Graphic problems

Hello all you MG'ers

Ive got a wierd problem that I cannot find a solution to, and neither can anybody else I've asked so I thought I'd ask here.

For some time now (a year?) Ive had some problems with the graphics on my computer.
For starters, somtimes it seems like my monitor has a few broken pixels (usually when watching a movie) but when I minimize the window and then maximize it again the "broken pixel" dissapears for a few min. Also if i put my cursor above it, it dissapears until i take the cursor away.
So it's not actually a broken pixel but thats the best way I can describe it.

Also when I try to play games on the computer, games that I according to the minimum specs should be able to handle, the graphic is messed up.¨
One example is all the different Half-Life games which I've always, until about a year ago, could play without any problems.
Now it looks like this (not sure if im allowed to post pictures? please remove if im not):
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5766/wierdlt9.th.jpghttp://img235.imageshack.us/img235/906/hmmzk4.th.jpg

I have the latest Graphic drivers and this my computer specs:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2,21GHz
2GB RAM
GeForce 7900GT
Motherboard I dont know, if needed to know just tell me how to find out.
Is there anything else you need to know please tell me.


Everything else on the computer works fine, its just the graphics that messes up and makes me unable to play games which is kinda annoying since its what I have the computer for.

Happy for any help thanks in advance

 

Saw your other post about this.
I don't have a solution - sorry, but if you can, you might temporarily try another monitor and then another monitor cord (might help to track down what's causing the problem).
Also, is it always teh same pixels?
Anything around that might be interfering with the transmission? - transmission power lines over the house, large magnet under the computer desk, Dr Who powering up his time machine in teh next room?

PS This should bump your post back up to where it can be seen again, anyway.

ATB

GC

 

GCW: I recently changed my monitor and and cable (both brand new) and it's no difference from before. I also changed room and location of the PC and as far as Im aware there is no giant magnet or a crazy scientist in our house so there shouldnt be anything interfering.
And yeh, when Im watching movies, tv-series etc. its the same one pixel but when I play games it varies from a few pixels to the entire screen being messed up.

 

OK, so it sounds like it's a problem in teh computer. Any chance of trying a different graphics card?

 

nope. aint got any laying around and none of my friends either.
and i defo wont buy a new one unless im definately sure its broken.

 

try resocketing the card. take it out, get some canned air and blow off the dust and whatnot and put it back in.

i see you tried a different monitor and cable already, next thing if resocketing the card doesnt work is youll probably have to try a different card to know for sure.

 

Any particular reason for canned air KS? I've seen others mention the same for such jobs. I use a vacuum cleaner, which I would have thought would be better - get rid of teh dust, rather than blow it around.
I use the smallest-opening attachment on the VC (it has a small slot opening), then stick a large drinking straw inside that (actually a Slurpee straw) and block off the extra space in teh attachment with my finger while vacuuming. Seems to work well.
k0rbeh, is the card old enough to expect trouble from it? Or was it brand new when the trouble started? Either cold be a problem.
Has the mobo got built-in graphics. You might be able to just take the card out and try it - although maybe you won't be able to get your game to run without extra graphics, so it won't be a viable test.

 

Are you using the latest drivers for your card?
If you are try using older drivers just in case the new one has a bug in it.:eek

 

have not yet taken out the card, will do that tomorrow.

hugh: ive used both older and newer drivers, and atm i use the latest one.

I doubt the card is old enough to be expected with problems.. but then i dunno how long they are expected to run without problems.
the card is about 3 years old.
and I didnt have this problem when it was new.
And when you say mobo, do u mean motherboard? if you do, i dunno if it has. dont think so but ill try starting something without the card when i resocket it.

 

might not get everything with a vacuum. use the canned air to really blow off the dust, then you can use the vacuum to clean up.

 

Download RivaTuner and check your card's temperature. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download737.html Try FurMark or another video card stress test for GPU stability http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5984.html

If you have overclocked the GPU or CPU, revert to stock settings and see if the problem continues.

