Hi,

I have a problem that I think has to do with the DDR 128 ATI Radeon 9800 Pro card in my 5 year old system (Dell Dimension 8200, XP Pro SP2, 1.25 GB RAM).

When playing DVDs or video files there are vertical lines spaced about 1/2" apart of what look like alternating 1/4" wide red and green jelly beans. If I reduce the viewing area to about 1" h x 2" w they accordingly shrink and then eventually disappear; not an optimal solution.

Any other program displays fine across the whole viewing screen of a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070 at 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz. I have reinstalled the drivers, tried different resolutions and refresh rates, taken the card out and cleaned the contacts and slot. Physically the card looks fine, the fan works, etc.

After putting the card back in for a short while the viewing of movies was fine but I suppose as the card warmed the same problem came back. My guess is that one of its chips dedicated to processing video has bit the dust and I need to get a replacement card. Other than video related programs the display is fine.

Thanks for your help everyone, Steve.

It sounds like your card is starting to artifact. It does that on its way to the great computer case in the sky ( ). Do you have another card (even if its not as powerful) sitting around the house somewhere to swap in just to see if that's the problem? If not, do you have any super cool friends that would let you borrow theirs for half an hour?