Help! Screen going haywire...

[jedi]

Hey guys,

I've had my Radeon 9800 AIW SE working nicely with the 4 extra pixel pipelines enabled for the past year, but since yesterday, for some unexplained reason, every time I try to run a game of any complexity (C&C Generals, MOHAA) the screen goes haywire with multiple flashing coloured vertical lines down the screen - the game itself seeming to run fine in the background, with all associated noises etc.

In attempting to solve this I've tried the latest modded drivers, the latest UNmodded drivers from ATI, and the latest version of DirectX - to no avail. Windows and "ordinary" programmes (eDonkey, Word, etc) run fine. Is there any reason this might be happening other than (gulp) a hardware problem??

System specs: Athlon XP 1800+
512 MB Ram
ATI AIW Radeon 9800 SE (currently with Cat 5.13 drivers)

Oh, and that ATItool - works fine until I enable that fluffy cube thing, then goes haywire

Any other info required please ask!

Jedi

 

[zOaib]

how old is your card ?

 

[jedi]

Approximately, according to my long-suffering girlfriend, about 18 months.

 

[zOaib]

HAVE U TRIED YOUR CARD in another system , u should do that to make sure its the card and not your computer , my best solution !

 

[jedi]

Yeah, might have to try that one - might be a pain trying to persuade someone I know to let me install it, but everything else I've tried has come up a blank. I really don't want to have to do a full reboot!

Will let you know how things go.

 

[zOaib]

Yeah, might have to try that one - might be a pain trying to persuade someone I know to let me install it, but everything else I've tried has come up a blank. I really don't want to have to do a full reboot!

Will let you know how things go.

do u have any other cards to try out , u can also check some other card in your system and see if that runs fine , that will isolate the problem aswell

 

[jedi]

Thanks for the help earlier re the Radeon screen lines; the problem's solved: I took the side of the case off and ran similar programmes and they ran fine, meaning that it was an overheating problem - the ambient temperature in the room I've just moved to is a lot higher. Working on a solution that doesn't involve the side of the case being off permanently!

Posting this solution if it helps anyone else with similar!

 

[DR.Death]

do you have anny more places to put more fans or you could use water cooling to keep it cool