Flickering in Dark Ages of Camelot with 9700

BriK · Sep 16, 2006, 02:10 AM

I have xp home edition sp2, pentium 3.2ghz, 1gb ram, ati mobility radeon 9700 agp 256mb with the ati 6.8 drivers (just updated recently, after the problem was occuring)...

I had whatever ati driver was current in january 2005...everything worked fine for well over a year with my laptop...sudenly after being in game a short time (sometimes it starts within a few seconds sometiems I can go 1hour) the screen begins to flicker...sometiems this flickering is just anoying and at other times I cant see anything and need to reboot to clear it...just droping out of game once the flickering begins and my windows desktop has kind of like dashes throughout...

I cant be sure what caused this as I didnt play for several weeks one time and during that time I did many things to my pc...I updated windows from sp1 to sp2, I installed a number of programs like microsft visual studio 2005 and a number of others...I updated the video drivers to catalist 6.7 i think...and after all this the flickering problem began...at first it wasnt to bad, just anoying...but now the display regularly is unviewable and i need to reboot...also, during the time since the problem started i was infected with a nasty trojan
which i cleaned up...during cleaning up the trojan I was forced to disable system restore as it kept reinstalling itself from there...so, i cant go back...

I have tried everythign i can think of to fix this...i uninstalled the ati drivers and used driver cleaner, then reinstalled...I updated directx to 9c...I removed some panels on the bottom of the laptop and cleaned the laptop using dry air from a high pressure compressor (not canned air)...i did a memory check from cdrom...i tried different dark ages of camalot clients...noting worked or lead me to a conclusion...

I have heard on these boards that installing sp2 can cause chipset drivers to be overwritten...is this true? I wonder if it is because after my upgrade to sp2 I had one program that would not work as it thought it was a different pc, I had to contact the programs maker and reinitialize the program...If true (sp2 overwrites drivers), how do I correct this? Also, what drivers does this mean....the motherboard drivers...the ati chip drivers...what?

Any other ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

BriK · Sep 16, 2006, 01:59 PM

Well, I tried the latest omega drivers after uninstalling the ati driver and control center...i also used driver cleaner then installeld omega...problem still exists...

Something i noticed to is the laptop makes a high pitched sound...the pitch actually changes and fluctuates with this screen flickering problem...

Any ideas what to try next?

BriK · Sep 16, 2006, 02:05 PM

...odd...sometimes it clears up all of a sudden...i was just sitting here working on desktop and laptop was flickering and suddenly screen cleared up on its own on the laptop...still hearing the high pitch sound changing though...

...and i noticed that while its flickering i can see vaugly see a kind of test pattern amongst all the jumble...its got the letters of the alphabet and a few other ascii characters...

BriK · Sep 16, 2006, 05:33 PM

Hrmm...now i bebooted again...and i dont hear the high pitched whine...i go into game and its been running fine for a few hours now...and still no high pitched whine...

Loose connection or chip(s)?
Fan going bad?

Sep 16, 2006, 02:10 AM	#1
BriK DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Flickering in Dark Ages of Camelot with 9700 I have xp home edition sp2, pentium 3.2ghz, 1gb ram, ati mobility radeon 9700 agp 256mb with the ati 6.8 drivers (just updated recently, after the problem was occuring)... I had whatever ati driver was current in january 2005...everything worked fine for well over a year with my laptop...sudenly after being in game a short time (sometimes it starts within a few seconds sometiems I can go 1hour) the screen begins to flicker...sometiems this flickering is just anoying and at other times I cant see anything and need to reboot to clear it...just droping out of game once the flickering begins and my windows desktop has kind of like dashes throughout... I cant be sure what caused this as I didnt play for several weeks one time and during that time I did many things to my pc...I updated windows from sp1 to sp2, I installed a number of programs like microsft visual studio 2005 and a number of others...I updated the video drivers to catalist 6.7 i think...and after all this the flickering problem began...at first it wasnt to bad, just anoying...but now the display regularly is unviewable and i need to reboot...also, during the time since the problem started i was infected with a nasty trojan which i cleaned up...during cleaning up the trojan I was forced to disable system restore as it kept reinstalling itself from there...so, i cant go back... I have tried everythign i can think of to fix this...i uninstalled the ati drivers and used driver cleaner, then reinstalled...I updated directx to 9c...I removed some panels on the bottom of the laptop and cleaned the laptop using dry air from a high pressure compressor (not canned air)...i did a memory check from cdrom...i tried different dark ages of camalot clients...noting worked or lead me to a conclusion... I have heard on these boards that installing sp2 can cause chipset drivers to be overwritten...is this true? I wonder if it is because after my upgrade to sp2 I had one program that would not work as it thought it was a different pc, I had to contact the programs maker and reinitialize the program...If true (sp2 overwrites drivers), how do I correct this? Also, what drivers does this mean....the motherboard drivers...the ati chip drivers...what? Any other ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Sep 16, 2006, 02:05 PM	Thread Starter #3
BriK DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	...odd...sometimes it clears up all of a sudden...i was just sitting here working on desktop and laptop was flickering and suddenly screen cleared up on its own on the laptop...still hearing the high pitch sound changing though... ...and i noticed that while its flickering i can see vaugly see a kind of test pattern amongst all the jumble...its got the letters of the alphabet and a few other ascii characters... Last edited by BriK; Sep 16, 2006 at 02:09 PM. Reason: Added comment

Sep 16, 2006, 01:59 PM	Thread Starter #2
BriK DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Well, I tried the latest omega drivers after uninstalling the ati driver and control center...i also used driver cleaner then installeld omega...problem still exists... Something i noticed to is the laptop makes a high pitched sound...the pitch actually changes and fluctuates with this screen flickering problem... Any ideas what to try next?

Sep 16, 2006, 05:33 PM	Thread Starter #4
BriK DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Hrmm...now i bebooted again...and i dont hear the high pitched whine...i go into game and its been running fine for a few hours now...and still no high pitched whine... Loose connection or chip(s)? Fan going bad?