9250 AGP graphics processor stops?

clarkMO · Sep 5, 2006, 12:56 AM

Hello,
Yeah I just registered a few minutes ago but I promised I spent a few hours looking on this forum(countless hours on others) before I decided to ask my question

I bought an ATI Radeon 9250, 128MB, AGP. Upgrade from my old 64MB ATI all-in-wonder, which worked fine. I used the ATI software removal tool, uninstalled all ATI software from add/remove programs, and uninstalled the device through the device manager before I took out the old card. Then, I put in the new card and used the Catalyst 6.5 driver, which is not the most recent Catalyst, but is the most recently recommended for the 9250 series cards. I also tried the version of the driver contained on the included driver CD, and I tried a driver from omegadrivers.net(which was the best of ones I tried until I ran in to the same problem).
Problem is: Screen freezes, then goes blank. sometimes the smart recovery restarts the graphis processor and it comes back, sometimes not.

Computer keeps running(I can get audio response and type in instant message windows). Alternately, the screen may get garbled but still be responsive. Some type of memory corruption?

I tried turning off AGP fast write while I had Catalyst installed, and it looks like the omegadriver version had it turned off by default. I don't know what else to try, any suggestions?

FIC AD11 mobo, 512MB crucial DDR, AMD 1400+, no other video cards or onboard video, just the ATI 9250 radeon 128MB AGP card, a network card, and a firewire card. I also have two hard drives, a CD burner, and a pioneer DVD reader, but I can't imagine those are causing conflicts. I'm running the 2.0 .NET framework, and think my DirectX is up to date.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

clarkMO · Sep 5, 2006, 01:02 AM

I don't think this has to do with the problem, but I figured I should include: I'm running a single display at 1920x1200 resolution(the old card handled it fine) 60Hz refresh rate. It looks like the omega driver recognizes the card as a 9200 PRO, but like I said, I had ATI 9250 drivers on there and got the same problem.

Edit: Hmm. And i'm running XP SP2

Partizan · Sep 5, 2006, 07:39 AM

Have you tried uninstalling all ATI related software with Driver Cleaner under safe mode?

Can you try your card in a friends computer?

I really think it's a GPU or memory related problem. Most probably overheating. If you can underclock the card does it show the same symptoms? (Use ATI Tool or ATI Tray Tools for it).

Tipstaff · Sep 5, 2006, 08:53 AM

This may, or may not help you out, but you may want to try uninstalling SmartGART completely. ATI has a little tool called "SmartGART Uninstaller" (direct linking from Omegas site). Over the years this I've found that this either helps you, or doesn't. In almost all cases this issue seems to be related to SmartGARTs handling of graphics calls, and as well related to it's recovery of failures.

However, I've also found that in some cases it has to do with the monitor driver. Double check that Windows isn't set to use the "Default Monitor" driver. You, at the very least, want it to be "Plug and Play Monitor", or using the proper driver for your monitor. This is important as Windows needs to know what your monitor is capable of, so that it doesn't go out of sync. This is another possible reason for the display to go black, yet everything seems to be ok.

In any case, give the uninstaller a try. If it doesn't work you can always install it again simply by reinstalling the drivers.

clarkMO · Sep 6, 2006, 06:29 AM

I think i've tried all different ways of uninstalling and re-installing different drivers and making sure files are removed, etc. I'll try in safe-mode too but I'm pretty confident that everything was wiped out with the ATI removal utility.

I am a bit skeptical of heat problems because the 9250 has a fan on it, and my case is wide open right now since i'm messing with it. But I agree, it does seem like some type of memory corruption and most definately a GPU problem since the ATI utility restarts the GPU to fix it(when it can).

It has been recognizing my Dell 2405W screen correctly so I don't think that is the problem.
I put the card in another computer now, but I haven't had too much opertunity to play with it there. That machine only has 128MB RAM so its kind of a pain to mess with. I just use it for routing so I don't like re-booting it unless i'm not using the internet(haha, which is never).
Thanks for the suggestions!

