Radeon 9550 Issue(s)

[Guest]

Background Story:

So about a month ago while I was playing a game (Asda Story), we had a power out. Turning the computer back on after that, there was no video. So taking it out and trying it in another computer, there was still no video. It was a Nvidia FX 5200 128mb agp which had served me for at least 5 years. Figuring it was fried, I tossed it and replaced it with an ancient SiS 305 16mb agp just so I could browse for a new card.

As far as I could tell, nothing else was fried and was working as it did with the nvidia 5200 (5200's are not Win98 friendly). Having a few minor issues, I decided that I would go with ATI this time since i had success with a rage pro 32mb agp before the 5200. After much research I decided on getting the ATI Radeon 9550 256mb agp. Ordered it from CompUSA and waited for it to arrive which was about a week. Upon arrival, I took the SiS 305 out and plugged the ATI 9550 in and this is where it all started...

Within minutes of putting the drivers in from the CD, a BSOD appeared. Not really worried at first and figuring it was just a video driver conflict or somewhere related, I put the XP CD in and formatted the drive. When windows finished its thing, I went to click on the Start Menu to start setting up and another BSOD appeared. A month later of changing settings, drivers, and browsing forums, its still the same...

The Problem(s):

1. Even though at this current point in time I have everything put on and set up, its still no better than it was in the last month. Whether it sits idly over night or doing intensive work, with or without drivers, I am randomly getting BSOD's which result in (In order of most common)-
*0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x0BF80558D, 0xF7957734, 0x00000000)
*0x00000050 (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA)
*0x0000000A (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)
*0x0000007F
*0x0000007E
*0x000000D1 (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)
*0xC0000021 (Something about a windows subsystem)
*?x???????? (and my favorite one, a blue screen with no text on it)

2. As if BSOD's 15-20 times a day isn't bad enough, I also cannot run sound drivers. Currently deactivated in device manager, the moment i try to run sound, it crashes with a windows crash dialogue. Things i have noticed-

*Sound through browsers (IE and Firefox) will crash within 3-5 minutes
*Winamp will crash within 0-2 minutes
*Windows Media Player will crash within 60-120 minutes
*Siren Jukebox will crash within 180+ minutes
*The Creative Gameport has no relation to this problem

3. Even with the sound disabled, programs will still occasionally crash, just not as much, as well as installers. Typically with the larger installers such as Adobe 8.10 Pro or Lunia (940mb game).

1. After reading around forums for a month and reading other peoples problems, there are some things don't happen-
*The screen does not flicker
* The video never just shuts down forcing a restart/unplugging the power
*During a windows (2000, XP, Vista) fresh install, I have no problems
*Running diagnostic tools (Hard Drive tests, memtest), I have no problems
*Games crash to desktop anywhere from 5-180+ minutes

Things I have tried:

1. As if this post isn't long enough, this is where it really gets extensive. After flogging this thing for a month, there are many things I have tried so i'll try to remember everything...

1a: Hardware-
*Placing the SiS 16mb back in solves all problems
*Using Creative 512PCI, 128PCI, Ensonqe, Live! 5.1 crashes
(Only have creative cards around)
*Memtest86 on 13 passes revealed nothing wrong with the RAM
(Replaced ALL RAM chips with known good)
*Maxblast passed (Basic, advanced, Low-level format)
*SeaTools passed (All tests)
*Switched powersupplies (incase mine was dying)
(Dynex 450W for a 350W lying around)
*Dual powersupplies (Maybe the card wasn't getting enough power)
(450W Powering the board/PCI cards/Video card)
(350W Powering 2 Hard Drives/1 floppy/2 CD ROMS/3 fans)

*Changed Data Cables (It was an idea...)
*Temperatures are ok (At idle: Board=30C CPU= 53C)
*Changing PCI slots for the PCI cards

