Computer help... please!

[Farside]

ok this started yesterday. I'm getting strange artifacts all over my monitor.
This is what my desktop looks like
http://img167.exs.cx/img167/2807/fubar5dn.jpg
At first I thought it was my video card overheating, so I opened it up and blew out any dust but even after sitting overnight I started it up this morning and it was no better. Matter of fact I'm typing right now peeking through the mess. Any ideas? Is my video card shot? (Radeon 9800 w/5.1 drivers) Bad memory stick? (2 512mb sticks)
If worse comes to worse I'm going to reformat but I don't think thats going to help.

[NightStalker3]

Stupid question but is the monitor cable completely screwed in and does the display look this funny when first starting the machine? IE In the bios and from post all the way through the windows X screens?

[Farside]

Stupid question but is the monitor cable completely screwed in and does the display look this funny when first starting the machine? IE In the bios and from post all the way through the windows X screens?

yep, I checked the connection and its tight. I'm pretty sure the monitors fine as the artifacts show on a sceenshot.
They do show while the PC is booting up and get progressivly worse. Sometimes when opening new apps its fine but only for a split second or two :icon_sad:

[NightStalker3]

Cool, yeah that stinks. I have a 9800 pro myself. Well It could be memory or the card i guess. You wouldn't have onboard video or another video card to test would you? True on the artifacts.

[Farside]

Cool, yeah that stinks. I have a 9800 pro myself. Well It could be memory or the card i guess. You wouldn't have onboard video or another video card to test would you? True on the artifacts.

I do have another card but its Nvidia so I'm going to try reinstalling the drivers for this one first before messing with swapping cards. Going to try doing a Sys Restore too.... man this stinks:icon_cry:

[jpc165]

are all the fans on the card / in the pc working properly? do u have the latest drivers?

[roche]

I do have another card but its Nvidia so I'm going to try reinstalling the drivers for this one first before messing with swapping cards. Going to try doing a Sys Restore too.... man this stinks:icon_cry:

Go into the bios of your machine, if the problem is happening there, you will be wasting your time doing a reformat.

If the new drivers don't work, try that Nvidia card. If the Nvidia works, your ATI is hosed. If it has problems, your monitor is hosed.

[AJellyDonut]

Although you said it isn't--this is likely a heat issue. The artifacts are getting progressively worse from start up because your card is getting progressively hotter. Opening up the pc and dusting it off/letting it sit for a while will not help your problem. I have a 9800 pro and upon installing it I had the exact effects. I installed a slot fan to blow directly on the card and another to blow air out of the box. I have not had a problem since. Heat will cause artifacts like this. I highly doubt it's your card or drivers and I don't think you should go mess with bios until you are certain it's not a heat issue first. Try the fans...you can get them cheap at comp usa. Better yet, try this first-- open up your PC and have a house fan blow directly into it and then start your machine and see if the artifacts are still there. If they are not, get yourself some internal fans. If they are still present then it's a driver/card issue etc...

[roche]

Although you said it isn't--this is likely a heat issue. Opening up the pc and dusting it off/letting it sit for a while will not help your problem. I have a 9800 pro and upon installing it I had the exact effects. I installed a slot fan to blow directly on the card and another to blow air out of the box. I have not had a problem since. Heat will cause artifacts like this. I highly doubt it's your card or drivers. Try the fans...you can get them cheap at comp usa.

That is also a possibility. I didn't think about that.

[cableone12]

or put your computer in the freezer, that way the vid card wont overheat! :icon_bigg

[Farside]

Although you said it isn't--this is likely a heat issue. The artifacts are getting progressively worse from start up because your card is getting progressively hotter. Opening up the pc and dusting it off/letting it sit for a while will not help your problem. I have a 9800 pro and upon installing it I had the exact effects. I installed a slot fan to blow directly on the card and another to blow air out of the box. I have not had a problem since. Heat will cause artifacts like this. I highly doubt it's your card or drivers and I don't think you should go mess with bios until you are certain it's not a heat issue first. Try the fans...you can get them cheap at comp usa. Better yet, try this first-- open up your PC and have a house fan blow directly into it and then start your machine and see if the artifacts are still there. If they are not, get yourself some internal fans. If they are still present then it's a driver/card issue etc...

The only real reason I still don't think its overheating is because while it was booting up this morning after sitting (off for about 9 hours) the artifacts were present on the boot screen. Even more, my PC has been on now since about 10am and for about the last hour its actually been fine :icon_eek:. I don't get it. It comes and goes now. And moving an active window over the artifacts appears to clean them up temporarily, that led me to believe its memory related.

