Radeon 9800Pro Problems, Card Defect or Windows Corruption?

Midshipman · Apr 6, 2004, 04:16 AM

I sure hope somebody here can help me pinpoint what exactly is causing the problems I am experiencing.

Last night I tried installing a brand new Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB in my system that had previously had an ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB.

I had been running the Omega 4.2 drivers for Win98SE with my previous card and when I put the 9800 in, it seemed to work at first. I ran 3DMark2001SE to see how much my score would be improved, but half way through the high-res shootout, the card started having a large amount of artifacts and then 3DMark crashed claiming that my display adapter had insufficient ram.

I figured I might just need to reinstall the drivers (my case temp was around 35 C at this point and I wasn't overclocking). When I tried to reinstall the Omega drivers (after uninstalling them) I kept getting errors of one sort or another. Things like Blue Screens of Death and msqsrv32 not responding errors.

I then tried installing the Catalyst 3.9 drivers that came with the card as well as the latest 4.3 driver from ATI's site. Neither was any more successful. I would sometimes get the drivers installed but at this point, 3Dmark wouldn't load claiming that either I didn't have DirectX 8.1 or that my drivers weren't properly installed. When I tried to go back to Omega drivers, the install program kept crashing at the same point. I tried installing the Omegas through Control Panel, System, Device Manager, Update Drivers for my Display adapter, but 3Dmark still didn't recognize the drivers and I still kept getting occasional crashes with BSOD, and msqsrv32 or mmtask not responding.

I tried reinstalling DirectX 9 multiple times as well as using dxdiag but as far as I can tell, nothing is wrong in that area.

When I removed my 9800Pro and put the 9000 back in, the Omega install goes fine and my card works. I tried putting the 9800 back in without reinstalling the drivers, and 3DMark no longer wouldn't run, but then a new problem emerged. While running in 3DMark, I kept getting a DDHelp error after the first test. The last time I got DDHelp errors was related to some wierd instability with my sound card, a Soundblaster Live! Value. I disabled my sound card in control panel, but the DDhelp error kept recurring in 3DMark.

At this point I'm wondering if my new 9800 Pro has some obscure defect or if my Windows 98SE needs to be reinstalled or finally gotten rid of.

Here are my system specs:
Windows 98SE
128 MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Atlantis (Formerly a built by ATI 64 MB Radeon 9000)
MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard (133/266 FSB) [AGP 4x]
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
768 MB PC2100 ram
Antec 450 Watt PSU (Upgraded from an Antec 300 Watt in anticipation of installing my new video card)
Soundblaster Live! Value (Currently Disabled in Windows)
CD and DVD Rom (probably not relevent)
3.5" Floppy (which stopped working after I installed the new PSU. I'm not sure why this has happened but it's not my main concern at the moment, unless it might be related to my other problem.)

If I'm forgetting any important relevent info, I'll be all too happy to put it up, I'm just pretty distraught at the moment.

Well, I guess that's all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for at least reading this.

Zebra · Apr 6, 2004, 03:23 PM

Some suggestions to try, in order:

1. Turn off your system, and take the RAM down to 512MB on your system board.

2. Go into your system BIOS, and increase your AGP aperture to 128M.

3. While in your system BIOS, turn off AGP fast writes.

4. Uninstall your drivers, then run Drivercleaner.

5. Let Win98 install your card as just a PCI VGA card.

6. Install the ATI Cat 4.3's for Win98/ME.

Spend some money, and get WinXP! Then you can use all that memory past the 512MB.

Midshipman · Apr 7, 2004, 12:54 AM

Thank you very very much Zebra. I tried all of your suggestions (2 and 3 were already as you suggested). I had to manually select the PCI VGA selection in device manager, but from there everything seems to be working now. Thank you again for saving me from a lot of frustration and further wasted time.

Zebra · Apr 7, 2004, 02:48 PM

You're welcome, glad to be of assistance.

KiwiRack · Apr 7, 2004, 10:51 PM

Kudo's to Zebra, for getting to the point! Few people realize the '98 limitation on memory. CAT driver was a good safe bet.

Midshipman -Zebra's advice should be heeded in your case (WINXP), with your hardware setup you would see a marked improvement {Caveat -I don't normally suggest XP, but in your case it would do wonders). Even WIN2K Pro (Still a great gamer OS) and my preferred. I run 6 drives, 2 '98/2 WinK Pro and 2/XP -Hardware dependant on '98.

