Just Another 9800 Prob.

[gunslinger2787]

I have a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128mb), roughly 3 months old, and heres my prob:

About two weeks ago while playing Battlefield 2, out of nowhere my screen goes black, forcing me to restart. In the next few days I would get one of three problems:

1) As stated before my screen goes black, forcing me to restart.
2) My computer gets a choppy rearranged picture, and then the infamous "VPU Recover" pop up; restarting my computer and reseting my graphics card(just the resolution it seemed)
3) My computer just restarts, and when I log into windows I get a Windows Error Report blameing my ATI Graphics Driver; http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx?SGD=278d9d02-c59f-4de2-9679-720557e07b61&SID=802

The worst part is the fact that while at first it only seemed to happen while playing games, in the past few days it has happened just browsing the internet, or just leaving my computer sit while doing nothing. In fact, in the process of writing this, it happened so many times that I had to take out my Radeon 9800 and put in my old Nvidia Mx440. Anyways, about 3 days ago I e-mailed ATI about this, and heres where I stand:

Its not drivers because I have tried the newest one, old ones going back as far as Catalyst 5.6, and even Omega Drivers.
Its most likely not chipset drivers, BIOS updates, or motherboard drivers, because all of those are updated.
So pretty much its not software.

What Im stuck at is this:
I wanted opinion(s) on whether you think its BIOS settings problems, overheating problems, or any other suggestions. The problem I have with thinking its BIOS settings, is mainly that I have had this card as I stated earlier for 3 months+, where it has worked flawlessly. And I havent done anything latley like installing software, or changing hardware, that I think would cause such a change.
So in my opinion I think its a heating problem. But im not that smart when it comes to computers, which is why Im here. Also everytime the problem gets so bad to the point where I have to switch video cards, when I go to take the Radeon out, its burning hot. Are video cards normally this hot, hot enough to burn your fingers?, because this one certainly is. I really dont know how to conclude this, just wondering what your guys opinions are, and what you think my next step should be in fixing this annoying problem.

If you've managed to read all that, thanx for the effort. And if you have any suggestions or opinions, thank you even more.

[alexdhl]

I've got almost the exact same problem, but only when i play games. Works fine with a different graphic card (nvidia).
A normal graphic card can stand up to 120 degrees or something, so it should be really warm for it to be a heating problem..?
I've also tried different graphic card driveres without any luck. But i've had NO problems with steam games, for some wierd reason.
So if your graphic card is SOO hot, then probably its overheating.
Im still struggeling to find out what the heck is wrong with mine.. :p

[gunslinger2787]

Ok, thanx alexdhl. Saphalline?, I was really looking forward to your opinion on this one.

[ski]

If the entire card, and not just its heatsink, is hot enough to burn your fingers, and all other components in the computer(excl. heatsinks) are cool enough to touch, then it's probably defective. Video cards should not get that hot.

[saphalline]

I'm wondering what everyone is doing lately with their 9800's. The so-called infamous "VPU Recovery" error only pops up if you've been OC'ing the vid card. Maybe it's not you, maybe it's the OMEGA drivers or even the manufacturer of the vid card, but that "VPU Recovery" message is tied to a flag that ATI embedded into their 9700/9800 series. This flag was originally supposed to let ATI know if OC'ing was done so that they could deal accordingly with warranty concerns. The problem is that once this flag is set at the hardware level (it's sort of like a fuse that gets blown) then it's done for. There's no way to reset it. There's also no way that it should be affecting either the heat dissipation or the stability.

I've known lots of people who have used or are using 9800's flawlessly. I don't know what's wrong in your cases (maybe you got a VPU bad batch or defective cards or something OC'ed your cards without your knowledge) but this seems highly unusual. Have any of you been messing with the default clock speeds? Any BIOS flashing experiments? Anything at all that might have fiddled with the vid card in any way? The 9800's were indeed very hot VPU's - have any of you tried additional cooling?

I just don't know what's causing this outbreak of 9800 problems...

[gunslinger2787]

No I havent messed with any BIOS options or ever tried to fiddle with the video cards settings, I dont even know how to overclock a vid. card. But my next step was going to be sending it into ATI to get it repaired, and if you say the VPU works almost as a "flag", do you think my warranty might be void?

[saphalline]

do you think my warranty might be void?If you're getting that error, then yes, it's quite possible. You might have to explain to ATI that you don't know what happened, and if your 9800 was OC'ed then it was without your knowledge.

All you can do is hope at this point...

[gunslinger2787]

K thanx. One last thing. I dont know if your familiar with how ATI warranties work, but this is such a simple question that ATI's site doesnt even really answer it. Does the warranty apply to all ATI products?, I bought mine from new egg with no extended warranty. And ATI's site says that it has a 5 year warranty, which to me sounds almost too good to be true. 5 years is quite a warranty.

[saphalline]

The warranty stated by a company like ATI applies to their products in a retail package. OEM packages might have lesser warranties, all the way down to nothing. But of course in the case of vid cards, it makes a difference who made the card. ATI makes the VPU's and also makes entire vid cards, but they also let other companies like Sapphire and Gigabyte make vid cards using their VPU's. You have to go with whomever made your particular vid card. If it's truly an ATI vid card, it should have "ATI" silkscreened on the HSF unit (and the vid card itself will look rather bland ;) ).