Jack, that is sad to hear ... but I can't say I'm surprised.

To that person who has the nForce2 board above. Memory might be an issue. I wanted to be sure I wasn't going to have a memory problem, so I actually spent an extra $70 on good quality RAM that was listed as one of the certified modules on the A7N8X web page. Also keep in mind that not all nForce2 boards might work as well as the A7N8X deluxe has for Jasper and I. There may also be discrepancies between the original nForce2 chipsets and the nForce2 400 which may make the ATI cards work well in one but not the other.

my memory isnt that bad.. i have samsung pc2700 512ddr and if thats not enough, thats just sad.

well if ATI doesnt fix this problem by 4.0 i think they wont fix try to fix it at all. Usually when they go to the next full number (ie. 2, 3, 4) is when they do major fixes. Thats what my brother told me to do but i just want to try every version.

Hello there

my config:
P4 2.6
512 DDR
Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 RADEON 256MB
catalyst 3.8

I'v experienced the same problem of freezing on many games like Medal of Honour, Age of Mythology, Halo
The only game that works at 8x is MotoGP2, the others only in 4x

anybody knows if ATI gave some response?

i'm going to try catalyst 3.9 right now
let's see hat happen...

byee
Ale

Hi,

Config:

GA 7vaxp
raid 0 maxtor 60gb
2400+ XP
512 DDR 333
Sapphire Radeon 9600 pro agp 8x

I've had the same problem with picture freezing in games. I installed the latest omega driver for ati. look at http://www.omagecorner.com.

disable vpu recover
disable agp fast write

now everything works fine for me. i think that should also work with the catalyst drivers.

happy gaming,
honi

wheres VPU recovery... i dont have that option with my MOBO

hmm.... this thread is getting really long!
I have only read the first few pages and this last page in this thread and my conclusion is that freeze/hang problem is unsolved! That very very frustrating! Doesn't anyone at ATI, Catalyst, Microsoft or whatever know about this? Why are they keep pushing out crappy (or at least incompatible) card/driver/software!!! HELLO WAKE UP!. There are plenty people having this problem and they have different models of radeon cards and different motheboards, different processors...

Even if what I have to say might be nothing new -- I will boore you with my story anyway ;-)

I have just bought a ATI Radeon 9800 pro and have exactly the same problem.
Spec;
AMD Athlon 2,1
512 DDR
Gigabit mother board....
XP-Pro

Fresh installed it workt fine for about a week, plenty gaming (GTAIII, MAFIA, HALO) then suddenly the system freeze -- Reboot and since then it freezes every time I play any of these games.(after about 10 minutes).

I formatted my disk, made a new installation of XP (without servicepack or any patches) and tought my system would be ok, but it still freeze:s when playing!!!!!!!!! What??? I have not changed anything in bios or anything else.

I have enough powersupply i think (350w) and don't have any cooling problem!!!

Well, the first person who can pinpoint and solve the problem once and for all are going to be my God for the rest of my life!

Best regard
Pierre

LISTEN ALL!!!!!THE PROBLEM IS THE DRIVERS!Try3.4 or 3.5. I triad it all and this was the only solution.Sad that a card is released with this many issues and no fix.3.9 will not fix it!THANKS ATI...never again its nvidia from here out...no issues.peace


PeAK iN DaRiEN

Yes i already told it several times here, but it seems no one is willing to use the older drivers. So i say it again. I am using the Cat 3.4 and it works perfectly. Homeworld2 froze up before, just like Wolfenstein. But after the installation of 3.4 the problems are gone! Nevertheless you must set yur AGP to 4X, just to be sure. Try and see!
Yes yes it's not the right thing using an older driver, it goes against nature. So we can only hope for ATI to permantly solve the problem.

Good luck...

note* below are some responses from ATI...not that those helped me, they blame the problem on everything except their own graphicscard. How nice of them

Hi,

Programs freezing can be caused by many factors, and there has been many reported problems with high-end graphics cards generally and games, but almost soley with XP. Reboots, however are more likely to be power problem, may not be adequate power to AGP when graphics are made to work hard.

Regards

Tony

Hi,

If not already done so, worth ensuring latest mainboard drivers before installing ati

Regards

Tony

I wasn't holding my breath for Cat 3.9's for a reason, and I've stated it before.
It's not the drivers that are the issue!!!
If that were the case it would affect everyones system equally with each game being equally unstable on all systems with the drivers loaded.