2a: BIOS Settings-
*Several different BIOS (1009, 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013 Beta)
*Enable/Disable AGP fastwrite
*Changing AGP Aperature to every value (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256)
*Manually setting IRQ's (NOTHING was shared when I was done)
*Changing AGP Speed (1x, 2x, 4x was tried)
*Combinations of the above
*Flashing the 9550 Bios (ATI 9600Pro/XT, ASUS 9550/9600)
(The ATI 9600Pro results in less BSOD's)

3a: Software-
*No Drivers
*Microsoft Drivers (From windows update)
*Catalysts Drivers 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x (with and without the CCC)
*Omega Drivers 3.x, 4.x
*ASUS Latest Drivers (When I flashed to the ASUS BIOS)
*Latest Board/AGP Drivers from ASUS/ALI
*Enable/Disabling write combining
*Trying every notch on the hardware accelerator
*Playing with different hertz (60, 75, 85, 120)
*Changing Monitor drivers (Default, PlugNPlay)
*Running Standard Computer instead of ACPI (IRQ Manual change)
*Using windows debugger on mini/kernal dumps
(ntoskrnl.exe, vga.sys, win32k.sys appears commonly)
*Installing ALL updates from windows update
*Disabling the NIC Drivers (Heard that wifi can cause issues)
**Note: (Used Driver Cleaner after all uninstalls)
**Note: (Tried safe mode/vga mode on some installs)

Things I've Been Thinking:

1. If it is faulty hardware (Video Card/Processor/Board), then wouldn't I get random restarts/BSOD's during the windows install and hard drive/memory scans?

2. Trashing this card and going with a Nvidia...

Current System Specs:

MotherBoard: ASUS A7A133
Processor: x86 Family 6 Model 4 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~1141 Mhz
HDD1(C:\): Maxtor 4D040H2 (40GB)
HDD2(D:\): ST330630A (30GB) (Currently Unformatted)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series (Flashed to 9600Pro)
Sound Card: Creative SB Live! Series (Disabled)
Ethernet: NETGEAR 108 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter WG311T
CD-ROM: SONY CD-ROM CDU5221
Floppy: 3 1/2 Inch Floppy Drive
Keyboard: Standard 101/102-Key
Mouse: PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Dynex 450W Power Supply
OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 Build 2600
BIOS: Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7A133 ACPI BIOS Revision 1013 Beta
Total Physical Memory: 1,024.00 MB (SDRAM)
Total Virtual Memory: 2.00 GB

For those of you who want Minidumps/system info:
http://www.freewebs.com/mluckenbill/ (incase lower links don't work)
http://www.freewebs.com/mluckenbill/Minidump.zip
http://www.freewebs.com/mluckenbill/system%20info.txt

With all that said, hopefully someone out there can help me with this issue.

 

[jitpublisher]

Perhaps you have unluckly received a bad 9550?
That would be my first guess if you have no problems when you put the SIS card back in.

 

[GhislainG]

When you had the PCI video card, what issues did you have? Was sound working properly? If so, then your new AGP video card might be defective or the motherboard probably developped an issue when using an AGP card. Can you try another AGP card? In my area you can find them used for very little money.

 

[Guest]

Although I didn't mention it, I have tried 2 AGP and 1 PCI video card. Those were as follows:

* SiS 305 16mb AGP-works
* Nvidia Geforce 4200 128mb AGP-works (not mine)
* SiS 305 32mb PCI-works

 

[4745454b]

Any chance you just have a bad 9550?

You said creative software, do you have a sound blaster? I've heard of them having issues with some video cards, perhaps the 9550 is one of them? I've also heard of them causing issues when plugged into certain PCI slots. Try using the soundcard (assuming you are using a Creative soundcard) in each PCI slot. (put all the IRQ assignments in the bios back to auto.)

Honestly is sounds as if you've tried everything. Perhaps returning this card and trying a different one would be best.