 

I dont understand how to use RivaTurner so a quick guide would be very appreciated
Ran FurMark and chose "Stability Test" then changed the resolution to the one i use (1024x768) and then ran with the rest of the settings as standard.
After about 4000 frames the temperature measured 90 degrees and the spinning donut started to look wierd with the same graphical glitches as I posted pictures of in my first post.

Then at around 4800 frames and 95 degrees program crashed with this error message:

Code:

Runtime error!

Program C:\program\oZone3D\Benchmarks\FurMark_v.1.6.0\etqw.exe

abnormal program termination

And I had to reboot my computer.

No clocking has been done that Im aware of.

 

This site should help you understand.

http://www.vaguetech.com/index.php?pageid=rt207

 

Yea good site for understanding Rivatuner....really if you are up to it messing around for a half-hour or so by yourself should help you a lot too.

Anywayzzzzzzz........As far as those temp go they sound a bit high to me, but the 8800 is a hot card. And I do believe those are within operating temps. However the crashing is NOT good.

I would recommend first clearing out the dust. Excess dust can be causing a bad connection, as well as possibly clogging up your GPU fan. Also make sure your case is getting proper ventilation. As far as using a vacuum cleaner, the reasons against it do not stop at just incomplete dust removal. Vacuums can create buildup of static electricity with all of that air moving past the plastic....the canned air does not. That can be downright deadly for computer components. Buy some AIR!!:-D

I would run the test again after this.

If still a problem, use Rivatuner or whatever overclocking software you have to lower to clock speeds on your card a bit, Especially if they have been overclocked at all. Then run the test again. The pixelation that you are seeing in games sounds like classic artifacts that start to happen when a GPU and its memory are pushed to hard, so back them off a bit.

Lemme know if this helped at all!!!

 

Nice link on RivaTuner Bill!

k0rbeh, I am not sure what the temperature max is on your GPU. 95C seems a bit high to me. RivaTuner should, depending on your card, allow you to increase the GPU fan speed manually. In RivaTuner under the Main tab look for the Target adapter section, click on Customize, click on Low-level system settings. See if the option to Enable low-level fan control can be clicked.

If you have that option, increase it to 100%, click ok and re-run FurMark and see if your temps are better, and see if it crashes.

As rmy said, cleaning out the dust may help as well.

 

Ok.
Ive taken out the vid card and dusted it off (the socket aswell).
Chaned my fanspeed to 100% and redid the test.
Ran it for 1170seconds and it was pending between 91-92 degrees. No crash


After ~4200 frames the donut started flashing every 2 seconds or so.
After about 11000 frames (400sec and 89 degrees) a lil graphic glitch appeared. A little black hole in the side of the "donut" (on the side, not the big hole in the middle ) but that was all, no crashing this time.

Right now the temperature is measuring 52 degrees but the graphical problems i have still occur.

The thing is, even shitty games with like no requirements also looks wierd so shouldnt be that its pushed too hard, it has worked in the past.

But anyways, I have done no clocking in the past so not sure how I would back them off a bit.

 

If the problem happens with low graphics games, maybe you could now try running one of those games with the card out.

 

how can i do that?
my monitor is plugged into the gfx card

 

Houston, we have a problem.

I guess that means that you can't do that.

I have been wondering if you could take the computer to a shop and ask them to try a different card for you, on teh understanding that, if a different card works ok, you'll buy one from them. Not sure how that would work out.

O, just had another idea. You said that none of your friends have a graphics card lying around, but maybe one of them would lend you the card out of their computer, if you can find one that is compatible. You'd have to promise not to drop it in acid, or anything like that.
It is starting to sound like a card problem though, or else a connection problem.

Also, you still have the suggestions of rolling back your drivers to an older version (from hugh750 - you can do that in Device Manager) and backing off the clock speeds on the card if you can (from rmyere).

 

ive had older drives and the problem was there when i had those aswell..
also seeming as the gfx has worked fine in the past, shouldnt that mean backing off clock speeds shouldnt be necessary?

hmmm i just got an idea.. i have an old compaq laying around that i could steal the gfx card from.. ill try this but if i remember correctly the gfx card was the reason i bought a new comp
well, hope im wrong.

