MODTOOL - Sims 2 whacked my Radeon 9000

jolcott · Jun 6, 2006, 03:39 AM

My 11 year old daughter installed Sim 2 Open for Business on my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop running Windows XP with a Radeon Mobility 9000 adaptor. Ever since, the display has been somewhat messed up with horizontal lines composed of very small dots or commas forming faint rectangular patterns accross the screen. Sometimes there are bands of normal sharp, perfect display; these change while the cusor moves around (sometimes). Underneath the cursor is sometimes a faint square of similar-type distortion.

Sounds familiar?

To resolve this, I have attempted:

1) Uninstalling Sims 2
2) Windows System restore
3) Downloading the ATI Catalyst Set (including the Microsoft.net portion)
4) Running your Modtool which actually allows the installation to proceed (imagine that)

The installation seems to go fine. The laptop hangs on reboot, however. I guess the "testing" that the installation give notice of cycles through and then hangs after I login in Windows XP. I have a McAfee Privacy Service login which never loads at this point. When I reboot again, the display distortion is unchanged.

Throw out the laptop?

Looking forward to the benefit of your advice.

Thanks!

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jun 7, 2006, 01:48 AM

Don't throw it out, ship it to me !

!

Sounds to me like the graphics chip overheated...have you tried gaming on this machine previously?

You might consider trying a warranty (if its still under warranty)

jolcott · Jun 8, 2006, 07:54 PM

I will try calling up Dell on Saturday morning and give Bangalore a shot at replacing it...

MindlessOath · Jun 8, 2006, 08:13 PM

if its under warrantee then take it in. if you think mabe it was accedentaly dropped www.safeware.com
chances are they are going to replace the motherboard... you can try and find it cheap if ya know where to look - mabe ebay... and do the repair yourself (tho if your not experenced i wouldnt).

Jun 6, 2006, 03:39 AM	#1
jolcott DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	MODTOOL - Sims 2 whacked my Radeon 9000 My 11 year old daughter installed Sim 2 Open for Business on my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop running Windows XP with a Radeon Mobility 9000 adaptor. Ever since, the display has been somewhat messed up with horizontal lines composed of very small dots or commas forming faint rectangular patterns accross the screen. Sometimes there are bands of normal sharp, perfect display; these change while the cusor moves around (sometimes). Underneath the cursor is sometimes a faint square of similar-type distortion. Sounds familiar? To resolve this, I have attempted: 1) Uninstalling Sims 2 2) Windows System restore 3) Downloading the ATI Catalyst Set (including the Microsoft.net portion) 4) Running your Modtool which actually allows the installation to proceed (imagine that) The installation seems to go fine. The laptop hangs on reboot, however. I guess the "testing" that the installation give notice of cycles through and then hangs after I login in Windows XP. I have a McAfee Privacy Service login which never loads at this point. When I reboot again, the display distortion is unchanged. Throw out the laptop? Looking forward to the benefit of your advice. Thanks!

Jun 8, 2006, 08:13 PM	#4
MindlessOath DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 1,121 Rep Power: 0	if its under warrantee then take it in. if you think mabe it was accedentaly dropped www.safeware.com chances are they are going to replace the motherboard... you can try and find it cheap if ya know where to look - mabe ebay... and do the repair yourself (tho if your not experenced i wouldnt). __________________ ATI Radeon X800XT PE <---- LOOK UPDATED!! AMD Athlon 2Ghz, nforce2, 512mb ddr3500 LINKS U SHOULD KNOW!!!! DriverCleaner - use every time u install new drivers! ATI driver feedback - to report driver problems Tacticalcenter - my Gaming website and forums ATI 3rd party Optimized Driver Compairison

Jun 7, 2006, 01:48 AM	#2
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Don't throw it out, ship it to me ! ! Sounds to me like the graphics chip overheated...have you tried gaming on this machine previously? You might consider trying a warranty (if its still under warranty)

Jun 8, 2006, 07:54 PM	Thread Starter #3
jolcott DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I will try calling up Dell on Saturday morning and give Bangalore a shot at replacing it...