NVidia 8800 Windows 7 problem

[czajunia]

Hello,

Recently I've noticed some unusual pixel flickering under Windows 7 using Gainward 8800 GT PCX. There are red pixels randomly switching on and off on some dark areas of the screen. First I thought it was definitely a graphic card problem but then I realized that I didn't see any of these under WinXP. I double checked and when running XP the card was fine. I had the latest Win7 nVidia drivers installed so I thought that maybe there was a bug and downgraded to the first Win7 drivers available but the problem is still there.

I uploaded a video showing what it looks like. The displayed picture was intentionally darkened with a color balanced changed a bit so it's not that extreme in real life and the pixels are usually more random compared to the video. Also they are red and look much smaller (pixel size).

Has anyone noticed similar problems? How likely is that the card is fine and there are some drivers/monitor incompatibility issues?

Thank's a lot for your answers and suggestions.

[aidanjt]

Probably a driver issue. Try the current drivers from nVidia's website.

[czajunia]

I've tried that before. I had 191.07 installed and after that I went back to the 181.71 thinking that the latest drivers might have some bugs with the older cards - no difference.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Are you using a LCD? It looks like single pixel issues. Its with a 8800gtx?

[czajunia]

Yes, I have an LCD screen - NEC 20WGX2 to precise. I have never had any problems with the monitor before. I don't think it's a single pixel issue simply because they appear all over the screen - not at the same time though.

It's a normal 8800GT, not GTX.

[djglenn]

I cannot help with the problem, but can add that I have a 8800GT and Win 7 x64 and do not have this problem.

Hopefully you get it sorted... I am on the latest nVidia 8 series Win 7 drivers..

[Domestic_Ginger]

Not sure I can help either.

I would try another monitor if you have one. There maybe some kind of weird issue with your monitor and Win7; another resolution or refresh rate but you have probably alredy tried that.

[wombar]

It may sound stupid, but do you know what temperature your card is running at? It's potentially too hot and could be causing artifacts as a result but that's just a guess. Mine is running at about 50 celsius at idle but my fan speeds up as it gets hotter to compensate.

I'm running an 8800GTS on Win7-64bit and I've noticed it tends to idle a bit higher than XP as it's probably doing a bit more work. Saying that, I've not had any problems with artifacts and it's had a good workout over the weekend on TF2.

[czajunia]

The temperatures seem to be fine - around 45/53 C when idling (depending which reading you are looking at) and 61/68 when running some 3D stress test. No problems doing that either - it runs stable when testing.

Weird thing is that after I posted on the forum yesterday I haven't had any issues even under Win7. The problem was unbearable a day before as I could see red pixels even while watching a movie. But it's gone now. It's happened before as well - the card would work fine and suddenly start showing the problem. Someone on other forum suggested that if this doesn't happen all the time maybe I should check the connections. So following this piece of advice I have unplugged all the cables, removed the card and put everything back together just to make sure everything was plugged in properly.

So far so good - I still don't see any red pixels but maybe it's just a coincidence. If the problem comes back I'll try to underclock the card to see if this does the trick. I haven't played any games yet but I ran GPUTool Stress test for a couple of hours and it was fine.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks a lot for your help so far!

[unklebuck]

Do you have a spare HDD you could reinstall XP on.

It might just be that the card is on its way out and it's a coincidence that it's happened after your Win 7 install.

I'm at a loss as to what it could be if that resolves the issue. Could you try underclocking it?

[czajunia]

Unless it's a pure coincidence it looks like it was a connection problem - I haven't had any issues since Monday.

[czajunia]

For anyone who followed this thread - just a closing post. After a few days of playing a 3D FPS I can definitely say it was a connection issue. I haven't noticed anything unusual since last week.

Thanks again for your input!