Dreaded 'checkerboard'/flashing/corrupted text problems with Radeon 9000...(pics)

void_pelican

hi, i've been having some problems with my ATI radeon mobility 9000 for a while. i would post in the mobile forum but it seems to get significantly less trafic than this one, hopefully you will all forgive me.

the situation:

i have a compaq presario x1000 laptop that's about a year and a half old now, with a radeon mobility "9200". without going into too much detail about shady practices at compaq/hp, it has since been determined that this gpu is actually a rebadged mobility 9000. i don't think it matters too much, though. the other specs are: centrino 1.3 ghz, 512 mb ram, standard notebook 40gb hdd, etc.

the problem:

certain games i've tried to play, i've noticed, have some interesting graphical corruption problems. with my limited techy vocabulary and unfamiliarity with the 'standard types' of graphical problems, the best way to describe them would be that trying to play some games results in occasional 'checkerboard' patterns on textures, weird corruption of text and menus, and 'tearing' sometimes (i think this is what these problems are called). the problem seems to be confined to textures as the games are still playable and i can see everything alright, it's just pretty irritating. the problems aren't severe to the point where they make the games unplayable but they certainly games i've noticed these problems in specifically have been prince of persia: the warrior within, and knights of the old republic II. so, newer games, but ones which i am still able to play with otherwise acceptable performance. the other thing i am fairly sure of is both these games make use of opengl. KOTOR II does at least, which is what i'm currently concerned with.

i'm sure that description wasn't easy to visualize so take a look at these pics i have taken from KOTOR II. they're not that big, i promise.



notice the messed up looking text and repeating triangle/checkerboard pattern on the right. this is MUCH more visible ingame because it constantly jumps around.


this is from a cutscene. obviously those weirdly colored triangular doodads on the hull aren't supposed to be there. once again ingame these artifacts are constantly jumping around and flashing, its really irritating.


this is ingame. some more artifacts, although due to the coloring they aren't especially visible. you can see them around the circular bulkhead thingies. once again, lots of flashing and jumping around of textures.

needless to say, this significantly decreases my enjoyment of KOTOR II. as many bugs as that game has, though, this is not one of them - i've not heard of any one else having this problem specific to that game, plus i've seen similar things in other games, and i think other people have described this issue before.

ISSUES I'VE CONSIDERED/SOLUTIONS I'VE TRIED:

i was unaware until recently that third parties had modded the ATI catalyst drivers which as most of you know are not compatible with radeon mobility gpus 'out of the box' so to speak. of course compaq has never updated, even once, their drivers on their website, so screw them. anyways, i had been running an ancient driver i'm sure, but in the last few days and updated to the latest omegas after running drivercleaner and laying waste to any ATI related file on my hdd/in my reg, fiddled around, no changes. downgraded to the specific cats/omegas (4.6) that MY FRIEND AT OBSIDIAN WHO WORKED ON THIS SILLY GAME recommended (and the game was QA'ed on), no changes. i read that it might be a heat issue - i underclocked the gpu by 50 mhz on both core and memory, made sure there were open airways around the vents, and that the internal heatsink fan wasn't clogged with dust. no changes. i am now of the mind that ati drivers still have a problematic opengl implementation, even now.

MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL:

i'm sure this issue has been discussed before at one time or another. can anybody point me to other possible threads where solutions might have been discussed. do you have any idea what this specific issue may be and how to solve it? i'm pretty sure it's a driver problem, but i've had no luck with the drivers i've tried so far. i'm also 99% sure it is not a game issue because nobody in the obsidian entertainment forums have described this problem - there are bugs, but not anything like this. it's pretty obvious its some sort of driver/hardware problem anyways. my friend at obsidian assures me that yes, i should be able to play the game no problem with my hardware.

please help! this is really irritating! and i spent like 30 minutes taking screens/writing this thread! heh. thanks.

wiskerbizkit

That looks like memory overheating. If it was core their would be blocks or dots. also i've even had some probs with KOTOR on my 9800pro making funky triangles and its the only game that does it and my card has a VGA silencer and ramsinks. now it only does it on certain drivers for me. how many driver sets have you tried? and they have only just recently started fixing KOTOR probs

Vikingod

I would say try a few different drivers sets, make sure to use the drivercleaner. It does look like a memory problem though. You should try other games too, if you look around, tons of people are having problems with KOTOR, try both a DX and OGL game.

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