Windows 7 Pixelated Screen Problem

Hey everyone, I have an interesting problem.

I am not sure if it is a hardware or software, so please move to the appropriate forum if necessary.

A while back, I downloaded the Windows 7 RC 7100 build and did a fresh install from XP. Everything worked fine except for when I would log on or off, or I would use certain popups through control panel or anything, my entire monitor would have black squares pop up like it was pixelated or shattered. I thought it was a RC problem.

I recently just bought and installed a Windows 7 Home 64 bit OEM and it is doing the same thing. I've attatched a picture of what it looks like when I run a pop up through my control panel (In this case, the windows computer assesment thing). The screen does the same thing when I log on or off still. I have a Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS AGP and yes, I have updated the driver for Win7 64bit. Any help would be great!!!

Thanks!

JB

 

Well, I just installed FSX and apparently it has to disable AERO and the Win7 colors change to basic and whatnot and my whole screen goes shattered and I can't even read anything while in the game/program. Anyone have any thoughts at all??

 

I wonder if it's because the game is doing the switching (and not you) and it's somehow incompatible with Win7. My first thought is to disable Aero manually and not let the game do it to see if that stops the artifacting.
Have you tried this yet?

 

I know for a fact that FSX is compatible with Win7 as I have used it before without problems. Aero being disabled by a game is perfectly normal and should cause no problems. Aero is disabled in some games to free up resources, or to remove advanced menu effects or other effects that may interfere with the game.

Personally I suspect this is a hardware fault, possibly from an overheating graphics card, although it may be driver related.

First step, try updating your graphics drivers.

 

As a software developer, woulda , shoulda , coulda doesn't always fit the scenario. Systems vary. But if you did update the drivers and you're still getting the problem (and I'm agreeing with you here), it most likely is an issue with how the graphics card is handling the switching to Aero. But my question remains un-answered. Does this happened when you do it manually?

 

Manually as in when I go in and switch aero off and go to a Windows basic/high contrast theme? YES, it does. I took two pictures of my dektop of what it immediatly looks like after i manually switch aero off. I didn't touch anything, it just shows up like this. And also, I did a print screen first, but when I opened the print screen up, the dektop looked normal and didn't show any shattered marks or anything, I had to use my camera phone to take a picture of the monitor itself.

Also, there is a driver update for my graphics card from nVidia, I've already tried that and it performs the same way. And actually after I updated to that new driver, everytime the computer would start and show the desktop, the screen would go black, and then the desktop would reappear like a flash for a second or two.

 

Is your Monitor identified correctly in Device Manager?

 

Yes.

 

I know this is related to Vista, but it may help in this situation:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945000

 

What's bothering me is that the screengrab didn't show a problem. The screen grab would be a picture of the output of the graphics card not what is actually on the monitor. I'm wondering if it could be a monitor driver or possibly a problem with refresh rate or resolution. Can you duplicate the problem at a different resolution? What is your monitor model and the driver version? I'm just curious if a "monitor model number and win 7" would produce any results.

 

My Monitor is a Dell E197FP with a driver version of 1.0.0.0 from 8/22/2006. It has the same problems with different resolutions. The screen actually locked up when I went to 800 x 600 and the "Please Wait" just sat there while the screen remained grayed out for a long period of time. I looked on the Dell support page and it has my monitor for driver support listed under Vista, but not Windows 7. Should I try the vista driver? My brother actually has the same monitor and he has windows 7 and his screen works perfectly fine. So... hmmm......... :confused

 

I don't know. If the problem only happened after going to Win 7 and your brother has no problem with the same monitor and win7 then I am probably just wrong about the monitor being involved.

 

Could be a sign of the GFX card dieing. Do you see the same during the bios post message?

 

No, the start up looks fine and normal. And going into the BIOS setup, everything is fine. It just looks like that when the first blue windows screen loads while it's logging on, then the desktop shows up and everything is fine only as long as AERO is running. Any way to check on my own computer if its the video card? Because it's an AGP so I'd have to find someone with an AGP slot still. I just don't want to fork over the money for a new PCI card just yet cause then I'd have to get a new mobo. This one only supports PCI-E 4x and I'd rather get a 16x that would last me.

Also, the thing is I was just running XP up until July and everything was perfectly fine until I went to 7. I just have a hard time believing it's a component problem.

 

I see pixelation on the screen shot so I do note the problem. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how to correct it, only to say that I don't agree it is the monitor.

 

I just hooked up my brother's monitor, which is the same model, to my computer and it is still doing the same pixelation when I switch AERO off.

I attatched two more pictures; one is a print screen and the other is the exact same picture from my camera phone.

 

What is strange about those two screen grabs is the one on the actual monitor has a race car coming through. I don't know if this is even possible to be part of the problem but have you disabled your onboard video in Device Manager?

 

The race care is from the left over AERO theme. It bled through as you can obviously see. Now how would I know if I have the onboard video disabled? The only thing I can find in the Device Manager is under Display Adapters - NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS. Where else would I look?