MindlessOath · Sep 6, 2006, 08:46 PM

this could be as easy as a bios setting. try messing with agp arpature size in the motherboard bios.

other than that, make sure the card is installed correctly and do a full restore of your system (meaning delete everything, you should have backups right?).

clarkMO · Sep 10, 2006, 12:15 AM

I'm skeptical of needing to change the aperture size as well, since this card is barely different than my previous card. I have thought about re-formatting (assuming that is what you mean my "system restore") but it is a pain to get everything installed the way I want it, not to mention probably having to spend a while on the phone with Microsoft convincing them that I have a legal copy of XP pro. Do-able, but probably not worth it for the extra 64 MB of memory that this card offers. I've also thought about putting the latest Vista beta on, but I've been playing world of warcraft lately and I don't really want to disrupt that by fine tuning Vista enough for it to be workable. Hmm. Maybe I should empty a hard drive and just put Vista on that, then I can switch to my other HD if Vista goes south.

I'll try changing the aperture size for fun sometime. Lately, I have been running the card in a Dell 1.4Ghz with 128MB RAM(really bottlenecks it) and it has been doing very well, but then again I haven't been able to do anything more taxing than play DivX movies on it due to its memory shortage. I had a little bit of trouble at first because it defaulted the sync for PAL format (i have it hooked up to my TV and didn't want to drag it to a computer monitor) but I just VNC'd to it and changed the video format, and it worked!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I admire those of you with enough patience to sit here and endlessly reply to the cries for help from the technically inept

Have a good one!

versapak · Sep 25, 2006, 11:47 PM

I imagine you already got it working, or gave up trying to get it working by now, but just in case...

I was having the exact same problem, and it turned out to be an issue with my motherboard bios.

I have an ECS K7VZA motherboard, and it had bios version 3.6a. I had to downgrade the bios to version 3.4, but it fixed the problem. The card now works flawlessly.

Robert McClelland · Sep 26, 2006, 01:37 AM

You sure it's not your PSU? whats your psu?

versapak · Sep 26, 2006, 03:31 AM

PSU = power supply?

If so, it definitely wasn't the problem for me. I have an Antec 430 watt power supply that isn't really being stressed.

It was a problem with the 256MB of ram on the video card. It was an issue specifically fixed in the bios I downgraded to, and I'm not sure how it ended up being broke again in later revisions, but the problem has gone away completely with the downgrade.

[EDIT]

I just re-read the original post, and I guess my problem isn't the same. I had the exact same symptoms, but mine is the 256MB, and the problem was directly related to that, which I guess wouldn't be the case had it been the 128MB version that is mentioned in the original post.

So I dunno...

I guess since the symptoms are the same, you might want to look into your motherboard's bios anyway. It could be yours may need an upgrade.

Robert McClelland · Sep 26, 2006, 05:18 AM

Or maybe you need new mother board? sounds your system kinda old? I know that older AMD AGP slots doesn't like ati cards I know because I had amd 2000+ that had 8500 card and crash the system couple years back so maybe it could be bad AGP slot it self.

Dyre Straits · Sep 26, 2006, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clarkMO

Hello,
Yeah I just registered a few minutes ago but I promised I spent a few hours looking on this forum(countless hours on others) before I decided to ask my question

I bought an ATI Radeon 9250, 128MB, AGP. Upgrade from my old 64MB ATI all-in-wonder, which worked fine. I used the ATI software removal tool, uninstalled all ATI software from add/remove programs, and uninstalled the device through the device manager before I took out the old card. Then, I put in the new card and used the Catalyst 6.5 driver, which is not the most recent Catalyst, but is the most recently recommended for the 9250 series cards. I also tried the version of the driver contained on the included driver CD, and I tried a driver from omegadrivers.net(which was the best of ones I tried until I ran in to the same problem).
Problem is: Screen freezes, then goes blank. sometimes the smart recovery restarts the graphis processor and it comes back, sometimes not.

Computer keeps running(I can get audio response and type in instant message windows). Alternately, the screen may get garbled but still be responsive. Some type of memory corruption?

