Radeon screen corruption

[Gerry_Emm]

Hi all,

Here's a teaser for you...

I've built 3 separate computers for customers and the basic configuration is as follows

VIA P4PB 400 mobo
PC2700 Infineon - 512 MB
Maxtor 80 GB @ 7200
LG CDRW & DVD
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9000 w/128 MB RAM

All 3 computers have the exact same problem...when booting up cold, there is a weird checkerboard pattern on the screen...the first customer returned his brand new monitor because of this...tech support automatically assumed the monitor was bad...the second customer has the same monitor, and his does it too...but the third customer has a different brand of monitor & his does it too...so that eliminates it being the monitor at fault...

Funny enough, if you just warm boot the computer, it goes away and everything is fine...so it's just an annoyance more than anything else, but still...customers want PERFECTION!!!...I loaded the latest ATI Radeon drivers, the latest VIA drivers, etc, so it's not that...

I consulted tech support at Sapphire and apparently this is a widespread problem with many of their Radeon cards in general, not just the 9000...from what I've read in their forums, it seems almost impossible to get any answers from them...

Sooooo...

Here I am, in the place where I've gotten more answers than anywhere else, asking for your help...has anyone else suffered the same problem??? has it been resolved???

I even sent pictures of the screen to my supplier who also seems dumbfounded!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide guys!!!

Gerry_Emm[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

[XPAW_ASSASSIN]

The chequerboard pattern you described has been linked ot the bios verson of the card involved. Alot of people have these and unfortunately this is the shipped bios which can cause this :/ You may have to flash all the cards before selling them :/ the same problem occurs when people flash with an "upgrading bios" ie non-pro to pro and 8500 - 9100 as was the craze lately [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Vorlon]

Although this sounds like a bios thing ie both Video Card and Motherboard there are a few things you could try..

Firstly the cold boot or warm reset scenario seems to be borne out on some setups as some bios features are skipped if I warm reset my PC...

Anyway, Just for starters I would set my bios settings to their least aggressive values (AGP Side) ie the factory defaults and if they are not already off, turn off Fast Writes etc...

If you are getting Graphics corruption as XP starts, try disabling "Enable Write Combining" on the TroubleShoot TAB of display properties etc... + set the aperture to 64MB

Further than that XPAW_ASSASSIN info may be an idea. But then again Sapphire should be able to support you on that side...

VorLon

[Gerry_Emm]

Hey XPAW_ASSASSIN,

Thanks for the info but...

Where would one find the proper flash utility & updated BIOS???

Gerry_Emm[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Hearst]

Check the forums @ rage3d.com. I have found bios for many ATI cards there.

[psygnosi]

Hearst is right There is a link at rage3D that takes you to a german site with all the proper flash utilities and bioses.

Thats how I flashed mine to work correctly 3 months ago and its eliminated all of the problems.

Hope this helps,

Psygnosi[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Gerry_Emm]

Hey ho psygnosi...

I've spent hours looking for that german site you mentioned...haven't found it yet...and besides, even if I did find it, I don't read german...so I wouldn't know what I was downloading!!!

Think you could post a link to what I need???

I know it's important to flash with the proper BIOS files, so just a reminder, it's the Radeon 9000 with 128MB that I have...the non-pro version!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide...it really is appreciated!!!

Gerry_Emm[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

[psygnosi]

Hi Gerry_Emm,

Its a good thing i Bookmarked it. Here it is: ATI News.

I can vouch for the bios there because I flashed mine and it worked flawlessly.

Hope this helps,

Psygnosi[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Corelogix]

Would be strange if they still ship those cards with older bios versions (but not imposible).

Can it be a "boot" underpower problem? Maby just try to see what happens when you increase
the AGP volt a little.

I have had a HIS Excalibur Radeon 9700 that had a blue checkersboard pattern but nothing worked
to get rid of it and after a time it got worse. So I had to buy a new on, the one I now have is
working without any of the previous problems.

The old one I had and has died: HIS Excalibur whas Revision 1.3 and bios 8.004
I tryed a other bios which had the same problem. I also I have tryed a ZM Heatpipe
with AS3 to see if heat whas a problem but nothing changed. Also tryed diffrent
bios settings.

Now I have a Sapphire Radeon 9700 which is working just perfect.



<< customers want PERFECTION!!!... >>


That's very true, why didn't you ship those cards back to the supplier?

[Gerry_Emm]

Hi Psygnosi...

Thanks for the link, but I sifted thru all of them, and saw a lot ob BIOS's mentioned,
but not the 9000 (non-pro)
Is there one there that would be the same as, or equivalent to???

Thanks in advance...

Gerry_Emm[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]