Blurred Text and Graphical Anomalies

[Kirano]

Hello Hexus!

I have two strange problems and I suspect (or at least hope) that they are related.

Problem 1) Graphical Anomalies

A few days ago, the game 'Two Worlds' hanged on the menu screen and required a holding down of the power button to switch off the system. Upon rebooting, everything seemed fine, till I loaded up the game again, at which point the screen became littered with little green dots and the system hung.
I duly restarted it again. I was quite shocked to see now that on the 'splash' screen, were strange white lines (thin horizontal ones and thick vertical blocks) and various coloured dots and these persisted throughout the boot process til finally at the Windows 7 boot up screen (where you have the little pulsated windows icon, just before the screen where you put in your password), the system hung and bsod'd me!
After a few restarts, the problem seems to go away and stays away unless I load up that game again (I've tried a few others that are just as, if not more, graphically intensive and they create no problem.) I haven't tried reinstalling the game yet (disks are at home, which is not where I am living right now ) but it seems strange that the problem persists even upon a restart...

Problem 2)Blurry/smeared text

I first noticed it on the little information box that comes up when you run 'dxdiag.exe'; the text on the 'display', 'sound' etc. tabs all seemed slightly skew and blurry. I've now noticed that whenever I hover my mouse over anything that usually brings up a little information text box (like the icons along the start bar and on the start menu, on the control bar) or any pop notifications from icons in the action bar (bottom right hand corner) the text is blurred and completely unreadable. It appears in some persistant places (like the tabs on the dxdiag box, and some text on the bottom bar of internet explorer.) In fact, I've just noticed that although drop down menus (File, Edit, Tools etc) at first seem fine, if I run my mouse across the various options, the text completely skews and blurs. Further to that, in Word 2007, in the little box that says what text you are using, the name of the text is blurred yet when you bring up the little drop down menu, the text all appears as normal.

I haven't run many diagnostic tools at this stage. I'm in the process of running a virus scan, just in case. A couple of our computers at work have been laid out by viruses recently. My personal computer has had no contact with the infected machines, but it has me paranoid nonetheless...

Let me know what further information you require. I will add in at the bottom any other places where I encounter text problems or graphical anomalies, in the hope that it helps.

[stevie lee]

have you got a different graphics card to try in the machine?

what you describe, points towards the graphics overheating/faulty graphics memory chip.

from reading your 'my system', run catalyst control center and look at the overdrive page, what temps does it say on that?

and when did you last clean out the dust from your case?

[Kirano]

Thank you for your swift response.

I do have another card I could try. An 8800gt I've been trying to palm off on people but, thankfully I guess, haven't been able to. I assume that, to test it, I'd need to clean the system of the ATI drivers, take out the card, put in the new one and install the Nvidia drivers. Shouldn't be too long a job, but t'will have to wait til after the weekend unfortunately, due to my commitments at work...

So, Overdrive tells me that currently (at the lower 2d clock speeds and the fan at 33%) the GPU is at 46 degrees C for one chip, 38 for the other. That's pretty much what I've normally seen. Should I check the 3d speeds? I usually put the fan on manual and up it as much as I need to keep it below 60-70 (usually 45-50%). Should I flip it on to auto?

I cleaned out the front dust filters a few days ago, but haven't given the case a good going over in a while. It's defintely something I can try. Again, unfortunately, not til after the weekend....

[stevie lee]

you would have to clean off all the ati drivers.
temps seem fine.

I would say a faulty graphics memory chip.


just had another thought. what drivers are you using? I had a few blurry lines and wierdness with the 10.6 drivers, with 10.7 they all went away.

[Kirano]

I would say a faulty graphics memory chip.

That makes me unhappy. I've only had the card for a year. Picked it up June 09 when ATI crashed there prices but it was still £240 and I don't have that kinda money right now....

just had another thought. what drivers are you using? I had a few blurry lines and wierdness with the 10.6 drivers, with 10.7 they all went away.

Well, I've been using 10.6 since end of June and only now started having issues. I will clean the drivers off and install the 10.7 version and see if that fixes the issue. If it doesn't, I'll take off the drivers again and put in the 8800gt. I think what I will do first though is back up my system, incase I frak something up.

This will all have to wait til Sunday. I could do some stuff tonight, but I'm supposed to be going out and if it all goes horribly wrong, it will put me in a foul mood

Thanks for your advice so far!

[Queelis]

Well, visual artifacts are often a symptom of a dying graphics card, but if you've had it only for a year, surely you still have the warranty? You'd get it replaced, or maybe if they don't have any, they'd offer you something of equal performance (which would be a lovely Radeon HD 5870 )

[Kirano]

Well, visual artifacts are often a symptom of a dying graphics card, but if you've had it only for a year, surely you still have the warranty? You'd get it replaced, or maybe if they don't have any, they'd offer you something of equal performance (which would be a lovely Radeon HD 5870 )

Ah warranty! I actually got the card last July so I'm just beyond a year now but it's still worth a shot anyway (especially for the chance of owning a 5870 ) Is it best to get in touch with the place I bought it from, or the manufacturer (XFX) directly?

