How to detect artifacts

S

Shmuckety

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
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I have been having some issues lately and can't figure them out completely. I have a 6800LE that I think is on its last leg, but I am not sure. Sometimes in windows I see small white dots that form down graphics and JPG's. I don't use this rig for games, except the occational starcraft action.

In Starcraft I have lately seen the screen flash in different colors and sometimes it displays colors incorrectly. I changed the monitor, power supply, and added a NV silencer to the video card which runs around 53C. Is there a good program to use to detect video card problems?

I was going to RMA it but I installed Dawn of War and did not have the same issues yet.

 
Open up Ati tool and run it and then ull know if you are getting them. it tells you if you a running with or without them
 
My temps went up to . How long do I run this thing for? No errors came up in 3 mins
 
I'll run it overnight. Can over loading the motherboard through overclocking cause these issues? Today I really haven't seen a problem. Its very sporatic.

Can driver issues cause this. I loaded the newest Nvidia drivers, but maybe the newer drivers have a problem with Starcraft.
 
I like to run it for about an hour-2 hours and then im done. Otherwise you are overdoing it/not testing enough.
 
I ran it over night no errors in 10 hours. I am now quite confused. Since I installed dawn of war the weird problems have stopped. I will have to do further testing. :confused:
 
Yeah, no errors in 10 hours means its the game that is causing problems not the hardware.
 
I get artifacts in Windows and worse problems in Starcraft. It can't just be the game. I see little white dots appear in images and graphics in Windows and sometimes on the Internet.
 
Alright so you ran ATI tool for 10 hours and no artifacts. Have you by any chance updated to any new drivers for the video card?

Any overclocking done to the card and if so did you overclock 2-D instead of 3-D. And if you don't know what I'm talking about nevermind ;)
 
I did not overclock at all. I tried to unlock the pipes, but it did not work (got artifacts). So I relocked the pipes and un installed rivatuner. Later on I began to see artifacts.

Here is a great example:



As you can see no errors found, yet there are artifacts in the red circles.
 
that's odd. artifacts usually don't appear in 2D mode unless your memory is messed up. you say your temperatures are up. have you dusted the card out recently? if there's a lot of dust in your case, you're prone to all sorts of heat / stability issues!
 
Zinn said:
that's odd. artifacts usually don't appear in 2D mode unless your memory is messed up. you say your temperatures are up. have you dusted the card out recently? if there's a lot of dust in your case, you're prone to all sorts of heat / stability issues!
Click to expand...

My temps are ok. You think its the memory on my card or my mobo? I dusted everything and temps are ok. Can overstressing the mobo cause 2D artifacts?
 
n3g471v3 d3c1b3l said:
I have the same problem with Starcraft sometimes. It's the game.
Click to expand...

I was just going to say that. Starcraft simply does that.

The white dots sound like a video card memory problem. Strange that it happens in 2d... Are you sure it's not your eyes?
 
Firebat said:
I was just going to say that. Starcraft simply does that.

The white dots sound like a video card memory problem. Strange that it happens in 2d... Are you sure it's not your eyes?
Click to expand...

Did you see the pic (above) the dots are there, I swear they are. Anyway I tried the other DVI output and the same issues are appearing.
 
That is odd, everytime I've had artifacts, they look like big blocks (like old DOS characters) that are some random color (usually yellow/green) appear randomly around the screen, it would happen in DOS mode (BIOS SCREEN), windows, everything. It was completely independant of anything.

When you move the window do the dots follow the window? Are the dots stuck on the screen in the same position no matter where the window is? If you move the window off the screen then move it back on the screen (that forces the window to repaint) do the dots disappear?
 
They disappear and reappear in different areas. If I minimize and maximize they may disappear or reappear in a different spot.
 
I am gonna send it back and hope for the best. Wish me luck. With my luck they will tell me nothing is wrong and charge me money for sending it to them. :rolleyes:
 
I am back to my trusty ATI 9600, no more wierd dots...far less graphics crunching power :(
 
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