 

[GhislainG]

If other AGP cards that you tested work fine and your 9550 doesn't, then it's either defective or more likely incompatible with your motherboard. Check the AGP voltage specs for both your motherboard and the video card to ensure that they are compatible.

 

[Guest]

According to http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html#universal15vagp30card as well as the box that it came in ("Intel Pentium 4/III/II/Celeron, AMD K6/Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP or compatible with AGP 4x (1.5v), 8X (0.8v) or universal AGP 3.0 bus (4x/8x))", the Radeon 9550 supports 1.5V and 0.8V signaling. As for the board, the ASUS A7A133 has a 2.0 AGP slot which should support the 1.5v signaling on 4x. As a side note, my Nvidia 5200 was also a 4x/8x card.

Speaking of this, apparently some people had success with it working by increasing the voltage to the card to 1.6v or 1.7v. I would of tried this, but I can't find any setting to do it. All that is in the BIOS is the CPU Core Voltage which is set at 1.75 by default.

 

[GhislainG]

You have very few settings that can be changed. That motherboard only supports 1.5V. AGP Capability should be set to [4X Mode]. Have you tried changing AGP Fast Write (it probably wouldn't help)? Are PCI slots 1 and 2 free?

 

[Guest]

By default Fast Write is disabled on this board, though i did try enabling it at one point in time and I have tried running 1x, 2x, and 4x (This board doesn't support 8x). As for the PCI Slots, I don't think I ever had slots 1 AND 2 empty. Currently my SB Live! card is on PCI 5 (which is not shared since onboard sound is disabled in the BIOS and this particular Board revision doesn't even have onboard sound) and my NIC card is on PCI 2. Reading through other posts, someone said AGP and PCI 1 are shared with PCI 5 being "Reserved" for sound cards. I set up according to this, but the ASUS manual says that AGP/PCI 1/PCI 2 are all shared. Although I did try manually setting IRQ's and device manager says there are no conflicts, I guess i'm moving the NIC card to PCI 3...

Getting back to what 4745454b, in all this time i've only come across 1 thread that stated that only a SB Live! card may cause problems. Even if it was a Sound Blaster in general problem, the creative Ensonqe should have worked since even though its creative, it's not classified as Sound Blaster. Aside from those listed in the first post, all I have are old ISA cards which this board doesn't support.

Yet another BSOD has appeared in the time of my last post till now. This time it was a:
*0x000000D1 (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)

Running windows debugger this appeared which is probably the most useful of all the minidumps thus far:

STACK_COMMAND: kb

SYMBOL_NAME: ANALYSIS_INCONCLUSIVE

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: Unknown_Module

IMAGE_NAME: Unknown_Image

 

[GhislainG]

I still believe that your video card is either defective or incompatible. Can you get a different one? Does it really have to be a 9550 or a 9600?

 

[Guest]

Of course I can get another one. In fact I was probably going to get the evga Nvidia 6200 256mb though the 64-bit memory bandwidth will kill gaming (my old 5200 was a evga so i know its a decent brand). Having an older board combined with an average PSU, I tried to find the best and most affordable card that "should" of worked with my current system. Originally, I thought about a Nvidia 6600GT but wasn't sure if my system could handle it.

With that said, any suggestions on a different card within these specifications:

*Under $50
*Preferably Nvidia/evga brand (I know nothing of other brands)
*AGP 2.0/4x compatible
*256mb with 128-bit memory bandwidth
*An upgrade from a Nvidia FX5200 128mb with 128-bit memory bandwidth
**Note: MY 450W PSU currently runs dual 12V rails totaling 29A

I saw a SPARKLE 5200 256mb/128bit that's reasonably priced but as stated before, I don't know if there a reliable brand. Read a thread about how there PSU's are fairly good but nothing on Video cards.

 

[GhislainG]

That Taiwan based Sparkle company doesn't make PSUs - FSP makes Sparkle PSUs. Newegg sell quite a few Sparkle video cards and a good selection of other AGP cards.