ATI 9800pro was (for me) a complete waste of time & mone

Rambunctious

I have had "experts" giving me tips on how this card can actually outperform my puny 11 fps onboard system (ASROCK GPRO V) so many times, I feel like I'm going crazy.

I'm getting intermittent pauses (not from OBV), and black screen resets that are not even close to the limit I had with the puny onboard adapter unit.

Micro$oft doesn't know how they can possibly help me, other than take more money from me, to continue their good work.

While the screenrates are up to around 23fps, I don't get the point if it's crashing half the time.

I know that the MB is not the prob, since it was transplanted 6 mths ago into another machine, which worked really well.

harleyman · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 12:51 pm Post subject:

I had the same card with the same prob...I ended up taking the entire puter I had built back and told them what I thought about the card they recomended..........

ATI offered no help at all.......

RadarMan has that card,and loves it......

I got a G-Force 5700 Ultra and am almost happy.......

MS tech help sucks too......Thats a fact...... Shocked

RadarMan · Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:54 pm Post subject:

These are the install instructions from ATI, follow them exactly.
If you still have problems please explain them more clearly.

Download Instructions:

Please read all Release Notes as they may contain additional details/notes specific to the version driver/software you are installing.
Create a central location for all your downloads
Right-Click your DESKTOP and select "NEW" and then "FOLDER"
Name the folder "ATI Downloads"
Click on the hyperlink (i.e. Display Driver)
A "File Download" dialogue box will appear
Select the "SAVE" button
A "Save As" window should appear
Browse to the folder you created
Select the "SAVE" button
Installation Instructions:
NOTE: Ensure that you have logged onto the system with Administrative rights if you are using Windows 2000/XP

Uninstall the ATI Display Driver
Restart once prompted. If prompted cancel the installation of the display adapter upon boot up.
Close all other applications running, including any anti-virus software before attempting to install the driver suite.

Windows 2000/XP:
You can confirm that all applications are closed using the Windows Task Manager.
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL once and then click Task Manager. Select the "Applications" tab. If any applications are still listed on this tab, highlight the application and then click the "End Task" button at the bottom of the tab. Repeat this procedure until there are no more applications running.

Windows 98/SE/ME:
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL once. Highlight each application and then click the "End Task" button at the bottom of this window. Repeat this procedure until there are no more applications running except for EXPLORER & SYSTRAY. Do NOT end task on these two applications or your PC will shut down.

Locate the Display Driver download and double-click on it.
Restart once prompted.
Locate the ATI Control Panel (if included) download and double-click on it.
Restart once prompted.
Locate the WDM Capture drivers and double-click on it. - ONLY download if you have an AIW RADEON or RADEON VIVO family product.
Restart once prompted
******************************************
Make certain that you have service pack 1 and Directx (the latest).

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/sp1/default.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=141d5f9e-07c1-462a-baef-5eab5c851cf5&DisplayLang=en

jetman35 · First Officer Joined: Feb 18, 2004 Posts: 216

I have the 9600SE and it works pretty good!! It can be a little tricky getting the board to work correctly though. My PC do not have expansion slots. I had to make sure I deleted the current vid driver before installing the new drivers. My card works great with no hangups for half the price of the 9800pro. You may want to consider downloading the lastest and greatest drivers for the 9800pro. I did not even use the software that 9600se came with. I had to download the lastest ver from ATI website.

I would love to have the 9800pro that Radarman has but did not want to spend that much for a new board. It helps to have 512 Megs of RAM and a fast CPU.

Just my 2 cents

Jetman Cool

Guest · Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:04 pm Post subject:

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO
I never had any problems with this video card.
I play regular games,flightsims and rpg's and
I like the graphics with this video card and
when I'm using Photoshop I also are
satisfied with my ATI Radeon 9800 PRO.

Furia · Guest

I have an ATI Raedon 9800 PRO. It works real nice with most programs but so far I still do not know how to get the best of MS Flight Simulator 2004. The Cockpits quality althought not terrible is not what I expected.
I am using the latest Catalyst drivers but I had the same perfomance with older ones.
I guess I could set better settings on ATI control panel and MS Flight simulator hardware settings as well to make it run better.
What are the settings you recommend for this?