Most intelligent and attentive people have isolated it to AGP bus/memory/chipset issues, and as Micheal has confirmed, a current board with a current card yeilds best results. Early boards with newer cards are always sketchy at best, as the required maturity and refinement is not yet present in the silicon.
Screaming about the drivers and stating it's all ATI fault is banal, unproductive and alarmist at best.

Earlier Cats work for some because they tend to disable or not include features that later versions enable.
Card makers add features to the driver sets as new capablities arise.
ATI has stated before that only upgrade the drivers if you have to....there is a reason for that.
If your silicon is older than 1 1/2 year, than you cannot expect the chipset to have finalized 8X AGP specs, or chipsets that run 333/400DDR properly.

Therefore if earlier cats work for you, then great.
If disabling 8X works then great as well, it probably wasn't implimented right in the first place by over-eager chipset vendors vying for sales.
Anyone who has actually read this thread can see that mostly PHYSICAL changes to the system affect changes. Physical meaning upping the AGP voltage, altering BIOS settings, and anything that is outside of driver based software......and adding new motherboards for that matter.

New chipset drivers have also brought relief, but this is still a chipset matter, and not a video card issue.

Some people have blatantly stated that they are in fact unintentionally overclocking thier systems and having issues because they don't understand basic hardware configuration, and cry about the drivers.

This thread has been productive for many when knowledgeable people give real answers to the issue.
Screaming and yelling about something when you have no idea what you are talking about just makes you look stupid.

So Jason you are the intelligent and attentive one here? Man give me a break you cranck me up! Then tell me how is it possible that on a computer system 1 week old, thus with a new model mainboard the card doesnt work properly with the newest driver. I yield with my new system no results at all. Cat driver 3.4 works for almost everybody.
Well mister computer expert don't judge people over here were only trying to help. That's not what you are doing. Dickhead...

I just got my Abit Siluro FX 5600 graphics card today and i installed it and i went to play HALO, but when ever i put the resolution above 800x600 the game play goes slow. Does anyone know how to fix it? Please respond.

You haven't posted your system spec anywhere in this thread from what I can see, so how can I possibly offer a suggestion to you. If Cat 3.4 works...like I said...great. But there's likely a hardware issue that's been overlooked.
Just because a system was purchased recently doesn't mean the parts aren't of an older generation. The key to proper troubleshooting is detailed patient examination, and thorough testing.
I happen to own a computer service business, and I happen to know my stuff regarding computer having been working on them for the last 20 years.
This forum offered many valuable suggestions that help figure out the issue for myself and my customers.

But I'm tired of reading posts from loudmouthed people who have no idea what they are talking about, and spouting off about irrelevent stuff that helps no one.
Many of the answers are in this thread for those able to understand them.

I've posted many times on this thread and offered help and support, while others simply seem to just whine and cry.....and flame.

I don't remember calling anyone specific anything in particular, but that's well below my level.

To wit, I've recieved many PM's from other who feel the same as myself, simply lets get to work and deal with the real issues.

John, this is an ATI forum for the 9600, but I can offer a hint.
Halo is a brutal game on your videocard, and even at 800x600 my system still get's a bit slow playing it.
Try giving up some of the eye candy and you'll notice a bit of an improvement, but it's mostly just the scope of the game.
It rocks, but it's a resource hog.

Jason I tried all the other solutions and nothing worked.The Omega 3.8's worked better than the Cat's...I was able to aleast play at low rez,thats the first clue I got to a driver issue.The 3.6 to 3.9 drivers have added features that very well could be conflicting with the 9600 pro,that is not hard to fathom.The bottom line is...older drivers, can play...newer drivers,cant play so I need no more proof than my own system.I was deep into the BIOS changing everything from agp voltage to PCI and AGP writes and reads.Nothing worked...this did.So you keep looking for the "intelligent" solution(which is what ATI should have done in the first place) and I'll keep playing at my high rez.(Halo runs like a beast btw) Peace

I stated in the 3rd paragraph of my 6:46pm post that earlier cats did work and why.
Some have no choice but to stick with old cats, and I've said many times, that is an option. And as I also mentioned that ATI states that if your Cats are working OK, to leave them be....again in the 3rd paragraph.

But in any event, it is an option rooted in hardware issues that even BIOS settings cannot address.
Bad, early rev chipsets can only be "band aided" with half measures.

I'm sorry if people want there to be this huge conspiracy, with ATI screwing its customers and all kinds of yelling and hollering. But it won't make any difference to the issue at hand.