I tried turning off AGP fast write while I had Catalyst installed, and it looks like the omegadriver version had it turned off by default. I don't know what else to try, any suggestions?

FIC AD11 mobo, 512MB crucial DDR, AMD 1400+, no other video cards or onboard video, just the ATI 9250 radeon 128MB AGP card, a network card, and a firewire card. I also have two hard drives, a CD burner, and a pioneer DVD reader, but I can't imagine those are causing conflicts. I'm running the 2.0 .NET framework, and think my DirectX is up to date.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

As soon as I researched that motherboard and saw an ATI card in a VIA-based system, I went, Ohhh...nooooo!

Quite honestly, if you can manage to get a non-VIA-based motherboard you'll be way ahead and get more use out of your system rather than trying to always fix it. In all of my personal experience with this combination, it's always resulted in my returning the motherboard for a refund/exchange.

Tipstaff · Sep 26, 2006, 06:39 AM

Something of interest here is that most modded drivers tend to disable fastwrites, and this is usually a big NONO on VIA mobos, in particular if you are running an ATI 9250 or 9600XT AGP video card. If this setting is off then try turning it back on within the ATI Control Panel. As well, another bastard of a program is VPU Recovery. Sometimes just turning that thing off will correct the issue, however sometimes just turning it off will keep your PC from blanking out long enough that you will notice an error. This is essentially the same principal as turning off Windows automatic reboot when an error occurs. This way you may find that there is an actual error occuring, or that the game is infact crashing... graphically, anyways, and then you'd be better able to figure out a solution.

jula182 · Sep 26, 2006, 07:45 AM

I'm using the same graphic card like you and I have the same problem......now i'm using the Omega 6.5 driver and it's running well.....

clarkMO · Oct 5, 2006, 01:08 AM

All good suggestions, I myself have not quite found a solution. I put my old all in wonder card back in and am using the newer 9250 in a different machine with no problems(an olde Dell Dimension FYI). It probably isn't worth it to try to make it work with this VIA mobo from FIC, and definately not worth upgrading the mobo, on this old of a system anyway ;-) I'll build a new system sometime and this one can serve mp3s on my home network.

Sep 5, 2006, 12:56 AM	#1
clarkMO DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	9250 AGP graphics processor stops? Hello, Yeah I just registered a few minutes ago but I promised I spent a few hours looking on this forum(countless hours on others) before I decided to ask my question I bought an ATI Radeon 9250, 128MB, AGP. Upgrade from my old 64MB ATI all-in-wonder, which worked fine. I used the ATI software removal tool, uninstalled all ATI software from add/remove programs, and uninstalled the device through the device manager before I took out the old card. Then, I put in the new card and used the Catalyst 6.5 driver, which is not the most recent Catalyst, but is the most recently recommended for the 9250 series cards. I also tried the version of the driver contained on the included driver CD, and I tried a driver from omegadrivers.net(which was the best of ones I tried until I ran in to the same problem). Problem is: Screen freezes, then goes blank. sometimes the smart recovery restarts the graphis processor and it comes back, sometimes not. Computer keeps running(I can get audio response and type in instant message windows). Alternately, the screen may get garbled but still be responsive. Some type of memory corruption? I tried turning off AGP fast write while I had Catalyst installed, and it looks like the omegadriver version had it turned off by default. I don't know what else to try, any suggestions? FIC AD11 mobo, 512MB crucial DDR, AMD 1400+, no other video cards or onboard video, just the ATI 9250 radeon 128MB AGP card, a network card, and a firewire card. I also have two hard drives, a CD burner, and a pioneer DVD reader, but I can't imagine those are causing conflicts. I'm running the 2.0 .NET framework, and think my DirectX is up to date. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

Sep 5, 2006, 07:39 AM	#3
Partizan Fun loving criminal Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Slovenia Posts: 1,182 Rep Power: 60 System Specs	Have you tried uninstalling all ATI related software with Driver Cleaner under safe mode? Can you try your card in a friends computer? I really think it's a GPU or memory related problem. Most probably overheating. If you can underclock the card does it show the same symptoms? (Use ATI Tool or ATI Tray Tools for it). __________________ Live and let live!

