Random video lock / computer lock then graphics scrambled

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Engnr

n00b
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
11
I am at my whits end on this one. Maybe someone has some other idea to try. My box, not even a year old is acting up. It "stutters" occasionally. When it stutters, ALL the graphics cycle to new textures. Say your running around in TF2, then suddenly the wall your looking at looks like the texture map of a soldier's face. And so on and so on. I had this problem initially, and then I messed with a graphics card setting, not sure which anymore, and it went away. Well now it's back with a vengeance.

Things tried:
1. New video card, same results, so returned that card.
2. All new memory
3. New CPU
4. New Motherboard
5. Full re-install of widows XP pro.
6. It's not heat
7. Switched out mouse and keyboard, it feels like a USB glitch to me
8. Switched out power supply
9. Killed all on-board sound, everything is on a USB headset
10. Used HD manufacturers tools on drive to completely check it out, all looked good.
11. Direct X 10 loaded, no change.

Specs:

Win XP pro fully up to date, Service pack 3
ABIT IX38 Quad GT LGA 775 (original)
ASUS P5E WS (now)
Patriot Extreme Performance 1GB x 4 (original)
Muskin 4GB PC2 6400 2x2GB (now)
EVGA GForce 8800GT SC 512mb
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (original)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (now)

It's totally random, I could play a 3d graphics game for 3 hours without a problem or I could just load it up before it flakes. Not sure where to turn for help, thought maybe someone here could point me in a direction.

Eng
 
Thermaltake Purepower 500w
Antec P182 ATX Mid Tower
Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 250gb 7200 RPM SATA 3.0
 
I dont think you've mentioned it, but...

Is it only with TF2? or does it happen with another game?
Which video card are you using, and the drivers. Did you try another driver, or another manufacture, aka ATi instead of nvidia?
 
All 3D games. I'm using the EVGA GForce 8800GT SC 512mb with the older 169.21 drivers. I had the 178.13 drivers installed and just never have switched them back. It doesn't seem to be the drivers. I don't remember which other video card I purchased, its already returned, but it was an ATI card with similar specs.
 
The memory on the card is dying. RMA your card.

My 8800gt finally died the other day having done something similiar. Games would freeze with corruption and you could alt tab out, but it'd take literally 30-60 seconds to do so and during which the whole system would be totally frozen as if crashed. But any music playing in winamp would continue letting me know the system was infact fine. Not quite your problem but similar cause I'd bet.

8800GT's are cheap cards that don't have the 3 phase power design that they really need. Notice how the 8800GTS 512, that only really differs in 16 extra pixel pipelines, has the extra power phase on the board. The 8800GT even has all the solder points on the board ready. Says it all.

I would expect that now, a year after the 8800GT came out, many will begin to fail with memory related errors and artifacts.


So yeah, bottom line; RMA time, card is faulty. :(
 
Even though I switched cards with the exact same results. Can two things go bad at once, is that what may have happened? I guess stranger things, but then my whole system freezes, well mostly, the game, Team Speak, cursor, keyboard, but MSN voice chat still works when its locked.
 
When you switched cards and got the same results did you reinstall the video drivers? And when you did that did you properly clean them before installing? (Uninstall current video driver, reboot, install new driver, reboot, configure).

I agree that its possible that the memory on your vid card is dying, but because of the type of errors (textures, stuttering) it still sounds like a driver issue.

Also...this is just a nitpick but:

5. Full re-install of widows XP pro.
Click to expand...
11. Direct X 10 loaded, no change.
Click to expand...

Ahem. You can't load DX10 on XP...so not sure what you mean there. If you're loading some 3rd party program, that could also be causing your issue, especially if its messing with DirectX.
 
Doh! That's right DX10 is for Vista not XP, bah I did install it on a suggestion, hey grasping at straws here. I can't gain all the benefits from DX10 on XP, but it's "running" regardless. As far as drivers, yes, uninstall/reboot/install. Could always go back to DX9 seeing how it didn't have any effect one way or the other. This has been going on for 3 weeks now, just at a loss as what to try.
 
Engnr said:
Doh! That's right DX10 is for Vista not XP, bah I did install it on a suggestion, hey grasping at straws here. I can't gain all the benefits from DX10 on XP, but it's "running" regardless. As far as drivers, yes, uninstall/reboot/install. Could always go back to DX9 seeing how it didn't have any effect one way or the other. This has been going on for 3 weeks now, just at a loss as what to try.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I would get rid of whatever DirectX 10 thing you've got. MS never released it for XP, so I assume you're using some third party version of it. So yeah, that would be my guess as to where your problem is, unless you were seeing the problem long before you installed it.
 
Long before I'm afraid. It was just another failed attempt to fix the problem.

I went to un-install DX10 and when I looked for a way to remove it, it was posted that there really is not a way to even install it. Ran dxdiag, sure enough, it was never "installed". I hate computers. :)
 
Any additional thoughts?

Fine, if I change the video card, which manufacture? EVGA, BFG, or? Probably going with a GTX 260 (216 core) card.

Now if this doesn't work, who's buying the beer?
 
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