And I'm sorry if anyone felt I was referring to them as "stupid", but it just seems like some people present the answers, and others refuse to hear and keep hollering.

The problem is now fairly clear and many have done a great job making it so.
I've already resolved my problem ages ago, running 3.8 cats with the 4.49 Hyperion drivers from VIA, and running my system at stock, stable setting with fastwrites turned off. All based on suggestions presented here.

Hopefully we can all enjoy our cards for what they can do.

even high end pc's struggle with halo. the FX cards are junk from the 5600 non ultra and down. just wait till 4.0 boys, thats when they make big changes.

I just bought a Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro (GV-R969128DH) and the same problem. Randomly freezes in intense games like Unreal Tournament 2003, (rarely) in Tomb Raider etc. It has never crashed in Windows desktop or in less intense games like Cricket 2002, Test Drive 5 even once. It only HANGS completely in intense games like ut2k3.

* I tried changing to 4x transfer - didn't work.
* Tried Catalyst 3.8 drivers - didn't work.
The card came with 3.4 catalyst which also didn't solve the problem.
* Tried the SmartGart link settings (Turning OFF AGP Write etc) - didn't work.
* I tried Fiddling with Direct3d settings in ATI Control Panel - didn't work.
* I tried BIOS options like Fast Write OFF, AGP Aperture size from 64 MB to 256 MB - didn't work.
* I tried opening the cabinet, keeping a pedastel fan running - still freezes the system - thus ruled out OVER heating.

According to http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/gigabyte_r96p/ article, this particular Radeon model fixes some problem with the common Radeon 9600 pro. But doesn't seem to be true.

The problem i suspect could be due to the following reasons (FOR ME atleast):

>>> Incorrect voltage - maybe suddenly when the disk spins or something not all parts of the video card gets full voltage.

Gigabyte Radeon card came with a utility called V-Tuner. It shows 3 voltage levels namely VCORE, VCC18 and VDDQ which are 1.27v, 1.49v and 2.58v. I would like to know if you guys knew the exact (or safe range) values for these levels of supply.

>>> Memory chip fault - though i doubt verymuch ... In this case it could possible crash in Windows desktop too.

>>> Or could it be just a faulty card. Because i dont think its a driver issue at all.

Here is my system configuration:

ASUS A7V8X-X mobo (VIA KT400/VIA 8235)
AMD XP 2600 + (2083 MHz)
300 W PSU
512 MB DDR RAM
Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro GV-R96P128D (128 MB) * the problem
Yamaha YMF724 Soundcard
Windows 98 SE.

Can someone help me by suggesting some solution other than the one's i've already tried.

Been reading with interest the issues that have arisen with the 9600 Pro. I have had a Tyan Tachyon 9600 Pro for about 3 weeks now and been loving the upgrade - obviously been having graphical glitches else I wouldn't post here! Issues are - game screen freezes and sound loops like a machine gun with no option to alttab, or ctrlaltdel. Have to do a hard reboot. Bugger. Happens alot on BF1942/DC after about 30mins, couple of times on MP2 and on Call of Duty Dawnville Demo it froze, quit and all the gamma went crazy, resolution reset to basic etc. Also been getting artifacts in BF1942 a bit.

Specs are;

P4 2.6 800FSB
512mb 3200 Corsair LLPT TwinX
Mobo - Gigabyte 8ipe1000
Sound - Creative Soundblaster 5.1
GFX - Tyan Tachyon 9600 Pro
LG 17" TFT 1710b monitor
350w Smart Blue Antec PSU
Antec Plusview case
Papst fans x2
Coolermaster Aero 4 Sckt 478 CPU blower
Usual CPU temp is 32deg - my machine runs nice and cool even at load.
Aperture is 128 and cant find anything on the BIOS to alter it - have tried every option!

Just upgraded to Cat 3.9 in the hope of a solution. Ran 3dMark2003 and AOK with memory settings on my card at 550Mhz - upped the memory to the default 598 Mhz on the card and hey presto, in Wings of Fury, at the end a large artifact stretches from one of the wing tips! Doh!

Helping please?

Damian,

I have the Tyan version of the 9600PRO, i too have the problems with freezing on age of mythology and C&C generals, but not on UT2k3 like a lot of people that have posted here. The only way i have found to stop this is to go to display settings and drop down one notch from full hardware accelaration. You do however end up with a very annoying flashing Mouse cursor in the game.