Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-07-26, 15:21:

Update: I got back around to messing with the system a few days ago, and the Radeon 8500 has kicked the bucket entirely. 8 beeps with no display. So, ill be in the market for another gpu. maybe a pci one? ive heard those are more reliable

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more that performance GPUs are more prone to fail as there is more thermal stress etc.
You will very rarely meet for example dead GeForce4 MX440, unless it is broken mechanically. These slower cards are almost immortal. If you need a cheaper and reliable AGP try to get Radeon 9600 / 9600PRO, or if lucky XT.
These are good cards and much more abundant than 8500. DUNO why...but it is. If you don ´t mind Nvidia, try Gf4TI4200 - it is I think 2002 and easier to get than Gf3Ti..again don ´t know why.
If the PC beeps and do not detect the GPU at all the most probably the main chip is not communicating at all, or it has no power on some of the main rails.
Considered the artifacts you have experienced before I am afraid the chip is a toast, or the solder connections are screwed too much.
If you don ´t insist on keeping that dead 8500 I would be happy to have it to try some repair. Economically it has no sense, but I would like to give it a chance. My friend here is good as BGA soldering and rebelling…who know…

H.W.Necromancer wrote on 2022-08-04, 12:51:

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more th […]
Show full quote

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more that performance GPUs are more prone to fail as there is more thermal stress etc.
You will very rarely meet for example dead GeForce4 MX440, unless it is broken mechanically. These slower cards are almost immortal. If you need a cheaper and reliable AGP try to get Radeon 9600 / 9600PRO, or if lucky XT.
These are good cards and much more abundant than 8500. DUNO why...but it is. If you don ´t mind Nvidia, try Gf4TI4200 - it is I think 2002 and easier to get than Gf3Ti..again don ´t know why.
If the PC beeps and do not detect the GPU at all the most probably the main chip is not communicating at all, or it has no power on some of the main rails.
Considered the artifacts you have experienced before I am afraid the chip is a toast, or the solder connections are screwed too much.
If you don ´t insist on keeping that dead 8500 I would be happy to have it to try some repair. Economically it has no sense, but I would like to give it a chance. My friend here is good as BGA soldering and rebelling…who know…

ill keep an eye out for one of those suggestions. Honestly im to lazy to deal with packing and shipping, unless youre in the SW Missouri area, then I could just bring it to you in person. I also have a Radeon 4650 AGP card that is known working, but finding Win98SE drivers for it seems difficult. I think its more of an XP card.

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-08-04, 21:23:

H.W.Necromancer wrote on 2022-08-04, 12:51:

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more th […]
Show full quote

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more that performance GPUs are more prone to fail as there is more thermal stress etc.
You will very rarely meet for example dead GeForce4 MX440, unless it is broken mechanically. These slower cards are almost immortal. If you need a cheaper and reliable AGP try to get Radeon 9600 / 9600PRO, or if lucky XT.
These are good cards and much more abundant than 8500. DUNO why...but it is. If you don ´t mind Nvidia, try Gf4TI4200 - it is I think 2002 and easier to get than Gf3Ti..again don ´t know why.
If the PC beeps and do not detect the GPU at all the most probably the main chip is not communicating at all, or it has no power on some of the main rails.
Considered the artifacts you have experienced before I am afraid the chip is a toast, or the solder connections are screwed too much.
If you don ´t insist on keeping that dead 8500 I would be happy to have it to try some repair. Economically it has no sense, but I would like to give it a chance. My friend here is good as BGA soldering and rebelling…who know…

ill keep an eye out for one of those suggestions. Honestly im to lazy to deal with packing and shipping, unless youre in the SW Missouri area, then I could just bring it to you in person. I also have a Radeon 4650 AGP card that is known working, but finding Win98SE drivers for it seems difficult. I think its more of an XP card.

Ok, I fully understand. Unfortunately, I live in EU so it does not really worth the hassle with shipping. 4650 AGP is a good card, but you are right - it is a XP era card. I think the last ATI Radeon with official Windows 98 support is X800 (any of its version). For Nvidia it is a GeForce 6800 (GT, Ultra) but those in AGP version are hard to find and expensive. The GeForce 6600GT is much cheaper alternative. But you need a good CPU to utilize those - it means some late AGP board for Socket 754 / 939 and good CPU. This really the final era of AGP mostly for people who had been hesitating to buy a PCI-E board years ago.
Wish you good luck with your projects!

Alistar1776 wrote on 2022-08-04, 21:23:

H.W.Necromancer wrote on 2022-08-04, 12:51:

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more th […]
Show full quote

Hallo, that is a sad story but shit happens. I wouldn’t say PCI / PCI-E cards are somehow more reliable. The problem is more that performance GPUs are more prone to fail as there is more thermal stress etc.
You will very rarely meet for example dead GeForce4 MX440, unless it is broken mechanically. These slower cards are almost immortal. If you need a cheaper and reliable AGP try to get Radeon 9600 / 9600PRO, or if lucky XT.
These are good cards and much more abundant than 8500. DUNO why...but it is. If you don ´t mind Nvidia, try Gf4TI4200 - it is I think 2002 and easier to get than Gf3Ti..again don ´t know why.
If the PC beeps and do not detect the GPU at all the most probably the main chip is not communicating at all, or it has no power on some of the main rails.
Considered the artifacts you have experienced before I am afraid the chip is a toast, or the solder connections are screwed too much.
If you don ´t insist on keeping that dead 8500 I would be happy to have it to try some repair. Economically it has no sense, but I would like to give it a chance. My friend here is good as BGA soldering and rebelling…who know…

ill keep an eye out for one of those suggestions. Honestly im to lazy to deal with packing and shipping, unless youre in the SW Missouri area, then I could just bring it to you in person. I also have a Radeon 4650 AGP card that is known working, but finding Win98SE drivers for it seems difficult. I think its more of an XP card.

ATI cards beyond X8xx series do not have Win9x drivers.

H.W.Necromancer wrote on 2022-08-05, 07:39:

Ok, I fully understand. Unfortunately, I live in EU so it does not really worth the hassle with shipping. 4650 AGP is a good card, but you are right - it is a XP era card. I think the last ATI Radeon with official Windows 98 support is X800 (any of its version). For Nvidia it is a GeForce 6800 (GT, Ultra) but those in AGP version are hard to find and expensive. The GeForce 6600GT is much cheaper alternative. But you need a good CPU to utilize those - it means some late AGP board for Socket 754 / 939 and good CPU. This really the final era of AGP mostly for people who had been hesitating to buy a PCI-E board years ago.
Wish you good luck with your projects!

Thanks. the processor the system currently has is a Slot A Athlon 850Mhz. I think I made a post in General Hardware wondering about possible CPU upgrades. For gpu id be looking for something as good or better than the Radeon 8500 LE that died on me.

For your uses, the MX440 would do nicely. Do not underestimate it just because it is a DX7 card - it is a very strong performer despite this. It is to my knowledge the best win9x graphics card that can run passively in a single slot. GeForce 3 Ti200 can also be acquired cheapily if you look. If you insist on a Radeon, look after a Radeon 9100 - it is a rebranded 8500LE, and much more common than the 8500. It will support all the fancy features like TruForm.

X800 cards are unfortunately getting hard to find, very expensive and VERY failure-prone. And you would be CPU bottlenecked anyway with anything better than a Geforce 4 ti 4200.