Video problem

We have a Dell desk top 8300 with XP that is having an intermittent problem with the monitor image. We switched monitors so we know the problem is in the computer. What it does is produce hatched lines over the screen which do not completely obliterate the image but make it hard to read. If you open a new window they go away. Most of the time everything is ok but it is getting more frequent. What are the chances that this is in the video card and not in some other component? The cardt is a Radeon 9800. There are two listed. primary and secondary. What is this? Does this mean there are two cards? The computer has two hard drives, one as a mirrored back up drive. Any ideas or help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Hey Ralph124c,

Sorry for taking a while to reply to this.

To deal with your questions directly first ; chances are it is your graphics card, and the secondary display is likely referring to the secondary VGA plug on the card and not a second graphics card.

I've not dealt with a Dell 8300 in particular before, but I have come across similar problems with the Radeon 9800. The issue with the Radeon 9800, despite it being very old and using obsolete hardware standards, is that ATi, the hardware manufacturer, was never able to design fully compatible drivers. This caused various graphical "miscalculations" in newer games and certain applications. By the sounds if it, though, you're experiencing new graphical artefacts, ones which weren't there before. By artefact I mean you're seeing things which really shouldn't be there.

There are a variety of things which could be giving you this problem. Firstly, and most easily solved, is that your graphics drivers are out of date. Simply go to http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx and download the relevant driver.

A second possibility is that your Graphics Card is about to overheat or break. If you look at the back of your computer, you should see a VGA plug towards the top. This is your onboard graphics. To check whether your graphics card is on the blink, turn your PC off, unscrew your monitor cable from the graphics card and plug it into the other slot. Turn your machine back on and check if there are any artefacts on your screen.

If you are not experiencing any graphical problems after that, then you can be fairly sure that it's your graphics card. Your only option at this point is to stop using the Radeon 9800 and either use the integrated graphics chip, or buy yourself a new graphics card. You could also be experiencing a problem with the motherboard and the AGP / PCI slot, but there is no real way of knowing that until you plug in another card.

If you are still experiencing problems, however, there are a variety of other issues that could be causing it. Firstly, your monitor cable could be to blame. Simply try a different cable and see if that works. I recommend plugging it into the onboard graphics slot instead of the graphics card for that test. Secondly, you could have a virus or some sort of malware. If you have anti-virus installed, run a quick scan, or go to the Malware forum and see if they can find any infections on your computer.

If none of that works, then it could be a plethora of other hardware problems, ranging from issues with the RAM and CPU to insufficient power or dust build up. As a last resort you could take your machine to a local PC technician. It will cost a bit, but they will check all the hardware to see where the problem lies.

I hope that helps.

Cheers
Nahumi

Hey Ralph124c,

Sorry for taking a while to reply to this.

To deal with your questions directly first ; chances are it is your graphics card, and the secondary display is likely referring to the secondary VGA plug on the card and not a second graphics card.

I've not dealt with a Dell 8300 in particular before, but I have come across similar problems with the Radeon 9800. The issue with the Radeon 9800, despite it being very old and using obsolete hardware standards, is that ATi, the hardware manufacturer, was never able to design fully compatible drivers. This caused various graphical "miscalculations" in newer games and certain applications. By the sounds if it, though, you're experiencing new graphical artefacts, ones which weren't there before. By artefact I mean you're seeing things which really shouldn't be there.

There are a variety of things which could be giving you this problem. Firstly, and most easily solved, is that your graphics drivers are out of date. Simply go to http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx and download the relevant driver.

A second possibility is that your Graphics Card is about to overheat or break. If you look at the back of your computer, you should see a VGA plug towards the top. This is your onboard graphics. To check whether your graphics card is on the blink, turn your PC off, unscrew your monitor cable from the graphics card and plug it into the other slot. Turn your machine back on and check if there are any artefacts on your screen.

If you are not experiencing any graphical problems after that, then you can be fairly sure that it's your graphics card. Your only option at this point is to stop using the Radeon 9800 and either use the integrated graphics chip, or buy yourself a new graphics card. You could also be experiencing a problem with the motherboard and the AGP / PCI slot, but there is no real way of knowing that until you plug in another card.

If you are still experiencing problems, however, there are a variety of other issues that could be causing it. Firstly, your monitor cable could be to blame. Simply try a different cable and see if that works. I recommend plugging it into the onboard graphics slot instead of the graphics card for that test. Secondly, you could have a virus or some sort of malware. If you have anti-virus installed, run a quick scan, or go to the Malware forum and see if they can find any infections on your computer.

