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8890 Display Problems

post #1 of 16
1/25/04 at 4:34pm
Thread Starter 
When I play games with my 8890 laptop I get these random white or black dots all over the screen. It depends on which game im playing for the severity of it but no matter what I always get them. I have tried several drivers from the new ATI ones to Omega Drivers. It seems to be at its worst when I use the Omega drivers. I have updated my BIOS and everything else is completely up to date. I even tried to reformat but I get the same thing. The only thing I can think of is that the video card is overheating but I never overclocked it or anything. Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you

-NickVB
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post #2 of 16
1/25/04 at 4:42pm
BSOD (in either blue or black), dying, locking up, lines, pixelation, color loss, but never dots. What size are they and is it a regular grid or random? If a grid, what's the spacing? Are they constant and static or do they blink and/or move?

Anybody else have some ideas?

If you don't get some responses that help, I'd be giving SAGER Technical a call first thing in the morning. If you can, take some screen shots and send those to them as well along with a verbose explanation.
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post #3 of 16
1/25/04 at 6:14pm
Thread Starter 
Well they are completely random and all over the screen. Now that I look at it there are somtimes just random black shapes that flicker. They are of varying sizes. Also when I ran 3dMark2001 i got a score of 10,000 but when I try to play Command and Conquer I get really bad performance even 800x600 low detail. I get no lockups or any other problems whatsoever. Ill test some other games and maybe I can get a screenshot that shows this. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thanks
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post #4 of 16
1/25/04 at 7:54pm
You may need a BIOS update. Email Sager and provide them with some screen shots.
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post #5 of 16
1/25/04 at 8:24pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah I already got a BIOS update from sager a while back but it hasnt' helped at all.
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post #6 of 16
1/25/04 at 8:28pm
Nick, That sucks.. I was hoping this was just a simple case of an old BIOS. I would take some screen shots and give Sager an email. You may be looking at a new motherboard
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post #7 of 16
1/25/04 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 
The funny thing is when I take a screenshot it looks perfectly fine and does not show the lines and dots at all, maybe ill try some sort of video capture =/
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post #8 of 16
2/10/04 at 9:05pm

I see dots too

I also see random white sparkles when playing Halo. I have updated my drivers, etc. and its still occurs.

The funny thing, is it doesn't happen all the time. One time it can be bad and other times not so bad. One thing that seemed to help was to run Halo in windowed mode on my desktop. It doesn't happen as much in this mode. ????

I am already working with Sager on a screen flicker issue (dunno if they are related), but I will keep you posted.

R'
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post #9 of 16
3/11/04 at 2:47pm
i'm getting the same problem for enemy territory. it looks like the screenshots at http://members.aol.com/moolmogo/flashdamage.zip which is from http://www.splashdamage.com/index.ph...ewtopic&t=6801
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post #10 of 16
3/11/04 at 3:54pm

you're not alone !!!

Brand new 8890, here are my screen shots of only 2 of the many games that will have display problems (Call of Duty, America's Army, Medal of Honnor, Halo, Need for Speed Underground, Unreal 2K3 Demo) you name it...





Drivers: Tried from Sager website and now running Omega drivers (latest as of today)

Heat: Tried playing games first thing after boot and was OK for approx 10 minutes. Fans running with no obstructions.
Displays: tried all resolution and level details with no success.
Frustrating after paying mucho $$$: yes
Same card and default ATI drivers on other PC with no problems (ATI Radeon 9600SE 128)

Going on the road for a couple of days, so I'll try something else, I don't know what yet, but it can't stay like that or it will have to be sent back to PC Torque or Sager...
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post #11 of 16
3/18/04 at 1:37am
Well it's not getting any better...

UT2004 Build UT2004_Build_[2004-02-10_03.01]

OS: Windows XP 5.1 (Build: 2600)
CPU: GenuineIntel Unknown processor @ 3003 MHz with 1022MB RAM
Video: RADEON Mobility 9600 (Omega 2.5.22) (6422)

General protection fault!

History: RenderLevel <- FLevelSceneNode::Render <- FPlayerSceneNode::Render <- UGameEngine:raw <- UWindowsViewport::Repaint <- UWindowsClient::Tick <- ClientTick <- UGameEngine::Tick <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop

Any fix out there ? Temp goes up to ~57. I get all sorts of weird distortion from the game like trees that would have a branch off to infinity, or a wall would pop up (all in ut2k3 demo), other games also have the same weird 3D artifacts.

(And boy does that Ir noise on the headset is annoying! Didn't they test these laptops after they designed them ??? (I use Ir port a lot and disabling it through the device manager is equally annoying)
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post #12 of 16
3/18/04 at 5:03am
My 2 cents is that this is an overheating videocard issue. Chances are, the white/black shapes/spots you are seeing are called artifacts. Artifacts appear when hardware is pushed to its limit.. for me, I see them more often when I overclock the video card. Some games may dispaly them simply because of bad driver support, who knows. Best advice I can give you is try to cool the thing down, or maybe even UNDERclock the video card.
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post #13 of 16
3/18/04 at 10:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty_
Well it's not getting any better...

UT2004 Build UT2004_Build_[2004-02-10_03.01]

OS: Windows XP 5.1 (Build: 2600)
CPU: GenuineIntel Unknown processor @ 3003 MHz with 1022MB RAM
Video: RADEON Mobility 9600 (Omega 2.5.22) (6422)

General protection fault!

History: RenderLevel <- FLevelSceneNode::Render <- FPlayerSceneNode::Render <- UGameEngine:raw <- UWindowsViewport::Repaint <- UWindowsClient::Tick <- ClientTick <- UGameEngine::Tick <- UpdateWorld <- MainLoop

Any fix out there ? Temp goes up to ~57. I get all sorts of weird distortion from the game like trees that would have a branch off to infinity, or a wall would pop up (all in ut2k3 demo), other games also have the same weird 3D artifacts.

(And boy does that Ir noise on the headset is annoying! Didn't they test these laptops after they designed them ??? (I use Ir port a lot and disabling it through the device manager is equally annoying)
The General Protection Fault doesn't tell you much - not about the graphics problems anyway. The Unreal Engine has a lot of bugs in it and we get that a lot when working with it. I'd agree that it's an overheating issue. Might be a bad card
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post #14 of 16
3/18/04 at 7:39pm
I agree the issue here points toward a heat problem but I'm not 'really' pushing the video card: 1024 x 768 instead of 1600x1200 and most setting to normal or high instead of very high.

What would be the point of buying a top notch video card if you have to downgrade it in order to make it work...there should be a caution/note in the specs...yeah it looks great on paper but, by the way, you can't use it above 800x600!! No thanks, I'll pay less $$$ and get something else that would work for real. (just venting... ...still like my 8890...kinda )

Thanks for your input.

I'll just smash an alien while I underclock my videocard.
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post #15 of 16
3/18/04 at 8:03pm
i don't know if it's an overheating problem unless there was someting wrong with the manufacturing process of hisn otbeook.

if you just bought it, have them crossship you a new one
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post #16 of 16
12/22/04 at 2:45am

Stupid Dots

I had the same thing happening to me a month or so ago. I shipped my lappy of to Cleavo for an unrelated matter (network jack broke). They tried to fix without replacing the motherboard, however in end they replaced the whole motherboard. Whell I haven't had any problems so far. Finally my screen looks normal.

With any luck you might be able to get Sager to replace the motherboard.

GOOD LUCK
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