DirectX Issues

T

Torn

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
433
I just got a copy of Call of Cthulhu and it keeps freezing and/or getting huge graphical glitches during video playback. I've noticed this on other DX games as well, but not all of them. I also ran DXDiag and sometimes I get failures, sometimes I dont. Does this sound like a video card issue or could it be my mobo? Any clues or ideas are welcome.
 
It sounds like the graphics card is getting too hot or is not receiving enough power.
Its possible that DirectX is messed up but without knowing the temps or trying another PSU, its not easy to tell if further research is necessary.

Take the side of the case off and blow a big fan onto the graphics card.
If that sorts it you need to improve the cooling.
If that doesnt work, try another PSU or unplug anything you dont need to save power for the graphics card. This will highlight whether your PSU can cope.

Its worth resetting your CMOS to default as well in case it is corrupt.
Be sure to write down any specific settings you use before doing it.

Let us know what happens
 
System is

ASUS A7N8X+
Athlon XP 2500+ (OC to 3200+)
BFG 6800 256MB
2GB RAM
Audigy 1

I'll try my old backup card. I noticed the vid card fan has been kicking up a lot while gaming lately. I wonder if its been heat damaged?
 
I'll have to double check, but it was one recommended here. Will post the name when I get home.
 
Is it just during videos? Sounds more like a codec-related issue. Do you have FFDSHOW installed? It causes that sort of problem for me. I've sworn off FFDSHOW, just install the Xvid codec and Quicktime now, handles everything without issue.

Unfortunately, once you have FFDSHOW I don't know anything short of a full format and reinstall that'll fully get rid of it.
 
Not just during videos. Sometimes during gameplay, textures will distort (in WoW, faces had switched around) or I will get triangular patterns of green or white static.
 
Oh carp...good thing its a BFG. Time to get those loverly folks on the phone I guess. I was afraid of that...good thing I have my *groan* FX5600 still laying around. I suppose I could upgrade since its only a vanilla 6800...but really, would I get much out of a faster vid card on a system this old?
 
Torn said:
Oh carp...good thing its a BFG. Time to get those loverly folks on the phone I guess. I was afraid of that...good thing I have my *groan* FX5600 still laying around. I suppose I could upgrade since its only a vanilla 6800...but really, would I get much out of a faster vid card on a system this old?
Click to expand...

You've got a fair bit of RAM, it's your CPU that would be the chokepoint if anything. You've got that double-lifetime warranty or whatever, so you can just RMA it and whatever they send you should be at least slightly better (or /maybe/ exactly the same, if they happen to have one laying around, but doubtful) so you'll get a little upgrade that way anyway. I wouldn't worry about actually paying for a GPU upgrade -- particularly on an AGP system -- and just save up for a whole new build at some point instead.
 
I would save your money for a new rig rather than putting it back into your outdated one.
 
I SO don't want to be stuck with my FX5600 for 2 weeks. UGH. Well, at least my system *should* work afterwards. Thanks guys. Upgrading the total rig probably October.
 
So heres an interesting development. So I am on the Lord of the Rings Online trial and it wont run. So I did what I did during beta; run another DirectX program first, then start it. In this case, I start up Bricks of Atlantis. It runs fine in full screen...not so much windowed. Start up LOTRO and after I skip the intro movie (that kept freezing up video while audio was fine) it plays perfectly. WTF?!
 
Some kind of codec issue. Also, how old is your Windows install? Things get screwy after a while sometimes....
 
Windows install is only a year old at most and it did this on the previous install as well. Hrm...I'm using an SB Audigy...I've heard horror stories about it not mixing well with XP and I have had sound issues in some DX games.
 
A year old is old, but then I seem to have install related issues more than most. It's got to the point that I reinstall every 6-8 months anymore. Anyway, maybe a sound issue, but maybe codecs. Do you have FFDSHOW installed? It comes with a lot of codec packs because it decodes many many formats... but it sucks. Bad.
 
Torn said:
I do have FFDSHOW installed. Should I get rid of it?
Click to expand...

I would. All you need to open pretty much all media formats is the Xvid codec, Quicktime, Realplayer (or QuicktimeAlt and RealAlt) and a splitter that handles Matroska format container files, if you use those for anything. Codec packs tend to just screw everything up by installing 3 things to handle the same format, and FFDSHOW is slow, output isn't great quality, and it tends to mess up video in games. Unfortunately I've found it very hard to get rid of completely in the past.
 
Uninstalled it and did a search. Seems to be totally gone. Installed Xvid as well. Rebooted so lets see if LOTRO works right.
 
Interesting...now instead of just flat out freezing, the screen went black then came up with a Windows error of nv4_disp error.
 
Downloading new ones now. Of course, I ran DriverCleaner BEFORE booting into safe mode. We'll see if I can recover from THAT properly. Damn I feel dumb...

OK. Drivers are back to normal. Using Forceware 162.18. We'll see if that helps...
 
Same error but not as severe. Trying to get into my photobucket to post a screenshot. Video started playing. Sound was fine. Then the sound was fine and the video froze with static along the letterboxed sides.
 
Hrm...the Nvidia website tells me to DL 162 for a N6 series on WinXP...

Heres the screenshot.
gfxissue.jpg
 
Looking at the screenshot, it's too cleanly patterned to be artifacting, it's codec or driver related I'd guess. Also, I never listen to what the nVidia website says --- they always point me to old drivers. ;)
 
So, still think its the video card or could it be codecs/drivers?
 
I originally thought it was a hardware problem but am leaning towards software now.
The quickest test is get a spare hard drive, install Windows and see what happens.
 
Woah, missed your reply somehow, SC. Thanks for the feedback.
Nenu, very good plan. I'll have to dig one up...got a couple of clunkers sitting around.
 
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