Known Issues with x1900 Crossfire Cards?

Judas · May 2, 2006, 11:45 PM

After a good 3 weeks now of consistantly working with an ATI rep.. i recently got this.. after directing him to a few DH threads that i've and others have been posting is...

Quote:

Thanks for the thread link, it was sort of helpful.

We have a new revision of the X1900 cards that fixes some issues with Asus motherboards, in particular the ULi southbridge problems. It doesn't specifically fix the problem that you are having but your problem and the one that it fixes (wobbly scan lines with analog monitor connected) is so similar to yours, it may just work.

Please have your cards replaced through RMA.

In your other ticket, I mentioned that your system may not be configured correctly for the X2 processor. Please complete that and then test again to see if it helps and if it doesn't, proceed with the RMA.

[color=black]To arrange for an RMA, you can fill out and submit the online RMA request from the Warranty Service section of our website or visit [color=#0000ff]http://www.ati.com/rma[/color] and fill out the warranty service request form.[/color]

thoughts?

btw.. i'm currently waiting on a responce about how "x2" setup may not be setup correctly.. as i'm a bit confused ..... directed me to another ticket i had and went through it and found absalutely no fault or new information that i should apply to the systems i've got setup with x2s....

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 11:30 AM

Im confused,

So we need to RMA our Cards.

If so when are these new revisions out and do we RMA both the Master and Slave

Seems a bit of a mess to me.

Thanks for the info though, it sorta helped

The X2 thing might be the Hotfix from MS

Rasta Monsta · May 3, 2006, 11:32 AM

Bogus. Which ULi southbridge?

Judas · May 3, 2006, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coolasmoo

Im confused,

So we need to RMA our Cards.

If so when are these new revisions out and do we RMA both the Master and Slave

Seems a bit of a mess to me.

Thanks for the info though, it sorta helped

The X2 thing might be the Hotfix from MS

hot fix doesn't apply to x64 windows xp...

Judas · May 3, 2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

Bogus. Which ULi southbridge?

on the a8R32-MVP...

uli m1575 appears to be the chipset..

but the real concern here is how asus totally blew it in the IRQ disto. 3-5 devices on one irq...... forced to use the center pci slot to get a pci device off the same irq as the master card... having to disabled LAN 1 and enabled Lan 2 to get the it off irq shared with the slave..

my gaud, theres about 10 other irqs not being even used...

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 11:46 AM

Well the M1575 is in most of the crossfire 3200 boards.

Im using the Abit at the moment.

Judas · May 3, 2006, 12:02 PM

it could be the way asus implemented it... i'm not sure

can you go into your system configurations information and load up the IRQ list... take a screenshot and post it.

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 12:17 PM

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 3 uGuru Micro-Processor OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 9 VAXSCSI Controller OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 14 Primary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 15 Secondary IDE Channel OK
IRQ 16 Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC OK
IRQ 18 Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition OK
IRQ 18 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 18 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 18 ALi PCI to USB Open Host Controller OK
IRQ 19 Radeon X1900 Series OK
IRQ 19 ULi SATA/RAID Controller (M1575/M1697) OK
IRQ 22 Creative SB X-Fi OK
IRQ 23 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller OK

Abit AT832

Judas · May 3, 2006, 01:39 PM

hmm... see you've got 4 devices sharing with the crossfire master card... and the ULi is sharing with the slave card...

have you had any issues at all? BSODs..... crashes.. weird things...

Rasta Monsta · May 3, 2006, 01:43 PM

Yeah, my board has the same IRQ "issue". . .I only have two PCI slots, and the bottom one shares with video. . .I initially had USB, X-Fi, and X1900 on the same IRQ!

It did run good tho. . .although I removed a PCI card and got them separated now.

raja · May 3, 2006, 01:44 PM

Hi,

FWIW, the DFI CFX3200 is the same with IRQ sharing.

I have not had the the problems you guys mention on my Crossfire setup. I run my res @ 1280X1024 @ 60hz. I think the native res is 1024X768 @ 60hz.

The only issue I can confirm I have had, is the slight wavy line pattern one can see moving accross certain colours. I have managed to eliminate this by pure chance, as I had to replace a bios chip recently. I decided to tidy up all the cables in my pc, the only thing I can think could have made the difference, is that I've moved all the system cables away from the PCIE power leads. Monitor images are now crystal clear, I have a hunch that the subtle wavy interferance is actually caused by EMI from neighboring cables and devices, even from IDE or Sata cables. ALso explains why Tagan are shielding the PCIE cables on their forthcoming psu's.

The rest of the issues cannot be confirmed by me at the moment, as I have not had them, though if I find any changes, I'll drop a post.

Regards
Raja

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raja

Hi,

FWIW, the DFI CFX3200 is the same with IRQ sharing.

I have not had the the problems you guys mention on my Crossfire setup. I run my res @ 1280X1024 @ 60hz. I think the native res is 1024X768 @ 60hz.

The only issue I can confirm I have had, is the slight wavy line pattern one can see moving accross certain colours. I have managed to eliminate this by pure chance, as I had to replace a bios chip recently. I decided to tidy up all the cables in my pc, the only thing I can think could have made the difference, is that I've moved all the system cables away from the PCIE power leads. Monitor images are now crystal clear, I have a hunch that the subtle wavy interferance is actually caused by EMI from neighboring cables and devices, even from IDE or Sata cables. ALso explains why Tagan are shielding the PCIE cables on their forthcoming psu's.