 

OK, forget the drivers, by teh sound of it.
It may be that the gfx card has deteriorated over time, enough to cause this problem to start, but maybe if you backed it off a bit it would cope. it's a good point though.
At least with the card from the Compaq, you should be able to run some of teh lower graphics games and run a test that way, if it's compatible and if it works - maybe you bought the new computer because the gfx card wasn't coping, rather than that it was unserviceable.
Have you done a search on teh Internet to see if there have been any similar problems reported with your card?

 

ok the card from the compaq was not compatible.


I just encountered something very odd..

Havnt tested any "better" games since i resocketed the card so i thought id try CS. First it starts normally but when the startup finishes loading i get the attached picture. But I can still navigate the menues and open up a game.. Once in a game it looks like the second attached file, no lagging or anything, just the graphics is messed up.


Then when i start CS:S which has higher requirements than CS, there is no problem at all.
No graphical or any other glitches.

 

Just went back and looked at the pics in your first post. I hadn't expanded them before. Now I've taken a better look, I can't actually see anything wrong with them. If they're ok, it suggests that it's only your graphics card that has a problem, I would think.

On this latest odd discovery, did you then go back and try again the applications that gave you those weird graphics? That might have been a one-off glitch.

You might try repeating the process several times and see if the results are always teh same. If they are, it might mean that one of them is not compatible with the graphics card. I suspect you won't find that though.

Then try those other suggestions.

 

i changed the graphic rendering engine in CS and it fixed the problems there.
but the problem still occurs in other games. the problem in those games looks exactly like the last picture i posted.

 

It's starting to look like there might be some sort of corruption in your game software. Maybe try reinstalling one of teh games that isn't working properly and see if that helps.
Any viruses in your system that might have attacked your games?

 

one of the games is a game played directly through the webbrowser with no downloading necessary so doubt anything is corrupt there?
done all the steps in the malware removal guide and removed the malware i had.

 

too slow for edit sorry..

do you think upping BIOS could help?

 

G'day.

Since your more-demanding game runs ok, I can't see that overclocking would help.

Halo just gave me an idea in discussing a problem I had (see http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=180527). He said that sometimes when you want to reinstall drivers, you have to get rid of any temp/backup driver files you may have, as these might be corrupted and you just reinstall from them. I guess teh message is to make sure you install drivers that you know are good from a source you know is good.

The solution to the problem I had was to disable the problem item in teh BIOS and then enable it again on teh next boot. I don't know if there's anything like that you can do for your graphics problem, but it might pay to have a look.

 

Ok this is kinda wierd.. And now I feel ashamed.
You know how Ive said I have the latest driver and have tried older drivers.
I was browsing my explorer and I found the folder "NVIDIA" under c:\
I open it up and the only subfolder I have is win2k (I've run a cleaner program to get rid of all drivers, then reinstalled the newest one, which is why no old drivers show up).
This makes me pretty confused since I run XP.

So I go to nVidia's website to check if I actually had the wrong driver or not.
I run their little auto-detection thing and it says I have the latest driver.
But then I figure.. What if that auto-detection program is wrong? So I start checking for the latest driver manually, finding out that 181.22 is out (I used 175.19).
I download that and install, and my problems dissapear....
So Im kinda ashamed now :-o

Well, to everyone reading this, DO NOT TRUST NVIDIA'S AUTOFINDER.

Thanks alot for all the help GCWesq and all others.

 

First off: WOOHOO!!! That's excellent news!!! :tas :heli :celebrate :dancer :hyper :clap
CONGRATULATIONS!!

sECONDLY: (Don't you just hate Caps Lock)
"Not to worry, Mr Smart... you also suspected Herbert Hoover" (Harry Hoo in a scene from Get Smart).
Not your fault, and even if it was, these things happen - probably to all of us (see, for example: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=179465). And there's good advice for us all in your very diplomatic post.

Very glad you got it sorted. Well done.

GCWesq

 

well, now that its sorted im gonna make a new thread about a sound problem!
(yeh i know my computer is a mess )

thanks for all help

 

Glad you got it fixed.