Strange prob Mobility Radeon 9000 on Acer TravelMate 800

heli4fun · May 27, 2006, 12:41 PM

Hi,

Recently I've been having strange graphics problem on my Acer Travelmate 800 with a Mobility Radeon 9000 (64mb).
I have installed the drivers from acer for this notebook.

Sometimes (random) the mouse pointer gets a vertical line next to it, and i see pink dots in some areas of the screen, the dots are not fixed, but seem to be related to what kind of graphics is displayed. For example, in firefox i never see the dots. In games and watching videos, the screen flickers (all over the screen). It could be a hardware problem, as if i reboot, i get the same flicker in BIOS.
Altough, i get the feeling that the graphics cards gets into a "mode" causing the flicker.

My fix to this is the following (has worked 2 times now)::
If i open dxdiag and click on "Test Direct3d" the flicker, pink dots and funny mouse pointer disapperas . Strange ugh??

heli4fun · May 27, 2006, 12:56 PM

The driver I'm using is: Catalyst 3.1 (as reported by RivaTuner)

LeanWolf · May 30, 2006, 01:16 AM

try the latest Omegas, your drivers are pretty old. Omega's drivers work with my M9.

Maguan · May 30, 2006, 02:04 PM

I have the same problem. Only the problems with my laptop(travelmate 803 lci) are worser. When booting the laptop the screen is hardly readible and in windows I am almost not able to see the desktop.

If someone has a solution please help.

This is what I tried so far:

- Installed new drivers
- Reversed back to older drivers
- Tried unofficial drivers(Omega etc)

The solution proposed by Leanwolf didn't work out for me....

Any suggestions?

heli4fun · May 31, 2006, 08:54 PM

Maguan, I too have the 803 LCI and now my problems also have become worse. I've discovered a way to minimize this problem, but its pretty silly, I bought this laptop partly because of the fast graphics (to play games of course!). Anyway, if you turn of all accelerated graphics it works pretty well with applications not needing this.
I use the latest Omega drivers.

To bad the warranty of my comp has elapsed..

Maguan · Jun 1, 2006, 09:40 AM

I found a partial solution for the problem.

The problems started when I installed the omega drivers. When I reinstalled them suddenly the screen is back to normal. Next I reinstalled the original driver from the acer website. But after a while the problems returned. So this morning I installed the Omega drivers again. I am now testing for how long I can work with this driver. Hopefully the problems are over now.

By the way, the warranty of my computer has also ended

Ananas · Oct 8, 2006, 10:07 AM

How did this work out for you guys?

I had the same problems and could temporitly fix it with a repair installation of windows.

See these pics:

http://static.flickr.com/89/26221745...22b1b4.jpg?v=0

later: (after repair install)

http://static.flickr.com/95/26221745...d5656d.jpg?v=0

even later (back to this)

http://static.flickr.com/89/26221745...22b1b4.jpg?v=0

However now the problems are back and the repair installation isn't working.

BartPE boots ups nicely with 1400x1050 and NO problems whatsoever.
Currently I'm running Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 beta - without any glitches.

Strange, isn't it?!

Randomness · Oct 10, 2006, 03:38 PM

Hello:

It is possible your Graphics chip is overheating. try cleaning your notebooks vents, and making sure the fans are running up to speed.

I am assuming you've already considered this, but a BIOS update may be in order to reolve the problem. I now some other manufactures (such as HP) that made laptops using the early 9000 GPUs also needed a video BIOS update, to correct some video playback issues.
However, any BIOS updating you do is strickly under your own risk.

Take care.

- Randomness

RaveneR · Oct 13, 2006, 06:39 PM

just in case i'll remind you guys

Quote:

Also, please be aware, the same rules ATI apply to their drivers apply to my drivers as well, so with a sad heart I must inform you that the Omega Drivers no longer support 92xx or lower cards, the drivers will install, but they may give you a BSOD upon boot or a black screen. If you have any of these cards that where "dumped", please use the Omega Drivers v3.8.252 or older, they can be found in the Archive section.

djk_alliance · Mar 1, 2007, 01:50 PM

Hi Heli4Fun,

I have the same problem you have/had. Tried to contact Acer but my travelmate 800 is already 3,5 years old. To me the thing is worthless right now and I hope somebody can tell me how to fix this! Any suggestion is welcome guys......

CZealot · Mar 6, 2007, 09:00 PM

I have exactly the same problem as described and shown on the pictures above.
I am not sure if why this is happening, but it started doing all that after 2 years of using an Acer 1672WLMi laptop with ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 64MB.
It all started roughly a month ago shortly after I brought my laptopt to an Acer service center to change Cooler Fans (because one of them stopped working). I was there looking how the guy did it and he just could not damage anything in there.
The problems started slowly, after several hours of continous playing (World of Warcraft), sometimes the screen messed up, you can see the result in my previous topic:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/mobility...ms-9700-a.html

Alt+Tab during that used to help, but once it didnt and it all transfered to Windows...
First driver reinstall resolved the issue, but it all happened soon after I launched the Game.
The second time driver reinstall didnt help...
For now I have installed a second Windows XP on it, disabled accelerations (as suggested on the forums) and somehow now my screen is divided in 4 equal rows, from which 1st and 3rd show everything well and 2nd and 4th are messed up. Pretty wierd...