If none of that works, then it could be a plethora of other hardware problems, ranging from issues with the RAM and CPU to insufficient power or dust build up. As a last resort you could take your machine to a local PC technician. It will cost a bit, but they will check all the hardware to see where the problem lies.

I hope that helps.

Cheers
Nahumi

Thanks for taking your time to respond in such detail to my problem. I have a gut feeling it is the card. The problem seems to occur more when the computer is first turned on but goes away as it warms up. It only occurs after the windows OP is loaded. I have no clue as to what card would be a good replacement. We do not need a high end card but nothing cheap either. What would you recommend?

Thanks again

Technically speaking the best card you could get as a Radeon HD 4650 AGP.

The problem is that you'll be very hard pushed to find anywhere selling it. Amazon will sell a few AGP cards, like a Radeon 9250 (which is very similar to your current one), or a HD 3650. The latter one is probably your best choice for now, simply because anything more will cost you an arm and a leg.

Radeon 9250
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-9250…040&sr=1-14
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/ATI-Radeon-256MB-V…1707&sr=8-4

or

Radeon HD 3650
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Powercolor-Radeon-51…040&sr=1-11
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11129-02-…1707&sr=8-1

or

GeForce 6200
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/PNY-6200-Graphics-Ca…0037&sr=1-2
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GeForce-G…1707&sr=8-3

or

HD 4650
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radoen-4650…2443&sr=1-1
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD4650-1G…2368&sr=8-6


The thing to remember with Graphics cards is that the higher the number, the better it is. For ATi cards, the first number is the series number. So a HD 3650 is a series 3xxx GPU. The higher the last 3 digits are, the better. It gets a bit confusing with older graphics cards such as the Radeon 9250, but you can tell these are not as good as the HD 3xxx series because it hasn't got' HD' in front of it. nVidia graphics cards work on the same sort of system, and you'll be looking at a 6 series GPU, something like a GeForce 6200. Stay away from the nVidia Quadro GPU's though because they are for 'Computer Aided Design'.

Also make sure that if you buy a new graphics card that it's an AGP card, and not a PCI, PCI-e or PCI-e 2.0 card. This is by far the most important thing to look out for.

But like I said, you'll be hard pushed to find anything half decent for a reasonable price. I wouldn't spend more than $70 or £50 if I were you though.

If you find a card you like the look of somewhere else, just post a link to it and I'll double check to see if it will work for you.

Technically speaking the best card you could get as a Radeon HD 4650 AGP.

The problem is that you'll be very hard pushed to find anywhere selling it. Amazon will sell a few AGP cards, like a Radeon 9250 (which is very similar to your current one), or a HD 3650. The latter one is probably your best choice for now, simply because anything more will cost you an arm and a leg.

Radeon 9250
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-9250…040&sr=1-14
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/ATI-Radeon-256MB-V…1707&sr=8-4

or

Radeon HD 3650
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Powercolor-Radeon-51…040&sr=1-11
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11129-02-…1707&sr=8-1

or

GeForce 6200
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/PNY-6200-Graphics-Ca…0037&sr=1-2
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GeForce-G…1707&sr=8-3

or

HD 4650
(USA) http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radoen-4650…2443&sr=1-1
(UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD4650-1G…2368&sr=8-6


The thing to remember with Graphics cards is that the higher the number, the better it is. For ATi cards, the first number is the series number. So a HD 3650 is a series 3xxx GPU. The higher the last 3 digits are, the better. It gets a bit confusing with older graphics cards such as the Radeon 9250, but you can tell these are not as good as the HD 3xxx series because it hasn't got' HD' in front of it. nVidia graphics cards work on the same sort of system, and you'll be looking at a 6 series GPU, something like a GeForce 6200. Stay away from the nVidia Quadro GPU's though because they are for 'Computer Aided Design'.

Also make sure that if you buy a new graphics card that it's an AGP card, and not a PCI, PCI-e or PCI-e 2.0 card. This is by far the most important thing to look out for.

But like I said, you'll be hard pushed to find anything half decent for a reasonable price. I wouldn't spend more than $70 or £50 if I were you though.

If you find a card you like the look of somewhere else, just post a link to it and I'll double check to see if it will work for you.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. The world needs more folks like you. I am going with the GeForce 6200 looks like the best deal and it is in stock.

Thank you.

No problem. Glad to have helped.