Radeon 9800xt on its second last wings?

[Ubermouser]

I've owned a Radeon 9800xt from ASUS nearly since it came out, and it gave me absolutely no problems at all.

Untill, one fateful day, there was a power surge. No biggie, restart. While playing Everquest 2: Trials of the Island, the computer crashes in mid frame. I've never seen it do this before, and I'm a bit worried to say the least. Restart. I notice that while Windows is in its loading screen, the small scrolling train of three squares is distorted in ruined. I am welcomed to the login screen by a horrendously distorted login screen, like someone decided to use the "blur" tool in a program like photoshop or IRFANview on the display.

This was a major issue, so I started up in safemode, intent on reinstalling the drivers. Under VGA mode and Safe mode, the computer displayed the same symptoms - horrible blurriness. Any move I made to uninstall the drivers was completely thwarted - I simply couldnt see what I was doing.

A few aggravating nights later, I install a Geforce MX4400 to suprising results - no graphical errors at all. Not in AGP mode, safe mode, or any mode. I return the ATI card immediately to Asus, and MONTHS later, they finally get back to me.

Tonight, I plugged in the newly returned ASUS 9800XT graphics card to the same problems as before, with absolutely nothing even remotely different. This leads me to believe the problem is software - can anyone help me?

ABIT IC7 Max3 Motherboard
Intel P4E 3.0GHZ (non-overclocked)
Mushkin Black lvl 2 PC3500 Ram, 1gb
Geforce MX4400, ATI Radeon 9800xt from ASUS.
Antec 550 Truecontrol Powersupply

 

[DooLocsta]

First thing I would do is use DriverCleaner and remove the drivers you were using totally then reinstall the latest to see if that will help. When the computer rebooted you could have a corrupted a file used in the drivers.

 

[Borgschulze]

You said Power Surge... Try another Power Supply, or check the AGP speed, make sure it is at 66mhz.

 

[RandomTask]

Your new card could be bad too. I have a Gainward FX5900 ultra that i have returned 4 times and is due for another trip back to Gainward. Each of the cards i got from them has been messed up one way or another.