8790 Artifacting - Page 9

You're welcome. If you go back one page on this topic (page 10), I have a link to almost all of the Bios version and ATI/video card related items I am running. The only thing that has changed is that I unchecked the "Alternate DVI Operational Mode" in Display Properties>Options, like Sushifiend3000 posted. I had no flickering, but don't want any either. To answer your question of "Is my GPU damaged", I would say yes...and so is mine. There are several on this topic who have talked to Sager and apparently they are aware of this "damage" (from heat). Should you send it in under the extended warranty? I don't know. If the underclock does everything you need and you don't need to underclock further because the problem comes back, I would say no. Once your extended warranty gets close to running out, ask yourself once again..."Is the underclocked setting doing everything I need?" If it is, by then I would say your computer has lived it's intended life span, at least by my standards. I have had 7 laptops over the last 10 years. The only reason for changing is to update technology. How I wish they could be upgraded like my desktop boxes.

I have a few questions of others following this topic. I can click on pages though, so if it is posted in the other 10 pages, no need to add more. Thanks.

QUESTIONS TO THOSE WHO SENT IN THEIR SAGERS:

1. How much was your shipping to/from Sager? and from what location?
2. How long was the turn-around time?
3. Did the problem recur? If yes, how long after you got it back?

QUESTIONS TO THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED SELF-FIXES:

1. If you tried ATI Tool, what were your settings?
2. Did the problem recur after finding a good setting, resulting in underclocking more?
3. Other Self fixes that worked or didn't

1. Shipping via USPS was ~$65 from Zip 09214 (i.e. APO).
2. I shipped Feb 11th 2005, and received it back February 28th 2005. Considering I had had the laptop in my posession less than a month at the point I RMA'd it, it should have had a 1 day turn around in the shop, also assuming a liberal 1 week ship time on both sides of the trip, that is 13 days, but it took 17 days. I suppose all things considered it wasn't bad, but considering the situation I found it way too long.
3. The problem has not reoccured as of yet.

The situation with my laptop was that I had ordered it November 3rd 2004. Due to paint job and other sundries I did not receive my 8790 until January 17th 2005. Two and a half months is I think one and a half months too long.

Well, I still have a problem, and I'm a bit concerned because I can't figure out if it's the graphics card or the external monitor. I'm just having a really hard time getting an image in dual monitor mode. If I set it as primary it works, with some flickering. And, I can sometimes get an image in dual mode if I set the fans to turbo (???). I don't want to send the monitor back; it's much easier for me to take my laptop back to Sager (again). So if anyone feels fairly confident that it is the graphics card affecting the dvi output in dual mode, please let me know, because I have no clue.

(Note, I will be cross-posting this in the two main 8790 topics about the artifcating)

I just got my 8790 back today (actually using it as I type) Everything seems to be better, but I haven't done any extreme testing/gaming on it yet. I did play a movie in mplayer in linux that uses the opengl driver, which would artifact on me as soon as I started a video, and it played fine. The only "problem" that has seem to come up is that the light for the HDD stays on all the time now. This is just a annoyance to me, as I had my old thinkpad do that Anyway, I got it today, and I sent thursday before the 4th, and I sent it overnight, so they had it that friday, and UPS tried to deliver it this past friday, but no one was home, so I got it today. Not a bad turn around. I still have the orginal HDD's, and LCD in it. altho the invoice says the motherboard, the palm rest cover peice, and the top of the LCD cover were replaced (palm rest was pealing due to my hands and some scratches, and the LCD cover was cracked from the strain of getting put up and down a lot). I'm gonna email David tonight and see if there is something I can do about the light thats on (maybe go back a old bios version or something). Well, off to start reloading linux so it runs nice and smooth ;-)

props

I would also like to give props to Inconel your advice about underclocking has been the only positive attempt I have made at stopping the constant artifacting of this *&%$# laptop (Clevo d870p).

Using the newest Omega driver (2675a) and ATT program with extensive clocking features I was able to find that a core/mem setting of 392/251 is no longer giving me many artifacts, I have only tested this on the artifact tester, and in Ghost Recon. I am able to play games once again on this machine.

I am still going to do more testing, and will hopefully find a good balance of performance/stability.

On a serious note, I have complained to and sent extensive e-mails to my reseller and clevo, about the apparent "lemon" status of this computer. I think anyone who has one of these laptops should do their best to spread the word and give your reseller/manufacturer hell.

I have done extensive reading about issues with this laptop, and have seen the same thing pop up. People's mobo and video card are dying just after the 1 year warranty runs out. This is unacceptable as I see it, and I would like to see some kind of responsibility taken by the companies that sell this product. So get the word out, and lets try and get some kind of compensation or at least a little support.

Add me to the artifacting list.

I have the problem and it was getting worse so I loaded the ATI tool and under-clocked at removed 3D detecting and of course have got rid of the problem but no 3D and it’s not what I paid for. My old Dell will run more software than this $4,000.00 clunker. I got mine when they first came out and I use it for my work, and I am going to use my 5 year old dell Pentium three until I get it back. I do have Warrantech for an additional two years and their service also stinks. They will not even look at it unless I completely restore to purchase condition. I have so much software on this and it will take a weekend to reinstall and tweak. I am going to buy a new hard drive and restore to original condition. They will not look at it if I do not send it back with the hard drives, memory and batteries. I have had Dell and Toshiba notebooks and serviced them both. They both request you remove your peripherals including the hard drive. Warrantech wants the unit to artifact in safe mode. That of course most likely won't happen because safe mode does not access 3D and loads basic drivers. On top of this my DVD/CD burner does not burn either.

I guess that I do not expect the computer to be perfect and I understand that things go wrong, but it is obvious that this is a problem and they should recall the 8790 to fix them. Evan after a few years you would expect that your laptop could be a standby or give it to the kids to use. I think this possible could have a class action suit someday.

I buy laptops for our company and this was a trial of sort. I had read good things on this forum about Sager. I am buying Dell again and out of 9 new laptops in the past two months two have needed repair and we got it in one day. They sent the air currier in the afternoon and we got it back fixed the next afternoon. I know they may think I am exaggerating or I don’t buy any at all, but at the very least this is one customer they have lost and I will never use Warrantech again for extended warranty. No one in this loop is sensitive at all to our need for a working computer and timely repairs.

What I can tell you from experience is you can clean it, service the heat sink, blow fans on it. under-clock it, and eventually it will fail again and artifact.

I will e-mail this to Sager and PC Torque.
Jim O'Rourke

Thanks, but you have to look at my previous post again.

Look how bad the card tested artifacts at 459.00 MHz. At 499.50 MHz there is no artifacting.

In my opinion 391.50 MHz is too low. It was mentioned just to prove how artifacting would be less with higher core clocks.

I would start with a core clock of 472.50 MHz and a memory clock of 249.75 MHz.

Use ATITool v0.24 with artifact scanning slider set to the far left so that ATITool will detect as many artifacts as possible. Also change Refresh Rate from 20 to 1E in the memory settings. Then run a Find Max Mem test to see at what frequency artifacts occur.

I'd be more comfortable if you were using ATI Catalyst Mobility drivers.

If 8790 owners will take the time to figure out what clocks are optimal, I will rewrite the Video BIOS with the correct settings so that no overclocking tools are needed.

werds

Alright Inconel, I think you are on to something good here. I would like to work with you to make a good working version of the vbios for this lappy/video card.

I have installed the latest drivers for the mobility 9700 (5.10 per your recommendation), along with the latest ATi tools ( I now see that you said to get ATiTool v0.24, I missed that and installed ATiTool 1.0.4.780).

I am testing now...

your settings at 472.50/249.25 revealed a few artifacts however, after running "find max mem" I am getting no artifacts with core/mem at 472.50/244.69.

I assume you are referring to this section:



I don't see a way to adjust this to "1E" so I will wait to hear back from you.

I would like to work with you to find the correct settings and perhaps release a workable vbios for this notebook.

I realize that you do not have an 8790, so I will be more than happy to have you walk me through all the required artifact tests and benchmarks.

Contact me: tim.bilotta@comcast.net or msn at bilottatim@hotmail.com or we can communicate through this post or perhaps a new thread. Please advise.

Success! ...almost

Well... I have been running artifact tests on my d870p (8790) all day, and I think I have found a stable, yet acceptable core/mem speed that eliminates artifacts.

Driver: Mobility Catalyst 5.10 (Latest Release) w/ CCC (Catalyst Control Center)

Overclocking/Testing/Benchmarking Tool: aTi Tray Tools (ver. 1.0.4.780)

Bios Version: 1.0.10 (from Sager)

Here is an ss of the stable settings:



Here is an ss of a succesful artifact test @ 2 mins. with no artifacts



I have run Ghost Recon, RavenShield, and NBA 2005 at high settings with complete success. I configure direct3d and OpenGL for performance with no v-sync, and am getting decent frames between 50-110 in Ghost Recon and Raven Shield (which runs on the popular Unreal engine). NBA is slightly lower.

I will continue testing and hope to talk to Inconel, so we can find the optimal settings for a modified vbios release.

After 3-4 months of not being able to play any games because of horrible artifacting, I am happy about this small success. Props again to Inconel.

Please uninstall ATi Tray Tools and install ATITool v0.24.

