Problem with ATI Radeon 9800XT

[BobXFett]

Hi all,

I recently built my first PC (I'd been running a laptop for the past few years), and while I'm happy with the system, I'm having a bit of a problem after 'updating' the video drivers for my ATI Radeon 9800XT =(

I have the following hardware:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard
256MB Asus ATI Radeon 9800XT
512MB Corsair RAM
160GB Western Digital HDD
Samsung DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive
21" Samsung Syncmaster 1100DF monitor

I updated to the latest version of the video drivers for my video card from the ASUS website, and every time I would boot up, the monitor would lose the graphics signal for around 10 seconds before displaying the Windows XP log on screen. I found that rather annoying, so I uninstalled the drivers and put the old ones back in.

My friend suggested I try the updated frivers from the ATI site instead of the ASUS site, and I did that, which resulted in the same loss of signal upon boot up. I uninstalled the ATI drivers and once again put in the ASUS drivers which came with my video card, and now I have a noticable problem in my games:

Any time I run a game at 1280x1024 resolution (which is my preferred resolution), the screen has subtle curvey lines all over it, and the width of the screen doesn't take full advantage of the monitor's display area.
I believe this to be a refresh rate problem, but I'm not sure why the monitor would use a lower refresh rate in games when it runs that resolution fine in Windows.

I don't seem to have this problem with any other resolution in games, only 1280x1024 (it's just my luck that that is the ONE resolution I want to run in most of them). I'm running Windows XP Pro at 1280x1024 at 85Hz refresh rate and have no problems within Windows, but in all games that have a 1280x1024 option, I get the curvey lines all over the screen and the width of the screen image is 'scrunched' in on both sides.

The only thing I can figure is maybe some file from the updated drivers is still in the system and is causing a problem with my older driver set, aside from that I don't know what it could be.

Does anybody have any ideas on what is wrong, and more importantly, how to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[agcheavin]

It looks to me that you havn't installed the latest .inf file for your motherboard, this can be found at the ASUS site alongside your MoBo model in the downloads area. ie: find and click on your Mobo model, then click the downloads button and you will find it there.

If that doesn't fix it, D/L Driver Cleaner 2.6 to clean out your old drivers, the uninstall never really works, then delete the ATI directory, re-boot, ignore the found new hardware if it appears, an re-install. But it sounds like the .inf file to me.

....................
<font color=red>AMD 2700 XP<font color=red>
<font color=red>PC 9600XT<font color=red>
<font color=blue>ASUS A7N8X deluxe<font color=blue>
<font color=blue>1024 meg DC DDR 3200<font color=blue>
....................

 

[lightswitch]

Like the other guy was saying, chipset drivers.

Uninstall your card completely, run driver cleaner, and physically take it out perhaps.

Install the latest chipset drivers for your agp slot. These are easy to install, when I did mine it was as simple as just running an exe I downloaded - nothin fancy.

To find out where you need to go to get your chipset drivers, I think there is a link somewhere on the ATI or Sapphire page....same instructions I had printed out for me when I got my 9800 pro. I'm sure somebody else will pipe in andtell ya how to determine which ones you need, if you dont know already.

Then reinstall the card, and hopefully that will make it all better.

 

[agcheavin]

Here's the link, http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4C800-E Deluxe

and this is the file your after: Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility V5.02.1003.

That should fix it....

Gary

....................
<font color=red>AMD 2700 XP<font color=red>
<font color=red>PC 9600XT<font color=red>
<font color=blue>ASUS A7N8X deluxe<font color=blue>
<font color=blue>1024 meg DC DDR 3200<font color=blue>
....................

 

[BobXFett]

Thank you all three for your quick responses. I'm downloading the updated file right now and I'll try installing it after work. One more quick question: Do you think I should try installing my video card with the updated drivers from the site or with my original drivers from the CD after I update the motherboard file? Do you think the loss of video signal problem I had with the updated drivers was also a symptom of the outdated motherboard files?

 

[agcheavin]

Let us know how you went on.

....................
<font color=red>AMD 2700 XP<font color=red>
<font color=red>PC 9600XT<font color=red>
<font color=blue>ASUS A7N8X deluxe<font color=blue>
<font color=blue>1024 meg DC DDR 3200<font color=blue>
....................

 

[BobXFett]

Well, I did just like you said; I uninstalled the ATI software (from control panel), then I removed my video card from device manager and restarted the computer, then I cancelled the found new hardware wizard on reboot. I ran driver cleaner and rebooted again, and then I installed the updated .inf files for my motherboard (from the link I was given). After rebooting again, I installed the video card from the CD that came with it, set my resolution/color depth and rebooted again. Just ran the Wolfenstein demo I have installed and I still have the graphical problem at 1280x1024 resolution =(

Any other ideas? This is really beginning to bug me.

 

[Wolfy]

i havent a clue what is causing yur prob but if it is a refresh rate problem try the little program called reforce rate which enforces correct refresh rates for each res as quite often games default to 60hz when u run them despite the desktop being set to 85hz. be warned that some games dont like it eg battlefield 1942 wont run with reforce rate on.

"Its only when you look at ants closely with a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames"