Problem with ATI Radeon 9800se 128 mb 1

[Murgle]

I was having issues with my display starting to flicker and pixellate (little uniform columns of oblong boxes across the screen), and problems displaying colours especially when running 3d apps. This deteriorated until it was constantly like this, so I assumed the videa card was dying and replaced it - when I did it was fine. However 1 week down the line and it has started to happen again, so I am concerned that something else is frying my cards! Not aware that I have changed anything recently to cause this - any ideas? Thanks

How can you tell if a Systems Engineer is an extrovert? - He looks at Your shoes when he talks to you.

 

[ski]

Reseat the card making sure it's fully seated at both ends.

If no luck, then remove the computer's cover, and run an external fan.
If that works, then the system is overheating. Install additional or more powerful case fans. Recommended locations are lower front of case blowing in, and upper rear or top of case blowing out.

If an external fan does not help, then see if the card works ok in another system.
If so, then the AGP slot may be bad, or the power supply may be failing.
What are the voltage readings for the PS's 3.3V, 5.0V, and 12.0V legs?

 

[Engneer]

Load on the video driver and something is sharing its interrupt, thus the delay in screen updating and flickering.

Some app or Operating System has a bad driver, as in it is either on the video card's interrupt line, or, most likely, it is stealing the video buss, ram buss, and so on.

It could be leakage as well.

you can spend a fortune replacing all the hardware for a software problem; it will only come back to haunt you.

you need some way to monitor what is using video prioritized busses, architecture, stack, ram, and interrupt.

You might try

http://www.SysInternals.com/

Process Explorer and others to see what is delaying the video interrupts and processing.

 

[Murgle]

Thanks for the advice - sorry I didn't reply earlier. I checked out everything you said, and it looks like ski hit the nail on the head - it's the psu, and it's failing fast, it's now started to cause the machine to power down, and sometimes it won't power up again. I've got a new Akara 400W in the post.

Thanks again

How can you tell if a Systems Engineer is an extrovert? - He looks at Your shoes when he talks to you.

 

[ski]

You're welcome.
Glad to hear that you fixed the problem, and thanks for posting the solution.