One should use a
dedicated driver cleaner (like this one from the Guru3D
site..http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D--...up)_d1655.html)
to completely remove the ATI drivers. Then reinstall with latest (182.08)
drivers. Posting specifics about your OS and system also helps.....

On Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:45:41 GMT, "Augustus"
brought the following to our attention:

wrote in message

I've ordered and installed a Zotac 9800 GT in order to run FSX, and
right after installing 178.24 drivers (which came with the product) FSX
started crashing with `Fatal Error´ message box (send / don't send
report). Have upgraded to 182.08 drivers and FSX is still crashing right
at the end of `Loading Scenery´ progression box ( at 100% loaded).

Is it the video card? Should I order another brand? return the Zotac?
There were no crashes with the original 128 MB ATI FireGL card.

Highly unlikely there's anything physically wrong with the video card. Very
likely that in the switch from the ATI card that there's remnants of the
Catalyst drivers causing the issues you are experiencing. One should use a
dedicated driver cleaner (like this one from the Guru3D
site..http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D--...up)_d1655.html)
to completely remove the ATI drivers. Then reinstall with latest (182.08)
drivers. Posting specifics about your OS and system also helps.....

Thank you.. this is very helpful. It's a Precision 670 as follows:

http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/D...cision_670.pdf

But it's been refurbished and fitted with new CPUs, HD's and RAM

2x Intel 3.2GHz Xeon, SL7ZE
2x Seagate 15k, 73GB U320 SCSI
4x PC3200-1GB ECC RAM

Plus I added many more features post-delivery. Now please don't
start with how old and obsolete the system is because it works great
for me, and it can run FSX well enough with a nVIDIA 9800GT 512MB
card.

-ed

Thank you.. this is very helpful. It's a Precision 670 as follows:

http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/D...cision_670.pdf

But it's been refurbished and fitted with new CPUs, HD's and RAM

2x Intel 3.2GHz Xeon, SL7ZE
2x Seagate 15k, 73GB U320 SCSI
4x PC3200-1GB ECC RAM

Plus I added many more features post-delivery. Now please don't
start with how old and obsolete the system is because it works great
for me, and it can run FSX well enough with a nVIDIA 9800GT 512MB
card.

The system should be fine for your needs....although the ECC DDR may be a
bottleneck. Is this system running WinXP32? And did you simply remove the
FireGL drivers via Add/Remove and install the Forceware?

On Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:20:13 GMT, "Augustus"
brought the following to our attention:


Thank you.. this is very helpful. It's a Precision 670 as follows:

http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/D...cision_670.pdf

But it's been refurbished and fitted with new CPUs, HD's and RAM

2x Intel 3.2GHz Xeon, SL7ZE
2x Seagate 15k, 73GB U320 SCSI
4x PC3200-1GB ECC RAM

Plus I added many more features post-delivery. Now please don't
start with how old and obsolete the system is because it works great
for me, and it can run FSX well enough with a nVIDIA 9800GT 512MB
card.

The system should be fine for your needs....although the ECC DDR may be a
bottleneck. Is this system running WinXP32? And did you simply remove the
FireGL drivers via Add/Remove and install the Forceware?


The memory buss is 800 MHz and that isn't exactly cutting edge. The
OS is Win Xp Pro (32-bit) SP3. Yes.. I uninstalled the ATI drivers using
the Add/Remove Software from Control Panel, the uninstalled the ATI
hardware in Computer Manager, then powered down to install the 9800.

-ed

The memory buss is 800 MHz and that isn't exactly cutting edge. The
OS is Win Xp Pro (32-bit) SP3. Yes.. I uninstalled the ATI drivers using
the Add/Remove Software from Control Panel, the uninstalled the ATI
hardware in Computer Manager, then powered down to install the 9800.

-ed

ECC DDR2 is slower than standard DDR2....it has a parity module and is
usually used on server boards. I suggest you use a driver cleaner and
reinstall the latest forceware. See if it behaves.

1. Some games like BF2 auto-configures itself and compiles shaders on first
run. Upgrading the video card may require reinstalling the game. Does FSX
have a function to repeat the autodetection?

2. It's possible the game is running out of video memory. Happened to me
with Mass Effect, where changing the FSAA level from 8xQ to 4x eliminated
the crashes. You can also experiment with reducing the in-game visual
options. Start off at the lowest settings. If the crashes disappear,
gradually raise the settings.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

wrote in message
...

I've ordered and installed a Zotac 9800 GT in order to run FSX, and
right after installing 178.24 drivers (which came with the product) FSX
started crashing with `Fatal Error´ message box (send / don't send
report). Have upgraded to 182.08 drivers and FSX is still crashing right
at the end of `Loading Scenery´ progression box ( at 100% loaded).

Is it the video card? Should I order another brand? return the Zotac?
There were no crashes with the original 128 MB ATI FireGL card.

-ed

On Sat, 4 Apr 2009 20:13:23 -0400, "First of One"
brought the following to our attention:

1. Some games like BF2 auto-configures itself and compiles shaders on first
run. Upgrading the video card may require reinstalling the game. Does FSX
have a function to repeat the autodetection?

2. It's possible the game is running out of video memory. Happened to me
with Mass Effect, where changing the FSAA level from 8xQ to 4x eliminated
the crashes. You can also experiment with reducing the in-game visual
options. Start off at the lowest settings. If the crashes disappear,
gradually raise the settings.


Yeah.. now we're getting somewhere. So you're asking if FSX has a
video autodetection routine? I really don't know. It's early enough in
the game (no pun) to reinstall it, since the whole system came about
in Dec 2008, and FSX was a post-Xmas package.

The ATI FireGL only has 128MB (came with system) and it never ran
out of memory. Have looked at RivaTuner charting results but cannot
interpret as yet. Not too knowledgeable with the nVidia tuner applets as
yet either. FSX is CPU hungry and video loading (options) is limited due
to that. It will get solved before long. Here is some usage data:

http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/GPU_temp.gif

There's 4 GB of RAM on the MB.
http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/Vmem_data.gif
http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/FSX_usage_data.gif (hit F11)

And some installed video board:
http://home.comcast.net/~flightsim/G..._installed.jpg


BTW.. for guy above, the OS is Win Xp Pro SP3.


-ed

On Sat, 4 Apr 2009 20:13:23 -0400, "First of One"
brought the following to our attention:

1. Some games like BF2 auto-configures itself and compiles shaders on first
run. Upgrading the video card may require reinstalling the game. Does FSX
have a function to repeat the autodetection?

The guys in the FS forum suggest to delete (or rename) the FSX.CFG
file and re-start the game, which builds a new CFG file. I did that
already and will do a TXT compare on the before and after. First I ran
DriverSweeper and checked ATI. It didn't remove the files, but it DID
work in Safe mode. It now reports no ATI files are left on the C: drive.

-G