[Hidden_Agenda]

Afternoon all!

I'm trying to get to the bottom of a problem my computer has developed in the last week. Upon starting up the Windows loading screen is garbled and this then inconsistently persists through to my desktop and then sometimes windows that are then opened. Any games that have previously worked no longer get past initial loading screens if that.

My graphics card is a Radeon 9700Pro (128MB) and I initially thought there may be a problem with its drivers. I installed the latest drivers (with apparently successful installation) until I had to to restart the computer this has then caused (on several attempts) either the monitor to lose its signal or an error message to appear stating that the frequency was out of range (0Hz).

Since then I have tried to revert to older drivers, attempted to restore the computer to earlier settings, attempted to update directx, have tried using a different monitor, have switched the memory with that from a faultless PC and have reinstalled Windows with no positive effect.

Is it likely that the graphics card itself has a problem, or is there another possibility? Thanks in advance for any help.


My specs are as follows:
(Taken from Everest)

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
DirectX 4.08.01.0810 (DirectX 8.1)

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 2800 MHz (21 x 133)
Motherboard Name Dell Dimension 4550
Motherboard Chipset Intel Brookdale i845PE
System Memory 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Phoenix (01/27/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter RADEON 9700 PRO - Secondary (128 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON 9700 PRO (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (R300)
Monitor Dell M782p [17" CRT] (1M97833KL0QQ)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! Series Audio Processor

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel® 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive WDC WD600BB-75CAA0 (55 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A (DVD:4x/2.4x/12x, CD:16x/10x/40x DVD+RW)
Optical Drive SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T (16x/48x DVD-ROM)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 57168 MB (16899 MB free)

Input:
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Optical (IntelliPoint)

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I have a radeon 9600 ...

I would recommend checking the actualt monitor cable and the pins in it, sometimes these issues happen if one is bent. Also what did you have your refresh rate set at? if it was to high you could have damaged your monitor...

#1 Check the pins on the able.
#2 Check the cards connection to the motherboard, if agp take it out and put it back in, if pci, possibly try and switch to another pci slot to see if it fixes anything.
#3 download an alternate set of drivers that work better than atis especially if you game http://omegadrivers.net/ati.php

I used to play halo and css a ton and the omega drivers control thins differently and are mucher nicer on the looks and performance... see if they possibly work.


#4 it sounds like you may have downloaded the wrong drivers, if possible damaged your card.

[AitrusSkyy]

I have a radeon 9600 ...

I would recommend checking the actualt monitor cable and the pins in it, sometimes these issues happen if one is bent. Also what did you have your refresh rate set at? if it was to high you could have damaged your monitor...

#1 Check the pins on the able.
#2 Check the cards connection to the motherboard, if agp take it out and put it back in, if pci, possibly try and switch to another pci slot to see if it fixes anything.
#3 download an alternate set of drivers that work better than atis especially if you game http://omegadrivers.net/ati.php

I used to play halo and css a ton and the omega drivers control thins differently and are mucher nicer on the looks and performance... see if they possibly work.


#4 it sounds like you may have downloaded the wrong drivers, if possible damaged your card.

[Hidden_Agenda]

Thanks for the advice, so far there hasn't been a change though. I am about to delve into my computer once more and fiddle with the card (it is AGP btw) so just wanted to say thanks in case something goes horrribly wrong...

Edit: OK, have finished pottering about inside, making sure everything was clean and properly fitted. No change to the problems. I also have tried installing the Omega Radeon drivers to find no change. In the same way as the ati supplied drivers, as soon as the computer restarts after installation, the monitor loses all signal.

Going through display properties, the installed drivers are displayed:

ATI Technologies Inc. (Omega 3.8.252.0.0)

But there doesn't seem to be any change to the problem, and this doesn't help to expalin why the monitor loses signal after each 'attempted' installation of a new driver set.

EditEdit: After trying to run a game, an error message stating that it had failed to find any DirectX 9.0c adapters on the system. I know that this game has previously displayed that message when my drivers were out of date in the past, but DirectX up-to-date. However, updating my drivers is no longer working (assuming that all my installations and fialed restarts are actually successful driver installations!)

Edited by Hidden_Agenda, 14 August 2006 - 04:22 PM.