# PowerColor X1600PRO 512mb AGP - Major Problems with video Card



## Aljaud (Nov 1, 2006)

Well, I was curious about overclocking my Video Card a tiny bit because it was lagging a bit in KOTOR, lol..So I downloaded version .24 and installed it, and before I started overclocking I decided to text Max Core speed or w/e. It was doing it's thing and raising the core speed slightly every few seconds, while showing a 3d rendering thing on the side, and after about 3 minutes, a wierd flash of static looking stuff flashed on the screen and the computer froze. I Tried to stop it, and close it, and finally decided to restart it with the restart button on my PC to prevent damage. I started it up and it seemed to be working, so I thought I'd text the max memory and be a little more careful this time. Within .46 seconds the screen was completely distorted after a black flash on the screen, and it was frozen again. I restarted again, thinking that it was ok, nothing was wrong, even started to play KOTOR. When I started to play KOTOR everything was going ok, and it was playing fine. Then it played a Cut-Scene Movie, and when it went back to the game everything was messed up. It was so distorted I could barely do anything. Then I close KOTOR, and the whole Screen is doubled, and distorted. I Restarted my PC and it worked, but then after playing KOTOR again, It did the same thing  I found out instead of restarting I can just change resolution and it fixes the graphical distortion, but it's very annoying and I'm fearing that I damaged my brand new (Less than one month use) video card...I spen't all the money I had avaliable to spend on this video card, and I deffinately can't get a new one, and I'm 99% sure the warranty is invalid if you try to overclock the card..Can anyone PLEASE think of anything I could do to fix this? Thank's for reading my long post  Hope I can get this fixed 

P.S. I'll try to get a picture of what it looks like if it happens again.


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## Agility (Nov 1, 2006)

Please state your clock/mem before/after overclocking and crashes. You might also get help here http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=17650


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## Aljaud (Nov 1, 2006)

Well, Before these problems, I allways kept them on Stock speeds. 500/396 - When it was doing the "Find max core speed" or w/e, it got up to about 563. The Memory, was pretty much an instant fail as soon as it started going up. I think it got to 400? lol. Anyways within less than 1 second the memory speed test was all messed up.

Also, I've been playing for around 1-2 hours now, with no problems. It's only like when it switches from Actual Game-Play, to Movie, and back to gameplay. :|


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## Aljaud (Nov 1, 2006)

Well, After at least 3 hour or Gameplay, I thought everything was fine, but then there was another cut-scene. Sure enough, it happened again  Any suggestions? P.S. It's not extremely urgent anymore, since I can easily fix it with a resolution change, but it's still very annoying, and I'm still scared I messed up my video card :|


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## Agility (Nov 1, 2006)

Reinstall the game probably.


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## Aljaud (Nov 2, 2006)

I don't think it's related just to the game, I'm pretty sure it's something with the video card. Either way, theres not much else that I play that conflicts with it, so it's not much of a problem But, I'll try to reinstall it sometime. Hopefully that works


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## Agility (Nov 2, 2006)

Have you tried playing other games to test it?


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## p-jack (Nov 2, 2006)

yea, you should check if other games get messed up, too. if so, my next attempt would be reinstalling the graphics drivers


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## ARTOSOFT (Nov 3, 2006)

Aljaud said:


> Well, I was curious about overclocking my Video Card a tiny bit because it was lagging a bit in KOTOR, lol..So I downloaded version .24 and installed it, and before I started overclocking I decided to text Max Core speed or w/e. It was doing it's thing and raising the core speed slightly every few seconds, while showing a 3d rendering thing on the side, and after about 3 minutes, a wierd flash of static looking stuff flashed on the screen and the computer froze. I Tried to stop it, and close it, and finally decided to restart it with the restart button on my PC to prevent damage. I started it up and it seemed to be working, so I thought I'd text the max memory and be a little more careful this time. Within .46 seconds the screen was completely distorted after a black flash on the screen, and it was frozen again. I restarted again, thinking that it was ok, nothing was wrong, even started to play KOTOR. When I started to play KOTOR everything was going ok, and it was playing fine. Then it played a Cut-Scene Movie, and when it went back to the game everything was messed up. It was so distorted I could barely do anything. Then I close KOTOR, and the whole Screen is doubled, and distorted. I Restarted my PC and it worked, but then after playing KOTOR again, It did the same thing  I found out instead of restarting I can just change resolution and it fixes the graphical distortion, but it's very annoying and I'm fearing that I damaged my brand new (Less than one month use) video card...I spen't all the money I had avaliable to spend on this video card, and I deffinately can't get a new one, and I'm 99% sure the warranty is invalid if you try to overclock the card..Can anyone PLEASE think of anything I could do to fix this? Thank's for reading my long post  Hope I can get this fixed
> 
> P.S. I'll try to get a picture of what it looks like if it happens again.


Warranty still valid as nobody knows but yourself you overclock your card.  ATITool does not write "this card have been overclock" on the card.

Have you tried ATITool latest beta version?  v0.25 beta16pre5?  So far I found that version is compatible and good for x1600pro 512MB AGP (as I have that card).

Regards,
Arto.


