Help please - This is doing my head in.

[John Clarke]

This week my display has started developing random small little blocks
of vertical coloured bars. If I refresh they disappear for a few
seconds but then start spawning again. I have downloaded the latest
ATI drivers, updated the Bios and reinstalled the Via AGP drivers and
re-installed the monitor driver.

System is:-
ASUS A7V600 Mobo
512 PC3200 ram
Radeon 9800 pro 128
Monitor LG Flatron L1811s
Win XP pro.

I have not installed anything new in the last few weeks, so I dont
think it is caused by new games, but the latest games I did install
about a month ago was Star Wars Galaxies and Neverwinter nights. But
the problem only started in the last couple of days.

Please put me out of my misery

TIA

John Clarke
PS If you are seeing this twice. I apologise as the original message
never appeared within 24 hours of this re-posting. - Shows how
desperate I am.

 

[@ndrew]

This week my display has started developing random small little blocks
of vertical coloured bars. If I refresh they disappear for a few
seconds but then start spawning again. I have down loaded the latest
ATI drivers, updated the Bios and reinstalled the Via AGP drivers and
re-installed the monitor driver.

Does this describe what is going on?
http://tinyurl.com/2uemt

If it is pixelation it is caused by either your graphics card or it's
settings; or the monitor you are using and or heat.

So is it hardware related. You do not say what settings you are using
with your card. Is anti-aliasing turned on or off?

It could also be a monitor which is on the way out. Test with another
monitor and or upgrade your monitor drivers.

Heat could be a problem .. you do not say you are overclocking but if
you are, back off all settings for both your graphics card and or
motherboard.

regards

@ndrew

 

[BK24]

Does this describe what is going on?
http://tinyurl.com/2uemt

If it is pixelation it is caused by either your graphics card or it's
settings; or the monitor you are using and or heat.

So is it hardware related. You do not say what settings you are using
with your card. Is anti-aliasing turned on or off?

It could also be a monitor which is on the way out. Test with another
monitor and or upgrade your monitor drivers.

Heat could be a problem .. you do not say you are overclocking but if
you are, back off all settings for both your graphics card and or
motherboard.

regards

@ndrew

I have seen this with extreme heat issues. Maybe leave the side of the case
off for a bit... make sure the fan on the card is working.

 

[BK24]

Does this describe what is going on?
http://tinyurl.com/2uemt

If it is pixelation it is caused by either your graphics card or it's
settings; or the monitor you are using and or heat.

So is it hardware related. You do not say what settings you are using
with your card. Is anti-aliasing turned on or off?

It could also be a monitor which is on the way out. Test with another
monitor and or upgrade your monitor drivers.

Heat could be a problem .. you do not say you are overclocking but if
you are, back off all settings for both your graphics card and or
motherboard.

regards

@ndrew

I have seen this with extreme heat issues. Maybe leave the side of the case
off for a bit... make sure the fan on the card is working.

 

[JLC]

I have seen this with extreme heat issues. Maybe leave the side of the case
off for a bit... make sure the fan on the card is working.

I agree with the heat theory also. But if you have an old vid card laying
around why not install it and see if the problem goes away. It could be that
your 9800Pro is having problems. I do that first before pulling out anymore
of your hair. Then if it's still doing it, try using a different monitor. If
you don't have another PC in your house, lug your rig over to a friends and
they there's. This sounds like a hardware failure to me, so it shouldn't be
to hard to track it down. Keep us posted OK? JLC

 

[Chuck G.]

I agree with the heat theory also. But if you have an old vid card laying
around why not install it and see if the problem goes away. It could be that
your 9800Pro is having problems. I do that first before pulling out anymore
of your hair. Then if it's still doing it, try using a different monitor. If
you don't have another PC in your house, lug your rig over to a friends and
they there's. This sounds like a hardware failure to me, so it shouldn't be
to hard to track it down. Keep us posted OK? JLC

I had similar artifact problems with a GeForce Ti4200 and eventually no
picture at all. I just replaced it with an ATI card and my computer works
fine again. The Ti4200 looks like it has a poorly mounted voltage regulator
that got too hot. The OP might consider a visual exam of his problem card.

- Chuck

 

[JAD]

try reseating it and check and see if the hardware monitor gives you
an indication that you have a PSU issue.

 

[borolad]

This week my display has started developing random small little blocks
of vertical coloured bars. If I refresh they disappear for a few
seconds but then start spawning again. I have downloaded the latest
ATI drivers, updated the Bios and reinstalled the Via AGP drivers and
re-installed the monitor driver.

System is:-
ASUS A7V600 Mobo
512 PC3200 ram
Radeon 9800 pro 128
Monitor LG Flatron L1811s
Win XP pro.

I have not installed anything new in the last few weeks, so I dont
think it is caused by new games, but the latest games I did install
about a month ago was Star Wars Galaxies and Neverwinter nights. But
the problem only started in the last couple of days.

Please put me out of my misery

..1. Too high a ' refresh ' rate, try lowering it, does it cure it ?

..2. Try removing the ATi Control Panel, shortcut keys ' hogged ' or
fought over often cause this manifestation.

..3. Altenatively use the ' Omega' set and it's ATi Control Panel

N.B The Omegas go in without uninstalling previous driver and will
auto set the refresh rate [ gart ] settings.

BIOS is still selecting AGP before PCI, is it ?
BIOS AGP transfer rate set to AUTO, is it ?
BIOS AGP aperture size 64, is it ?
BIOS ' fast writes ' switched OFF, are they ?
BIOS System BIOS & Video Ram Cache, DISABLED, are they ?

Try the above, see if improves your ' head ' John Clarke, personally
I'd do the BIOS stuff then use Omega's.

TIA

John Clarke
PS If you are seeing this twice. I apologise as the original message
never appeared within 24 hours of this re-posting. - Shows how
desperate I am.

BoroLad

 

[John Lewis]

This week my display has started developing random small little blocks
of vertical coloured bars. If I refresh they disappear for a few
seconds but then start spawning again. I have downloaded the latest
ATI drivers, updated the Bios and reinstalled the Via AGP drivers and
re-installed the monitor driver.

System is:-
ASUS A7V600 Mobo
512 PC3200 ram
Radeon 9800 pro 128
Monitor LG Flatron L1811s
Win XP pro.

I have not installed anything new in the last few weeks, so I dont
think it is caused by new games, but the latest games I did install
about a month ago was Star Wars Galaxies and Neverwinter nights. But
the problem only started in the last couple of days.

Please put me out of my misery

Purchase a can of Arctic Freeze or similar from your local electronics
store. When you get the problem, spray GENTLY on the video-card
memory until you begin to see frost. Watch the display -- see if there

is any change. Repeat the exercise on the GPU heatsink.

If there is heat (or cold) - correlated improvement or deterioration,
then you probably have an overstressed video card.

I notice an increased incident recently of video corruption reports on

9800 Pro 128. Silicon damage from thermal stress takes a while to
show up. Assuming reasonable case cooling, the lack of adequate
heat-sinks on memory is a common cause of failure; overclocking
together with lack of GPU thermal monitoring ( or running the GPU at
too high a temperature even if monitored) is the other major cause.
The GPU should never be run for long periods of time at core
temperatures in excess of 75 degrees C.

John Lewis