MSI Radeon 4890 - Polygon Warping / Stretching / Tearing / BSODs

MunchMunch

Hello! Here’s my problem:

Intro: I just upgraded my video card from an AGP GeForce 7800GS OC 256MB to a PCIe MSI ATI Radeon 4890 1GB card. (My motherboard has both an AGP and PCIe slot. The manufacturer says both AGP and PCIe cards may be used simultaneously, but I removed the AGP card just in case.) When I upgraded, I uninstalled my Nvidia drivers, and left the default VGA driver before physically installing the new ATI card.

These 3D game issues primarily include polygon stretching/tearing, and distorted text. There are also some stability issues when running some 2D applications.

My System:
ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard
Core2Duo E6600 CPU
2 GB Geil RAM
MSI ATI Radeon 4890 (Catalyst 9.7, default settings)
750w PC Power & Cooling brand PSU
Windows XP Professional

Problem in detail: Polygons, especially in Fallout 3, but also in Left4Dead, stretch and warp and basically make the game unplayable. It probably happens in other 3D games as well, but I’m getting such graphical problems in 100% of the 3D games I have tried. Basically it looks like some small polygons are blown way out of proportion. There seems to be a fixed anchor point for a stretched polygon in the 3D world, with the other points of the polygon warped far out of where they should be, and you can consistently move around that anchor point and see the stretched polygon consistently rendered. So it isn’t just random glitching, like if the card was overheating. Some of the series of screenshots of Fallout below illustrate the way it looks while moving.

Also, in Quake 3, the graphics seem to render fine, but text has strange corruption-looking problems.

The card never sounds particularly taxed. The fan is quiet. The system is very responsive, and the games run fast and do not lag.

After dealing with this for awhile, I noticed some other major stability issues. Mainly, it seems like hardware-accelerated video decoding is broken. When I run Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, decoding video also gives me a BSOD, or at least a driver crash with a partial recovery. When it BSODs, the BSOD screen lists "atidvag" as the problem. Nothing else I've tried causes the BSODs.

Screenshots of the Polygon Problem:
http://www.petaimg.com/u243/926ScreenShot1.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u40/974ScreenShot2.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u276/573ScreenShot3.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u421/250ScreenShot4.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u80/450ScreenShot5.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u94/351ScreenShot6.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u402/962ScreenShot7.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u289/961ScreenShot8.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u228/677ScreenShot9.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u171/654ScreenShot10.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u34/412ScreenShot11.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u188/339ScreenShot12.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u431/5112009-07-23_221448.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u179/8932009-07-23_221608.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u3/5342009-07-23_221854.jpg
http://www.petaimg.com/u371/6162009-07-23_214547.png
http://www.petaimg.com/u29/42009-07-23_214631.png

What I've tried: I've uninstalled the drivers, used Driver Cleaner Pro 1.5 to remove all Nvidia, ATI, and ATI CCC drivers, and then reinstalled ATI Catalyst 9.7 drivers. I’ve tried lowering all settings and resolution / turning off anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and also tried toggling vsync. I’ve updated / force-reinstalled DirectX 9.0c (March 2009 redistributable). Nothing changed the problem in any way.

What Next?: I think this might be a VIA / ATI incompatibility problem, since my motherboard uses the VIA PT880 chipset. I don't know much about this, but does anyone else know if this is a valid theory? I've read it elsewhere.

Other than that, it just seems like the Catalyst drivers are really, really, really...really crappy. I've read that theory a lot too. Either way, it seems like maybe I just need to return this card and get a GeForce or swap out my motherboard.

If you have any help, I’d very much appreciate it. I just spent lots of money on this card, and would like very much to fix this…

Mac Daddy

I have 2 ASRock boards here with VIA chipsets the only quick suggestion I can give you is make sure your chipset drivers are up to date. They should be listed in the DL section on the ASRock site for your motherboard.

__________________
"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

MunchMunch

Yep, they're up-to-date... I updated them successfully before I did the install.

MunchMunch

UPDATE: Problem is solved. I was also tracking this issue on another forum, and a poster found the solution. It was a motherboard BIOS issue.

To solve this issue, update to BIOS v. 2.38a (beta bios, not available on the main site, available here, or here). This BIOS solved all my graphical and BSOD issues, and seems to fully update the 4CoreDual-VSTA to support the ATI Radeon 4890. The BIOS is only available in DOS-update format, so you will need to create a bootable USB Drive or CD.

Solution: Just follow ASRock's steps for updating the BIOS through DOS, available here. ASRFlash.exe is available in any of the DOS boot packages in the 4CoreDual-VSTA download section, here.

However, the problem I had was that it said to boot to a floppy drive, so I needed another way to get into DOS and update. Here are the instructions for this:

1. Create a bootable USB drive or CD following these instructions or these instructions. (Note: the 4CoreDual-VSTA didn't seem to support booting from a USB drive. So I let the HP Boot Image writer write to a USB drive, then copied the files over to a different directory, unchecked "read only," and then wrote them to a "Boot" CD in Nero Burning ROM. This worked to create a bootable DOS CD. You can use whatever method you wnat, though--that's just what I needed to do.)

2. Add your ASRFlash.exe and 4cdvsta2.38a file to the drive (you can put them in a separate directory). Write the CD if using a CD.

3. Reboot, and enter "asrflash 4cdvsta2.38a". The BIOS should update (represented first by periods to show cleared sectors, then arrow bracket characters to show written sectors).

4. Press F2 next reboot to get into your bios, and select Load Optimal Defaults to clear the settings.

5. Enjoy!

Thanks everyone for their help. Consider this issue solved.

Mac Daddy

Glad you got it sorted and thanks for taking time to post the details of your solution. It may help others

__________________
"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Ireland914

Thank you so much for posting the solution! I had the exact same problem and your fix worked for me as well. Only difference was that I was able to boot from a USB Drive even with a 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard.

After four days of messing around I can finally enjoy my new video card! Thanks again!

Unknown Agent

Hi folks,

I have nearly the same setup:

775Dual-VSTA and purchased the MSI 4890 Cyclone OC and I am having standby, black screen, flickering problems.

I can't watch videos without it having go in a blackout. Video images are poor and blocky.

I read around that it is video card BIOS that needs updating. Did you end up flashing your 4890's BIOS as well or just the motherboard? I would hate to flash my Asrock 775DualVSTA mothebroard if it's unnecessary. Currently it's at version 3.10.

RE III - Frankie

I am quite surprised that a solution you described actuaqlly worked like that. At first look at your problem, the first thing that I thought of was a failing CPU issue.