 

That is the right place. If only Nvidia is there then that is not the problem.

I know little about hardware and am only trying to troubleshoot. I'm just thinking about the fact that there are two themes displaying at the same time. Did the car stay on the screen for longer than a second or two? I don't think bleeding through should be possible, if Aero is turned off than the theme reverts to a basic wallpaper and the car disappears. I'm trying to figure out how the car could still be there when the video card is sending a clear picture of the generic 7 wallpaper according to the print screen. I am missing something but I am not sure what it is. Let's see if anyone responds who knows how this can happen. Or if it happens all the time and I just haven't seen it.

 

Since there is not a lot of activity in this thread maybe try an older driver. This thread seems to be saying that AGP support stopped around 178.24.

Some people with similar cards had luck with the 182 version for Vista 64. Use the advanced search.

Might be worth a shot. You can always make a restore point before the change or use the rollback driver feature in Device Manager.

 

Last page in this thread says go back 3 years and the driver works.

 

Actually going back that far is related to the 7600GS and an Asrock Motherboard so I would try the 182.5 version for Vista 64 and see if that fixes things.

 

Wow, thanks for finding those threads! I never came across those when I was searching, and i never knew about guru3d.com But anyways, I tried 182.5. It works except for 2 problems. It first off-sets my screen so I have to adjust the monitor to center the screen, then when I try to start flight simulator x, it has a pop up stating that it cannot run due to shader effects and video card requirements and then it is forced to exit.

Right now, I am on 178.24 and it has the same problems as before, but the screen position does turn back to normal. So we at least narrowed it down to a driver problem. It's funny how microsoft says this video card is compatible with windows 7 and that I do not need to download a driver. O well, I guess I just have to keep searching unless someone else can chime in.

 

I'm just calling it a night. I'll look this over tomorrow.

One thing I found was that since the nvida forums are offline if you find any results in google that look promising click on the cached version link to read through them.

 

Does this AGP support stuff have anything to do with VIA support or something like that? I don't know too much depth on motherboard stuff but I've found a few things for this motherboard about AGP support and chipset drivers. Anyone know anything about that or where I could find answers?

 

I'm thinking trial and error is going to be your only possible remedy.
What is your motherboard model number? SIW or Everest should give you the model. I'm curious if it is an Asrock.
If it is Asrock maybe reading more closely on the VIA connection might give some insight into solutions but going way back to the 9x.xx driver was all I saw. Probably OK for just using the OS but no good for gaming.

Did you have the problem when you first loaded Win7 using Window's driver before updating to the lastest Nvida driver? I'm guessing you did from reading the other threads.

 

I have this motherboard. http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4COREDUAL-SATA2 R2.0

I'm just thinking of biting the bullet and just upgrading the video card anyways. Since AGP is so out of date now and not supported anymore, I might as well move up to PCI-E. The problem with this board is that it only supports PCI-E 4x when all these new and improved cards are PCI-E 16x. So I'm considering this card and motherboard. This is the motherboard in my brothers computer and when I put it together, it was very easy and very nicely set up. Let me know what you think or if it's even worth it.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=3013

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?family=GeForce+9+Series+Family It's the GeForce 9800 GTX+

If anyone has anything else they'd recommend, go right ahead!

 

Since you and I are the the only ones reading this thread and advice on motherboards and new graphic card prices is out of my league, I would suggest starting a new thread where the regular hardware guys will see it. So, basically your last post and a reference to this thread.

I hope it will get you more attention. I'll also look to see if I can make sense of the VIA chip aspect of your problem since you do have the Asrock mobo. But I am not hopeful.

 

its due to the hibernate function in the graphics card if you turn it off you should be fine nvidia did a poor job on this graphics card they went straight from the 7600 series to the 8800 series hope this sheds some light on the subject oh and nvidia is not going to fix the issue so you will have to get use to it or buy a new graphics card

 

Now are you saying there is a hibernation option in the grpahics card? Or to turn off the hibernation for the computer? Right now, I can go to power options, advanced options, and under hibernation, it's set to never. I did a search and a lot of it came back talking about hibernation with the overall computer, not the graphics card itself.

If you can elaborate, that would be great! I just don't see how hibernation can affect the whole AERO setting an such.

 

ok the hibernation i'm talking about is built into the options where you screen saver is go to change power settings you will see a balanced 9recommended) go to change plan settings, then go to change advance power settings and anything in hibernation in there turn off that should fix it but if its still happening then try a few more things in there and the hole blotchy screen is not due to the aero

 

@caution232798: The hibernate function you just described is part of Windows and is nothing to do with the graphics card.

@JB441: The motherboard ou specified in an earlier post would be perfectly fine for you.

The only things I would look out for are the power requirements of the new card and thermal paste for the CPU.

If you decide to upgrade, then please post back before you do and I will guide you through what is necessary to upgrade, if you need the advice.