Strange horizontal lines after videos/gaming

[sewildman50]

My system information is as follows:

OS: Windows XP Pro, SP2
RAM: 1GB DDR 400
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Mobo: Abit AV8 3rdEye (socket 939)
Video Card: GeForce FX 5500 256Mb
ATI TV Wonder 650 (tv tuner)
Hard Drive: 80Gb

Okay, here's the problem, keeping in mind that this issue has been ongoing but just has not been as irritating as it is now.

For a long time, when I would play some video games or some video, the game or video would run fine but when I was finished and went back to the desktop, there would be thin horizontal black lines occurring on my desktop icons, on the start button, and on the desktop tray. Then, when I would open up IE or other window, the lines continue to occur in the top and bottom bars of the window, or sometimes in the entire window. On occasion this issue would resolve itself or I would restart my computer and the issue would go away.

Whenever these kinds issues occur, my drivers are the first things I update, so I can assure you that I have all the latest drivers for everything on my PC, including an updated BIOS, and this issue has not gone away. Obviously, I have been wrestling with the idea that I may just not have a good enough video card but I'd like to rule out other possibilities first, before I spring for a new one. The fan on my video card is working fine, as are the side and top panel fans on my PC case. My PC is also relatively free of dust.

This issue has become quite a nuisance of late because I just installed a TV tuner card and, while the video runs and looks great, these lines continue to occur almost every time when the video picture is closed.

Any ideas as to what might be the cause and/or solution to this problem?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Augustine]

First thing I would do is try it with a different monitor (or change the refresh rate of your current monitor to see if it acts differently). It sounds like your card is over-heating, but its hard to say.

If your computer starts off fine and then progressively gets worse after videos/gaming, then I would definitely say your video card is overheating. If this is the case, try leaving the side of your case open and aim a fan at your computer to try to bring down the temp.

I had a monitor once that got hot at certain resolutions and would start flipping out on me. But that was a CRT, so who knows.

-Aug

 

[sewildman50]

Thanks for your reply...

I am actually using an older IBM monitor. It's a 21" monitor built on trinitron technology.

I guess as an addition to my original post, when I pass my cursor over the icons on my desktop to highlight them, the lines go away. The same is not true of the start button and desktop tray.

I don't think the issue is that my card is overheating for two reasons.

1. I think I have my PC tower well-ventilated with a fan on the video card itself (that is working), as well as a fan on the side panel of the tower and one on the top panel.

2. I can play games and video until the cows come home and don't experience video issues or otherwise. The problems only occur AFTER I have shut down the game or stopped playing the video.

A coworker of mine was thinking something along the lines of the video card memory cache. He was thinking that the cache fills up but is flushed automatically by the program I'm using. However, when I stop the application, the cache still remains filled up and needs to be flushed, leaving little video memory resources to display the graphics on my desktop properly.

Personally, I cannot comment on this hypothesis because I don't quite know that much about how video card memory is used.

 

[sewildman50]

As promised, here are the pictures. The first is of my desktop and the second is with a window open. As you can see, this is quite irritating.

 

[Augustine]

Some more ideas for you to try:
- Change from 32-bit to 16-bit
- Change refresh rate higher or lower

- Under display properties, settings, advanced, and the troubleshoot tab.. try lowering the HARDWARE ACCELERATION a notch or two or until the problem goes away (if it does at all).

Other than that.. I would rule it out as a hardware problem and consider your graphics card toast.