Hey guys!!

I think I've FINALLY got the solution for us all. (or at least a bunch of us). I got SO frustrated with my ATI radeon 9600 that I finally returned the damn thing and picked up an Nvidia 5700, and lo and behold, I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM STILL!

Exact same problem as described: I would play a game for 5 mins to 60 mins and at some point or another it would freeze in a sound loop and I would have to reboot the machine.

Since the video swap didn't work, I decided to start swapping every peripheral 1 by 1 to see the results. First off, I disabled my sound card, didn't do anything. Secondly, to make sure it wasn't overheating, I grabbed Motherboard Monitor 5 ( a nice program that monitors temperatures, fan speeds, etc etc)... it said nothing out of the ordinary. Just to make absolutely sure it wasn't video related, I dropped all my video settings to the lowest they could go and the problem occurred AGAIN.

Finally, I swapped out my RAM (this was AFTER I did a RAM test and it came back with no errors). I replaced my Kingston 512 stick of RAM for a 512 stick of Micron RAM...

I have been playing my game for the last 3 hours without a crash!!! I asked some other people, and apparently, this is a major issue with "Kingston" brand RAM. My specs are as follows:

Gigabyte Motherboard GA-7VT600-P-L with a VIA chipset on it
AMD BARTON 2800
512 Megs of PC3200 KINGSTON RAM <---- cause of my stress
Nvidia Geforce FX 5700
Other misc stuff that doesn't matter.

TRY swapping the RAM. See what happens. If you DO have kingston, I would put money on it that this will fix your problem.

Good luck!

-Adam C

just because that solved your problem with your 5700 doesnt mean its gonna fix the problem with the 9600 Pro.

Read again there Jack. The problem exists with the Geforce 5700 too. I offered a possible solution for everyone. Instead of complaining, maybe you should check your RAM too.

-Adam C

Jack, i know its not very secure to fidle around with the BIOS, im just a bit desperate with this card, i read a message earlier that a guy resolved the problem doing so, i have the same card, the POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9600 256, and he says he resolved the problem switching the BIOS, you think is to risky to try? im not an expert in the area, thats why i ask........

ALEX

Folks,
For my Sapphire ATI 9600 Pro (with Samsung 3.3ns chips) I was able to use the non-pro BIOS to provide partial relief for the problems I'm experiencing. Now they happen maybe once every hour or two on EverQuest and I've yet to see a crash in RtCWolfenstein (haven't played that as long though). I'm guessing that the lower clock/memory speeds are what gave me the partial relief. Maybe lowering the clock/memory speeds on the existing BIOS would have been enough.
I used the BIOS from (http://www.ocfaq.com/softmod/bios.php) labled "Sapphire 9600 Non-Pro 128MB" with date 2003/07/23 and the Samsung memory type. The .bin file name was Sapphire.9600NP.128.Samsung.bin. I used flashrom 2.23 to write it to my video card. I may eventually try the other BIOSes too, like the HIS one suggested by Erwin.

This behavior is not acceptable to me still, and I've managed to convince my computer manufacturer, sys.com (actually they were understanding), to send me a new video card. We'll see if the next one is any better.

For those interested in modifying their video card BIOS, I'd recommend a few things:

- Only do this if you're fairly desparate.
- BACK UP THE ORIGINAL BIOS before writing a new one. I had to restore my original BIOS at least 4 times before I found a new one that worked.
- Do NOT force the write of the BIOS (using -f). This only resulted in a non-working card for me. If you get an error saying the BIOS isn't compatible then try a different BIOS.
- If things don't work you may have to rewrite the original BIOS without being able to read what you type, so be prepared -- know the names of the executable, the arguments and the original BIOS file name. Use a short name for the bios file name. Or, use a batch file whose name is easy to type.
- Have a backup PCI-based video card around if you can. This saved my ass one time when I forced a BIOS to the card which caused the machine not to boot (until I changed the computer's BIOS to use the PCI card).
- Look at the chips on your card to see who made them (Samsung for example) to determine which BIOS to choose from the web page I mentioned above.
- Read Erwin's posts on this subject too since they helped me a lot.

