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Problem with the ATI Radeon 8500?
Zana Feaver
Arkie
Join date: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 396
08-13-2003 07:45
My video card is driving me crazy. I understand that SL needs the new Catalyst 3.6 driver for Radeon 8500 to run -- HOWEVER -- this driver apparently is causing major problems with my system. It hangs up -- three or four times a day. I turned off ATI's "fastwrite" because I read somewhere that seems to help performance when using Windows XP but I'm still have the same crash problem, though less often (thank god). I can't really afford a new video card at the moment, though I'm willing to change them out to get better performance in the future (I'll never get another ATI if that happens, this is insane).

Right now, though, I'm curious if anyone else has this problem and if so -- does it correspond to use of Windows XP and perhaps not the running of SL? It hangs up even when I'm not running SL -- it hangs up at totally random times. Usually when I'm doing graphics work though. I have access to Windows 2000 and can upgrade pretty easily if needbe but I'd rather not if I can find a fix!

Any advice, suggestions, whines that might be helpful?

Danke,

Zana
James Miller
Village Idiot
Join date: 9 Jan 2003
Posts: 1,500
08-13-2003 07:52
I wish I could help, sounds awful! :(

I am an nVidia type of guy, and I really happen to hate ATI.

*runs to the mailslot to see if his new GeForce FX 5600 w/256mb arrived*
Grim Lupis
Dark Wolf
Join date: 11 Jul 2003
Posts: 762
08-13-2003 07:55
I would go into the video properties and off all hardware acceleration options (settings|advance|troubleshooting) and try that for awhile to see if the lockups go away.

if that works, then I would slowly, over a period of several days, move the slider back up one notch at a time to see at what point the lockups start recurring.
_____________________
Grim

"God only made a few perfect heads, the rest of them he put hair on." -- Unknown
Daniel Linden
Contains Multitudes
Join date: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 103
08-13-2003 09:33
While Catalyst 3.6 is the recommended driver in most cases, in some cases -- especially with an 8500 -- you might have better performance with Catalyst 3.1. Give it a try, and drop a line to [email]support@secondlife.com[/email] if it doesn't clear-up your trouble.
Zana Feaver
Arkie
Join date: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 396
08-13-2003 11:59
Thanks for the suggestion Grim. I had the acceleration up all the way to full bar -- could be this fixes it -- me hopes? If it doesn't, then I will also check into the Catalyst 3.1 -- thanks both :).

Zana