To be fried or not to be fried, that is the ?

[taptap]

ATI Radeon X700 pro AGP 256M GDDR3

Last nite it worked fine, then I woke up to MS-BASIC like distortion, screen filled with random colored patches of smiley faces, hearts, spades, triangles, "@" 's, etc, etc. Some of them were flashing, other pixels were blank. This is a fairly new (but used) video card...

No components seem to be fried. There is no aroma of magic smoke, the fan is working, heat sink free of dust, and nothing has been hot.

Anyone ever had this happen before? With any video card? It has a molex power connector on it... is there a chance that my PS isn't supplying correct voltage for it?

I put in my old GeForce FX5200 128mb... the computer runs perfectly fine now, including graphic intensive games. But as soon as i Pop in the ATI, i'm right back to scary looking distortion.

As a side note, there are two dip switches at the bottom of the card. Does anyone know what these are for?

[Amnesiasoft]

Maybe I'm way off here, but if I recall, my friend found some sort of ASCII post processing effect option in the ATI control panel with his x800, maybe someone accidentally switched that on? That could also explai why it doesn't happen with an Nvidia card.

[taptap]

Here is a pic of it... anyone have any ideas now?

[Larson]

In the past when my video cards have been on their way out it has been a gradual process consisting of mostly screen corruptions and geometry of death, etc.

Normally when the card isn't getting the correct power from an internal source (molex) it will prompt you when you turn on the system.

I've never seen a card die in that manner, with actual text/characters instead of random rainbow shapes and flickering. I'm going to say that your video card is on death's door.

[taptap]

Yeah. It's the harsh reality that i really don't want to come to terms with. Here's a pic of my beautiful paperweight.

Anyone know of any ATI Video Bios upgrade utilities or anything that might help before i throw this thing away?

[MFHodge]

I know you've tried a different card in your main box, but can you try that card in another system?

[Larson]

Anyone know of any ATI Video Bios upgrade utilities or anything that might help before i throw this thing away?

There's no harm in trying, but it sounds like it would be a pain in the butt if the card refuses to display correctly? If you're set on trying to flash the BIOS, maybe toss another video card in the system (as long as you flash the right card )

This link looks to have the bios you need. You just need to grab a flasher.
http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/inde ... &memSize=0

I hope this helps, but it sounds like the card might be bricked.

[noouch]

Warranty time?

[taptap]

Thanks for the help. the video card is wasted, so i'm not going to stress over it anymore. Tiem 2 buy neu 1!

AGP wise, what do you all think is the best (performance-wise) out there? I was thinking X1800 Radeon 512Mb.

[Larson]

AGP wise, what do you all think is the best (performance-wise) out there? I was thinking X1800 Radeon 512Mb.

ATI is still offering various X1950's and HD2600's in AGP. Nvidia also has the 7900GS in AGP.

[b.i.o]

AGP wise, what do you all think is the best (performance-wise) out there? I was thinking X1800 Radeon 512Mb.

ATI is still offering various X1950's and HD2600's in AGP. Nvidia also has the 7900GS in AGP.

Although it does support DX10, the HD2600 is certainly not the best performing card there. An x1950 is probably going to perform slightly better (or a lot better) depending on which model you pick, than the 7900GS.

[Axman]

AGP cards in order of ass-kicking:

7950 GT 512 ~ $250
X1950 Pro 512 ~ $175
7900 GS 256 ~ $190
2600 XT 256 ~ $175

If you're thinking about that 7950 GT, keep in mind that for the same price, you can get an 8800 GT, which rocks its face (by like a factor of four) and means upgrading everything else. The fact that you need to pay the AGP legacy premium is indicative that you should start putting monies away for a new computer.

[taptap]

My monies are going to begin saving up as of now so that I can go PCIE. My friend Steve has the 8800GTX (Overclocked) and it makes me smile... with envy...

In conclusion, I wound up with an ATI x1650 PRO AGP 512mb. Even with it, I can't believe what I what I was missing with my x700- I never knew it snowed (or rained nuclear fallout) in HL2 ep. 1!!!! Also, even HL2 ep. 2 reccommends (*) the highest detail settings. It's beautiful.