Thank you Smile

RadarMan · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2004 3:55 pm Post subject:

Rambunctious · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 8:27 am Post subject:

RadarMan · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 5:06 pm Post subject:

Rambunctious,
Why don't you list all your computer specs so we can get a better idea of what you are working with.
If you can also give us word for word what the "error report" is that can help also.
You said that you moved the mobo from another machine, did you upgrade the bios.
I hope we can help, with my old ATI I couldn't run anything new, now I tried the demo of Panzer and Far Cry and the machine ran like a champ. By the way Panzer is a rehash of the old "A Bridge to Far", good for it's time but old now.
Did you run AdAware http://www.lavasoft.de/

Nice to see you back Exclamation

Rambunctious · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 12:29 am Post subject:

Thanks for your input, Radar.

You'll have to forgive me for sounding more than a little exasperated/P'DO... But this is really frustrating. I post for the general benefit of everyone though, and am not simply whingeing, or throwing my hands up over this!

I've had a guy I used to work with when I upgraded laptops tell me that the problem could lie in the power supply rating (GRRRRR - the only thing I haven't changed/checked yet.). He's couriering a 550w ps for me to try. Since then, I've had a logging DVM on all the dc rails, and either there is a bad connector in there, or something is loading the system extremely. I'm pretty sure it's out of tolerance - 5V rail can fluctuate +/- 0,25V

Specs:
P4 2,4G
ASrock Gpro integrated MB
300w PS (the main suspect at the moment)
Defragged & lots of space HDD
was 512M, now 1G RAM Tested OK
ATI 9800 pro
Lifeview TV (checked installed & not)
Full AVG, Adaware, Spywareblaster (V.good) - Green scans
Win XP pro SP1, all security updated to last week
No dodgy spyware-laden, "Ware2" or susFreeware titles onboard
All current drivers, including SiS BIOS

Error:
- Program usually just disappears at a point where there is a high CPU/memory load. That's all.

- Sometimes, the machine will reboot, even though it's been told not to (on error) in the setup. The only message is the good ol' "Windows has recovered from a serious error" please tell Microsoft about this. It's just machine code addresses & gobbledegook that I doubt anyone here could interpret.

I'll let all know how the PS upgrade goes... I'm not going to hold my breath though!

RadarMan · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 1:02 am Post subject:

Rambunctious,
I hope it works for you but while upgrading everything in my computer when I bought it, the only thing I forgot about was the p/s and the oem version is (I think 250w) and I have a barrel full of usb items that drain it.

Did you try any of this.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837195

Guest · Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 3:58 pm Post subject:

Guest · Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2004 1:42 am Post subject:

[RadarMan] and others ...

After installing an ati radeon9800 pro into my otherwise perfect system (it was replacing an nvidia card that never gave any problems!), I've had nothing but trouble! The card was brand new .. so no problems there.
ATI support .. does it exist? .. not for us poor end users (because we dont dont pay for it like big companies do!). However I put up with it for a month or so, constantly crashing when playing games (it was fine while using windows otherwise!). After a while I thought It must be a conflict with the driver in windows etc .. so I formatted and re-installed XP .. only to find that its still the same Sad

...
I'm a qualified software engineer and I come from an engineering background and all I can deduce is that ATI quality is crap!
As for all the gumpf one has to go through to get an ATI installed on ones system all I can say is why??? why does the end user have to do all the crap that a half decent install program should do?
Wtf is wrong with these ATI people??????
We pay damn good money and get shite for it ... I've lost a shit load of data because or there incompetance ... where is the justice, they should be looked at by the industries standards boards or similar! (Problem is that they've paid them to keep quite ... GRRRRRRR)

When the world stops being everyones sucker we might get some quality !

~S~

crj700 · Trainee Joined: Jul 20, 2004 Posts: 1

Guys, guys, guys.... First post in this forum, but I know a lot about the 9800PRO. 2 caracteristics about that card:

1. Power-hungry. The molex connector is not just another fancy add-on. The card needs a 400W (minimum) PSU in order to run smoothly.

2. The damn thing runs hot. 55C to 70C are common temps. Good cooling is a must; RAMsinks are required, both sides of the card. Add a case fan right on top of the card (my case has an opening at the right location) and you're in business.

My card is a BBA 9800PRO (XT PCB) flashed to XT, running at 465/369 stable. But I've got the fan located as above, RAMsinks and water-cooling. With that set-up I rarely see temps above 40C.

The error that you encounter is the videocard running too hot. Simple as that. Better cooling should solve the issue.

Hope this helps.

JF

Rambunctious · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:10 am Post subject:

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