PCA Forums

Hi all,
Recently my 2 Radeon video cards began conflicting,i have a 9200 and a 9800 Pro DDR each one of them conected to a monitor,if there both installed then the 9800 pro begins flickering,pixels which overflow in each other and a very stuttered image,while the 9200 will work perfectly,but when i take the 9200 out the 9800 pro will work perfectly.they worked perfectly for 6 months no probleam at all,now suddenly they dont work togther,i have formatted my pc but still the probleam exists.i am a pc noob,any help is apprecited,ty in advance for your replays!

Current spec: (as detalid as i can)
Windows XP Pro.
MSI 865PE Neo 2-PFS Socket 478.
1.2GB.
Intel 2,8Ghz 512kbc 800Mhz fsb.
Zalman CU Silent s478/s462cpu cooler.
Maxtor SATA 8mb cache diamond max 9plus,120GB 7200rpm Fluid Bearing(hdd) SATA Hdd.
Antec Super Lanboy Case.
4.12 ati catalyst drivers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/ ... DMark3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/ ... 3DMark.jpg

WELCOME TO PCA!

Did you just upgrade to the 4.12 Cat driver before this happeded? Those drivers are buggy (I had a similar visual corruption as you have in your screenshots after I installed them on my rig with dual monitors). I would either go back to the rock stable 4.9 Cats (the 4.11 cats were bad too, and I think they skipped the 4.11) or the new 5.1 cats (I just installed the 5.1 Cats and they seem to work fine).

I have to ask WHY are you using two cards? A Radeon 9800 Pro (and I believe the 9200 as well) already has the ability to drive TWO seperate monitors for multi-monitor mode (if the 9200 has a VGA and a DVI output then it's a multimon card just like the 9800). So with these two cards installed you ACTUALLY have 4 seperate video devices (when you install a Radeon 9800 there will be TWO 9800 video devices listed in the device manager). That's a waste of resources if you're only using 2 monitors.

Once you figure out your video corruption prioblem, first thing I'd do if I was you is pull the 9200 and setup multimon with just the 9800 (when you go to display settings you should see two monitors, one dimmed, and a checkbox option to extend the desktop to the second display).

If your second monitor does not have a DVI input then you need a DVI to SVGA adapter for the 2nd channel on the 9800 (which should have come with the card if you bought it retail - if you need one LMK, I have a few spares lying around, but so should any computer shop).

FYI: I have used a 9800 Pro with two monitors myself - I use a Radeon x800 now. I know it works just fine. I use a DVI to SVGA adapter on the 2nd channel because both my monitors are SVGA only.

It's also possible one of your cards took a dump. bad video RAM can cause corruption that looks like that. Once you ditch the 4.12 drivers (which I strongly recommend) I'd pull the 9200 and setup the 9800 for a single monitor FIRST. See if it looks okay, then enable the 2nd channel on the 9800 for multimon.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it works out.

First of all thank you for all your replay...about the 1 card and 2 monitors thats what i was doing before insalling a brand new 9200...the probleam was when i would play online and had a tracking site(they refresh every 2 mins) open on the other monitor my game will freeze for a second....thats why i bought a 9200..so i can avoid this probleam.
No it was happening before installed the 4.12 ati drivers.
The 9800 pro works perfect with 2 monitors (thats how i have it right now) so does the 9200 but when they are both in my system the conflicts begins.

Frankly I would not recommend having the 2nd display running at all when gaming. It drastically affects your performance in games.

I use UltraMon to disable the 2nd display (just by clicking on a taskbar icon) when I play a game.

That said, there's no reason I can see why it shouldn't be working if both cards work fine by themselves.

Since it was working fine before and stopped working, I can only assume SOMETHING changed. You need to sit down and think if you changed anything at all: hardware, drivers (even for another device), tweak settings for the mobo or video card, installed any new software (especially background apps that run all the time).

Did you install any new hardware (card, or even a USB device)? If so try unplugging it.

Are you overclocking (either the CPU or the vid cards)? If so, set the clocks to normal.

Process of elimination - you need to try everything.

You sure it's not a heat issue? Are the fans running on the video cards? Try leaving the cover off the computer and see if it helps.

If you can remember a date when this started happening, use System Restore to roll the computer back to the state it was in prior to that date and see if that fixes it.

Hope this helps...

Did you install any new hardware (card, or even a USB device)?

No.

Are you overclocking (either the CPU or the vid cards)?

No.

You sure it's not a heat issue? Are the fans running on the video cards? Try leaving the cover off the computer and see if it helps.

i am sure it isnt a heat probleam,yes it is(only the 9800pro has a fan on it)..i have an Antec super lan boy which keeps everything cool,but i did leave it open.

If you can remember a date when this started happening, use System Restore to roll the computer back to the state it was in prior to that date and see if that fixes it.

i also did that and it didnt help.
I installed the 5.1 drivers and tried again but still the 9800pro wont work,while the 9200 will work,when i take the 9200 out the 9800pro works perfectly...
and thank you so much for having the time to help me out!

It was the PSU,hours after reading your post the PSU bruned
now i have a Q-TEC 550 Dual fan...its working good with both cards in it...but when i run 3Dmark05,one time it will work to the end and the other time it will give an error
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/pacino/3d.jpg

Thank you so much for your time and help!

Thanks for posting a follow up. It may help others.

Glad you figured it out.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Thanks for posting a follow up. It may help others.

Glad you figured it out.

For sure...after all this is the community that helped me
do you have any idea what is the error abou and why does it accur?t...ty again!