Anyway, is there any possible solution to this ?

P.S. Can CPU malfunction or overheating cause this kind of things ?

May 27, 2006, 12:41 PM	#1
heli4fun DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Strange prob Mobility Radeon 9000 on Acer TravelMate 800 Hi, Recently I've been having strange graphics problem on my Acer Travelmate 800 with a Mobility Radeon 9000 (64mb). I have installed the drivers from acer for this notebook. Sometimes (random) the mouse pointer gets a vertical line next to it, and i see pink dots in some areas of the screen, the dots are not fixed, but seem to be related to what kind of graphics is displayed. For example, in firefox i never see the dots. In games and watching videos, the screen flickers (all over the screen). It could be a hardware problem, as if i reboot, i get the same flicker in BIOS. Altough, i get the feeling that the graphics cards gets into a "mode" causing the flicker. My fix to this is the following (has worked 2 times now):: If i open dxdiag and click on "Test Direct3d" the flicker, pink dots and funny mouse pointer disapperas . Strange ugh??

May 30, 2006, 01:16 AM	#3
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Skyrim Posts: 5,713 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	try the latest Omegas, your drivers are pretty old. Omega's drivers work with my M9. __________________

May 27, 2006, 12:56 PM	Thread Starter #2
heli4fun DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	The driver I'm using is: Catalyst 3.1 (as reported by RivaTuner)

May 30, 2006, 02:04 PM	#4
Maguan DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	I have the same problem. Only the problems with my laptop(travelmate 803 lci) are worser. When booting the laptop the screen is hardly readible and in windows I am almost not able to see the desktop. If someone has a solution please help. This is what I tried so far: - Installed new drivers - Reversed back to older drivers - Tried unofficial drivers(Omega etc) The solution proposed by Leanwolf didn't work out for me.... Any suggestions?

May 31, 2006, 08:54 PM	Thread Starter #5
heli4fun DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Maguan, I too have the 803 LCI and now my problems also have become worse. I've discovered a way to minimize this problem, but its pretty silly, I bought this laptop partly because of the fast graphics (to play games of course!). Anyway, if you turn of all accelerated graphics it works pretty well with applications not needing this. I use the latest Omega drivers. To bad the warranty of my comp has elapsed..

Jun 1, 2006, 09:40 AM	#6
Maguan DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	I found a partial solution for the problem. The problems started when I installed the omega drivers. When I reinstalled them suddenly the screen is back to normal. Next I reinstalled the original driver from the acer website. But after a while the problems returned. So this morning I installed the Omega drivers again. I am now testing for how long I can work with this driver. Hopefully the problems are over now. By the way, the warranty of my computer has also ended

Oct 8, 2006, 10:07 AM	#7
Ananas DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 46 Rep Power: 0	How did this work out for you guys? I had the same problems and could temporitly fix it with a repair installation of windows. See these pics: http://static.flickr.com/89/26221745...22b1b4.jpg?v=0 later: (after repair install) http://static.flickr.com/95/26221745...d5656d.jpg?v=0 even later (back to this) http://static.flickr.com/89/26221745...22b1b4.jpg?v=0 However now the problems are back and the repair installation isn't working. BartPE boots ups nicely with 1400x1050 and NO problems whatsoever. Currently I'm running Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10 beta - without any glitches. Strange, isn't it?!

Oct 10, 2006, 03:38 PM	#8
Randomness in a state of flux Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 366 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Hello: It is possible your Graphics chip is overheating. try cleaning your notebooks vents, and making sure the fans are running up to speed. I am assuming you've already considered this, but a BIOS update may be in order to reolve the problem. I now some other manufactures (such as HP) that made laptops using the early 9000 GPUs also needed a video BIOS update, to correct some video playback issues. However, any BIOS updating you do is strickly under your own risk. Take care. - Randomness

Mar 1, 2007, 01:50 PM	#10
djk_alliance DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Hi Heli4Fun, I have the same problem you have/had. Tried to contact Acer but my travelmate 800 is already 3,5 years old. To me the thing is worthless right now and I hope somebody can tell me how to fix this! Any suggestion is welcome guys......

Mar 6, 2007, 09:00 PM	#11
CZealot DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I have exactly the same problem as described and shown on the pictures above. I am not sure if why this is happening, but it started doing all that after 2 years of using an Acer 1672WLMi laptop with ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 64MB. It all started roughly a month ago shortly after I brought my laptopt to an Acer service center to change Cooler Fans (because one of them stopped working). I was there looking how the guy did it and he just could not damage anything in there. The problems started slowly, after several hours of continous playing (World of Warcraft), sometimes the screen messed up, you can see the result in my previous topic: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/mobility...ms-9700-a.html Alt+Tab during that used to help, but once it didnt and it all transfered to Windows... First driver reinstall resolved the issue, but it all happened soon after I launched the Game. The second time driver reinstall didnt help... For now I have installed a second Windows XP on it, disabled accelerations (as suggested on the forums) and somehow now my screen is divided in 4 equal rows, from which 1st and 3rd show everything well and 2nd and 4th are messed up. Pretty wierd... Anyway, is there any possible solution to this ? P.S. Can CPU malfunction or overheating cause this kind of things ?