Sep 5, 2006, 08:53 AM	#4
Tipstaff HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Torauna Posts: 6,658 Rep Power: 187 System Specs	This may, or may not help you out, but you may want to try uninstalling SmartGART completely. ATI has a little tool called "SmartGART Uninstaller" (direct linking from Omegas site). Over the years this I've found that this either helps you, or doesn't. In almost all cases this issue seems to be related to SmartGARTs handling of graphics calls, and as well related to it's recovery of failures. However, I've also found that in some cases it has to do with the monitor driver. Double check that Windows isn't set to use the "Default Monitor" driver. You, at the very least, want it to be "Plug and Play Monitor", or using the proper driver for your monitor. This is important as Windows needs to know what your monitor is capable of, so that it doesn't go out of sync. This is another possible reason for the display to go black, yet everything seems to be ok. In any case, give the uninstaller a try. If it doesn't work you can always install it again simply by reinstalling the drivers. __________________ Portal: The Flash Version _________________________________ Brain: So, you sacked the cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker? Mr. Sackett: The second cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker I've sacked since the sixth sitting sheet slitter got sick.

Sep 6, 2006, 08:46 PM	#6
MindlessOath DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 1,121 Rep Power: 0	this could be as easy as a bios setting. try messing with agp arpature size in the motherboard bios. other than that, make sure the card is installed correctly and do a full restore of your system (meaning delete everything, you should have backups right?). __________________ 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

Sep 26, 2006, 01:37 AM	#9
Robert McClelland PAX Tweaker, PAX Expert. Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Somewhere in Wood County Ohio Same Town :) Posts: 10,238 Rep Power: 193 System Specs	You sure it's not your PSU? whats your psu? __________________ "XTREME AUDIO IS CRAP!" "There no support for it. It's crapist card on face of the earth it should be throw into the sun" http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2242746

Sep 5, 2006, 01:02 AM	Thread Starter #2
clarkMO DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	I don't think this has to do with the problem, but I figured I should include: I'm running a single display at 1920x1200 resolution(the old card handled it fine) 60Hz refresh rate. It looks like the omega driver recognizes the card as a 9200 PRO, but like I said, I had ATI 9250 drivers on there and got the same problem. Edit: Hmm. And i'm running XP SP2

Sep 6, 2006, 06:29 AM	Thread Starter #5
clarkMO DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	I think i've tried all different ways of uninstalling and re-installing different drivers and making sure files are removed, etc. I'll try in safe-mode too but I'm pretty confident that everything was wiped out with the ATI removal utility. I am a bit skeptical of heat problems because the 9250 has a fan on it, and my case is wide open right now since i'm messing with it. But I agree, it does seem like some type of memory corruption and most definately a GPU problem since the ATI utility restarts the GPU to fix it(when it can). It has been recognizing my Dell 2405W screen correctly so I don't think that is the problem. I put the card in another computer now, but I haven't had too much opertunity to play with it there. That machine only has 128MB RAM so its kind of a pain to mess with. I just use it for routing so I don't like re-booting it unless i'm not using the internet(haha, which is never). Thanks for the suggestions!

Sep 10, 2006, 12:15 AM	Thread Starter #7
clarkMO DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	I'm skeptical of needing to change the aperture size as well, since this card is barely different than my previous card. I have thought about re-formatting (assuming that is what you mean my "system restore") but it is a pain to get everything installed the way I want it, not to mention probably having to spend a while on the phone with Microsoft convincing them that I have a legal copy of XP pro. Do-able, but probably not worth it for the extra 64 MB of memory that this card offers. I've also thought about putting the latest Vista beta on, but I've been playing world of warcraft lately and I don't really want to disrupt that by fine tuning Vista enough for it to be workable. Hmm. Maybe I should empty a hard drive and just put Vista on that, then I can switch to my other HD if Vista goes south. I'll try changing the aperture size for fun sometime. Lately, I have been running the card in a Dell 1.4Ghz with 128MB RAM(really bottlenecks it) and it has been doing very well, but then again I haven't been able to do anything more taxing than play DivX movies on it due to its memory shortage. I had a little bit of trouble at first because it defaulted the sync for PAL format (i have it hooked up to my TV and didn't want to drag it to a computer monitor) but I just VNC'd to it and changed the video format, and it worked! Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I admire those of you with enough patience to sit here and endlessly reply to the cries for help from the technically inept Have a good one!

