[ThunderT]

I just assembled a new system for my dad for Christmas. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Clawhammer core)
MSI K8MM-V
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
SB Live! Value
Western Digital 160GB PATA
Lite-On DVD-RW
Mad Dog MultiMedia DVD-ROM
Aspire 420W PSU (+3.3v/28A, +5v/40A,+12v/18A,-12v/1.0A,-5v/1.0A,+5SB/3.0A)

I loaded Windows without issue, but after installing the video card drivers, I have discovered problems with 3D applications. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the motherboard and video card drivers several times, including downloading them again from the internet. 2D video works fine.

In Flight Simulator 2004, the game will start, but after about 5 seconds, the screen freezes and then goes blank and I get "No Video Signal" on the monitor. In 3DMark2001, both the benchmark and the demo freeze and then go blank after a few seconds of running. I tried an ATI demo as well, and it freezes after a few seconds on occasion. I thought perhaps it was a video overheating issue, so I removed the side panel, but the screen still freezes and then goes blank.

The AGP aperture size is currently set at 128 MB in the BIOS setup. FastWrite is diabled, and I know it is not supported by this video card. It is running in 8x AGP mode. The video card is used from my machine at my house, but it never faltered since I got it over a year ago. Also, there is never any prblem with the 2D video.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or help with what to do. The most obvious choice is to go out and get a video card from a place with a liberal return policy and try to see if that fixes the problem. Does anybody recognize these symptoms?

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Just curious, but do you have SP2 installed on the machine or no?

Fenor

[Fenor]

Just curious, but do you have SP2 installed on the machine or no?

Fenor

[ThunderT]

Yes, the installation came with SP2.

I managed to eliminate the problem by changing the AGP bus to 4x instead of 8x. Despite that both the card and the motherboard support 8x and it was all automatically configured for full 8x operation, as soon as I changed the AGP Bus to 4x, all of the video problems disappeared.

I got the idea from ATI's website despite that the problem/solution was listed for the ATI Radeon 9600 and a different motherboard.

[Fenor]

Glad that solved it but seems kind of silly that you are going to put up with a slower graphical speed to solve your problem. If you want to mess around and see if you can't get it to work with AGP 8x setting, then I suggest that you first update your motherboards BIOS, then go and change the AGP Aperature size in the BIOS, 64MB is a good size, but if you have alot of memory like 1GB+, then change it to 128MB.

Fenor

[ThunderT]

The AGP aperture size was 128MB in the BIOS setup when I first got into it. I left it at that setting. Since there is 1GB of RAM, it seemed like a fine setting. I told my Dad about flashing the BIOS to correct the AGP Bus problem, but he really doesn't do enough graphically intensive stuff to warrant messing with it. Anyway, he's in Toronto, and I'm back in the U.S.A., so I'm just relieved it all works now. If it was my computer, I would definitely do more to get the most out of the system, but he just wants a rock solid computer for a bunch of years, and I think we're set up with that now.

Thanks a lot for the advice!