Artifacting and crashing - Radeon 1800XT

[TheVoice]

Hi all, hope you can help me diagnose a problem I'm having.

I've had my 18000XT since last September, and it's given me no real problems (except for occasionally not allowing my PC to start properly) until recently. I'm now getting artifacting in games, and/or lock-ups/crashes that sometimes freeze the system completely, or sometimes allow the VPU recover thing to recover so it's usable again. I get the same issue if I try doing a scan for artifacts using ATi Tool or ATi Tray Tools. Both their artifacts tests show artifacts.

I'm struggling to figure out why this would be because it's caused me no problems until recently, and I have no problems in general day-to-day usage, only games.

A few months back I changed CPU and so also flashed my BIOS, and then shortly after that, re-installed Windows. Would any of these events have triggered this problem? I've tried a few different driver versions (I'm using non-CCC drivers, for what it's worth) and I'm still getting this issue.

Specs are in my sig pic, although the CPU is an X2 4600 now. I'll have Vista soon (next week) so I'll hopefully be able to see if this problem is reproduced there. My money is on either the card itslef failing (which seems unlikely), or a conflict between the card and the new BIOS. The latter would annoy me because this'd now be the second time that I've had a graphics card and motherboard conflict (this was a couple of years ago).

*sigh* Why can't computers just work?

Thanks for any help in sorting this.

[Blitzen]

1. Heat
2. Drivers.
3. Memory knackered on the card.

Do a clean driver install.
Check the temperatures the card is giving off under full load.

If both of the above are done and acceptable then RMA the card.

[Ferral]

I would try reverting back to the older bios, looking at your timescale it does look like the new bios could be causing the problem.

[TheVoice]

Hi guys. It's not heat related, because even with the fan forced on full speed (and if you've ever seen and heard an 1800XT, you'll know how bloody noisy that is), I still get artifacting in the artifact tests. I'm going to try sticking XP onto a spare HDD I have though, and see what happens on there.

Ferral: Unfortunately I can't change the BIOS because I need this one for Dual Core support.

[this_is_gav]

1. Heat
2. Drivers.
3. Memory knackered on the card.

I'm lumping all my money on #3.

[Mithrandir]

What temps do you get on load? Run ATI tray tools with the graphing feature and see what it runs through.

There could be a possibilitie when you upgraded parts you nidged cabling or the card, so I would suggest taking the card out reinserting it and plugging the PCIe power cable back in.

I would also revert to an older driver too.

[TheVoice]

Tried some older drivers (7.2s), no change. It's definitely not temps, with the fan on full speed (keeping the core very cool - 60ish degrees or so), it still crashes.

Gonna try the 7.1 drivers later, then I'll take the card out and check connections. Then I'll try a fresh install of XP on the spare HDD.

Thanks for the help guys, will report back.

[TheVoice]

OK, it's not the drivers (tried various versions now), and it doesn't seem to be heat because I had it going for over 1,800 seconds on an artifact test and it was peaking at 83 degrees with no artifacts. Stopped the test, tried again, and it would artifact on the high 60s and low 70s (where it usually sits anyway).

Going to finally do the XP install now, see if a clean one of those changes things.

[TheVoice]

Thought I might as well update. RMA'd it to Overclockers just over 3 weeks ago. Got my replacement back today - a 1900XT! It's still 256MB and the 1900 isn't really much faster than the 1800, but can't complain. Seems to be running OK so far though.

[MrP]

i have an x800gto with similar problems, in WOW i get alot of off textures, and moving/disapearing triangles (floors missing, bit of buildings extending further than they should, greenery "wobbling")

i'm guessing i either have duff ram, or a bad pipeline in the chip but so far i have been to lzy to get ideal computing to replace it

[FInalD]

Thought I might as well update. RMA'd it to Overclockers just over 3 weeks ago. Got my replacement back today - a 1900XT! It's still 256MB and the 1900 isn't really much faster than the 1800, but can't complain. Seems to be running OK so far though.

Only a 1900? I guess you bought the 1800 fairly recently, I got a 1950XT from OcUK when my 1800 knackerd...which I bought in Sept last year.

[TheVoice]

But I bought mine in September too! Awwww! It's not a brand-new 1900XT either, it's got dust in the fans etc so it's been used a fair bit before. Makes me wonder...
Still, it seems to work, so can't complain. Might email OcUK and see what they say though.

[Pob255]

I'd definately contact OcUK if they've given you a 2nd hand card on an RMA.

From my past experience of ATi's (granted a 9700Pro not x1800) It definately sounds like the memory fried it's self.
This seems to be a rather common problem with ATi's

One quick question, your sig doesn't contain any PSU details, I'm asking because problems with PSU are a cause of the memory on ATi cards dieing.

[this_is_gav]

There's no reason why it shouldn't be a 2nd hand card. Indeed some company's have policies where defective units only ever get replaced by returned or reconditioned goods, stock permitting. So long as the goods are working, and you get at least the remainder of the original warranty (AFAIK on that last bit) then it's all in order.

[Mithrandir]

Yup, I don't see any probs as long as the replacement is the same or better (in this case better) spec than the original.

[TheVoice]

To be honest, I'm fairly happy with it - seems a touch quicker than the 1800XT was and it was running the two most recent Tomb Raider demos at full res (1680x1050) with everything on, without any slowdown.

Pob: My PSU is an Antec TrueBlue II 480W - more than enough for my system really.