Is anyone familiar with this 9700p problem ?

[FragMagnet]

I put an older, known to be good 9700p into my girlfriends computer. She plays the downloadable games from MSN, so nothing too graphicaly intense. We're using the latest catalyst drivers with the older control panel. It is not overclocked. Initialy there were no issues, but recently she has been getting vertical lines top to bottom, or a checkerboard pattern, of flickering or flashing squares which set in after 10 mins of play. This is in Ballistik, but in Richochet there are no issues after hours of play ? But I have seen it in other games. It appears to be memory related, even though it only appears in a couple of games. Is it the newer cats ? Where can I find the earlier drivers ? Or is the hardware toast ? I underclocked the mem by 40 mhz, but that didn't help either ?

 

[gostriker]

Sounds heat related, I had to change the fan heatsink on my 9700pro. Some people have reported good results from cleaning out the fan and a touch of oil to make it spin more free.

 

[FragMagnet]

I'll have to test it out. I ran ATI tool scanning for artifacts, it showed the pattern and restarted the test within 15 secs. Then it ran for 12 mins without doing it 'til I stopped it, then another 17 mins without issue. I overclocked the mem 50 mhz, but the artifacting was completely different. I then raised the core 50 mhz, no artifacting or lockup. Possibly the fans sticking ?