Radeon 9000 Mobility destroyed by Omega Drivers ?

TylerD · Dec 6, 2004, 02:08 PM

Hello dear DriverHeaven-Users !

First a hello from germany to all forum users. I regret that my first thread in this forum is due to a serious problem, but I hope you can help me.
I've got a 1,5 year old ACER Travelmate with a RADEON 9000 Mobilitychip. I need the laptop generally for working, but sometimes I like to play some games on it.
A week ago, I installed NFSU2 and recognised some graphicerrors. Now I decided to install the latest Omega Drivers 2.5.97. I've heard they will perform better with mobile cards and there won't be any problems with this drivers.
After the installation I got no problems and played NFSU2 some times without any bugs. Yesterday evening I played the game for a period of about 2 hours and suddenly the systems hanged up and there were the same graphic errors as
the user LeanWolf described HERE . After that I restarted the system and everything worked fine until I started the game again. Same probs with another game.
After a further reboot I got the erros also during the post-period and on the monitor-output -> the graphiccard must be destroyed.
I've only installed the omega-drivers with standard settings and did no overclocking or something like that.
Can this really caused by the omega-drivers? Can such a damage caused by maybe overclocking (without my awareness) be detected by the support-guys?
Maybe there is only a problem with the graphiccardfan?
Hoping you will have some good information for me.
Greetz from germany and sorry for my bad english.

Tyler

**Vikingod** · Dec 6, 2004, 02:14 PM

The drivers would not do that to your card (overclock it i mean). It does sound like there is something wrong, but I doubt the drivers had something to do with it. As far as the support guys goes, I don't think they will be abile to tell, but I'm not sure. If its under warrenty, send it back and get it fixed.

Louiemaster · Dec 6, 2004, 02:52 PM

See if there is a Bios update for your laptop. It seems like you have an overheating problem and i know the updates usually fix those.

TylerD · Dec 6, 2004, 03:48 PM

Thanks for your immediate answers !

@Louiemaster: Yes, I think there is an overheating problem. But the errors appear still at the BIOS and so also in the DOS-Box. Maybe it's possible to run the bios-update, but as long as I am not sure that this will fix the problem, I won't try this. I'm sure, that there is a hardware-failure and I can't imagine that a bios-update is possible to fix that. Or am I wrong?

Tyler

Samir · Dec 6, 2004, 06:38 PM

It is possible that your card is dead, as tihs is EXACTLY the same way my M9000 went dead! Omega's drivers by itself may be not responsibile for damage, but since they contain some unknown optimisations, they may have shorten your card's life...

Omega's are great for desktop Radeons, but i will NEVER EVER reccomend them for any laptop users... Most of the laptop users stick to Omega's and they don't have any probs, but few other people wich had their Mobility Radeons burned will never use them again... (Funny thing is that allmost all burned Mobility Radeons, actually USED Omega's !?!)

I don't want to be rude & i have nothing against Omega's (actually, they are great set of drivers), but for Mobility users:
DO STICK TO CATALYST! Use patje's modder & everything will be safe & sound...

Who cares for few FPS more if your card may burn and you need whole laptop motherboard replaced to repair it?!?

TJ- · Dec 8, 2004, 04:56 AM

i got a mobility 9000 and have always used omegas drivers and never had any problems!!!!!!

the only other option is using the manfactures drivers which are severly outdated and are rarly updated...STUPID TOSHIBA

BeautifulPsycho · Dec 9, 2004, 10:31 AM

I'm using Omega drivers on my Mobility 9000 and I don't have any problems whatsoever. I do notice my laptop heating up a little, but hey, it's winter and it's getting colder every day, so you won't hear me complaining

..Now I think about it, apart from that there is something else. When playing games mobile (in other words, without battery, say while traveling) the battery gets low faster than it used to (under normal drivers). Must be normal, I guess.

(The only problem I do have is video playback, but that als happens with Catalyst drivers, so that's just Acer screwing up and has nothing to do with Omega/Catalyst.)

XPlosion · Dec 20, 2004, 12:04 PM

Same here. The omega drivers work fine with every new game, but I heard that there is a bug in the acer aspire bios regarding the MR9000. I've called acer several time's for this problem, and tell them that the ati drivers date back to 2002. The answer i got was "that there were no known issues and so they don't fix the problem". The last bios update for my acer aspire 1604lc are from march this year.

TylerD · Dec 25, 2004, 12:00 PM

Yesterday I received my notebook back. The acer service replaced the whole mainboard and fixed all probs without any question in only one week.
Thanks for your answers and happy christmas.
Greetz,

Tyler

The_Neon_Cowboy · Dec 25, 2004, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerD

Yesterday I received my notebook back. The acer service replaced the whole mainboard and fixed all probs without any question in only one week.
Thanks for your answers and happy christmas.
Greetz,

Tyler

COOL!

hitmann47 · Dec 31, 2004, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerD

Yesterday I received my notebook back. The acer service replaced the whole mainboard and fixed all probs without any question in only one week.
Thanks for your answers and happy christmas.
Greetz,

Tyler

Lucky you! I've had the exact same problem with my aspire 1603 (see here) but it didnt went as smooth as with yours.

Since I had only a couple of days of warrant left I returned it to the shop to get it send to Acer. 3 (!) weeks it took them to sort it out ... without changing a damn thing about the malfunctioning graphic chip

they did however replace a flawlessly working CPU+Cooler

After an angry chat with that particular shop they promised me to collect the machine and return it in MAX 2 days, gaining priority over others. After 14 verrrry long days they gave it back. Finally solving the problem by replacing the motherboard (which has the chip on it).

Needless to say that I'm not going to spend one more EURO on Acer products. Certainly not since this video playback / bios update thing STILL hasn't been solved.

your hitmann.