Hi, I wonder if somebody can help me with this. As soon as I get near a runway at any airport I get strange flashing shapes all over the screen and ground textures changing every few seconds. It makes taking off a bit difficult! and also happens as soon as I land. During flight there is no problem and at the ramp and taxiing are also both fine, it's just on or adjacent to runways. I have tried different settings in the sim and on the GC, ATI 9800 Pro with latest drivers. I always run the sim in windowed mode at 1280 X 1024, could this cause a problem? This has only started in the last few days and is driving me mad.Mark

There are two ways to tell if a video card is in trouble. It flashes polygons and/or it textures them wrong (GPU errors), or you get white spots, large pixelations, or blurry textures on the screen (Texture Memory - VRAM)Flashing is actually a sign of a card that is doing one of three things: 1) overheating. Check your fan. ATI's run way too hot and really benifit from better cooling. ATI become unstable above 60degC2) Clocks set too high. If the fan is fine and temp is under 60degC when under load and you just updated your drivers then there is the possiblity that the clocks are now set wrong. IRRC your 9800 runs at about 350/600 or so... check the docs or online to be sure and then grab the ATI Tool fom my site. It will report card temp and real clock speeds. Run the artifact scanner and have it test for the maximum stable clock speed then set it back from there 5%.Do not use ATI's own tool to set the clocks dynamically... it su.. errr is problematic and weak.http://www.ascendant-online.net/en/downloads/os.php#video3) Driver corruption. If the clocks are not wrong and the heat is fine and you are running the latest drivers, then I give you the same advice i gave another fellow and that is use an older driver for the older cards. The one I reccommend is 5.7 as it seems to work the best on my similar cards.Grab that driver from my site here...http://www.ascendant-online.net/en/downloa...p_wdm_24085.exeThe reality is this flashing is cause for alarm. It means you are having significant GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) errors. Updating the the drivers or slowing the GPU and memory clocks (less so memory) or if heat is the problem, getting it under 60degC under load should fix it, but, if they don't, well saddly there is a very real possibiliy you are watching the slow and impending death of this card.If you need help with the ATI tool to figure out whats what, let me know, I will help you through it.

I meant to point out but forgot... the reason it happens when you are near a runway is because you are on the ground near a verticies intersection and thats where these errors occure. When you are on the ground there are usually a lot more high res textures and models moving in and out of memeory and the GPU is working hard to draw them, but has so many errors it has to drop some or gets them wrong.If you go outside in a high polygon model you will often see poly flashing on the surface of the AC while in flight and it can be triggered with pan arounds in various lighting conditions. It can be mistaken for lightning, but its not. Recall this is not for "missing" textures in the sense you see a gray model or green underlayer once in a while... I am talking about rappid flashing, usually white, but may be other colors and the appearance of odd empty polygon outlines that dont seem to belong.The other stuff is just slow memory transfer rates and/or a poorly textured/conflicting polygon overlap especially if its at an airport with addon scenery. Usually the difference between the two is pretty apparent.CheersShad

Hi Shad, thanks for all your help. I have downloaded and installed the 5-7 drivers and the problem has gone. I had ATI Tool and the clocks were at default 378/351 although in the past I have tried o/clocking the card with this utility. I'm planning a new system at the end of the year so I just need this card to hold on for another few months. One thing I could not find was the temp for the card, where is this info please. Thanks again. Mark

Open the ATI tool,In the bottom right is the settings button - click it.In the very top drop down list on the new dialog, select temperature monitoring and set as desired. If the problem went away with the driver, then I would not worry, it was a driver prolem not card, it could last five more years. Don't be afraid to overclock it if you have a decent fan... just take it slow.CheersShad

On my runways always strange things happens.. most induced by pilot error, but some beyond my controll..LolJohan[a href=http://82.176.145.29/forum_topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=129&FORUM_ID=6&CAT_ID=1&Topic_Title=%5BFS2004%5D+Mildenhall+%2D+Melbourne+Airrace&Forum_Title=Hobbies]Check my Uiver Melbourne race progress[/a]A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, AND A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE

Here's one that beats them all............Try landing at the Airport 'The 17th of November'? Its on the coast of Africa.As you approach on finals the runway seems to roll up towards you, then when you think your on it, it reappears with a 50 feet drop each side!!Dave T. .........On the Devon Riviera and active 'FlightSim User's Group' member at http://www.flightsimgrpuk.free-online.co.uk/http://www.captainsim.com/user/dl/c130/c130_captain.gifhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg