Mssive artifacting..please help!!!

[johnnr892]

I had my 9800 pro and the fan was whining so loud and i needed so many fans to keep my case cool, that it was like an aeroplane taking off. So i installed a vga silencer and now im getting artifacting and all kinds of problems with the graphics with errors everywhere. Im as you can imaging pretty gutted as im only 15 and cant even get a job to get a replacement 9800 pro . I was really careful installing it i don't know how this could of happened, could you give me any advice or things i can do to try and revers this. ANy help as you can imagine would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, John.

[johnnr892]

Thats stupid, i took the vga silencer off and re-installed to old stock cooler not really expecting anything and now it seems to be working. When i tried to install the CAT 4.11 with the vga silencer on when it was artifacting, it decided to no longer boot or display anything, i had to go into safe mode and uninstall the drivers! I'm pretty annoyed really because i have installed the vga silencer 3 times with the same results and always the stck cooler works. Could it be the absence of the double bracket is causing this? Well i will need a new cooler firstly because i nearly ruined i barbs that clip the stock cooler on so they are just hanging on and i'm back to square one in terms on noise. should i try this alternative arctic cooler:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=74576

It's a shame really because i expected this to work especially as it's such a high profile company such as arctic coolers. Thanks to anyone who can give me any advice or comment on whats happened. John.

[Akumu]

I recently installed an Arctic coller on a Hercules 9700, and had similar problems so begin with...

I don't know which version of the cooler you've got, but part of the problem is that the base of the heatsink doesn't make proper contact with the GPU core, due to the ATI cards having a raised shim around the edge of the GPU. So, you either need to use more (good quality) thermal compound, or use a thermal pad to bridge the gap.

When I fitted mine, I put everything back together, fired it up and was expecting great performance, but there were artifacts everywhere... so I took the card out again, reseated the heatsink, and tried again... same result. As it turned out, the cooler just needed some 'burn-in' time, then afterwards it was fine...

So, make sure the cooler is making contact with the GPU core, then boot into Windows and leave it for a couple of hours, then try a game or whatever. I'm fairly sure it's just a card overheating problem, but I'm sure someone can correct me if it's not Good luck!

[johnnr892]

Unfortunately i have already sent it back, what do you think about this arctic cooler, it wouldnt be as heavy, does anybody use the silencer 1 for 9500-9800 pro?
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=74576

[Akumu]

There are several versions of the Arctic Cooler iirc, the one I have is the very first one... Later versions have some extra machining on the base which helps it to make proper contact with the GPU core... so that should (hopefully) solve your problem...

[johnnr892]

Ok, I might order one, but i have seen reviews saying the plastic gets in the way of one of the components and you have to cut the plastic! My board is the sapphire and it has a large silver component just where the review says there could be issues. Should i still get it?

[Akumu]

Well I'm not familiar with the Sapphire 9800 so I don't know... Which version do you have? I'd suggest either googling for a solution, or email Sapphire and/or Arctic Cooling...

[johnnr892]

ok i have ordered it and like you said it seems toi have a raised square on the base to make contact with the cpu if you have a shim (which i do) which would help with my problem. If it comes to it i'm sure cutting a piece of plastic off wouldn't be too much hassle. Is anybody using the rev 4 ati 1s just out of interest?