artifacts with 9800 pro

I recently bought a powercolor radeon 9800 pro off of newegg. It shipped to my front door just yesterday afternoon. As soon as i installed it and fired up my benchmarking software it gave me nasty artifacts when i was running the tests. The artifacts seem to appear as random pink and green dots when i try to access any application, open up the device manager in windows, or use IE. I suspect it was my 250 watt psu since i had stability problems before i installed the 9800 pro such as vpu errors and very mild artifacts that appear rarely. I want to know if my 9800 pro is already dead because i am going to soon order a better psu.

 

it might be getting a tad toasty in your case, reach down there and poke at the vpu heatsink. if you feel pain stick a fan near it.

 

I don't think heat is the issue, i touched the heatsink and it was quite mild. I got a household fan and blew air into the case but the artifacts are still there.
Anyway, i just want to know if the 9800 might of died.

 

250watts psu seems a little low for a 9800pro but. Buy a new psu at your local computer store or best buy so that you can just return it if it didnt fix the problem.
good luck

 

I forgot to mention i already killed a 9800 just two weeks ago and i rma'ed the card. Im getting a sick feeling of deja vu.

 

can you post your system specs. please

 

athlon xp 2500+
250 watt psu
512 mb pc2100 ram
80 gb ibm deskstar hd
ecs l7s7a2 mobo
radeon 9100 pro(old backup card)

 

hehe, we've got the same mobo
I'm gonna say that your Power Supply needs replacing. 250watts just doesn't cut it.

Is your card hot under load, do you feel pain touching the heatsink?

 

I touched the heatsink; other then me accidently touching the fan i didn't feel any pain. Btw, my mobo displays my 2500+ as a 1900+. When i try to change the fsb from 133 to 166, it gives me a bsod when i load windows.

 

umm yeah our boards are cheesy like thatty. just a sec, i'l make a list for what you need to do

 

K, set the "set dram frequency" or something like that to enable.
set the "cpu/dram ration" or something like that to 1:1
then try to change the FSB for the cpu.

try reseating your Vid card. Make sure its nice and snug. ive had issues with seatings on this mobo before.

 

Thanks, it worked. :good:

 

glad to be of help

 

So, the video card is working now? Or is that still an issue.
I'd still recommend getting a higher wattage PSU. With the components you're running, I'm concerned that something isn't getting the juice it needs. I know harrack32 replaced his 350W unit with a 400W (or something like that) because his Radeon 9800 Pro needed the extra grunt to have a stable system.

 

I think only the underclocking is solved

 

More problems . It seems when i switched the fsb to 166, it made my computer unstable and then after a while windows won't boot anymore. Oh btw, im buying a 350 watt sparkle psu, is that enough?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-484&depa=0

 

im sorry that your clockings didnt work.
If you can i would shell out a little more for a 400watt because your running a 9800.
im running a hdd, optical, 6x 80mm fans and a hs/fan on my 350watt power supply by antec.
that sparkle might be fine but 400watt would be better.
how many fans you running?

 

I have a 3 fans including the fan on my current psu.

 

then i think the sparkle 350watt should do the trick.

 

I'm running this Sparkle FSP350-60BT in my main box. It's got better amperage than the GU one you marked, which makes it worth the extra $10.

See my sig and the first rig in it? I run it all off that PSU I linked. I have yet to have a problem with it.

BTW, Sparkle=Fortron, but I hear Fortron is a tad cheaper.