Argh! Roll on sunday! I got a bit of time last night to check things out and, after a few false starts, the computer booted perfectly and ran for an hour with no artifacts, no text blurring etc. Managed to backup my hard drive, so if I get time this afternoon, I can try updating the drivers or changing the graphics card completely...

[Queelis]

Well most warranties are at least two years, so you'd be good anyway. Well, it should work either way, but if you bought it from, e.g., OcUK, they I've heard have a lousy customer support. But XFX doesn't shine in that regard either, so.. Someone with experience in dealing with them should speak up

[Kirano]

Well, I'm finally home and in a position to start sorting stuff out. Took about 5 boots and restarts before the computer was in a functional position, so the problem seems to be worsening...

Another symptom. After the first splash screen (where it just says Gigabyte and lists the boot menu, bios etc. function keys) it then does this thing where it lists connected devices or some stuff like that. Basically, if there are graphical anomalies on the screen, all that text will be jargon as well. @ and } symbols, when normally it's sensical...

Query; does it matter if I take out the hardware before uninstalling the drivers? I'm thinking if it reaches a point where it finally doesn't boot anymore and i just have to jank the card out....

Just about to try updating the drivers to 10.7, just so I can say I've tried. Oh and it was OcUK I bought it from so, as Queelis says, if someone with experience of dealing with them could get in touch that would be great.

[Kirano]

Hmmm, I'm tentative in saying this but the problem appears to be fixed. Un-installed the 10.6 drivers and rebooted. There was some minor graphical corruption on the windows 7 starting screen but only for a second. Installed the 10.7 drivers and rebooted, this time with no problems. Played a video game (although briefly) and again no problem.

I can only assume that the 10.6 drivers must have become corrupted through use and that's what caused the problem. Or, of course, this could just be the eye of the storm

[stevie lee]

lets just both hope that 10.7 is the solution, because if it isnt, that means i might have a faulty graphics card too.

although why it affects the booting screens with garbled text, when it hasnt even loaded the drivers yet, i have no idea.

another thing i have noticed with mine, you may have noticed with yours. mine seems to be idling at 50C when a few months ago it was idling at 35C. maybe its just dusty or bad airflow, or it could be symptoms of a knackered card. its just something we should keep an eye on.

does it matter if I take out the hardware before uninstalling the drivers? I'm thinking if it reaches a point where it finally doesn't boot anymore and i just have to jank the card out....

thats why you boot into safe mode - press F8(?) on booting and choose safe mode. uninstall drivers, put new ones in.

[Kirano]

Well it's been over a week now and no problems. Something in the previous drivers must have gotten corrupted, though as you say Stevie, quite why it affected the boot screen I'm not sure. Regardless, it now seems to be fixed.

Yes Stevie, I too have noticed that my card is idling, and gaming, at higher temps. I'm having to kick the fan speed up a bit more than I used to say 6 months ago. I think it must be dust, though quite how we'd check that and clean it I'm not sure. Take apart the cooler I guess. Is that a particularly easy thing to do?!?

[Kirano]

Gah! No sooner do I post to say all is well and it all comes flooding back again. Admittedly not as bad this time; the anomalies have kept themselves as varyingly coloured little patches and rather than garble the text at boot up its turned about 2/3 of it a light shade of turquoise but still, back.

After a few reboots I'm in with no graphical anomalies, and no blurred text. I'll refrain from starting anything more intensive than that for now.

RAGE!!!!!

I don't understand. I've not installed anything new, or updated anything today. It's been fine ever since I updated the drivers. Why now?!? Why start falling apart again after a week?!?

[stevie lee]

Ive thoroughly cleaned my case with air compressor, removed everything, tidied up cables, removed heatsinks and put on new paste and it reduced the temp by 1C. so i would think its not dust/bad airflow related.

Ive had no problems with 10.7 at anypoint, idle, boot screens, heavy gaming - i tried crysis:warhead, Risen, GTA4 all at the same time, alt-tabbing between them and there were no problems.

it cant hurt giving the graphics card a dust. Hold the fan with your finger so it doesnt spin round, blow compressed air through so the dust blows through the vents, blow back the other way, then back through the fan again, that should clean it.
I would only remove the heatsink/casing if its out of warranty, they can tell if you've removed it and might reject an RMA - which its starting to look like if the problem persists.

[Kirano]

Well, I gave it a quick blow through and dust out last night but the problem remained. After a relatively problem free morning however, I risked loading up Half Life 2 and the problem reared its ugly head and this time crashed the computer.

When I rebooted the computer itself started up ok, making all the usual sounds, but there was no picture. After several reboots, swapping to a different Dvi port and changing the cable inbetween, the moniter kept saving it was going into power save mode (which it does if the computer is switched off.)

I yanked the card, put in my 8800gt. It rebooted with no hassle. Uninstalled the old drivers, installed the new Nvidia ones and so far, I've had no problems what so ever.

So I guess this means that my lovely, little over a year old 4870X2 has kicked the bucket!

Should I contact OcUK, the seller, first? Or should I contact the manufacturer, XFX, directly?

[Agent]

Ahh, another dead XFX

You can try OCUK, but given it's over a year old, they will probably just tell you to go to XFX.