Crazy Video Card

[Babbage]

Hey Everyone I have a little bit of a problem. A few days ago my brother and I were were playing C&C Generals: Zero Hour. After I exited the game, everything appeared to be fine until my monitor suddenly flicked and looked like the image below:



Windows still worked in the background, but the desktop image became all funky. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but was leaning towards a loose connection with the monitor. But, I restarted the computer and all was well. Then, a few hours later, it happened again. This began to bother me. So, I went through a very long troubleshooting process. Here is everything I have tried to far:

1) Checked the connection between videocard and monitor.
2) Ran all directx tests through dxdiag.
3) Updated to the latest and greated drivers for my card.
4) Made sure the refresh rate on monitor wasn't to high (60Hz)
5) Checked the videocard for chip creap (took it out and put it back in)
6) Reinstalled Windows
7) Disabled Hardware Acceleration
8) Changed Monitors
9) Disabled FastWrite
10) Asked you guys for help.

So far nothing has seemed to help. Whats even more confusing is that it seems to do it at random times. Sometimes it will only be after a few minutes, sometimes it will be hours.

Any help you guys could give would be most appreciated. Here are some of my specs:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP
Videocard: ATI All-In-Wonder 9600xt
Motherboard: DFI PS83-BL

 

[Alex81388]

Well the only thing I can tell you is Generals has been known to be a jerk to ATI video cards, I've had problems where i counldnt see terrain, or my units were in space, my units were invisible, etc.

Your best bet would be seach EA's support forums, in my opinion.

 

[Babbage]

I'm not so sure its Generals. Even after I reinstalled Windows, I still had this problem and I hadn't even installed the drivers yet. It might just have been coincidental that it happened right after the game.

 

[Babbage]

Problem Solved

Well, after countless hours of testing with different things, I have pinpointed the problem of the display corruptions... my video card (duh!). I busted out one of my old video cards tested it out for about 10 hours. No problems. Man what a relief! For a while, I beginning to think that it might be my AGP slot (which would have been a bad thing). What really surprised me though is that I just got this video card about 3 months ago, so it really shouldn't have went bad. But, these things happen.

I am using my 3 year limited warranty with ATi, and sending it in probably tomorrow. At least I won't have to buy a new video card

Thanks Alex81388 for your input.

 

[GeckoEcho421]

Your card is overheating and causing severe artifacts to form in the image. Try underclocking it.

 

[æArchOAngelæ]

yeah it sounds like over heatin
u should just send it in a get a new one and try getting round IDE cables for ur case inside so u get better airflow and clean our ur fans and get all the dust out of eveything after u get a new vid card

 

[Babbage]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm still going to send the card in to ATi because it was fine for about 2 months then it started doing this. If this happens again though (which I hope it doesn't), at least I'll know what the problem is

 

[Leonidas]

if it is heat then you wont help by keeping your case in the current condition... try adding a few more fans or making your own rounded cables... its easy just fold a few time and tape/tie/bind in any way and you have super cheap ide round cables, good luck

 

[Babbage]

UPDATE!

Well everyone, in case you were wondering, I finally found the source of my problem. Can anyone take a guess?

After the last few posts on this topic, I sent in my video to ATI. It was going to take a few weeks, so I had my old All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 as backup. I plugged that card in, and everything was fine... or was it?

To make sure it wasn't a heating problem, I upgraded a few things on my computer. I bought a PCI Slot-Fan which would be placed directly under the video card. This way, all the hot air from the video card could be sucked out. Then, I replaced the positions of all my PCI cards to make sure nothing could cause the video card to heat up. FInally, I ended up buying a smaller, more efficient case, that had a LOT more fans. Good move... I thought.

At first, everything seemed to run fine. My Radeon 7500 loaded up fine, the video display was perfect, and all was well, but about 2 weeks later, I noticed that this video card was doing the same thing as my 9600XT. At first I thought it was a fluke (ok, I was fooling myself). But, it began to happen more and more. So my first reaction was "Man, I just bought all this new equipment, just to find out its my motherboard." That bummed me out. But I wanted to be sure it was my motherboard. So, I took out the video card, and was going to place it in a space computer. Once, I took out the video, however, I noticed something. Being the curious person I am, I just had to spin the fan on the card. When I tried to spin it, I noticed it was EXTREMELY difficult to spin. That caught my attention. So, I plugged the video card back in, and turned on the computer. The fan never spinned. "PROBLEM SOLVED!" I thought. Wrong again.

I took out the 7500, and placed back in the 9600XT (by this time I had the card back). 3 Minutes after turning it on, the display became corrupted. So now I'm ticked. I'm trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Finally, I just leave it alone for a little while.

After a few hours of doing nothing , I go back to computer. I turn it on, and it works (for a while). While I had it on, I decided to run Hardware Monitor, my motherboards temperature program. All the temperatures were running fine. But the 12V was fluctuating way to much and was going below the allowed threshold. Then it hit me. I turned off the computer, opened it up and pulled out the ATX connector from the Power Supply. BOOM! There it is. The +12V section on the connector was browned out (see photo below).



After some research, I find out that AGP ports typically run off of the +12V power of the power supply (unless they have their own power supply connection). So, I threw in my brothers power supply, left it on for the night, and checked it in the morning. No problems. It appears that the power supply has been the culprit all this time. Go figure

Anyway, I ended up buying a new power supply (Antec NeoPower 480), and a new motherboard. Everything is running fine now. So, thank you to everyone who tried to help me figure out the problem. I hope this helps everyone else who might have this same problem.

Sorry for the long post

 

[raiden_nrl]

well gj.. sounds like you should have just bought a new computer.