Cheers

Midshipman · Apr 8, 2004, 09:34 AM

Hey there KiwiRack, I am interested in upgrading my OS, but I'm also not too eager in shelling out any more money just right now (after having bought a 9800Pro and a new PSU). But for when I get around to it, I am interested in Windows 2000 Professional. However, I don't know a whole lot about it. When you say that 2000 is a good gamer OS, do you think that for gaming it would be better or comparable to XP on my system? Also, what exactly about it makes it your preferred OS? Pretty much any observations you have on 2000 would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

KiwiRack · Apr 9, 2004, 01:23 AM

Welcome to my 2c, mate:

DOS 5.0 & WIN 3.1 -Why? 8megs -I have some really cool games, that like an old and slow system (DX4-100) and I like to remember how to do HEX, batch filling et al.

'98 -Why I still run it? It's lite @ around 16meg -So it's generally much faster on older systems, but weak on security and of course memory management which means anyone serious about software will state that a reformat after 10-12 months is necassary to get a new and improved '98.

WINME -The very worst combination of '98 and 2000!

WIN2K Pro - 24megs -Secure, though not as lean as '98, quite tweakable and does better with Broadband than '98 can possibly think of doing, It's easily partionable -I use 8megs for the OS and head room & create two more partitions, one for 'Stuff' of all kinds and another for burning =No fragmenting of the OS. It's clean and older systems can still use it, fairly easily. There is no difference in actual gaming between the OS's, if an actual OS is the measure in question; rather everything else.

WINXP -1.5g -Bloatware at it's best and does take someone with a serious interest in software to lock it down on the net, extremily difficult (a lot of work) to tweak down. Upside, almost everything runs right out of the box. Needs a newer system to take advantage of this OS, or it will cripple your speed factor. I don't like the fact that MS has managed to have a whole suite of hidden files from the user.

I like: Adaware-Lavasoft, HiJackThis and AVG version 6 ----- All free and a very good router.

Rigs: AMD IWILL KK266 Athlon 1g OC 1.2 (VIA-Yuck) 384megs Tonicom SDRAM PC160 / Board takes PC100

/Gainwood TI400, 40g Seagate, Creative 52x CDR, NIC.

AMD ASUA a7N8X-E (nForce2) AthlonXP2500@3200, Corsair LL 512meg, ATI 9500 Pro (Saphire)@ 9700 Pro, 40g Seagate, Creative 52x CDR, Lite-On 16x DVD/CD-W, NIC.

Intel Albatron (845PE) Intel 2.66g@3.28 (had a problemo@4.13g with cache), 533fsb, TwinMos 512meg (Board won't run two) PC3700 {466}~Had this DDR for over a year, now people are seeing this available

ATI 9500 Pro@9700 Pro (Saphire), 40g Seagete. Lite-On 811S DVD/CD-W ~Wow, this moves...With: DVDShrink,PowerDVD and CopyToDVD.

Obviously like messing with hardware and software...Eh! And those Seagates..Lol, next will be the 120g Seagate 8meg cache for $98. Be aware WIN'98 and ME will not see more than 120g ~Just what I need though for 2K Pro and XP, more right now would be wasted & the price is right.

Games run on all the OS's listed very well, balanced for the hardware used and for online gaming -There is that other factor, what the ISP gives and how the user configures the protocols.

