Old Radeon 9550 Dying

RealityRipple · Mar 4, 2008, 01:08 AM

My current video card, a PowerColor Radeon 9550 256MB 256 Bit AGP (BK-ATI VER008.017D.033.000), which is missing its fan, and has been put through strenuous use over the last ~3 years, seems to be on its last legs. I can't run any Direct3D programs for very long before the screen goes to "Input not supported" or "No signal input", with the computer crashing. Occasionally VPU Recorder will pop up, occasionally a system error report has come up, and on rare occasions (usually after toggling various BIOS AGP settings), it'll run a game for one day. I've tried various versions of the Omega drivers, the official ATI drivers, and the best ones I've found are the old drivers that came with it. Official ATI Drivers, v6.14.10.6497, dated 11/30/2004.
I decided I'd see if I could perhaps flash the card to 9600 and see if that restores some functionality, so I downloaded Flashrom, put it on a CD with the BIOS of both it and a 9600 PRO, and went into DOS. Before I planned to flash, I gave it the -i parameter, just to see what would happen. This happened. Second time I tried, the comp stopped responding, though the caret continued to blink. I don't dare to flash it now, but I still want to save this card. Can it be done?

OldBuzzard · Mar 4, 2008, 03:28 PM

Dude....shoot that poor thing and put it out of it's misery.

You have been running it without a fan for a long time?

Hell, with that abuse, it's a wonder that it's lasted this long. You have most like been overheating it all that time and it's finally giving up. If anything I guess it DOES show that POWERCOOLER did a damned good job on the heatsink when they designed it.

Bite the bullet and get a new card. This time, if the fan fails, either RMA it if under warranty, or put on an aftermarket one if not. Your video card will 'love you long time' for that, and will work for a long time too.

RealityRipple · Mar 4, 2008, 03:35 PM

I'm not getting a new card until I can get a new motherboard, processor, ram, sound card, case, power supply, and just about everything else, which will hopefully be around the time the Phenom X2 GEs come out (or maybe if they announce an X4 GE, I'll wait for that). And I've got a temp monitor on the card, and it's running just fine at 45ºC. I've got a lot of fans on my case, and there's an 80mm fan sitting on top of it to pull off some heat.
I'd really like to get this thing going just a bit longer, I don't care if at the end it goes up in flames, so long as it works for a few more months.

And ya, the fan's been off for the last ~6 months. It was rattling something terrible, and no amount of cleaning would make it stop... sounded like a damn helicopter... then I couldn't find any replacement fans, so ya...

OldBuzzard · Mar 4, 2008, 04:28 PM

Personally, I doubt that it will ever work, but more power to you if it does.

It's not like it would coat a fortune to get a new 9550
Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H955H128E1TOAN Radeon 9550 128MB 64-bit DDR AGP 8X Video Card - Retail

$25.00 after rebate...and it's DESIGNED to run without the fan

Judas · Mar 4, 2008, 05:01 PM

typically i don't like the idea of flashing..

but in your case.... when it comes to nothing working at all.. if it's on it's dieing breath.. give a flash a try and see what happens outa curiosities sake lol...

just fyi..

me nor anyone else is responcible for anything that may happen .. at all..

RealityRipple · Mar 4, 2008, 09:09 PM

Surprised they still sell that... Maybe I'll order it and flash this one, so if it does go to shit, I'll have a replacement on the way.

Edit: Couldn't flash it... the current firmware seems to be corrupted beyond repair. Guess I'll just have to get that temporary new one...

RealityRipple · Mar 10, 2008, 11:23 PM

Bugger. The new video card didn't help. Must be my mobo or processor. Guess I'll have to wait and buy new everything anyway. In the meantime, is it safe to go back to my old card, since it had 2x the RAM and processor, or is it best not to use it simply because it's got no fan?

**kris23** · Mar 10, 2008, 11:29 PM

wow that sucks.....

time for a new rig!!!!!

because we all know that thing is toast......

RealityRipple · Mar 11, 2008, 03:45 PM

Well ya, I've known that for a while... but in the meantime, I need to keep it running.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Apr 5, 2008, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealityRipple

Well ya, I've known that for a while... but in the meantime, I need to keep it running.

Throw more duct tape at it then.

If its dead, its dead. Quit throwing good money down the crapper and start saving for that new system

RealityRipple · Apr 7, 2008, 04:13 PM

Okay, I finally got it to give me a log of the actual problem:

Category: 102
Event ID: 1003
Error code: 100000ea
parameter1: 89004020
parameter2: 89e67e58
parameter3: f78b2cb4
parameter4: 00000001

How the hell do I figure out what that means?

Also, I sometimes get "CRT invalid display type" from ati2mtag.

As for the new system, I'm just waiting for AM3 to come out so I can get a Quad core Phenom with DDR3 support.

OldBuzzard · Apr 7, 2008, 05:11 PM

never mind...

Dang, this forum needs a 'delete post' option