As for the memory refresh rate, 20 is the actual hex entry in the BIOS. It has been converted to its decimal equivalent in the application you are using, hence the number 32.

Retest with ATITool v0.24. Remember to set the artifact scanning slider to the far left so that ATITool will detect as many artifacts as possible.

Core = 472.50 MHz
Memory = 249.75 MHz
Refresh Rate = 1E

Abort the test as soon as any artifacts are detected. ATITool creates a log file that will report at what memory speed the artifacts occured. Copy part of the log file in your next post.

Got AtiTool and applied those settings and this is the result. I tested my succesful settings from earlier (480/240) as well and seemed to have no artifacts at all.

One thing, once it artifacts up really bad ( for example, when I run 3d view at default clocks) I have to reboot befor running anymore tests because I will get insanes artifacts no matter what setting I try. After reboot, I can test at 480/240 continuosly with no artifacts.

1st test:

2005-10-28 19:40:29Clocks set to: 472.50 / 249.75
2005-10-28 19:40:31Scan for Artifacts started...Core: 472.50 MhzMemory: 249.75 Mhz
2005-10-28 19:40:32Artifacts detected after 00:01.06.2 pixels don't match.

2nd test:

2005-10-28 19:43:15Clocks set to: 480.00 / 240.00
2005-10-28 19:43:21Scan for Artifacts started...Core: 480.00 MhzMemory: 240.00 Mhz
2005-10-28 19:43:56Scan for Artifacts stoppedTotal runtime: 34 seconds

Are you running with VPU Recovery enabled?

Be sure to run all your tests in the proper steps. 13.50 MHz steps for core settings. 6.75 MHz steps for memory settings. Type in the settings. Do not use the arrows.

If you want a lower memory clock setting, it should be 249.75 - 6.75 = 243.00 MHz.

Testing a core speed of 472.50 MHz is not a fair comparison to 480 MHz because increased core speeds may actually prevent artifacting.

Did you set the Refresh Rate to 1E?

werds

Yes...for those tests I was using VPU recover. I usually turn it off though, I am not used to this Catalyst Control Center.

The Mem refresh rate is set to 1E.
Don't see how "fair" comes in to it, I thought we were trying to find optimal settings for this card/laptop?

I have run tests all over the spectrum, although I havent used the 13.50 and 6.75 mhz steps. 480 is about the safest max for core and 240 is about the safest max for mem that I have found.

I am trying to increase/decrease via your instructions now.

-SLuG

test 3:

2005-10-28 20:45:04Clocks set to: 486.00 / 243.00
2005-10-28 20:45:09Scan for Artifacts started...Core: 486.00 MhzMemory: 243.00 Mhz
2005-10-28 20:46:11Scan for Artifacts stoppedTotal runtime: 61 seconds

Shall I let this Artifact test run for a while?

The frequencies you are using are not standard, and can not be set in the Video BIOS.

Just because it doesn't artifact at 480/240 doesn't mean it will artifact at 499.50/263.25.

Lots of tests need to be run. Ideally with complete cooldown period between test.

Due to my motherboard modifications, I can not run my card at 513.00/283.50. It will artifact. At 526.50/283.50 it doesn't.

Don't worry about what makes sense. It doesn't apply here.

Try 486.00/249.75.

Missed that last post. Yes, run all tests until it artifacts, then abort. You need to find which core clock setting allows the highest memory frequency. Try not to exceed 499.50 MHz for now.

test 4

test 4:
2005-10-28 21:05:27Scan for Artifacts started...Core: 499.50 MhzMemory: 243.00 Mhz
2005-10-28 21:05:27Scan for Artifacts running for: 0:00:00
2005-10-28 21:05:44Artifacts detected after 00:16.34.61 pixels don't match.
2005-10-28 21:05:58Last message repeated 206 times.
2005-10-28 21:05:58Scan for Artifacts stoppedTotal runtime: 30 seconds

2005-10-28 21:12:56Scan for Artifacts started...Core: 486.00 MhzMemory: 249.75 Mhz
2005-10-28 21:12:59Artifacts detected after 00:03.10.2 pixels don't match.
2005-10-28 21:13:22Last message repeated 907 times.
2005-10-28 21:13:22Scan for Artifacts stoppedTotal runtime: 25 seconds


Well, looks like we are getting close? Test 3 - 486/243 looks like it will run good. I do realize that there wasnt sufficient cool down between the last few tests. I am heading out for the night, so I cant test anymore until the morning. Thanks for your help Inc.

It would be great if someone else with a 8790 could run these same exact tests.

Ill check back later.

-SLuG

Don't let the card artifact more than once at this point. Abort after the first detection.

The core speed is too high for that memory speed.

Try 486.00/249.75 & 486.00/256.50.

The memory should be able to go a little higher if the core speed is correct.