Cheers

Apr 6, 2004, 04:16 AM	#1
Midshipman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Radeon 9800Pro Problems, Card Defect or Windows Corruption? I sure hope somebody here can help me pinpoint what exactly is causing the problems I am experiencing. Last night I tried installing a brand new Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB in my system that had previously had an ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB. I had been running the Omega 4.2 drivers for Win98SE with my previous card and when I put the 9800 in, it seemed to work at first. I ran 3DMark2001SE to see how much my score would be improved, but half way through the high-res shootout, the card started having a large amount of artifacts and then 3DMark crashed claiming that my display adapter had insufficient ram. I figured I might just need to reinstall the drivers (my case temp was around 35 C at this point and I wasn't overclocking). When I tried to reinstall the Omega drivers (after uninstalling them) I kept getting errors of one sort or another. Things like Blue Screens of Death and msqsrv32 not responding errors. I then tried installing the Catalyst 3.9 drivers that came with the card as well as the latest 4.3 driver from ATI's site. Neither was any more successful. I would sometimes get the drivers installed but at this point, 3Dmark wouldn't load claiming that either I didn't have DirectX 8.1 or that my drivers weren't properly installed. When I tried to go back to Omega drivers, the install program kept crashing at the same point. I tried installing the Omegas through Control Panel, System, Device Manager, Update Drivers for my Display adapter, but 3Dmark still didn't recognize the drivers and I still kept getting occasional crashes with BSOD, and msqsrv32 or mmtask not responding. I tried reinstalling DirectX 9 multiple times as well as using dxdiag but as far as I can tell, nothing is wrong in that area. When I removed my 9800Pro and put the 9000 back in, the Omega install goes fine and my card works. I tried putting the 9800 back in without reinstalling the drivers, and 3DMark no longer wouldn't run, but then a new problem emerged. While running in 3DMark, I kept getting a DDHelp error after the first test. The last time I got DDHelp errors was related to some wierd instability with my sound card, a Soundblaster Live! Value. I disabled my sound card in control panel, but the DDhelp error kept recurring in 3DMark. At this point I'm wondering if my new 9800 Pro has some obscure defect or if my Windows 98SE needs to be reinstalled or finally gotten rid of. Here are my system specs: Windows 98SE 128 MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Atlantis (Formerly a built by ATI 64 MB Radeon 9000) MSI KT3 Ultra Motherboard (133/266 FSB) [AGP 4x] AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 768 MB PC2100 ram Antec 450 Watt PSU (Upgraded from an Antec 300 Watt in anticipation of installing my new video card) Soundblaster Live! Value (Currently Disabled in Windows) CD and DVD Rom (probably not relevent) 3.5" Floppy (which stopped working after I installed the new PSU. I'm not sure why this has happened but it's not my main concern at the moment, unless it might be related to my other problem.) If I'm forgetting any important relevent info, I'll be all too happy to put it up, I'm just pretty distraught at the moment. Well, I guess that's all I can think of at the moment. Thanks for at least reading this.

Apr 6, 2004, 03:23 PM	#2
Zebra DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: California,USA Posts: 198 Rep Power: 0	Some suggestions to try, in order: 1. Turn off your system, and take the RAM down to 512MB on your system board. 2. Go into your system BIOS, and increase your AGP aperture to 128M. 3. While in your system BIOS, turn off AGP fast writes. 4. Uninstall your drivers, then run Drivercleaner. 5. Let Win98 install your card as just a PCI VGA card. 6. Install the ATI Cat 4.3's for Win98/ME. Spend some money, and get WinXP! Then you can use all that memory past the 512MB. __________________ My current system as of 04/20/06: M/B: ABIT K8U Socket 754 RAM: 1024MB Corsair Select CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Clawhammer) VIDEO: ATI Radeon AIW X800 XT 256MB AGP8X AUDIO: SB Audigy 2 DISK: Maxtor 7200rpm 200GB 8MB cache SATA drive DVD/RW: Sony DRU-800A DL Dual Format DVD/CD Burner CD/RW : TEAC 48X CD Burner OS: WIN XP PRO w/SP2 VID DRIVERS: Latest Omega Radeon Drivers PSU: ANTEC 500W

Apr 7, 2004, 02:48 PM	#4
Zebra DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: California,USA Posts: 198 Rep Power: 0	You're welcome, glad to be of assistance. __________________ My current system as of 04/20/06: M/B: ABIT K8U Socket 754 RAM: 1024MB Corsair Select CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Clawhammer) VIDEO: ATI Radeon AIW X800 XT 256MB AGP8X AUDIO: SB Audigy 2 DISK: Maxtor 7200rpm 200GB 8MB cache SATA drive DVD/RW: Sony DRU-800A DL Dual Format DVD/CD Burner CD/RW : TEAC 48X CD Burner OS: WIN XP PRO w/SP2 VID DRIVERS: Latest Omega Radeon Drivers PSU: ANTEC 500W

Apr 7, 2004, 10:51 PM	#5
KiwiRack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: USA~Import Posts: 97 Rep Power: 0	Now that was to the point Kudo's to Zebra, for getting to the point! Few people realize the '98 limitation on memory. CAT driver was a good safe bet. Midshipman -Zebra's advice should be heeded in your case (WINXP), with your hardware setup you would see a marked improvement {Caveat -I don't normally suggest XP, but in your case it would do wonders). Even WIN2K Pro (Still a great gamer OS) and my preferred. I run 6 drives, 2 '98/2 WinK Pro and 2/XP -Hardware dependant on '98. Cheers __________________ Older fart, than you may think... Last project ~a screwed up mobo that now runs 2.66g@4.13g. ATI 9500 Pro@ 9700 Pro, Win2k Pro.

