Flickering blue pixels everywhere!!!

Holy crap, everything just went apesh**... I'm typing this through a haze of green pixelated static. I can barely see anything, I'm just typing this for kicks. Will restart my computer now.

:'(
 
video card memory overheating causes mis-coloured pixels, grab some temp monitoring software and check temps.

Might be worth getting your case side off and aiming a desk fan in there meanwhile to cool the card and stop the errors.

If you've overclocked you've done it too far, and if you've replaced the cooler yourself you've done it badly.
 
Latest report from the front lines... I've been forced to make a hasty withdrawal to my laptop.

I restarted the computer, and everything was still wildly colourful. I suspect it's the graphics card, because there was a black bar on the left hand side of the screen which I couldn't move my mouse into; it stopped as though I had reached the edge of my screen. If it was my monitor that was busted then I probably would still be able to go there.

Anyway, some pics:
http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn472/GenBanks/DSC00659-1.jpg
http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn472/GenBanks/DSC00658.jpg
http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn472/GenBanks/DSC00661.jpg
http://i323.photobucket.com/albums/nn472/GenBanks/DSC00660.jpg

Seriously wacky.

The phenomenon I described in my first post was the preliminary effect I guess. There was a sprinkling of individual pixels that would flicker with a blue colour. It wasn't very noticeable even though there were a lot. Now it's totally crazy! :eek:

@Frostex...
This happened while I was idling, I posted a screenshot of the GPU-Z temp monitor, and it was at about 40C. There was no overclock on the card. I didn't have any overheating problems with two GX2's in my case, so it would be weird if a 280 was overheating...
 
I just called up ebuyer.com and they're going to let me return the card and get a replacement. I'm sort of wishing that I had gone with a big brand like BFG or Evga instead of Point of View...

Although it's probably nvidia's fault because of the low yields and lower quality control or something like that. Way to go nvidia... I hope the next card isn't messed up as well.

PS
Oh and Frostex... how are your Xfired 4870's treating you? ;)
 
I didn't really pay attention to what it was doing during bios. The weird colours were everywhere in windows though.
 
I had that happen with a 4200 back in the day, it turned out to be bad capacitors on the card. Could also be the ram, hopefully just heat.
 
Yeah... I've got my old 9800 GTX which I haven't sold yet, but I can't be bothered to reinstall all the drivers while I wait until ebuyer sends me my new card. Luckily they have accepted my return request.

At least when a graphics card fails it does so in a fairly spectacular fashion. Doesn't quite live up to my PSU exploding about 8 years ago, but the effect is still pretty impressive.
 
Have you tested the monitor on another computer?

I remember I had something similar happen to an LCD screen a few years ago. It started with the shimmering of pixels until practically the whole screen was messed up. It still wasn't as bad as some of those pictures, but it looked like a similar effect. I swapped monitors around between a few computers and determined it was the monitor. We ended up just throwing it out (wasn't mine, it was at work). You may want to test with different monitor configurations before you send your video card back.
 
So I have been getting this on and off for no discernible reason. It just started happeneing one day. Here's a fraps video, let me know if it's the same thing:

http://www.mcnology.com/artifacts.wmv

The card worked great for a long time, and its always fine after I reboot and it may not come back for hours and hours (I can literally play TF2 for hours just fine sometimes). What's odd is that if I do a shutdown/reboot, the logoff screen it shows in Vista all of the sudden has no issues whatsoever, meanining its apparently related to 3D and I assume the logoff screen doesn't use Aero. This would seem to indicated overheating since it's random, but nothing is overclocked and the card has never been overclocked, and the temps seem fine to me. I guess it could be a bad card, but why all of the sudden for no reason when nothings changed and it was fine for months. :(

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I was about to make my own and this appears to be related. That's a fresh install by the way.
 
I think my ATI x1900xt has the same problem. I went crazy trying to figure out its cause. I ended up concluding (not sure if i am correct) that it was a weak DVI signal coming from the card. In my situation, turning the monitor off and then on a couple of times would clear the screen of these sparkling pixels.

I thought it was the monitor as well, but it was not the case. It happened at 1900x1200-- lower than that it would not happen.
 
gorilla show said:
I think my ATI x1900xt has the same problem. I went crazy trying to figure out its cause. I ended up concluding (not sure if i am correct) that it was a weak DVI signal coming from the card. In my situation, turning the monitor off and then on a couple of times would clear the screen of these sparkling pixels.
Click to expand...

If it's something that simple that would be awesome. I'll mess with that idea.
 
I had that happen to me when I first got my LCD. Turns out the DVI connector was slightly loose.
 
OldPueblo said:
Would it be odd then that I could catch the effect on video?
Click to expand...

If I had my x1900xt with me I would try and see if it was the case. I do know that they were NOT artifacts-- the "sparkling" pixels would disappear on switching the monitor on/off and ATI tool did not report anything when I scanned for artifacts.

I feel confident that it is ur vid card's DVI output. Does this happen at every resolution?
 
gorilla show said:
If I had my x1900xt with me I would try and see if it was the case. I do know that they were NOT artifacts-- the "sparkling" pixels would disappear on switching the monitor on/off and ATI tool did not report anything when I scanned for artifacts.

I feel confident that it is ur vid card's DVI output. Does this happen at every resolution?
Click to expand...

I've found no way to duplicate it, it just happens here or there for no rhyme or reason. It doesn't happen enough for me to throw a massive fit and break my computer yet. But I'm getting close. :p I've had it go all day without issue before, or happen several times in one day. I'll try the second port or try turning the screen off this time to see if anything changes.
 
Ok i just saw ur video on account of some crap dial-up i have to use temporarily. That looks very strange. On my video card it was a much more subtle effect. I would bet mine would not show up on a recording. Hopefully u can get that fixed somehow.
 
This exact thing happened to me also. It was the DVI cable. Seriously. Try another cable, another monitor, make sure it's tight first.
 
GenBanks said:
I just called up ebuyer.com and they're going to let me return the card and get a replacement. I'm sort of wishing that I had gone with a big brand like BFG or Evga instead of Point of View...

Although it's probably nvidia's fault because of the low yields and lower quality control or something like that. Way to go nvidia... I hope the next card isn't messed up as well.

PS
Oh and Frostex... how are your Xfired 4870's treating you? ;)
Click to expand...

OMFG ebuyer :/

Quick rant, I placed a pre-order with them asshats for my 2 4870's, and on their forums people are saying they've turned up on the website one day and seen the item in stock and have orderd it and it's been shipped. And my pre order is just sitting there out of stock, bunch of tossers. Had to grab my new cards from overclockers.co.uk who did next day delivery :)

The pictures you posted are the whole screen going mental, that's not really the same kind of artifact as overheating would produce, not in my expereince anyway. The other possibility is that the temp sensor wasn't reporting correctly, or as you say it's likely it's just a naff card, either way RMA is the way to go, hope it goes smoothly!

4870's are doing good, teething problems installing vista last night on my new Velociraptor which left me all of about 2 hours for tinkering before colapsing in bed, all I can say is that most of you would consider 1920x1200 Crysis playable with all very high with this setup. FPS benchied with my 8800GTX in CSS benchmark went from approx 84 fps to 340fps which gives you an idea of the speed of these puppies :)
 
Took about a week because of weekend, but now I've got my replacement card back :)
No more issues. I also tried the monitor with another computer, and it was definitely the graphics card that had gone crazy.
 
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