Sep 25, 2006, 11:47 PM	#8
versapak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I imagine you already got it working, or gave up trying to get it working by now, but just in case... I was having the exact same problem, and it turned out to be an issue with my motherboard bios. I have an ECS K7VZA motherboard, and it had bios version 3.6a. I had to downgrade the bios to version 3.4, but it fixed the problem. The card now works flawlessly.

Sep 26, 2006, 03:31 AM	#10
versapak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	PSU = power supply? If so, it definitely wasn't the problem for me. I have an Antec 430 watt power supply that isn't really being stressed. It was a problem with the 256MB of ram on the video card. It was an issue specifically fixed in the bios I downgraded to, and I'm not sure how it ended up being broke again in later revisions, but the problem has gone away completely with the downgrade. [EDIT] I just re-read the original post, and I guess my problem isn't the same. I had the exact same symptoms, but mine is the 256MB, and the problem was directly related to that, which I guess wouldn't be the case had it been the 128MB version that is mentioned in the original post. So I dunno... I guess since the symptoms are the same, you might want to look into your motherboard's bios anyway. It could be yours may need an upgrade. Last edited by versapak; Sep 26, 2006 at 03:37 AM.

Sep 26, 2006, 05:18 AM	#11
Robert McClelland PAX Tweaker, PAX Expert. Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Somewhere in Wood County Ohio Same Town :) Posts: 10,238 Rep Power: 193 System Specs	Or maybe you need new mother board? sounds your system kinda old? I know that older AMD AGP slots doesn't like ati cards I know because I had amd 2000+ that had 8500 card and crash the system couple years back so maybe it could be bad AGP slot it self. __________________ "XTREME AUDIO IS CRAP!" "There no support for it. It's crapist card on face of the earth it should be throw into the sun" http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2242746

Sep 26, 2006, 06:39 AM	#13
Tipstaff HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Torauna Posts: 6,658 Rep Power: 187 System Specs	Something of interest here is that most modded drivers tend to disable fastwrites, and this is usually a big NONO on VIA mobos, in particular if you are running an ATI 9250 or 9600XT AGP video card. If this setting is off then try turning it back on within the ATI Control Panel. As well, another bastard of a program is VPU Recovery. Sometimes just turning that thing off will correct the issue, however sometimes just turning it off will keep your PC from blanking out long enough that you will notice an error. This is essentially the same principal as turning off Windows automatic reboot when an error occurs. This way you may find that there is an actual error occuring, or that the game is infact crashing... graphically, anyways, and then you'd be better able to figure out a solution. __________________ Portal: The Flash Version _________________________________ Brain: So, you sacked the cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker? Mr. Sackett: The second cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker I've sacked since the sixth sitting sheet slitter got sick.

Sep 26, 2006, 07:45 AM	#14
jula182 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Malaysia Posts: 9 Rep Power: 0	I'm using the same graphic card like you and I have the same problem......now i'm using the Omega 6.5 driver and it's running well.....

Oct 5, 2006, 01:08 AM	Thread Starter #15
clarkMO DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	All good suggestions, I myself have not quite found a solution. I put my old all in wonder card back in and am using the newer 9250 in a different machine with no problems(an olde Dell Dimension FYI). It probably isn't worth it to try to make it work with this VIA mobo from FIC, and definately not worth upgrading the mobo, on this old of a system anyway ;-) I'll build a new system sometime and this one can serve mp3s on my home network.