Can motherboard's AGP slot damage graphics cards?

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

I'm having technical issues, and I'm hoping that someone can give me some useful and detailed feedback regarding it.

The VERY short version of my concern is this:

Is it possible for my Dell motherboard's AGP slot to ruin my graphics card?

Now in case it's important, here's WHY I'm asking this question...

About a month ago, my Radeon 9800 graphics card died on me. The only indication that I had that something bad was happening occured when the graphics during Operation Flashpoint got seriously bizarre. There were long triangular virtual "forms" being projected irregularly across my screen (see this image for a taste of what I struggled with http://img82.imageshack.us/img82....MG] ). I'd quite the game and restart it, only to find that the next time I tried playing the mission I first came across the defects (the "73EastingDemo") that the graphics were getting increasingly worse, and carrying over to my desktop's graphics and in all programs.

Dell diagnosed the problem due to my graphics card up and dying, but a good deal of the diagnosis was left to educated guessing, since most of the time I could only read 30-45% of the screen at any one time.

Due to job requirements, I had to immediately purchase the cheapest card that I could find, with reassurances from the shop owner that it would perform as admirably as my Radeon 9800 once did. I bought an EVGA eGeForce FX 5200 AGP (Found here---> http://www.evga.com/product....mily=13 ), and from the first moment I installed the card, I had serious issues. My framerates in OFP were terrible, and furthermore my other programs such as Word, Firefox, etc., etc. were all behaving strangely and slowly, with the desktop frequently freezing up, and forcing me to hard crash my system.

When I called the shopowner back regarding what was happening, he thought that it was possible that my motherboard's AGP slot was defective, and that it had destroyed my Radeon and was now also affecting the eGeForce card.

I spent hours on the phone with Dell technicians, who walked me through 2 very long diagnostics of my entire XPS system, including a final 3 hour scan of my motherboard. Two techs said that the shopowner's claim that the eGeForce card would perform just as well as the Radeon 9800 was kind of misleading since the eGeForce didn't require as much power as the Radeon 9800 (which is supplied by a molex connection). According to the scans that were run, my motherboard and everything else was perfectly fine, so I went ahead and ordered the best AGP card out there, the PowerColor x1950 Pro.

Game wise, the PowerColor card is much more effecient than the failed 9800. Other programs seem to be working fine, and load up just as quickly as when the 9800 was working.

HOWEVER, I do have a concern. When I tried playing the 73EastingDemo mission, the framerates were extremely slow, and I did see a SMALL amount of the triangular virtual "forms" begin to appear, and which heralded the doom of my 9800 card. I immediately quite the mission.

I am now in the position of being left to wonder the following:

(1) Is the 73EastingDemo mission EXTREMELY demanding on ANY graphics card, and thus the virutal forms that I started to witness again are "okay" to see and don't indicate anything more severe?

(2) Is the shopowner right about the possibility that my motherboard's AGP port is failing and not only killed my Radeon 9800, but is also possibly in the process of killing my PowerColor x1950 Pro?

(3) Is there any way that I can test my motherboard's AGP connection? According to the shopowner, Dell's diagnostics can only determine whether the AGP slot is working, but it can NOT tell how well it's working. How probable is the data that the shopowner is giving me?

(4) I stopped at another computer shop on the way home, and that store's owner advised me to at least clean the registry of any prior 9800 and eGeForce listings there, as simply uninstalling them is not sufficient to keep them from possibly interfering with my current setup. He also advised that it would be better to backup my HD, and then completely wipe it for a fresh installation. Is this overkill, and if I wanted to clean the registry, what is the name of a highly recommended program that can get the job done (the cheaper the better)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as time may be a major factor in our current circumstances!

Yours,

Kyle

Feb. 19, 2007

[chipper 0]

I had a 9800 that died on me.

It's very common, most 9000 series ATI cards die eventually. Just get an Nvidia 7800GS like me :-) hasnt let me down yet

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

It sounds more like overheating than a faulty AGP slot.  Make sure you have enough air moving through you case... or take the side panel off and see if that helps.

As for the FX 5200 AGP having the same 'power' as a 9800:

Tom's Hardware AGP Gfx charts

He was full of it!

[fasad 1]

a 5200 has about 25% the performance of a 9800! Get your money back on that one.

x1950 requires a lot of power, your power supply may not be up to it. You may also be using the incorrect AGP voltage setting, but I don't think it would POST in that case.

OFP is generally very easy on graphics cards compared to most newer 3d games. I run it at 50fps using 1600x1200 on a Raedon 9600xt.

[BraTTy 0]

Correct a 5200 is weak even compared to a 9800pro

AGP slot could harm your video card, its not likely to happen and I have never seen it happen.

Doesn't sound like it in your case, could be various things.

Artifacts is not always your video card, could be faulty system ram, even possibly hard drive fragments.

Your problem sounds more like the AGP slot being too close to the CPU or something along those lines as blocked airflow

Maybe even chipset drivers for your AGP

edit: and comparing your old 9800 to your new video card...remember that your most likely comparing more features running (the x1950 has AA on and such)

I would try running the PC with the case off then try and locate your chipset drivers for your motherboards agp

[Infam0us 10]

This is my two cents ...

Download ATI Tool and scan for artifacts, if you find any and your card is on stock settings then you might have some trouble with the card itself. Also I agree that you should do a full reinstall of XP, delete the partion and everything. Then when you reinstall everything get your graphics card driver from here Also it might be worthwhile posting this on their forums, as many of the guys on there are very helpful and always help me with my PC when it screws up

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Hello All,

Thank you for your time in crafting your thoughtful replies. I ended up "biting the bullet" by backing everything up, and then I completely reformatted the hard drive so that I could do a pristine reinstall of my OS and its drivers/programs.

The results? Nothing less than spectacular. It's unbelievable to me how much better my graphics card's performance is. There's just no comparison. But I'm quite bitter about the hours and hours of time I lost because of Microsoft's piece-of-crap "uninstaller" that leaves tons of artifacts behind. I have more valuable things to do with my time, but what's one to do with a monopolistic digital empire?

Again, thank you for all of your help!

Oh, and I did get my $50 back from that shady store owner.

Yours,

Kyle

Feb. 27, 2007