Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

[pjvitalogy]

Okay guys, I'm really hoping that my caps are bad and that's the only problem. I had an Epox 8RDA and almost all the caps were bad. That has been replaced with an Epox 8RDA3PRO. Almost the identical board with a lot of new stuff. I'm happy with it but the video card isn't doing so well. At least that seems to be the problem. Anyone know how I can save a screenshot in command and conquer generals? I'd be happy to post it. The best I can describe it is blank spots and checkerboarded. I sent the thing back about 8 months ago and they said nothing was wrong with it. Here are some pictures. It doesn't seem that any of the caps are bowing up at the top. And I can't even make out a name on them, just numbers. Maybe your trained eyes will see something I can't. Thanks.

Ian

P.S. Why are there blue pen marks on the caps?

[Neo2_000]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

You won't see any bulging caps on this graphics card because they are solid polymer caps - nothing to expand! Think they might be Sanyo Oscons from memory.

Tested one of these cards a few months back - the ESR of one cap was significantly different to it's mates, suggesting that it may be faulty. It was one of the three smaller ones clumped together at the bottom of the card - maybe the one closest to the chip?

However, for reasons unknown, the owner did not accept the offer of repair, so unfortunately there can be no closure to this story.

Best thing is to find someone with an ESR meter (TV repairman?) and ask him to test them for you.

Good luck.

[Fatal0E]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

Have you tried a new power supply? Alot of times when the caps on the board are shot it will damage the power supply and its possibly not giving you enough juice now.

[willawake]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

its common to see marker pen lines on top of caps on new hardware, it means that they have been tested prior to installing them on the board. what tests they run though are unknown....

can you reconfirm the timescale of the video card fail. was it working perfectly fine on the old board and then did not work on the new board? or was working great on the new board until after a few months when the problem started?

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

About 9 months ago I was having trouble with Morrowind. Out of nowhere the screen started to blur. Like it was being pulled in or across from one pixel. Very wierd. I wish I still had some screen shots. Anyway, I sent it back to newegg and they said nothing was wrong. I doubt they even checked it. It did normally take a little time for it to start doing it. I guess it could have been a heat issue but I really don't think so. I quit playing so much Morrowind, moving on to C&C Generals. I didn't have any problems on that. Then it went into storage for 6 months between Nov '04 and Apr '05. I couldn't wait to get it out to see how it would play LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth. No go. It froze up and that's when I found out that my old board was bad. I bought a new mobo and was still having problems with the video. I then formatted and reinstalled windows because I figured some of the problems were related to the new mobo and old hardware and I couldn't get things to work properly. After the reinstall, everything seemed to work again. My resolution would go higher than 800x600 and things looked good. Then I started playing C&C Generals at pretty high res. About 15 minutes into the game, when it actually started getting graphics intensive it started the checkerboard thing. I'll try to get a screenshot. ATITool is pretty bad too. It won't even get a full frame without artifacts. I'll try to get screenshots of that too. Thanks for your help so far.

Ian

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

Here's a couple things I just got from ATITool. I found the error message to be disturbing. But maybe that's a good thing. I do have all the latest drivers etc. I couldn't get it to save the image while the 3d window was running but that's when I got the error message. Thanks again.

Ian

[Fatal0E]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

I turn off vpu recover, caused me tons of problems, I also have problems with all the 5.x drivers, was using 4.12, trying 5.6 now to see if its better.
With 5.1-5.5 I would get horrible stuttering in some games and just lock ups in others.

[willawake]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

i am not convinced that this is a cap issue. it might be. find stable nforce2 agp drivers and catalysts before that conclusion can be reached.

artefacts or psychedelic effects if not a software issue are all about power and heat. basically heat problems would come from the heatsink not contacting the gpu properly in all areas. if it was working fine for a while at one point in 3d intensive games then i would disregard heat issues.

power issues can come from a psu which is either damaged by running a board with badcaps like FatalOE said, or the psu itself can actually have badcaps also thereby providing a degraded signal. those cards like to have a lot of power. Interesting but irrelevant about that card is that it has a floppy power connector instead of a molex like the 9800 pcb, cos it is based on the 9700 pcb. nice samsung bga ram also.

so like suggested try another psu

can you advise any other issue you are having with the setup. any crashes unrelated to gaming.

if you want to recap the card with known good caps then i would say that it would be useful to eliminate that possibility but i would do that last in case the recapping attempts leave you with a dead card. we have seen similar caps fail in the post by OldeCrowe and those are not oscons. there are two caps on the board which are not sitting flat. but this might be just bad installation.

[kc8adu]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

here is where a scope will pay for itself.look for hash on the psu and output of vrm on card.
look at the caps that are leaning in case they are blowing their bottoms out or got torn loose.

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

I'll try the psu next. I would much rather replace a $50 psu than spend that much recapping my card and take the chance that it comes back dead. That is very likely since I did use this thing overseas for a couple years. I even blew a couple fuses, forgetting to switch the 110v/220v button when going bewteen the voltages.

I'm not getting any other anomolies except a litt specking while watching quicktime movie previews. It only happens some days. ??

Thanks again,
Ian

[willawake]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

I even blew a couple fuses, forgetting to switch the 110v/220v button when going bewteen the voltages.

congratulations

anyway if you are gonna have to buy a new psu, KC8's advice is good as always, find someone with a scope.

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

millawake,

find stable nforce2 agp drivers and catalysts before...

This is an nforce3 mobo. The nforce drivers are unified right? There aren't specific ones for nforce/2/3 are there? Any recommendations on where to look for a scope? Thanks,

Ian

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

Well, I looked at the power supply. There didn't seem to be anything wrong really. Other than my soldering the fuse back into place. The caps looked great actually. Not a single buldge and nothing oozing from underneath. At least not that I could see. I wouldn't mind a new psu though. I do have a lot of stuff in this case. It's a 420w and it's probalby worn out anyway. I guess $30-$50 isn't too bad to possiblly fix a problem. And it would give me a better psu in the process anyway.

Ian

[pjvitalogy]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

I'm sending it in. We'll see if new caps fix the problem. Thanks for all the help.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Sapphire 9800 Pro 128MB having problems

Here's a couple things I just got from ATITool. I found the error message to be disturbing. But maybe that's a good thing. I do have all the latest drivers etc. I couldn't get it to save the image while the 3d window was running but that's when I got the error message. Thanks again.

Ian

Because the Radeon 9800 Pro video card is a Sapphire video card, it's likely because the GPU heatsink sucks!!!

It's likely overheating. It's likely that Sapphire is still using POS GPU heatsinks!!!

Sapphire apparently did use POS GPU heasinks in the past.