Last night while gaming my screen went nuts. looked like the old test pattern on tvs. I cleaned everything today and clecked connections.
My system is

xp home sp2
amd2700+
1gig= 2x512 pc2700 memory
epox 8rda mobo
ati 256 meg 9800xt
onboard sound
2 40 gig western digital hard drives


I ran a system suite test and this is what it said.


Diagnostics Results

Started: 10/1/2005 8:49:12 PM
Finished: 10/1/2005 820 PM



Test Depth was set to Average
Results for: All Tests

Video Adapter 1 [RADEON 9800 XT] (7 minutes 5 seconds)
Started at 8:49:12 PM on 10/1/2005
Ended at 817 PM on 10/1/2005
Approximate memory (bytes): 268304384
Driver Version: 4000
Width: 1024
Height: 768
Color Depth: 32
Display Initial Test Message: False
Video RAM Test
Started at 8:49:18 PM on 10/1/2005
Ended at 8:55:41 PM on 10/1/2005
Compare Delay: 0
Error Limit: 10
Change Video Mode: True
This test failed. This may have been due to bad or failing video memory
The diagnostic test reported:
Video Group Program Error FILE: RamPod LINE: 480
Polygon Drawing Test
Started at 8:55:41 PM on 10/1/2005
Ended at 8:55:48 PM on 10/1/2005
This test failed. This may have been due to
• A failure in video hardware
• A failure in video memory
• A failure in the video driver
The diagnostic test reported:
Expected: 9C1A5F66 Actual: 31530732
Vertical polygon drawing failed
BitBlock Transfer Test
Started at 8:55:48 PM on 10/1/2005
Ended at 8:55:53 PM on 10/1/2005
No problem was found while running this test.
3D Animation Test
Started at 8:55:53 PM on 10/1/2005
Ended at 817 PM on 10/1/2005
Wider Animation: False
Signature Value: 0
No problem was found while running this test.

Did you check the video drivers and the card hardware? Did you check and see if the card was overheating? I had a card overheat on me, but it just shut itself down. Could be yours shows the test pattern though.. who knows.

Thanks for the quick reply. I did check the drivers, they are up to date. I have never overclocked this card (thankfully now). I have a temp sensor on the vga and processor both when the test pattern started the vga was 100 F. I took it out, removed the heatsink and inspected it looking for any obvious black marks from heat or a short. I cleaned the HS and reapplied artic silver. When I reinserted it it came up and worked so I was able to do the system suite test. After that I started my game, turned the graffics down all the way and tried running it again. Same results, test pattern came up again.
This card is still under the 3 year warranty from ATI so I am going to RMA it. Luckly I had a old 32meg card so I can still use my puter until they send me another vga.