Screen seems to be dying but not in games....help pls

[tony oh]

Hi,

I have the weirdest problem (well to me anyway).

The screen is a lcd 17" on a desktop pc...and it's going mad, colours everywhere lines the picture is moved over to the right, in short it's crazy....

So the screen is dying right?...well this is the weird part when I start a game eg COD4 the screen goes back to normal...like perfect....when I close the game and go back to the desktop it's still going crazy.

I'm running a dual boot so it starts going crazy in vista I restart into xp and then start cod4....I'll list it at each point:
Vista - crazy (the screen not the os ..lol)
vista shutting down -crazy.
When the pc is rebooting I get the no signal to screen message for a second or 2 and it is fine.
The part up to the choose os screen - fine.
Choose OS vista or old version of windows - crazy
Xp - crazy.
I start COD4 -perfect
Play the game for 15 mins or so -perfect.
Close the game back to desktop -crazy.

It can happen at any time the screen starts flickering colours can appear or it can just go completely blank for a few minutes. Other times it's perfect ...like today it hasn't happened ..yet but yesterday it was all over the place.

Sorry if this was a bit long but I was trying to include everything.

Temps are fine when it happens about 35C for the cpu and 45C for the gpu.

Anyone any idea....does something change in display terms between the desktop and a game?

Also I managed to take a screen print when things were going mad but it looked normal.

Cheers....pls help.

[jeffel]

Hi it could probably be a dying graphics card.What card are u using.

[tony oh]

Thanks for the reply it's a 8800gts 320mb the rest of the specs are on the side panel.

The only thing is the problems disappears when I'm putting the gpu under stress with the game.

[Spud1]

It could be a problem with either the desktop resolution or the refresh rate you are using - many games ignore your "desktop" settings and use their own internal ones, which would explain why it is not a problem in games.

To check this, (in vista), right click on the desktop and click personalize, then display settings. Try setting your resolution to 1024x768 first of all and see if that has any effect. If not, then click advanced settings, then monitor, and look at the screen refresh rate. This should be set to either 59 or 60hz.

Other than that i'm not sure what else it could be - try updating your video card drivers, and you could try downloading something like knoppix linux and booting into that (runs from CD/DVD so you dont need to install it), to see if the problem still happens. If it does then its a hardware fault, if it works fine then its a software problem.

[tony oh]

Hi,

cheers spud but the games are set at the native res which is the same for the desktop 1280x1024.

In the game I was using as an example, cod4, the refresh rate was the same as the desktop's too.

But I did try and lower the desktop res but no joy and the refresh rate only has 4 setting between 60 - 75hz and I tried them all.

I tried doing a fresh install of just XP...no vista at present...but the problem persists.

I remember having a faulty 1950pro (ATI) and when I took a print screen the print screen was the same as the image on the display......but that's not happening...I'm getting a normal print screen.


One thing, when I was reinstalling XP everything was perfect until it got to the section where it says it's registering components...and then there were a few flickers.

Cheers I'm going to look at the linux and see.

It looks like it's going to be a hardware fault....suxx....lol...sniff.

[GoNz0]

download http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

if you can run that on your desktop and the screen returns to normal it may be a duff video card that cant cope in low power mode, more juice when a 3d app kicks in and it may carry it, it wont last though if it turns out to be the case.

[tony oh]

Hi,

I downloaded that and it's really beautiful.

Anyway it runs at 170-156 fps on full screen at 1280x1024 without messing with anything.

A few of the different effects bring it up to 300 fps.

I was thinking that too (about low power) so I had a look in the bios and the pci-e frequency was set to auto...I don't have an overclock....so I set it to 100hz.

The splash screen doesn't appear anymore...if that means anything.

Can someone tell me where the print screen is taken from...just curious?

So we are thinking a dying gpu then?

I wonder how long the manufacturers guarantee is for asus...I'm betting a year...pls be 2 ...away to check.

[tony oh]

Quick check it may be 3 years

[GoNz0]

i wouldnt even run that full screen, just fill a quarter of the desktop and it will tell if 2d is shot.

yeh Asus 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty on Motherboards and Video Cards

oh low power is set by the vga bios, dont go down that path if its faulty, RMA it

[tony oh]

Oh I just meant normal BIOS with "del" at start up...I just changed the pcie clock from auto to 100hz.

So it worked fine now what should I do?

I'm guessing they will test it with a game...and it would work....lol.

Thanks.

[GoNz0]

well if your system is stock and its now working with the pcie clock fixed i would see how you go for a few days b4 an rma

[tony oh]

No problem...cheers...I still have a year and a half and it may be time to get a new card by then.

I was just trying to make sure it was the card and not the screen or motherboard...and I'm pretty satisfied it is.

Thanks

[GoNz0]

might be worth getting a bios update for the mobo incase it doesnt know what the card is ?

[tony oh]

I did that just now...lol...except for the beta version.

I'm only getting a few quick flashes now ...nothing too bad,

just hope if the card is going to die it happens soon

Cheers.