Need some help with my ATI 9800...

[illroot]

So I read on here that the Cat 4.4's are out and me being on the 3.7's for the longest time, I decided to upgrade. Big mistake... I go through the regular procedures of uninstalling the old drivers, restarting, and installing the new drivers and restarting. So what happens now is that I get a VPU error and that it is switching back to software something or other and if I would like to send a report to ATI. The computer continues to run, but what the hell did I do to my comp? I knew I shoulda stayed with the 3.7's. Anyone know what I did to screw my comp and how I should go about fixing it?

Comp specs:
AMD 2500 oc'd to 3200
1gig ram, 2x 512
Win2k pro
Sapphire 9800 modded to a 9800 pro

Thanks for any help offered...

*edit- I also tried going back to the 3.7's but I get the same error and sometimes a complete lock-up.

[Yoshi]

when your at 4.4 do you get any other problems? Is it just that error or do you get lockups and such?

[illroot]

Actually I do. I just restarted the comp and all the graphics are messed up. Everything on the screen looks smeared and if I leave the comp on the screen goes black like it's not getting a signal from the card.

[AllGamer]

I'd say it's due the Mod from stock to 9800 Pro

Have you tried switching back to the 3.7 drivers?

also try running your CPU in STOCK speed just to see if that is also the cause.

You can always dissable the VPU thingy if your video looks good, and there is no lock up.

:t

[illroot]

Alright, so I flashed it back to a 9800 bios and reinstalled the 3.7's. When I restarted I got the same smeared looking log-in screen. So I restarted yet again and it everything started and looked fine after a few minutes of surfing the net it freezes and then beeps and locks up. I'm stumped, is my card going bad? I haven't had it for that long. I'm kicking myself now for trying to fix something that wasn't broke.

[MoMoNeY8720]

I have Radeon 9000 pro and sometimes and it used to do something like that. When i would minus down Counter-Strike my screen would just freeze and would make a beep. The comp wouldn't be froze though because I could still hear the music playing in the backround. Well I wound up reformatting my hardrive and updated my drivers and it never happened to me again. Good luck man. Wish I could help. :t

[illroot]

Aw man, that's exactly what I didn't want to do, reformat my comp. Do ATi's have problems like Nvidia's where when you uninstall drivers there are still files that don't get deleted?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Originally posted by AllGamer
I'd say it's due the Mod from stock to 9800 Pro


Nope, shouldnt have anything to do with driver related issues.

--Jakk:t

[illroot]

So here's the deal, I'm forced to reformat and reinstall everything and this is what I encounter. First thing I do after reformat is install the Cat 4.4's and they install and run fine(not tested running game, but at least I can see the desktop without it locking up on me). So I continue reinstalling drivers, next on list is the nforce2 drivers. After I install that, then the problems come back. First it runs for a bit (less than a minute and then the lock-up occurs), then when I restart the screen just goes black after the big Microsoft icon. I've reformatted many times now documenting what happens when I install what driver in what order. I even downloaded all new drivers from their corresponding website, and still the problem persists. Anyone have this setup up similiar to mine?

Amd xp +2500 oc'd to +3200
Sapphire Ati 9800 flashed to a 9800 Pro
Asus A7n8x deluxe revision 2.0

*sigh

[Yoshi]

Maybe it is cooling or power related

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Try taking a case panel off and letting a house-fan blow into the machine and see if the problem persists, also check the fan on the card is spinning properly and isnt full of dust and gunk. Secondly, has the card been running fine its modded state for a long time, or have these problems followed hot on the heels of the mod

--Jakk:t

[illroot]

So from a process of elimination, I've sorta narrowed it down to what was causing the problem. But to answer your quesitons BigJakk, it's not a heat issue cause the first thing i tried was the exterior fan thing and it isn't dust and gunk in the case because i try to keep the inside of my comps pristine. And yes the cards been running in it's modded state for at least 6 months now.

So here's what I've concluded, I think it's the nforce2 unified drivers that are causing the problem. Everytime I install those is when I get the problem. What I don't get is that I've installed these drivers before (when i first put together the comp) and experienced no problems. So what I wound up doing is not running the nforce2 unified drivers exe and just installing the drivers individually. That seems to have done the trick because so far my computer is running fine with no problems I was experiencing before.

What I'm trying to figure out now is what, in this nforce unified driver, is causing the problem? If I've installed it before, why doesn't it work now? Does anyone with a similar set-up have these problems? Am I just a compter noob? Well, yeah...

Thanks for replies.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

You could have a poke around somewhere like www.nforcershq.com and see if there is anyone with similar issues, trawling through older versions of the unified driver or the various 'remix' sets that are doign the rounds set you might be abel to find a 'sweet set' that work for you

--Jakk:t