Shaphire Radeon 7000 issue

[indibil]

Hi, I recently purchased a Shappire Radeon 7000 PCI PC version. My intention was to use it on a G3 B&W. Since I don't have a PC, I first installed it in a secondary slot on the G3 and from the system profile it indicated that there was an ATI graphics card, but the screen was black.

I purchased 128kb EPROMS and with a TL866 I flashed the complete 128kb Apple 208 ROM. I replaced the chip and when I installed it, I have an image on the screen.

But as you can see in the images, it seems that something is wrong with the 3D acceleration. In OS9.2.2 I have tried several drivers for 7000, and even official ATI drivers for all their graphics cards, and always the same, it seems that something is not working. In the system profile it does not indicate that it is a Radeon 7000, only the data.

In 10.4.11, when booting, some jailbars appear while the apple logo is displayed, which then disappear, but in the system profile, it also does not show Radeon 7000, only ATI VGA. Also, a square shadow appears that follows the cursor.

To verify that everything is correct, I have applied the ATI ROM Updater from 208 to 226, and it runs correctly, and is shown in the photo, but the defects persist.

Does anyone have an idea what is happening? The Radeon 7000 does not require moving any resistors, according to what I have read. It does not seem to be a memory failure, they do not seem to be glitches, rather that there is no 3D acceleration.

The only thing that occurs to me is to try cleaning the PCI socket pins, although I do not think that is the problem.

edit: i have replaced all capacitors and the defects persist.

 

[Byrd]

Check the card for any damaged resistors, capacitors, try to gently place pressure on chips, flex the card while in use. It seems more a hardware failure.

 

[indibil]

Check the card for any damaged resistors, capacitors, try to gently place pressure on chips, flex the card while in use. It seems more a hardware failure.

Ok, tkanks, I'll try it, it's quite possible. I've already changed the electrolytic capacitors. It doesn't seem like a memory failure, but maybe a cold solder...

 

[indibil]

Hi.

I've done the flex test, and oddly enough it made a very strange clicking noise. I've re-soldered the RAM chips and it still did, so I removed the heatsink and did a reflow, the clicking noise is no longer heard when flexing, but the symptoms persist. Could the GPU be damaged?

Does this model of Radeon have a lower resolution limit? I'm on 1600x1024 I think.

Thanks.

 

[DarthNvader]

Some of the Sapphire cards need to be under clocked a bit.

If I recall correct lowing it about 25MHz on the core and VRAM normally does the trick.

 

[demik]

Yeah looks like memory issues, either timing or frequency. Some VRAM chips needs different settings than what the stock ROM does

 

[trag]

I've converted dozens of the Sapphire R7000 cards and there's never been a timing problem.

And yes, it is a simple serial Flash swap.

Does the card output video before the OS starts to load? It almost sounds like the firmware isn't loading properly and the OS is supplying the driver. I don't know if 10.4 can do that for the R7000.

Otherwise, yes, just some unknown hardware problem.

 

[indibil]

Thanks for responding.

I have video from the startup, and I was able to apply the official ATI ROM updater and it ran, but the problem persists. I get the feeling that it is a hardware or driver failure, although tested on another G4 and it behaves the same.

 

[indibil]

By chance, you may be right about the speed of memories.
I still have to try it, but today I installed a Radeon 9200 PCI that works fine, and just when I opened ATIccelerator, which had higher frequencies, the image showed the same errors as with the 7000. So I'm going to grab the original ROM e 185/185 and lower it to 175/150, and I'll try.
What values do you suggest?

 

[indibil]

Tested at 185/166 and the same issues.

 

[Byrd]

Try this software overclocking utility

ATIccelerator II - Macintosh Repository

ATIccelerator II comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. If you destroy your costly 9800 Pro or your now worthless Rage 128 because of a bug in this...

www.macintoshrepository.org

... down clock to 150/150 and see how you fare. Unfortunately I do think you've either a VRAM or GPU issue here, the Sapphire card is high quality and should be happy at stock ROM speeds.