Artifacting, freezing while watching videos, etc.

[mack]

Well I've about had it with computers and buying video cards. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have the MSI 7900 GTX, and when I first got it I was getting good frame rates in every game I played.

Now when I play a game I get artifacts (or whatever the heck it is), low frame rates, and lock ups to the point of cold rebooting. It does this in COD4 and HL2:EP2, about the only two games I've played recently.

That's fine, I don't play games often. Now, when I watch videos, RANDOMLY after the first 1 minute of the movie (Windows Media Player, not flash) my PC will freeze. The sound will continue, screen go blank, and it stops there. Forcing a cold reboot.

Another issue I have is I'm seeing blue, red, and green dots all over my screen. They look like dead pixels, but they aren't. I am running the latest drivers

Here is my original post about the dead-pixel-looking-dots:
http://www.techist.com/forums/f78/samsung-226bw-dead-pixel-i-think-its-weird-166961/

Here is what I think the most possibilities it can be:
1. Is my power supply under powered, possibly dying when under load? Anyway to test this? I'm willing to buy a piece of hardware to test my PSU.

2. Is it because I'm running Windows XP x64? Should I upgrade to Vista? I have Vista X64.

3. Could there be extreme driver corruption occurring somewhere within my system? Ran driver cleaner plenty of times.

4. Dying motherboard (lets hope not, doubtful)

5. Bad ram modules (doubtful)

My system hardware:
AMD X2 4400+
ASUS A8N32 Deluxe
NVIDIA MSI 7900 GTX
500 Watt Forton PSU
Samsung Lightscribe DVD Burner
Western Digital Raptor 150GB HDD. OS HD.
Western Digital 250GB HDD (files) SATA
Realtek Wireless USB Adaptor
Logitech G15 KB
Logitech G5 Mouse
Logitech AudioHub speakers (USB+Power supply)
Several USB devices (camera, etc)

Think I might be pushing the limits of my 500 watt psu? I don't see where I would be, I'll check that out right now and see.. since I'm an electrician and all.

Edit: My PC uses approx 400 Watts at max load. That sound right? :-X

 

[KSoD]

1. Use a online PSU calculator

2. Shouldnt matter.

3. could be

4. have to test other things first

5. Run MemTest86 for 4 hours to test RAM.

Memtest86 - Download Page

 

[mack]

Used a online PSU calculator, it's close. What the heck would cause dots all over the place?

 

[KSoD]

Video card overheating. Driver conflict.

 

[mack]

Video card runs at 109F, about 140F full load. It started slowily giving me problems. First I started with lockups, when that went away I got screen tearing.

 

[KSoD]

109 and 140 are VERY high temps. My card doesnt hit more than 70F under full load of folding and gaming. That is your issue. You have a temp problem.

Open the case and clean out all the insides. See about getting a after market fan for your GPU.

 

[mack]

Hm, 109F should be about normal... my cpu runs @ 120F under full load. do you mean 70 Celsius?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Hm, 109F should be about normal... my cpu runs @ 120F under full load. do you mean 70 Celsius?

**** no! 120F for a cpu under full load is ok, but graphics cards need to be cooler than that
If you've overclocked anything, throttle it back.
Get another fan for your graphics card, or clean out your current one. Check if you have enough thermal paste on, and clean any dust/dirt off the heatsink too.

 

[veedubfreak]

Actually, graphics cards almost always run hotter than CPUs. Its not uncommon for video cards to get into the upper 80C range without causing harm.

FYI a gpu temp of 43C is GREAT. I would be leaning more towards the video card actually going out. Its possible the memory on the card is having issues causing the artifacting.

 

[Da Viksta]

dude, i run xp 64 and i get video artefacting (ONLY when watching videos) all the time. im on forceware 175.16, temps are all under 60C, and my PSU can handle crysis maxed out without a prob. My GTS never had a prob before, and turning off SLI never helps.