Apr 9, 2004, 01:23 AM	#7
KiwiRack DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: USA~Import Posts: 97 Rep Power: 0	Glad to add my 2c Welcome to my 2c, mate: DOS 5.0 & WIN 3.1 -Why? 8megs -I have some really cool games, that like an old and slow system (DX4-100) and I like to remember how to do HEX, batch filling et al. '98 -Why I still run it? It's lite @ around 16meg -So it's generally much faster on older systems, but weak on security and of course memory management which means anyone serious about software will state that a reformat after 10-12 months is necassary to get a new and improved '98. WINME -The very worst combination of '98 and 2000! WIN2K Pro - 24megs -Secure, though not as lean as '98, quite tweakable and does better with Broadband than '98 can possibly think of doing, It's easily partionable -I use 8megs for the OS and head room & create two more partitions, one for 'Stuff' of all kinds and another for burning =No fragmenting of the OS. It's clean and older systems can still use it, fairly easily. There is no difference in actual gaming between the OS's, if an actual OS is the measure in question; rather everything else. WINXP -1.5g -Bloatware at it's best and does take someone with a serious interest in software to lock it down on the net, extremily difficult (a lot of work) to tweak down. Upside, almost everything runs right out of the box. Needs a newer system to take advantage of this OS, or it will cripple your speed factor. I don't like the fact that MS has managed to have a whole suite of hidden files from the user. I like: Adaware-Lavasoft, HiJackThis and AVG version 6 ----- All free and a very good router. Rigs: AMD IWILL KK266 Athlon 1g OC 1.2 (VIA-Yuck) 384megs Tonicom SDRAM PC160 / Board takes PC100 /Gainwood TI400, 40g Seagate, Creative 52x CDR, NIC. AMD ASUA a7N8X-E (nForce2) AthlonXP2500@3200, Corsair LL 512meg, ATI 9500 Pro (Saphire)@ 9700 Pro, 40g Seagate, Creative 52x CDR, Lite-On 16x DVD/CD-W, NIC. Intel Albatron (845PE) Intel 2.66g@3.28 (had a problemo@4.13g with cache), 533fsb, TwinMos 512meg (Board won't run two) PC3700 {466}~Had this DDR for over a year, now people are seeing this available ATI 9500 Pro@9700 Pro (Saphire), 40g Seagete. Lite-On 811S DVD/CD-W ~Wow, this moves...With: DVDShrink,PowerDVD and CopyToDVD. Obviously like messing with hardware and software...Eh! And those Seagates..Lol, next will be the 120g Seagate 8meg cache for $98. Be aware WIN'98 and ME will not see more than 120g ~Just what I need though for 2K Pro and XP, more right now would be wasted & the price is right. Games run on all the OS's listed very well, balanced for the hardware used and for online gaming -There is that other factor, what the ISP gives and how the user configures the protocols. Cheers __________________ Older fart, than you may think... Last project ~a screwed up mobo that now runs 2.66g@4.13g. ATI 9500 Pro@ 9700 Pro, Win2k Pro. Last edited by KiwiRack; Apr 9, 2004 at 09:15 PM.

Apr 7, 2004, 12:54 AM	Thread Starter #3
Midshipman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Thank you very very much Zebra. I tried all of your suggestions (2 and 3 were already as you suggested). I had to manually select the PCI VGA selection in device manager, but from there everything seems to be working now. Thank you again for saving me from a lot of frustration and further wasted time.

Apr 8, 2004, 09:34 AM	Thread Starter #6
Midshipman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Hey there KiwiRack, I am interested in upgrading my OS, but I'm also not too eager in shelling out any more money just right now (after having bought a 9800Pro and a new PSU). But for when I get around to it, I am interested in Windows 2000 Professional. However, I don't know a whole lot about it. When you say that 2000 is a good gamer OS, do you think that for gaming it would be better or comparable to XP on my system? Also, what exactly about it makes it your preferred OS? Pretty much any observations you have on 2000 would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.