BUT, I remembered that yesterday I got an alert from SpySweeper telling me a new program had been installed and that it was unable to stop it without interfering with the systems stability. I blew it off and the PC was fine till last night. So now I'm thinking that I have a worm. I ran another utility that manages StartUp items, theres a new line there but it has no description of any kind. No entry for the Program Name or for the Command Line.
http://img193.exs.cx/img193/5628/taskm9dh.jpg
Same thing when I ran msconfig and looked in Startup items. I checked the TaskManager and saw one thing that I did'nt recognize, wmiprvse.exe Google led me here (http://www.auditmypc.com/process/wmiprvse.asp) but this site (http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/wmiprvse/) says something different. Either I initially read it wrong or typoed into Google as wmipvrse which brought up one find, also reporting it as a virus of some kind. I'm running a scan right now though.

[AJellyDonut]

The only real reason I still don't think its overheating is because while it was booting up this morning after sitting (off for about 9 hours) the artifacts were present on the boot screen. Even more, my PC has been on now since about 10am and for about the last hour its actually been fine :icon_eek:. I don't get it. It comes and goes now. And moving an active window over the artifacts appears to clean them up temporarily, that led me to believe its memory related.

BUT, I remembered that yesterday I got an alert from SpySweeper telling me a new program had been installed and that it was unable to stop it without interfering with the systems stability. I blew it off and the PC was fine till last night. So now I'm thinking that I have a worm. I ran another utility that manages StartUp items, theres a new line there but it has no description of any kind. No entry for the Program Name or for the Command Line.
http://img193.exs.cx/img193/5628/taskm9dh.jpg
Same thing when I ran msconfig and looked in Startup items. I checked the TaskManager and saw one thing that I did'nt recognize, wmiprvse.exe Google led me here (http://www.auditmypc.com/process/wmiprvse.asp) but this site (http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/wmiprvse/) says something different. Either I initially read it wrong or typoed into Google as wmipvrse which brought up one find, also reporting it as a virus of some kind. I'm running a scan right now though.


It's very possible that it's some other issue. But, just because the artifacts come and go does not mean it's not a heating issue. The card will heat up when it's utilized more and cool when it isn't-such as idling as opposed to playing Half Life 2. I think you need to take a rational step-by-step approach to determine what's causing these artifacts to appear. First step would be to make certain that it is not a heating issue. There is a lot of good advice offered in this thread other than what I said that may be useful to you as well. In my opinion, I think you need to begin with checking the internal heat and then go from there. Simply open up your system and blow some cool air in there with a house fan. Boot up your PC and see what happens. I could very well be wrong, but I seriously think fans will solve your problems.

What are your pc specs by the way? Were these artifacts only present after your new card was installed? How many watts is your internal power unit pushing?

[Farside]

....What are your pc specs by the way? Were these artifacts only present after your new card was installed? How many watts is your internal power unit pushing?

its a 2.4g P4 DELL Dim 4500
1G of DDR
9800pro (not new, I got it when it was new so maybe 1 1/2 - 2 years old now?)
I'm not sure about the power supply, its stock though. But it ran the card fine for the better part of almost 2 years now.
:icon_sad:
The PC is still under warranty btw so a call to Dell may be in my future. I still have'nt tried running it with the case opened but as soon as I'm done backing up some stuff I'll give it a shot. Thanks for all the replies guys

[zagman76]

I don't believe this is a heat issue - it looks like the refresh rate is set too high.

Are you running on a CRT or a LCD screen? If it is a CRT, go into the desktop properties, then 'settings' then 'advanced' and try lowering the refresh rate to 60 hertz. If that fixes it, repeat the process using the next higher rate. Continue this process until the display messes up again, then use the highest rate which didn't cause the issue.

Let me know if this works!

[NightStalker3]

Good point Zagman, it does look like that symptom.

[Farside]

I don't believe this is a heat issue - it looks like the refresh rate is set too high.

Are you running on a CRT or a LCD screen? If it is a CRT, go into the desktop properties, then 'settings' then 'advanced' and try lowering the refresh rate to 60 hertz. If that fixes it, repeat the process using the next higher rate. Continue this process until the display messes up again, then use the highest rate which didn't cause the issue.

Let me know if this works!

Zagman.... right now, at this very moment... I LOVE YOU!
I lowered the refresh rate to 70 Herts once I read your post and its been fine since!! THANK YOU!!! Weird how now all of the sudden this happened as its been on 75 Herts for a while now. Anyways, hopefully it stays like this. Thanks to everyone who replied :action-sm
On the brightside, I know have over 20 CD's-worth of my PC backed-up.

