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Graphics problems with X800GTO

C

choda_boy

n00b
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
3
I recently purchased a Sapphire Radeon x800GTO from Newegg. This was to upgrade my Radeon 9800pro. I received it on July 20th. I installed the card the same day. I have a 19” View Sonic CRT. With the new card I was able to crank all my games up to 1280x1024 with 4xAA and all settings maxed. I played Prey, World of Warcraft, Titan Quest and Half-Life 2, only to see how cool they looked and to test the card. I didn’t have time to really sit down and play for a long period of time.

Since the card performed well at 1280x1024, I decided to get a View Sonic LCD VX922 from Newegg. It arrived yesterday. I set it up in the afternoon and tried out a few games. I used the DVI port. I noticed in Half-Life 2 that there was a strange orange box on the right side of the screen. It looked like the same box that the health and suite info is in on the HUD. I was running it at 1280x1024 LCD. I played for a bit and messed with the LCD’s settings to adjust brightness and contrast. I got it dialed in but then had to go. I shut my computer off and went to work.

When I got home from work I fired up my computer and was going to play WoW for a few hours. I did a few quests and grinded a bit but I had to make dinner. After dinner is when all the problems started happening.

I fired WoW backup and played for another hour. After that initial hour I noticed that there was bleeding on the right side of the screen next to my action bars. I also noticed that the screen was popping graphics and tearing. It would happen if I moved or stood still. I went into the video settings and changed vsync and the multi sampling stuff. I turned on vsync with triple buffering. I ran it in 24 bit color with 6x multi sampling. Still, I got the same graphic corruption. I tried playing through it but then my monitor went black and said “no signal” and my computer appeared to lock up. Upon reboot I tried to load up WoW again but this time I could not get past the Login Screen in the game. It would just say “no signal” and lock up. I rebooted again and went into Windows. I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers for both the monitor and the video card. After that reboot whenever I right click on the desktop to pull open the display properties, I get strange artifacts around the menu and throughout the screen.

I then tried to use the D-Sub. The problems still persisted. I hooked up the other monitor. The Windows graphics corruptions seemed to go away but WoW still would not load up. I ran through the DirectX test and all passed on both monitors. Then I tried adjusting the Acceleration settings in the Display Properties. If I pull it down one click the graphics problems in Windows goes away, but none of my games run.

I put my old 9800pro back in and then WoW loaded up and I could play without any problems at all. I didn’t notice any problems in Windows either. I then put the x800 in and problems came back. These problems would happen in any game I tried to play. Prey, Half-Life 2, Titan Quest ect. It would just act like it was going to load the game and then the monitor would go black and say “no signal”.

What else can I try? Is it a bad card? What would cause it to go bad in a few days? Anyone else have any similar problems? Please help.

Here is my config:
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe Mobo
Athlon XP 2500+ @3000
2x512 Kingston DDR 400 CAS 2.5 performance memory
WD 250GB SATA
Sapphire X800GTO 256MB it was already unlocked from 12 to 16 pipes out of the box
Antec SmartPower 350watt PSU
2x80mm fans blowing out from back of computer
1x120mm fan intake blowing right on HD.
Upgraded heatsink and fan on processor

Case temp at start up is 88 degrees. Processor is 116 degrees. At peak case is 98 degrees and process is 130 degrees. That is using the Asus probe util. I get lower readings than that in the bios. Around 5-8 degrees difference.
 
it sounds like a heating problem with the card. my X800GTO that was 16 pipe factory stock was messed up n overheated like crazy. If the card burns, i'd recommend you get an NVsilencer for the R430. It'll help out. It should be a heating problem becuase you get graphic artifacts (boxes, tearing, etc...) after running a graphics intensive program for a bit, but I've got no clue why WoW won't start up.
 
Well, I booted it up again this afternoon. As soon as Windows loaded I had even more of the lines and distorted text. I installed the card into another machine with a CRT. The resolution was at 800x600 and there were no graphic glitches in Windows. Once I installed the drivers and rebooted I got the same symtoms.

I about burned my finger when I touched the ATI core on the other side of the card. It was surrounded by some pad thing. I guess it was there to protect the chip. It had a cut out and the ATI mini core was there. If that thing gets hot what is the gigantic fan and copper heat sink keeping cool?
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102002

I'm assuming this is the model you have. If it isn't, tell me. But it looks like there's no cut out on the back, and the heatsink is small. I'd really switch it. If the heatspreader/heatsink is hot, then it's doing it's job, but if the PC board itself can burn your hand, i'd really get an NV Silencer. here's a link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186129

It really sounds like a heat issue right now. My guess is that since the card was 16 pipe out of the box but only with that heatsink, that heat is causing this problem. Sapphire really needs to watch what they do cause the 16 pipes produce more heat than the stock 12 pipe card.
 
i have a similar problem with my sapphire x1300, i only play css and it locks up quite a bit. no artifacts or anything just locks and up my monitor goes and says no signal, i noticed it was hot so i bought a zalman vga cooler which fixed the heat thing but not the freezing up. could be a driver issue or just that sapphire sucks balls.
 
i allways wondered about the minicore on the back too. it gets hot but only takes a very small heat sink to acutally keep it cool. i just took about 4x4 pins worth of a old pentium socket cooler. the HS is only warm to the touch instead of burning hot.
 
That is the one that I have. Although, mine had a chip on the back that was covered with some pad thing. The center was cut out and it said ATI on it. The pad was made of a soft material on the outside. The other side that was stuck to the chip was made out of and adhesive material. I was able to pull it of a bit.

I would think that the cooler that it has would be good enough to cool the main processor. I wasn't overclocking it at all. That is kind of stupid for a company not to provide a adequate cooling solution on their cards.
 
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