***video Card Issue***

[Puter Padowan]

Here I am again....hello all :D

My brother gave me his ATI Radeon 9800XT. After seeing it work on his computer, I couldn't believe how great the games he played looked compared to my pc.

He bought himself a new card, I installed it for him and it's working great. He gave me is Radeon ATI 9800XT card with all drivers and everything. I go to install it on my pc and for the first few days, it works great. I was very happy with the way things looked and played.

Suddenly, yesterday I turn on my pc and when I get to the desktop...all the icons look wierd. It's like they were outlined with a border of broken lines. Then when I go to play any game...now the screen looks like it was craked. Except of course it's not the monitor. The video display looks cracked. I have a huge triangular black hole in the center of any game I play.

The icons on my desktop don't even look like icons anymore. They are all distorted...I get this crazy lines going across my monitor and the graphics are just all messed up.

This looks like it might be a hardware failure with the video card...but I have no idea if it would possibly be anything else. I don't get any error messages and in the device manager, it says the Video card "is working properly" so I'm just a bit confused.

I KNOW the card is compatible with my system because I read the requirements and I am well over them. I described the problem the best I could...would anybody have the slightest idea what I might be able to do to correct the problem...IF I even can?

Thanks again everyone in advance for your help.

[saphalline]

It could be a few things. It's unlikely to be a driver issue, because the problems arose a few days after it worked. So it's probably heat, the onboard RAM is going bad, or it's not getting enough power.

Power issues usually result in lack of stability, so it's less likely to be that. Heat can also result in lack of stability, but it can result in image distortion as well. Bad onboard RAM is the most feared problem. This would mean getting the vid card replaced under warranty and waiting for a new one. This is a real PITA!! :mad: But if it's still under warranty, and it's not overheating, it's probably the best solution.