X1800XT Display corruption

RonanH · 10 May 2006 at 16:44

I have a minor problem with my new PowerColor X1800XT 512 (this one). On bootup the screen gets all corrupted between the WindowsXP loading screen and the XP logon screen. The screen goes generally white (some black bars) with multi-coloured snow all over it for a few seconds. I'm wondering if anyone knows what it might be, I'm concerned it might damage my crt...

I have a P4 3.4Ghz prescott, Abit AA8 3rd-eye mobo (ver 25 bios) 925X chipset, 1.5Gb Ram, and a 19" Samsung CRT. Latest Catlayst drivers installed. This only started happening after I installed the new card. There are no other problems with it, it's great.

Any help/opinions appreciated.

Ronan

Darkwave · 10 May 2006 at 16:49

It won't damage your monitor, but I would RMA (return) the card and have it tested. Sounds dodgy.

If it turns out to be faulty, get a Sapphire X1800XT 256MB instead.

LoadsaMoney · 10 May 2006 at 16:54

Are you using the Cat 6.4's, if so its normal as everyone gets that corrupted screen with the 6.4's, its nothing to worry about.

Welcome to the forums btw.

RonanH · 10 May 2006 at 16:54

The card seems fine other than that minor corruption on bootup. Runs Oblivion like a train. No (unusual) graphic problems in it. I don't want to RMA it unless I really have to, would leave me without a pc for 2 weeks (at least). I got a (very poor english) reply from powercolor saying that it was ok, but I'm not so sure.

Why get a 256Mb card over the 512 one I have? And my last card was a Sapphire X700Pro, never liked it much...

Ronan

Darkwave · 10 May 2006 at 16:54

LoadsaMoney said:
Are you using the CAT 6.4's, if so its normal as everyone gets that corrupted screen with the 6.4's, its nothing to worry about.

Welcome to the forums btw.

I don't.

I would be crapping myself if my screen was going all snowey.

RonanH said:
Why get a 256Mb card over the 512 one I have?

Because benchmarks show that 99% of games out there don't benefit from 512MB of video memory, and it's much cheaper.

*Is a Scrooge and proud.*

LoadsaMoney · 10 May 2006 at 16:55

Exsomnis said:
I don't. I would be crapping myself if my screen was going all snowey.

It doesn't now, nor does mine now as we are using the Chuck patch.

I was getting it to when i installed the 6.4's, as i think everyone does, but if you install the chuck patch for Oblivion, then thats an older display driver so you don't get the corrupted screen.

RonanH · 10 May 2006 at 16:56

Everyone gets the corruption? Hehe, must be fine so

Cheers, just made my day (how sad is that??)

Ronan

Darkwave · 10 May 2006 at 16:56

LoadsaMoney said:
It doesn't now, nor does mine now as we are using the Chuck patch.

Ah right!

So if I was using Cat 6.4 on their own it would be snowey? :eek:

LoadsaMoney · 10 May 2006 at 16:57

Exsomnis said:
Ah right! So if I was using Cat 6.4 on their own it would be snowey?

Yes probably, its just a corrupted screen that flashes on for about 2-3 seconds before the welcome to windows screen., happens only with the Cat 6.4's.

RonanH · 10 May 2006 at 17:01

Cool! I thought the chuck patch only applied to the 6.3 cats. Thought it wasn't necessary with 6.4... Will install it as soon as I get home. Hope it clears it all up.

Thanks for all the help

Ronan

Darkwave · 10 May 2006 at 17:06

LoadsaMoney said:
Yes probably, its just a corrupted screen that flashes on for about 2-3 seconds before the welcome to windows screen., happens only with the Cat 6.4's.

Ah right.

*Wipes sweat from brow.* :eek:

I'd listen to LoadsaMoney, RonanH. If he says it's nothing to worry about then it's probably not.

LoadsaMoney · 10 May 2006 at 17:29

RonanH said:
Cool! I thought the chuck patch only applied to the 6.3 cats. Thought it wasn't necessary with 6.4... Will install it as soon as I get home. Hope it clears it all up.

Thanks for all the help

Ronan

No you can use the chuck patch with the 6.4's as well, its only a patch for Oblivion so you can use HDR+AA at the same time, and get a bit of a performance boost, you just install your Cat drivers, then download the chuck patch, and install it over the top, if using the 6.4's it will go to install and keep saying that the file it is going to overwrite is newer, but you just keep saying yes still overwrite, then you can play Oblivion in HDR+AA goodness, and not get the corrupted screen at startup either.

RonanH · 10 May 2006 at 17:32

Thanks

Excellent! Will get rid of the corruption AND improve Oblivion. They just keep giving don't they

...

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.

LoadsaMoney · 10 May 2006 at 17:45

No probs, the corruption is probably something like this in this thread here , as thats the corruption screen he gets just before the windows logon screen on the Cat 6.4's.

RonanH · 11 May 2006 at 08:43

Fixed it!

That sorted it out. Installed the chuck patch and the corruption disappeared

One minor niggle, I now have two "unknown devices" in my device manager. I think it is my graphics card due to the overwriting of the new drivers with the old patch. Doesn't seem to make any difference to the system though. The card is still installed correctly under displays. Probably be all sorted out in the 6.5 cats.... I'm an eternal optimist

Ronan

Darkwave · 11 May 2006 at 10:24

Try installing the WDM Unified Driver, that should get rid of those unknown devices. On my X1800XT they're a Rage Theatre chip and something else.

LoadsaMoney · 11 May 2006 at 11:48

Funny you should say that about the 2x devices in device manager, i have those 2x as well unknown, and they are not the WDM drivers, as ive installed those again, and i still get the 2x unknowns, now funny thing is when i had everything installed on my old motherboard, and i installed the chuck patch, i had everything, i didnt have 2x unknowns in device manager at all, but since ive got a new board and did a fresh install, ive got them appearing, and i can't for the life of me think what it was that ive missed for them, as ive obviously had whatever they are on my old install on my old board.

TALON1973 · 11 May 2006 at 12:08

LoadsaMoney said:
It doesn't now, nor does mine now as we are using the Chuck patch.

I was getting it to when i installed the 6.4's, as i think everyone does, but if you install the chuck patch for Oblivion, then thats an older display driver so you don't get the corrupted screen.

sorry ive been living in the trees for the last decade :rolleyes:

what's the "chuck" patch and what does it do.

just bought a x1800 xt 256 mb sapphire card and having problems will try anything to fix it

LoadsaMoney · 11 May 2006 at 12:18

TALON1973 said:
sorry ive been living in the trees for the last decade

what's the "chuck" patch and what does it do.

just bought a x1800 xt 256 mb sapphire card and having problems will try anything to fix it

The chuck patch is for Oblivion, it allows you to use HDR+AA at the same time, and it also boosts performance a bit, you install your cats, and just install the chuck patch over the top, while installing if it says that the the driver your installing is older than the one you have, just tell it to overwrite anyway (you get a few of them popping up), and away you go, only says its older on the 6.4's as the chuck patch came out after the 6.3's, but before the 6.4's.

Just stick 'chuck' in the advanced search box, top left of here and it pos up.

Minstadave · 12 May 2006 at 23:39

Sorry to revive a thread, but does anyone else get corruption of the DFI BIOS Screen (the big lanparty one) with their x1800xt. After battling away getting my waterblock on the card, I powered up for the first time to see a corrupted LanParty logo and unleashed a torrent of obsenities, only to find that once past that screen everything is fine, just played BF2 for a couple of hours quite happily. :confused:

I've never had the card on air so I don't know if this is normal.