The rest of the issues cannot be confirmed by me at the moment, as I have not had them, though if I find any changes, I'll drop a post.

Regards
Raja

Hi Raja,

The screen wobble will only show at resolutions > 1680 x 1050 , which is probrably why you havent noticed it yet

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

hmm... see you've got 4 devices sharing with the crossfire master card... and the ULi is sharing with the slave card...

have you had any issues at all? BSODs..... crashes.. weird things...

I had loads of problems when i had the Seasonic S12 power supply in.

Since i changed it to the FSP 700 the only issue i still have is the screen movement.

No BSOD or Lockups yet

spajdr · May 3, 2006, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coolasmoo

I had loads of problems when i had the Seasonic S12 power supply in.

Since i changed it to the FSP 700 the only issue i still have is the screen movement.

No BSOD or Lockups yet

what motherboard you got mate?
Im hoping DFI mobo and new gfx card will fix this. Just got DFI today.

Coolasmoo · May 3, 2006, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spajdr

what motherboard you got mate?
Im hoping DFI mobo and new gfx card will fix this. Just got DFI today.

Abit AT832X

raja · May 3, 2006, 10:35 PM

I would say it's a driver issue, if it's only affecting that resolution. Unless ATI know something different.

If it does require an rma to be fixed I'll probably do so, as I may get a higher res monitor, but that won't be for a while!

Raja

raja · May 3, 2006, 10:42 PM

BTW, The X2 hotfix my MSoft, is only for when using Cool and Quiet, someone wrote a very in depth article on how and why it's required over at xtremesystems, so there's a lot of misconception regarding it's need and effectiveness. It would appear even ATI are in the dark about the X2 hotfix, I've tested it - makes zero difference to my system.

Tritan · May 4, 2006, 04:51 AM

RMA'ing our cards? Man I was really hoping it wouldn't come to that. :/ what exactly are they offering in terms of the new cards? As far as what is changed and what is fixed?

If I interpreted her right then I think they will actually be fixing those refresh lines i'm seeing.

Happy day if that's the case.

twistedpain183 · May 4, 2006, 09:23 AM

ok sorry to go off topic... but the IRQ issues made me think of something... i have 2x crossfire cards and my sound pops and glitches and system will hang when i play games i havent checked but is it possible that on my motherboard the irq for sound card the same as the mastercard for my vidocard? i run x1600pro sapphire edition but im not getting much of a boost from it... but i dont know much about IRQ's im kinda teaching my self most of this aspect of the Bios.

Rasta Monsta · May 4, 2006, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twistedpain183

ok sorry to go off topic... but the IRQ issues made me think of something... i have 2x crossfire cards and my sound pops and glitches and system will hang when i play games i havent checked but is it possible that on my motherboard the irq for sound card the same as the mastercard for my vidocard? i run x1600pro sapphire edition but im not getting much of a boost from it... but i dont know much about IRQ's im kinda teaching my self most of this aspect of the Bios.

You are definately having some sort of problem. . .that 3dMark05 score seems quite low for XFire.

Judas · May 4, 2006, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raja

I would say it's a driver issue, if it's only affecting that resolution. Unless ATI know something different.

If it does require an rma to be fixed I'll probably do so, as I may get a higher res monitor, but that won't be for a while!

Raja

it's not directly related to a specific resolution.. as running 800x600 up to 2048x1536.. doesn't seem to matter about the problems i'm having..

although i should hopefully have my dell 2560x1600 here to try out.. but i doubt that's going to solve anything.. most likely cause more problems.. lol

Judas · May 4, 2006, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raja

BTW, The X2 hotfix my MSoft, is only for when using Cool and Quiet, someone wrote a very in depth article on how and why it's required over at xtremesystems, so there's a lot of misconception regarding it's need and effectiveness. It would appear even ATI are in the dark about the X2 hotfix, I've tested it - makes zero difference to my system.

yes i know about the hotfix and q n q.... i have all my AMD system setup with qnq disabled completely because

1: it's a known cuplrit of some if not all problems..
2: it really isn't nessary, just another fuction that uses a smidge less power and makes a smidge less noise..

The amd driver is installed on all my systems with x2's or dual core opterons... other then that.... all should be well

BTW, this is directed to twisted pain,

To check to see if your IRQs are being shared among devices..

go to start~>All Programs~>Accessories~>System Tools~>System Information

Go into Hardware Resources~>IRQs

it should then list them 1-20+

Make note of any IRQ that has more then one device on it and post it here.

Also let me us know where you have cards placed in your motherboard (the video cards, and any other devices plugged into the pci-ex/pci slots)

Tritan · May 5, 2006, 09:15 AM

Judas, did they say exactly how big this change is to the 1900 cards? I'm debating on wether or not I need to contact them for an RMA.

I mean how much did they say it fixed? (if they said anything.

)

spajdr · May 5, 2006, 09:21 AM

well i had shaky screen over DVI and VGA and actually over VGA wavy screen too, RMAed it and will get HIS Excalibur, not Asus. Actually HIS is there more time then Asus, but with older Asus with xpress 200 it worked just fine (review), why not Asus? I dont get it.