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## Aljaud (Nov 3, 2006)

I have tried other games, and it seems to work fine, it's just when it goes from Gameplay, to cutscene, to gameplay, in KOTOR. Nothing else "YET" that i've found except the occasional distortion on some things in stuff like WoW, flash on the screen for a second or so. Nothing too bad. I WOULD get the v0.25 or w/e, but I think my video card is good enough to play what I need, to not risk it again lol  Thanks for helping though lol


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## ARTOSOFT (Nov 3, 2006)

Install the latest driver for ATI.  Use drivecleaner first.  Use the latest beta version of ATITool.

Regards,
Arto.


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## TrevorS (Jan 22, 2007)

ARTOSOFT said:


> Warranty still valid as nobody knows but yourself you overclock your card.  ATITool does not write "this card have been overclock" on the card.
> 
> Have you tried ATITool latest beta version?  v0.25 beta16pre5?  So far I found that version is compatible and good for x1600pro 512MB AGP (as I have that card).
> 
> ...



I have one of those cards as well.  I run it with ATITool 25B14 and Softmod 6.4.  I just tried installing 26 and Softmod 6.7 and there were serious problems.  25B16 is no longer available (I presume it became 26), so I'm wondering which drivers you use with it?

Thanks -- Trevor

PS. (3D o/c = 585.90/450)


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## ARTOSOFT (Jan 22, 2007)

I am using the latest omega driver based on ATI 7.1 driver.

What the softmod do?

Yes, I am using ATITool v0.26.

Regards,
Arto.


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## TrevorS (Jan 23, 2007)

ARTOSOFT said:


> I am using the latest omega driver based on ATI 7.1 driver.
> 
> What the softmod do?
> 
> ...



That's interesting.  My understanding is that the Softmod drivers are necessary for providing the hooks that allow ATITool to unlock the board clocks and make changes.  Since you are using the Omega drivers, are you experiencing any limitations with ATITool?

I noticed there haven't been any Softmod driver updates since 6.7 and I was wondering if that simply meant he was behind in his updates (nothing new) or if something had changed.  Now I'm wondering if since the X1--- cards came out, they are no longer necessary.  (They were definitely needed for the 9--- series cards and I think also the x8-- series cards.)

Thanks -- Trevor

PS.  Did you decide on the Omega drivers based on their performance?

PPS. Is your Pentium CPU Hyper-Threaded?


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## ARTOSOFT (Jan 24, 2007)

TrevorS said:


> That's interesting.  My understanding is that the Softmod drivers are necessary for providing the hooks that allow ATITool to unlock the board clocks and make changes.  Since you are using the Omega drivers, are you experiencing any limitations with ATITool?
> 
> I noticed there haven't been any Softmod driver updates since 6.7 and I was wondering if that simply meant he was behind in his updates (nothing new) or if something had changed.  Now I'm wondering if since the X1--- cards came out, they are no longer necessary.  (They were definitely needed for the 9--- series cards and I think also the x8-- series cards.)
> 
> ...


Hmmm..., if softmod is to unlock the overclocking lock on 9500 card, it is not necessary on x1600 card as the card is not lock for overclocking.

I only run install of ATITool v0.26.  Yes, in device manager there is one ATI tool driver.

I choose omega driver because it doesn't over CCC.  I haven't do benchmarking yet, but I heard that omega driver is faster than catalyst driver (optimized driver).  Anyone can confirm this?

Regards,
Arto.


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## TrevorS (Jan 25, 2007)

ARTOSOFT said:


> Hmmm..., if softmod is to unlock the overclocking lock on 9500 card, it is not necessary on x1600 card as the card is not lock for overclocking.
> 
> I only run install of ATITool v0.26.  Yes, in device manager there is one ATI tool driver.
> 
> ...



The Softmod drivers are supposedly direct mods of the ATI Catalyst -- no other tweaks, so what you say probably is why there are no more Softmods since 6.7.

I'll do a benchmark comparison between my current 6.4 softmods and the 7.1 omega and post my results.


Thanks -- Trevor


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## TrevorS (Jan 25, 2007)

TrevorS said:


> The Softmod drivers are supposedly direct mods of the ATI Catalyst -- no other tweaks, so what you say probably is why there are no more Softmods since 6.7.
> 
> I'll do a benchmark comparison between my current 6.4 softmods and the 7.1 omega and post my results.
> 
> ...



I benched between (A) ATITool .25b14 w/ Softmod 6.4, (B) ATITool .26 w/ Omega 7.0, and (C) ATITool .25b14 w/ Omega 7.0.

Between A and B, B only had the advantage with 3D2006 (+16).  The others benches favored A with max advantage in 3D2001SE (+470).

Between A and C, A had the advantage with 3D2001SE (+17) and 3D2003 (+100), C had the advantage with 3D2005 (+17) and 3D2006 (+30).

Between B and C, C always led.  Parameters were identical in all cases.

On the whole, my choice is C --> Omega 7.0 with ATITool .25b14.

Thanks again -- Trevor


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## tkpenalty (Jan 28, 2007)

Hey man... RMA it, if its new is probably faulty.


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