White blocks in the sky, and color depth/refresh won't stay put

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handyrandyrc

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Aug 24, 2004
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I have a 6600GT AGP from eVGA. I have started playing a little Counterstrike Source, and having lots of trouble with it.

I get white blocks in the sky when a portion of the sky is visible on outdoor maps. I've also had problems with losing models. All of a sudden, none of the player models are visible. Their weapons are visible, however, so there is a bunch of floating guns flying around shooting each other. :) The white blocks are ALWAYS there, no matter what I do. Is my card fried?

Anyhow, I also have trouble with my Windows desktop. My desktop is set to 1280x960 32-bit color with an 85hz refresh rate. If I turn my PC off and boot back up, Windows will have reverted to 16-bit color and 60hz refresh. I can go in and turn it back up (color depth and refresh) but every time I boot, it goes back down.

Any ideas?
 
First you might want to list your system specs including your monitor. It may not support 85hz at 1280x960 but it may at a lower res (dont know for sure). List what driver number you are using and if you used driver cleaner when installed. Also list video card temperature. Those things will help detect where the problem is. Also I would check steam forums - I have heard counterstike has had problems on certain systems.
 
Let's see, I have a Compaq S910 monitor. I think just a plain jane 19" CRT display.

It's an Intel 865 chipset board. I think Gigabyte made it.
1 GB of RAM
Pentium 4 2.8 (800fsb)

I turned off hyperthreading, hoping it would improve things, but it has not made a difference. Going to find out the temperature on the card...
 
Okay it's a NO-GO on having temperature available to me. Looks like my 6600GT is one of those that has temp monitoring disabled in the card BIOS/firmware. I found some instructions for fixing that, but I'm too lazy. :) I don't have a floppy drive, and trying to make a boot CD to do that gives me nightmares -- I never have good luck with boot CDs.

Anyhow, I did a Driver Cleaner routine, and went a downloaded a FRESH copy of the 91.31 WHQL drivers. My desktop situation is fixed -- no more problems with refresh and color depth getting reset at reboot.

I am now nailing down better at what the white boxes issue is. It only is happening at 1600x1200. I turn things down to 1280x960, and no more white boxes. I can only get it to happen in CS or DoD -- Source engine games. I ran FEAR, even cranking everything to max. at 1600x1200, and can get no white squares to appear anywhere.

Perhaps it's a Source thing. I'm going to see if I can get some screenshots and send to Valve, or post on the forum.
 
Do the squares move? I wonder if it's a bunged-up animated object like a bird or some such. And did your reload fix the disappearing-players problem?
 
handyrandyrc said:
Here is what happens -- LARGE PIC WARNING!

(LINKS)
Click to expand...


I think it's from some sort of CPU instability... awhile back, my Source games would turn dark, black and white, with HDR on only, from the CPU overclock being slightly too high. I practically ipped my hair out trying to solve all the weird Source-only glitches only to realize it was due to that, instead. It sounds like your system is stock, though, in which case... have you cleaned out the CPU heatsink of dust/etc. :D?
 
It's a P4 2.8 CPU. I _HAVE_ overclocked this processor highly -- had it up to 3.4 at one point, but I have been running it stock the last year or so. Hmmmm... I do know Source is VERY CPU intensive... Perhaps I swap out the CPU and see what happens?

Gonna have to probably go to eBay for that. Socket 478 board, so no CPUs locally that I can find.
 
Commander Suzdal said:
Do the squares move? I wonder if it's a bunged-up animated object like a bird or some such. And did your reload fix the disappearing-players problem?
Click to expand...

The squares stay put in the sky, but when I rotate, different squares appear, and previous squares get filled in with texture. I just noticed, however, it's maybe not JUST the sky? See how in the first picture part of the building in the background is obscured by the white box?

I don't know if the buildings are objects or background, however. Problem seems worse when I'm in "camera" mode, observing. I get the white squares "STUCK" for longer periods of time, so I can get a screenshot. Most of the time, the squares blink in and out so fast, I can't hardly have time to get a screenshot.
 
Is you video card OCd at all? If I push my card too high I get artifacts in HL2 similar to those only they blink and are different colors. Other games at those speed have turned out OK with no artifacts (FEAR). Source is finnicky.
 
It's not overclocked, and I have never done that to this card. However, I guess I could try UNDERCLOCK it and see if I get any improvement?
 
Going to try the new Forceware drivers that were released today. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
 
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