Topic: Graphics Problem (Read 1164 times)

[SJ]Wedge · « **on:** August 07, 2009, 09:35:14 pm »

I am running an ATI 4870 512mb graphics card with Vista 64. GTR-E, GTL all work fine.

However, I have the most frustrating glitch when playing the following: FSX, Fallout 3, ARMA 2, CoH and my beloved IL-2 and Richard Burns' (RIP) Rally. The pc will freeze, the graphics will become muddled with squares approx 1cm appearing and the sound will loop. Only solution from that point is to perform a hard reboot.

My temps seem fine up to that point, I have kept my drivers up to date but I haven't flashed the BIOS as yet because it scares the pants off me (any takers boys?

)

I have had to reinstall Windows a couple of times (due to HD failure) and the problem has persisted.

I am considering ditching the GFX card and switching to NVidia. Does it sound gfx card related to you guys? Any suggestions?

I'll try to get a photo later to show you how it looks.

[SJ]Pierre61 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2009, 09:55:19 pm »

I think the usual advice is to switch the ram in and out to see if you have a bad stick. Other than that

[SJ]dirtyvfr · « **Reply #2 on:** August 07, 2009, 10:02:08 pm »

sound card

buy a cheap (brandname, like creative, do not buy cheap rubbish) soundcard and all will be fixed, better still get a loan of one from a m8 and try it first.

if you even get 1 crackle or pop when you are loading a game then the sound is not working right, but also check your irq's as even with a cheap soundcard if it's sharing with the graphscard you might also get a few issues.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2009, 10:07:26 pm »

Quote from: [SJ]Pierre61 on August 07, 2009, 09:55:19 pm

I think the usual advice is to switch the ram in and out to see if you have a bad stick. Other than that

Hmmm... So, take one stick out at a time and reboot or run a program that is causing the fault? Windows will sort itself out when there is less RAM, won't it? Thanks Pete, I'll give it a shot.

Quote from: [SJ]dirtyvfr on August 07, 2009, 10:02:08 pm

sound card

buy a cheap (brandname, like creative, do not buy cheap rubbish) soundcard and all will be fixed, better still get a loan of one from a m8 and try it first.

if you even get 1 crackle or pop when you are loading a game then the sound is not working right, but also check your irq's as even with a cheap soundcard if it's sharing with the graphscard you might also get a few issues.

Interesting idea dirtyvfr, when first researching the prob, the general fix was to update the sound drivers. No go for me so I installed a sound card. Still no go. I am running a usb soundcard that came with the steelsound 5vh2 headset I use. I still get the problem. Onboard sound, I still get the problem.

Poor me!

Wouldn't be cpu overheating, would it?

[SJ]Kristof Huyck · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2009, 11:30:56 pm »

I would rather think of memory problems than of gfx problems at first sight. Why? because you mention you had to reinstall your OS.

Anyway, a question: have you overlocked your cpu and/or memory?

BTW: There's really no reason to think it's the onboard sound, I wonder how you come up with that advice Dirtyvfr

I've got no IRQ conflicts since over 5 years or so, modern motherboards should have no issues as such.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2009, 11:40:07 pm »

I had to reinstall windows to a new HDD as the old one died.

Will look into the memory when I get back. Thanks guys. Is there a testing program or anything you guys could suggest, or just take the stick out and run on 2gb and see if the problem comes up...

[SJ]Kristof Huyck · « **Reply #6 on:** August 08, 2009, 12:21:58 am »

memtest You can find the latest ISO image there, just write it on a CD (or DVD) and make sure your DVD-ROM is set as first boot device and it'll start to test.

Another option is OCCT and choose the Linpack test. It'll stress your CPU and memory and returns an error if anything is wrong. (I use that to test oc settings)

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #7 on:** August 08, 2009, 03:44:12 am »

Thanks Kristof!

[SJ]Azza007 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 08, 2009, 04:25:01 am »

Im gonna go with Gogs on this as I had a very similar problem - games would freeze and audio go into a loop. Tracked it down to the onboard sound.

Try disabling your onboard audio in BIOS and try running your games you have problems without audio and see if you can get it to crash.

For me disabling the onboard and a cheap Creative PCI soundcard did the trick - no problems since.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2009, 08:44:58 am »

Update...

Disabled onboard sound again and am running the USB sound card.

Also, after speaking with the oracle, Warren suggested I try Windowed mode. I have just completed 6 consectutive stages in RBR.

My fingers are well and truly crossed now and I am feeling a little hopeful. I'll try things at fullscreen with the onboard sound disabled and see how things go.

Thanks all.

[SJ]Kristof Huyck · « **Reply #10 on:** August 08, 2009, 10:40:23 am »

Which onboard chipset are you talking about then Azza007? I've got several pc's with realtek onboard sound and I've never seen this problem, also never heard about it tbh. Maybe some particular onboard sound chipset might be crappy

Maybe needless to say but updating all drivers to their latest version could be a good idea.

[SJ]Stein · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2009, 01:59:33 pm »

Updating to the latest graphicsupdate made my secondary monitor black and white..