Steve

off to work in a few min, no time for a real update but i thought id let you know
Kingston ram doesnt seem to be the cause, it could still be faulty ram but since my ram is Micron it doesnt seem to be limited to one brand

I also recently purchased a ATI Radeon 9600 and had Age of Mythology freeze up on me. after reading through this forum and trying numerous fixes (ie. I pushed all the buttons I could find on at a time and had to reboot my computer every time I tried to play the game) I found a setting that makes the game playable. using the "Troubleshooting" tab in the advanced settings of the display properties and turning the hardware acceleration down one notch from full (Diasables cursor and bitmap accelerations. Use this setting to correct problems with the mouse pointer, or to correct problems with corrupt images.) since I don't see any corrupt images and it freezes when we move the mouse, I assume that our problem has something to do with the cursor acceleration. The only drawback to this soloution is that it makes the cursor flicker during play, but that alot better then not being able to play at all, eh?

Maybe instead of using bitmap acceleration they could try accelerating through jpg.. .

who knows?

Cheers!

I recently got a sapphire 9600xt. the first game i tried was deus x 2. It didn't work at first but when i installed the lastest drivers it now works, same with call of duty. Games which i can't get working are;
age of empires conqueors, midtown madness 2 and war of the ring.
They may be old, but they are still great games. I have a feeling it may be something to do with microsoft games programed different. Need to test more microsoft games to be sure. I feel like throwing this card away. Every game which i get is like a gamble to see if it works

what are you guys getting for Aquamark3 scores? I'm getting 25,352 for my aquamark score.
XP2500 @ 1974
Samsung pc2700 512ddr
msi kt4v-l
winxp pro
soundblaster live! 5.1

Hmm

i got the same problem, whit my Radeon9600XT, when i what to play any games, like CS og HALO 30min in game i stops ad freezez, and i have to restar my comp.

iv found out that it is the MS mouse drivers.. How many of u got an MS mouse?

I have a Club3d 9600 pro 128 and have no troubles with it. =)
Playing Q3, hitman and other fps.

XP 2500+
Abit NF7-S
512 mb Twinmos ddr
Club3d radeon 9600 pro
WinXP pro

Got a weird result in Passmark performance 5.0 though. 3D-application test in simple, medium and advanced resulted in:

Simple: Poor!! (4-5 fps)
Medium: Poor!! (4-6 fps)
Advanced: High (300 fps)

Well, it works fine for fraggin anyway....

rgds
Magnus

I do have a MS Mouse (PS/2). I've experienced the same troubles using the default settings of my sapphire 9600 XT 256MB. Actually i solved it by lowering the clock rates by 30 MHz each (Core, Memory). But this is somehow dissapointing.

How can the mouse driver interfere with the display driver? If this is true, it's definitely a driver problem. I'll try a Logitech Mouse then.

I have a MS mouse... How would that interfer with the graphic drivers? It doesn't make sence. Well can if someone has the same config as mine, try playing age of empires conquerors. I have the 256 version of sapphire 9600xt

Me too i have a m\s mouse and it also drops out off GP4 and D.S 2
but i look at change the IRQ settings and it will not let me do this.I have update my mobo bios and cards drivers to 3.10 which has help but still having problems .

Plz can someone help me?

i was cheking my Mobo... fore some config to my 9600XT and the a saw this:

Video RAM Chacheable - Disabled
AGP Aperture Size - 64
AGP Fast Write - Disabled

What is it? and shoulde change some of it?

AGP cache should be enabled
AGP aperature (i find 128 best)
AGP fastwrite ON
you will get better performance with those settings but if you get compadability issues (games freeze) then play around with the AGP fastwrite and AGP cache.

I think I found the soultion tosome peoples problems. What I discovered was when I was trying to switch from my Nvidia and ATI, I left my side panel to my case open. Everything played great. I was able to play three missions without any crashes. When I decided things were looking good I closed my case. Then all my problems came right back. I then realized that my card probably was not getting sufficent airflow to keep it cool. Since then I put in another fan for the case and things seem to bee looking good again. I hope this helps some people out there. I know this kept me busy for like two weeks or more.

if you have a messy case, i recommend getting little zip ties to tie up dangling wires to increase air flow.

Damn, I finally got around to putting the 3.10's on and it fixed both NWN and Generals!!! Bout frickin time ATI!!!!