VId Card or PSU problem?

R

rbarr110

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
278
I have been playing World Of Warcraft lately and they recently applied a new patch that did "improve" some of the graphics. However, since the patch I have had some display issues. Every now and then since the patch my 9800pro loses the overlays and I see other characters as white models. Also the mouse pointer in game looks like a rainbow and other menu display items are messed up. Usually only happens after extended time playing or if there is a lot of action on screen.

Like I said it isn't all the time but two times in the last week and a half, I will get the "artifacting" (for a lack of better description) and my computer will reboot itself. I have downloaded and installed the latest ATI drivers after the 1st crash, it did not help, still got display problems and a crash.

So I figure it is likely a PSU or maybe the card is having problems. Any opinions or suggestions?

Win XP Pro
Athlon XP 2800
9800 Pro
1 Gig Kinston HyperX DDR 3200
MSI Motherboard (Model?)
 
Check how hot the vid card is running.
It may be running at the upper limit and a slight bit more could be causes it to overheat hence the crash.

Luck.......... :D
 
The PSU is 430W or 450w. I think the PSU is an Antac, probably about 3 years old now.

Not sure on vid card temp, I have a large 120mm case fan in front that i can turn off/on. When I started getting the visual glitches I turned on the case fan and ran for a few minutes in game then had my 1st crash. I am not overclocking anything in the pc so not sure why it be overheating.

I originally thought maybe the power draw from the fan caused the crash, but the second crash I had the fan off.
 
I wouldnt say ur psu is the problem, try some different drivers
 
OMG you're power supply HAS to be the problem! It's over 6 months old and you need at least 600 Watts to run that beast!!!!

Seriously, though, why does someone always jump onto a "My computer is broke/acts funny" thread and automatically say it's the power supply and you need a gazillion watt supply????
 
you could run that 9800pro on a 250watt PS...I know I'm doing it. New drivers or bad video memory.
 
Does your vidcard got a powercable connected to it from the psu? If so then it needs full power, as I had this white artifact problems in for example Doom3, i shared my powercord with hdd's etc, so I took a lonely powercord and connected intot he vidcard and no artifacts. I got a r9800xt tho, but the vidcards usually needs full power.
 
Its gotta be software related. WoW is a pretty stressful game on the video hardware. Its either a craptastic patch or some buggy drivers. Do you see any problems in other games? If not, its probably WoW specific. I'd suggest looking at their forums to see if there are any other players with the issues.
 
Bullitt said:
Its gotta be software related. WoW is a pretty stressful game on the video hardware. Its either a craptastic patch or some buggy drivers.
Click to expand...

I agree it sounds like a software bug.

BUT........
Unless you know you hardware is stable then your always better starting by checking it out first.
If your hardware tests stable then it must be a software bug.
But if your hardware is not stable and you think software then you never find the bug.
I've found that out the [H]ard way.
Memory sticks in the wrong order causing the odd random crash in games.
It took me 32 hours of testing to find that out and fix it.

Luck........... :D
 
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