Nevermind.. just browsing through

and yes.. i have downgraded and all is fine.. thanks Nvidia!

Woof ~ Woof

[SJ]DenDanger · « **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2009, 04:54:19 pm »

He has RBR...oooooh.........yessss....

Anyways. I know I had some problems when I got my sound card also. Turned out to be the drivers and had to go to their site and do an update. Took some trial and error, (wasn't sure if it was a driver or an update so a couple installs to find out...

) Ironically, I found the answer on the reviews o the TigerDirect site. heh.

I was also looking at video but after thinking "What did I last change?" (and having changed about 4 items at the time!!) and went from there. I was surprised to find it was my sound, but, meh, computers sometimes just don't make much sense. Hope you found the problem.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #13 on:** August 08, 2009, 09:54:36 pm »

Update: I re-edited the ini file to go back to full screen resulting in the sad sad picture below...

I shall go through and test my other problem games in windowed mode to see what results... Is this now pointing to GFX card?

[SJ]DaveGardner · « **Reply #14 on:** August 08, 2009, 10:42:35 pm »

have you overclocked the gfx card at all?

cos i used to get that with my nvidia cards if i went too far with it

if, have you tried taking it out completely, and uninstalling the drivers again.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #15 on:** August 08, 2009, 11:01:29 pm »

Nah Dave, no overclock... I have reinstalled the drivers loads... Weird. Maybe ATI doesn't like those particular games on my machine. I should point out that that screenshot above is during a freeze that requires a hard reboot.

[SJ]Stein · « **Reply #16 on:** August 09, 2009, 09:52:01 pm »

ehr.. 2 weeks ago i dusted off the motherboard and the graphicscard... load of dustbunnies..
but the graphicscard remained to run quite hot...

took it out tonight, couldn't get 2 screws to loosen, so i peeled the Nvidia casing open, turns out it wasn't plastic, it was metal... the heatsink on the card was completely plugged with dustballs... took it out, cleaned the fan somewhat.. and bent it all shut(well.. the screws are holding it shut)

i thought last time i had all the dusties covered... turned out the big pileup remained... I screwed up my warrenty, but haven't fried my card at least!

Might be worth checking out your dustbunny contents guys, also the ones you dont see

Woof ~ Woof

look up the CPU-z utility, run Hardware monitor and see how hot your card gets under pressure, you can look up the numbers after you've closed the application. I've noticed that my card has to work hard in trackside cameraview in GTL.. at least.. that's when it's blowing off most of it's steam! no not that hot..

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #17 on:** August 09, 2009, 10:18:09 pm »

Have done that one too, Steiny. No dust and card is only hitting 65 deg C under stress. 40 deg C at idle. Not concerned about heating issues. GTR-e is the hardest hitting of the bunch and I'm not getting the issues. Really considering the change back to NVidia.

I will try RBR Windowed with the onboard sound back on to see if it was audio, but like I said, running it at fullscreen caused it. To me that points to video, but I am waiting for the SJ experts/sages/oracles to keep feeding me advice.

[SJ]Stein · « **Reply #18 on:** August 10, 2009, 02:58:44 pm »

Tell wazza to send it back! hehehe

[SJ]DRokK · « **Reply #19 on:** August 10, 2009, 05:52:01 pm »

i have the same spec card without any problems in those games you mention. can you try the card in another machine?
if the problem is still there return the card.

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #20 on:** August 10, 2009, 08:07:01 pm »

Quote from: [SJ]Stein on August 10, 2009, 02:58:44 pm

Tell wazza to send it back! hehehe

Huh?

Quote from: [SJ]DRokK on August 10, 2009, 05:52:01 pm

i have the same spec card without any problems in those games you mention. can you try the card in another machine?
if the problem is still there return the card.

I'll have a think about how I can do this one DrokK. I don't think it'll be possible though. I'm thinking I'll wait a couple of months and then pull the trigger and pick up a knew card.

GTX285?

[SJ]Warren Dawes · « **Reply #21 on:** August 10, 2009, 11:57:52 pm »

Quote from: [SJ]Stein on August 10, 2009, 02:58:44 pm

Tell wazza to send it back! hehehe

I've already offered that, but the silly beggar won't hear of it. I think he just wants a good excuse to give his wife to justify the new upgrade.

[SJ]Kristof Huyck · « **Reply #22 on:** August 11, 2009, 05:26:00 am »

What if the problem is not related to your graphics card and you buy an expensive new card only to find out you're still stuck with the same problem

[SJ]Wedge · « **Reply #23 on:** August 11, 2009, 06:23:27 am »

Then I say, "Oh dear", ask admin to delete any trace of this thread aand continue on like it never happened...

I honestly can't think of what else it could be guys. In my opinion, we have eliminated the major potential factors except for video, but the problem remains unless I run the program in windowed mode...

[SJ]Azza007 · « **Reply #24 on:** August 11, 2009, 07:05:49 am »

Is it a Sapphire card?

or perhaps the solution may be here

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5034-EIPV-6426

Author Topic: Graphics Problem (Read 1164 times)