I had a Radeon 9800 256 modded to XT with a Zalman ZM80C-HP custom cooler. It was working perfectly on Monday and I was playing games with it. Gave it to someone today and when he installed it and loaded up his computer, he found colored lines on a black background. This card has been used for a year and has been rock solid. Temperatures never went above 60 C either. His computer specs are fine and he is using a 480W PSU. Heck, he was running a nVidia 6800GT OC before. And yes, he used Driver Cleaner to uninstall the nVidia drivers. He tried reseating, cleaning the AGP slot, trying out different power connectors, increasing AGP voltage (with a different card first), to no avail. So WTF, why would this happen all of a sudden? My only solution right now is unflash, unmod, try it out, if not, RMA back to ATI. But problem is if it cant even boot up how can I unflash? Would I need a computer with integrated graphics and an AGP slot?
MtX Question... If it cant boot, then how is their lines on a background? Somethings fishy Does this system work with other cards? Did the system from which the card in question was removed still work (boot) with the card? More info please...
What I mean is, it boots, but you cant see anything because of all the lines, so basically you cant do anything. Apparently the system worked with a 6800 GT OC before he tried out the 9800. Also, he's currently using a FX5200. I am pretty sure his system was always working. He told me he cleaned the AGP port.
But cleaning the AGP port does not mean that it will work. This is what it's like: Here is a TV that the cable input jack (F type connector) doesn’t work. Let’s clean it. Goodie, I can see some of the picture! See, the connector is still not working, just like the AGP port is not working. It could be the controller or a line that the R9800 uses more then the nVidia cards do, but I still think it's the port.
Moved to tech support board. *errm* .. why don't you just put it back into the system it was running in flawlessly over that one year? If there're the same colored lines, you'd know for sure that it's the card. I doubt it would be the AGP-port, a year ago a 3DLabs VP760 died on me the same way (colored lines and boxes).
I think it should be the card, not mainboard I doubt your PC can even boot if the AGP slot is damaged.
