Dell 8300 Graphics Problems

[mowgli]

I have a Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card.
After 3 years it started to show artefacts and bars on the display that made it illegible.
Dell eventually replaced the card and it seemed OK.
Now after 7 months the replacement card is showing the same problems.
I know that others have had similar problems but this seems slightly different.
Although not technical I have done some research and added a Zalman cooler. That didn't work either. To summarise:
1. The problem is there most of the time but not always.
2. The bars and artefacts seem to 'overlay' the screen content.
3. The problem is there right from startup i.e. when the system is not hot.
4. Reseating the graphics card works for a while sometimes.
5. The artefacts flicker but will stabilse sometimes if I wiggle the wireless mouse receiver.
6. The problem is also present in the BIOS.
Any ideas???

[Fatman_13104]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mowgli

I have a Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card.
After 3 years it started to show artefacts and bars on the display that made it illegible.
Dell eventually replaced the card and it seemed OK.
Now after 7 months the replacement card is showing the same problems.
I know that others have had similar problems but this seems slightly different.
Although not technical I have done some research and added a Zalman cooler. That didn't work either. To summarise:
1. The problem is there most of the time but not always.
2. The bars and artefacts seem to 'overlay' the screen content.
3. The problem is there right from startup i.e. when the system is not hot.
4. Reseating the graphics card works for a while sometimes.
5. The artefacts flicker but will stabilse sometimes if I wiggle the wireless mouse receiver.
6. The problem is also present in the BIOS.
Any ideas???

I have the same problem. If I log out of XP and Log back in, the problem gets much better. I can trace the start of this problem to an Windows XP update (SP3), but there are so many Windows updates, who knows. Looks to me like a problem with SW initalization of the graphics HW.

[osprey4]

Hi, Fatman_13104:

Welcome to TechIMO.

Although this thread is a bit old, I'm wondering if you've tried a driver update for your card. Do you have the same Radeon 9800 Pro? Does your problem also occur before Windows loads, which would indicate to me a hardware problem.

[mowgli]

Quote:

Originally Posted by osprey4

Hi, Fatman_13104:

Welcome to TechIMO.

Although this thread is a bit old, I'm wondering if you've tried a driver update for your card. Do you have the same Radeon 9800 Pro? Does your problem also occur before Windows loads, which would indicate to me a hardware problem.