Graphics going mental...

TheBinarySurfer

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Having an intermitten problem with all games, asked 3 techie friends got 3 diffferent opinions, thought i'd try here.

When using the PC the screen will get partial/complete corruption on the screen, often in a distinct pattern and usually in bright colors.More common when using games, but often just when the pc is idling.Happening a few times a day usually in short succession.

Done a complete test of the ram and the graphics card - showing all green and no overheat/spikes on anything internal as i keep the monitoring proggy going 24/7 and just clean out the records once a month...

Ideas/Comments/Suggestions?

Edit - not a new machine but near top of the line - gf6800,4gb ram, 3.8P4 extreme Overclocked (and stable) at 4.2 etc etc
 

UndyingAngel

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TheBinarySurfer said:
Having an intermitten problem with all games, asked 3 techie friends got 3 diffferent opinions, thought i'd try here.

When using the PC the screen will get partial/complete corruption on the screen, often in a distinct pattern and usually in bright colors.More common when using games, but often just when the pc is idling.Happening a few times a day usually in short succession.

Done a complete test of the ram and the graphics card - showing all green and no overheat/spikes on anything internal as i keep the monitoring proggy going 24/7 and just clean out the records once a month...

Ideas/Comments/Suggestions?

Edit - not a new machine but near top of the line - gf6800,4gb ram, 3.8P4 extreme Overclocked (and stable) at 4.2 etc etc

Well tostart with 4Gb of ram on a P4 :eek: lol.. less taking shit..
and your not having probelms With heat over clocking that much ? so your are using Peltier or similur to cool your CPU are you .. :p and as far as I know.. they P4 EE only whet upto 3.4 due to heat problems with the main core.

right anyway I would probery try the following

1. Set you PC to normal and no over clocking and see if this works that inc the GFX card if you are over clocking this.
2. Make sure the Power going into your GFX card on are seperate Cables and you are not useing a power splitter seen to many ppl do this.. and caused probelms with the 6800gt
2. Reinstall your GFX Drivers
3. Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
4. Update your Mainboard Drivers
5. Update your BIOS
6. Defrag your HDD
7. Check that all Fans inside your PC are working Inc ones on Chipset, GFX, and your main Case Fans.
8. if all else Fails. Backup files. and do a clean Install :p with no overclocking enables and see if this works.. then increase the over clocking over over by 5% 10%, 20% and then 30% depending how much you are over clocking by.
 

TheBinarySurfer

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UndyingAngel said:
Well tostart with 4Gb of ram on a P4 :eek: lol.. less taking shit..
and your not having probelms With heat over clocking that much ? so your are using Peltier or similur to cool your CPU are you .. :p and as far as I know.. they P4 EE only whet upto 3.4 due to heat problems with the main core.

right anyway I would probery try the following

1. Set you PC to normal and no over clocking and see if this works that inc the GFX card if you are over clocking this.
2. Make sure the Power going into your GFX card on are seperate Cables and you are not useing a power splitter seen to many ppl do this.. and caused probelms with the 6800gt
2. Reinstall your GFX Drivers
3. Reinstall DirectX 9.0c
4. Update your Mainboard Drivers
5. Update your BIOS
6. Defrag your HDD
7. Check that all Fans inside your PC are working Inc ones on Chipset, GFX, and your main Case Fans.
8. if all else Fails. Backup files. and do a clean Install :p with no overclocking enables and see if this works.. then increase the over clocking over over by
5% 10%, 20% and then 30% depending how much you are over clocking by.
Most software has been reinstalled with current updates, graphics, bios and direct x.Was given a clean reinstall 2 and a bit months before that, and the HDD gets defragged fortnightly. Will try again over the weekend though on the software steps.

Mainboard i didnt think of - i'll try that tonight...

Sorry should have said - error occurs even when not overclocked as turning it down was the first thign i tried, however:
The machine was built overclocked and tested by the company i bought it from, with a deliberate overcooling of 20-30% on top of the overclocking that i requested.Its a custom job, been stress tested and everything, including by me recently and no problems in any of the records on the fan/heat monitors...

And its got 3GB ram - typo.
 

Sycho

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You mention it does it in all games, can you screenshot this? i will know exactly what's wrong with it if so.
 

TheBinarySurfer

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Sycho said:
You mention it does it in all games, can you screenshot this? i will know exactly what's wrong with it if so.
Its not exclusive to games, but it does do it in all games.And sadly no the minute it happens it locks/dies, with the very rare exception of when it rescues itself from only a partial screen corruption...Ill try tonight if it does it again(almost certainly will) and post it up here...
 

Sycho

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Well if it does that, i am very certain your graphics card ram has messed up or it's overheating too much, have you checked the cooler on it?

All i do know if you get multi-colours randomly on your screen when playing games(pixels/artifacts) you either have overclocked your card too much, it's ram is faulty if it happens at default clock speeds or the cooling is broken/not fitted right on it.
 

cHodAX

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I think it is much more likely that your graphics card is being starved of stable current, I have seen this exact same thing on overclocked P4 machines before. You have to remember that the P4 EE absolutly eats power and when overclocked it can munch through 200+ watts on it's own. A 6800 grahics card eats another 100+ watts under full load and that is before you even start thinking about memory/motherboard/hdd/dvd/fans etc. Without a reputable 500w+ power supply you could be having serious problems and even then it may still be a power issue, my advice is check your 3.3v 5v and 12v rails, if you are getting any more than 5% variance then your PSU may well be the problem. If so clock the CPU back down to normal and that should free up about 50 watts, that may make all the difference and you will know that it is either a heat or power issue. If that doesn't work then you are in for a tricky time as diagnosing an intermittent graphics card or ram fault can be a major hassle.
 

TheBinarySurfer

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Hmm ill run the logs on the power tonight again during a stress test - they do show some variance but only 2-3%s worth...Good point about the EE eating power, it is a 500+ though - cant remember exact amount - something to check again. Ta :)
 

cHodAX

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TheBinarySurfer said:
Hmm ill run the logs on the power tonight again during a stress test - they do show some variance but only 2-3%s worth...Good point about the EE eating power, it is a 500+ though - cant remember exact amount - something to check again. Ta :)

Might be wise to find out what brand your PSU is bud, alot of them rated at 500watts actually only deliver 450watts or so under full load and at high temp. As long as you have a decent brand 500watts should be enough, the good thing is that you didn't notice much variance so as long as the PSU is a quality brand you can pretty much rule that out. After that I would be inclined to try the graphics card in another PC if that is possible, if it runs a game like Farcry rock solid for an hour you know that the memory on the card isn't the problem. Seeing that you had the PC built do you have a warranty with it? Might be an idea to get on to them and see if they have had this problem before.
 

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