I can't believe no one else has run into this and I'm hoping someone who has run into it reads this! I have a Rage Orion card in a 3rd generation G3 (beige) minitower running OS 9 and ATi universal 4.2. When I boot up, I get distorted video, usually horizontal bars that fluctuate in color. The mouse is a white box. To fix this, I shut down, disconnect the monitor from the machine, reconnect the monitor, and start up. Problem gone. Alternatively, I can shut off the monitor for several seconds then turn it on and start up ok. This happens every time I start up, and I can not perform the procedure until I have booted up once in "bars" mode. I've tried two different monitors (one Samsung 19" and more recently a Viewsonic PF900 19"). The internal ATi card is attached to a 15" apple multiscan monitor, which is always clear. Thanks in advance for any help!


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Andy

sounds similar to what i saw on a iMac with a bad VRAM chip on the motherboard.
but the fact that you can fix it after starting up sounds more like a synch problem.. try a few different resolution/refresh rates.
make sure the orion is fully seated and all connections are tight. if the problem persists, try the Orion in another Mac if you can and if the problem follows the board, have it replaced

PM8500/G3-400 clocked to 454/1Mb L2
208Mb RAM, interleaved, OS9
Rage128 Orion16Mb/4Mb VRAM/2 monitors(17"&14")
scanners, M-O, zip, jaz on SCSI ext.
IBM, Seagate HD's and Plextor 12/20 Plex internal

Thanks, zac4mac - I will give your suggestions a try! I had considered that it might be a bad board.

I'm not sure if this will help, but I have seen it work in the past. Try installing the card in a different slot. If it works, this does not nessesarily mean that you have a bad logic board. Some cards just like to be installed in specific slots...

I have the same configuration as you. A beige G3 minitower with Rage Orion card installed in the center PCI slot (of the three slots). Connected to it, I have an NEC E900+. (Apple 13" connected to monitor port.) Sometimes, when I start up, I get vertical stripes over the entire screen and a white block around the cursor. After much troubleshooting, I found that it was not software related. I checked and the card is seated properly in my machine. The only solution I have found is to simply power off the mchine, wait 10 seconds and try again. This nearly always solves the problem. If it doesn't I repeat the process. I think it's simply the Orion not properly initiallizing itself on powerup, so I haven't been too concerned. I haven't tried switching PCI slots yet as the proplem seemed to occur less and less over time. (It barely ever happens now.)

Rrabu, that is EXACTLY what is happening to me. Thank you for verifying that I am not crazy. I find that shutting down, either disconnecting the monitor or turning the monitor off for a few seconds, reconnecting/turning on the monitor, and restarting always solves the problem. However, while the problem used to occur roughly 50% of the time (it seemed to especially happen after playing a game in RAVE mode), now it happens almost 100% of the time, so more often, not less, and so is becoming quite inconvenient. I will try reseating/moving the card. Rrabu, did you ever contact ATi?

Thanks, all.

No, I never contacted ATI about the problem. It became so infrequent that I didn't bother. I've had the card for approximately 4 months now and am quite happy with it. When the problem first occured, I used to disconnect the monitor too. Like I said before, just turning power off (quickly hitting the power button on the tower before Mac OS starts loading), waiting 10 secs, and then starting again works. My tower is sitting on carpet in a fairly dry room. Perhaps it's static buildup on the hardware that causes the problem? (Which my humidifyer combats...) I'm not sure. It happened quite often when I first got the card. Pulling it right off, blowing dust out of the slot (carefully) and reseating the card seemed to make the problem quite infrequent. When you pull the card out to reseat it, check the contacts and make sure they are clean (no dust bunnies from being put into a ?dusty? ?dirty? slot). Hope this helps.

Rrabu, thanks for continuing to reply. I did try what you suggested, as well as other PCI slots, and unfortunately I am still getting the problem at every boot. I'll have to try replacing the card! Thanks again.