just installed a X800XT PE

[robphelan]

I had a 9800 pro working perfectly(but i never ran 3dmark). I installed the X800XT PE, used ATI's utility to remove all the drivers and installed latest drivers.

I played BF2 with settings on High and res 1280 x 960 (?) - after about 8 minutes, my PC just locked up on me. I rebooted & recieved the ATI VPU error report.

I restarted BF2 and turned the settings down to Medium, 2xAA, res 1280 x 960. and it locked up on me after awhile.

I rebooted, and restarted BF2. i turned AA off and put resolution back to 800x600 and it ran just fine.

Also, I ran 3dMark 05 last night - when i run just the graphics test my score comes up 4650-4850.

I've set 3d settings to default and turned fast writes off. I checked my BIOS and have the latest chipset drivers.

my PC:
2.4 P4
1.5Gb RAM
WinXP Pro

any ideas?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Your 3DMarks don't seem too low, considering your CPU is a major bottleneck.

DL & install Driver Cleaner. Uninstall ALL ATI stuff. Uninstall the video card thru Device Manager. Reboot in safe mode. Use Driver Cleaner with applicable ATI cleaning filters, as well as using Cab Cleaner. Reboot and install latest ATI driver. Also monitor your temps

 

[mindgam3]

What kind of psu do you have? Also what driver version are you running your 3dmark05 score should be alot higher I score 6350 on stock speeds.

 

[robphelan]

PSU is a modstream 430(i believe).

overall temps are good - don't know about the GPU, though. i have a zalman that keeps my CPU almost chilly.

thanks for the cleanup tips - i'll give them a try when I get home.

EDIT: 3dmark05 version should be the latest. I just d/l last night.

 

[Termie]

I made the same graphics card switch, and I didn't have any problems running the BF2 demo. Your scores seem ok - mine are about 900 points higher, but I have a P4 3.0. You might check to see what the temps are on BF2 using atitool, as mine went pretty high before I installed a Zalman cooler.

 

[robphelan]

ok.. did a bunch of testing this weekeng..

playing BF2 my systems keeps crashing. I check my GPU temps in Everest and they're only 49Celsius when it crashed.

so i don't know if there's something wrong with the card itself. I'd hate to buy a zalman and void the warranty by installing it.

i played bf2 with some options on High, 1024x768 res, and 2xAA - it crashes within 10 minutes. last night i was so frustrated that i played with everything on Medium and at 800x600 - this lasted for about 2 hours before it crashed.

I had no problems with my 9800 pro - when everything was on medium.

should I RMA the card?

EDIT: I followed fbrdphreak's advice and cleaned up the drivers before all this.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Your 3DMarks don't seem too low, considering your CPU is a major bottleneck.

DL & install Driver Cleaner. Uninstall ALL ATI stuff. Uninstall the video card thru Device Manager. Reboot in safe mode. Use Driver Cleaner with applicable ATI cleaning filters, as well as using Cab Cleaner. Reboot and install latest ATI driver. Also monitor your temps

Why the heck would anyone bother to remove and reinstall drivers for swapping ATI cards?
:Q

they are UNIFIED drivers . . . the 9800p uses the SAME drivers as the x800
:roll:

the CPU is NOT a bottleneck in 3Dmark05
[at least not a "major" one]

if you feel you have really low scores, make sure your MB [and other] drivers are up to date and also your O/S . . . if it persists after defragging, etc., REinstall your O/S

 

[Art Vandaleigh]

Do you have this issue for any other games besides BF2?

 

[moonboy403]

try reseating the video card...

 

[robphelan]

haven't tried any other games yet.. will try Farcry tonight.. that should give it a workout.

as far as reseating the card.. that is a good idea - my case is a Qpack and it'a pain to install cards.. maybe it's not all the way in.

 

[apoppin]

now that you know you didn't need to waste time uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, have you also considered that you might be "forcing" AA/AF in your Control Panel?

That could account for game slowness and a lower 3DMark score.

 

[moonboy403]

but that doesn't account for his lockup though

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
but that doesn't account for his lockup though

sure it could . . . if you are forcing 8xaa/16xaf and your system can't handle it, it may crash.

BF2 is buggy anyway . . .

to the OP - make DAMN SURE FC is patched to at least v1.3
!

 

[Brian48]

Disable FASTWRITES in the BIOS if you have that ability. If that doesn't correct the problem, I recommend testing the card at 4x AGP. If this happens to work, then you know there's an issue of some sort between your motherboard and this card at 8x AGP.

 

[LostTime77]

I had the same problem but mine was with an X800XT with Battlefield 2. Game kept locking out with a blank screen and horrid screeching noises after a set of time. I was also getting VPU erros when I was doing anything on the PC, just out of nowhere. What solved this for me was reseating my AGP card because with my Thermaltake Armour case, it doesnt fit to well to the backslots. Try reseating the card, making sure it is in all the way. PS, the game would lock the screen up for about 20 seconds and then the screen would go blank with the screeching noises.

 

[robphelan]

ok everyone.. problem solved...

my BIOS was still set to 128Mb (9800 pro) while the x8oo is 256. as soon as I changed that, no problemo.

thanks for all the help.