I think that my video card may have just died on me...

[Timstuff]

I have been using an HIS Radeon 19550SE +128MB Ram for my arcade cab PC, and tonight I think it decided to call it quits. It was working fine for a few hours, but then all of a sudden, I tried to boot up NullDC (which I had done multiple times earlier tonight with no incident), and NullDC only showed a white screen while the dreamcast boot sound played, and then nothing. I was then greeted by an error message from ATI, which basically said that the video card stopped listening to the computer, and had to be reset. It asked me to send an error report, which I did, and afterwards I decided to see if the problem was localized to NullDC-- and it wasn't. I tested several 3D games, and all of them gave me the exact same song and dance. 

So, is there even a slight possibility that ATI's tech support is going to help me, or that I can somehow get the card working again? Or should I just bite the bullet and accept that I own a broken graphics card which I barely ever used?

[ddrtist]

A much more likely scenario is that the driver needs to be re-installed. =)

Have you updated the drivers recently?  If so, try to do a driver rollback.

IF not, I definitely recommend getting the latest drivers.  I have always have good success with Omega Drivers for my ATI card.

[Timstuff]

I did update my drivers about a week ago... And last night, I installed the ATI Catalyst Suite. Perhaps that is the solution I need.

[ddrtist]

The CCC has a notorious reputation for ruining the WDM drivers.  For some reason, they just don't like eachother!  If you need the extra utilities that come with the CCC, definitely go with Omega Drivers.  They use the same shell on the software, but it is optimized heavily and I never had issues with them.  Their benchmarks have always shown they outperform ATI drivers in games, as well.

Hope that helps.

[Timstuff]

Well, uninstalled my drivers, and reinstalled the ones that came with my original disc for the Radeon. 3D acceleration works again, but I do miss some of the perks of the newer drivers. I will check out the Omega drivers as you suggested, since that sounds promising.

[TeutonicDarkness]

Well, uninstalled my drivers, and reinstalled the ones that came with my original disc for the Radeon. 3D acceleration works again, but I do miss some of the perks of the newer drivers. I will check out the Omega drivers as you suggested, since that sounds promising.

 This may or may not be related to your problem...however:

  I have an ATI 9200 All in One Wonder that would work fine
for a while then Mysteriously quit.
I got on clearance at Wallmart for about $80.
was just about to figure it was defective after a year
of in and out performance.


 Then I found out the problem.... The Microsoft drivers
from original XP instillation!

I would install the Ati drive Cd then WAllAH XP would replace
the Driver with the Microsoft approved drivers; which unfortunately
don't work for this card.

My solution was simple I used Nlite removed all Video drivers,
WFT, and made absolutely sure to remove any chance of
XP restoring any defunct drivers.


My card has been working fine now for over a year and a half.
maybe this will help to know?



*** Teutonic Darkness ***