[Farside]

ok I spoke too soon, its acting up again:cussing

[zagman76]

try it at 60 hertz... if that doesn't bug your eyes out too much, leave it there... it should be fine...

OR....


invest in an LCD monitor, and you shouldn't have the problem any more... :)

[kingrat]

You wouldnt happen to have a spare/old monitor you could try? That problem smells of either vidcard or monitor. If it was ram, you'd have programs crashing. If it were drivers, usually the desktop would be ok but games/apps would crash...plus your'e seeing the screen messed up before windows boots anyways, so thats before the drivers even load...has your monitor been making any new noises lately? squealing/high pitch noise?

Did you buy any new speakers or anything with magnets near the monitor? Try a degaus maby?

Just thinking out loud here. computers suck sometimes...impossible to nail down the problem.

[Farside]

thanks,
nope, no spare monitor nor any odd noises.
Get this though, my PC seems to run DirectX games fine.
It bugs out on the desktop, is completly unplayable when its an OpenGL game yet it runs DirectX games fine... wtf is that about...

[Smoke]

It's most def. your video card. Try removing the card and putting it back in. It's not the screen as you were able to take a screenshot, which happens regardless of the screen being plugged it. I don't know of any free video card memory testers but that would be my first suggestion; even then no software test is going to uncover every issue.

Then go straight to the older nVidia card you have and install the latest drivers from their website....

Save yourself the trouble and don't reload Windows.

[Farside]

It's most def. your video card. Try removing the card and putting it back in. It's not the screen as you were able to take a screenshot, which happens regardless of the screen being plugged it. I don't know of any free video card memory testers but that would be my first suggestion; even then no software test is going to uncover every issue.

Then go straight to the older nVidia card you have and install the latest drivers from their website....

Save yourself the trouble and don't reload Windows.

yep, you and all who said the video card were 100% correct.
Right after my last post I took the 9800 out and installed the ti4200 and have been testing a few games and they all ran fine. Looks like my 9800 is garbage now but at least I know its nothing more than that... I hope. Thanks to all you guys.

[Stingray]

I fixed a problem like that for a client.. turned out one pin on his monitor connector was bent.

Did you try another monitor? Maybe the monitor is going..

[AJellyDonut]

yep, you and all who said the video card were 100% correct.
Right after my last post I took the 9800 out and installed the ti4200 and have been testing a few games and they all ran fine. Looks like my 9800 is garbage now but at least I know its nothing more than that... I hope. Thanks to all you guys.

Glad you figured it out. :action-sm

[Farside]

I fixed a problem like that for a client.. turned out one pin on his monitor connector was bent.

Did you try another monitor? Maybe the monitor is going..Thanks, it was the video card after all
All's clear now :icon_mrgr
http://img114.exs.cx/img114/3628/fixed6jf.jpg


Glad you figured it out. :action-smMe too man, me too :yclap: Thanks again

[NightStalker3]

Good Job everyone! It's nice to have a little place like this where a guy can get some help like this.

[JoeyDVDZ]

I don't believe this is a heat issue - it looks like the refresh rate is set too high.

Are you running on a CRT or a LCD screen? If it is a CRT, go into the desktop properties, then 'settings' then 'advanced' and try lowering the refresh rate to 60 hertz. If that fixes it, repeat the process using the next higher rate. Continue this process until the display messes up again, then use the highest rate which didn't cause the issue.

Let me know if this works!
That was my thought too.

[Smoke]

Last time I checked ATI has a 5 year warranty, so try returning it to them. If you're card is Built by ATI they can exchange it, Powered by ATI is made by other vendors. BTW - nVidia doesn't sell cards, they sell the chips to manufacturers.

[Farside]

Last time I checked ATI has a 5 year warranty, so try returning it to them. If you're card is Built by ATI they can exchange it, Powered by ATI is made by other vendors. BTW - nVidia doesn't sell cards, they sell the chips to manufacturers.

I just checked and I still have the receipt so I'll give them a call, thanks

[zagman76]

Here's another thought... were you overclocking the card? If you were, then set it back to the original speed. Also check to make sure that overclocking doesn't void the warranty before you call.

[Farside]

Here's another thought... were you overclocking the card? If you were, then set it back to the original speed. Also check to make sure that overclocking doesn't void the warranty before you call.

I never overclocked my card for fear of frying it, alot of good that did me eh?
thanks though :action-sm