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Graphics Issues / Glitches
Elvenshae
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, this started about two weeks ago while playing Fallout: NV.
There was a particular NPC (the Sunset Sasparilla guy) where, every time he would come up to talk to me at a particular Powder Ganger camp, I would get these weird graphical glitches. Partway through the conversation, parts of the screen would become dotted with pixels of random colors. Within about 30s after that, they'd develop into lines, and then everything would crash. This did not happen when I ran away from the camp and let him meet me somewhere else, so I figured it was one of those lovely F:NV bugs.
I later read about F:NV having some issues with nVidia cards, so I updated my drivers with the most recently available full release from nVidia.
Then, this morning, the same thing started happening in World of Warcraft - random pixelation turning into horizontal lines with a crash.
I rebooted my computer, and the same effect started happening on just the Windows desktop - though in this case, the pixels were closer together (clustered at the top of the bottom bar).
So, I rebooted into safe mode w/ networking, downloaded and installed Avast (I usually run Norton, for what good that does me), and let it do a virus check, which came up clear. While the virus check was running, the horizontal lines largely covered the entire screen.
So, I come to you knowledgeable types. What troubleshooting steps should I be taking next? My gut feeling is that I might be looking at a dying video card, which would absolutely suck right now. Seriously, it could not be worse-timed.
Running Vista x64, 2x 8800s of some stripe in SLI mode.
There was a particular NPC (the Sunset Sasparilla guy) where, every time he would come up to talk to me at a particular Powder Ganger camp, I would get these weird graphical glitches. Partway through the conversation, parts of the screen would become dotted with pixels of random colors. Within about 30s after that, they'd develop into lines, and then everything would crash. This did not happen when I ran away from the camp and let him meet me somewhere else, so I figured it was one of those lovely F:NV bugs.
I later read about F:NV having some issues with nVidia cards, so I updated my drivers with the most recently available full release from nVidia.
Then, this morning, the same thing started happening in World of Warcraft - random pixelation turning into horizontal lines with a crash.
I rebooted my computer, and the same effect started happening on just the Windows desktop - though in this case, the pixels were closer together (clustered at the top of the bottom bar).
So, I rebooted into safe mode w/ networking, downloaded and installed Avast (I usually run Norton, for what good that does me), and let it do a virus check, which came up clear. While the virus check was running, the horizontal lines largely covered the entire screen.
So, I come to you knowledgeable types. What troubleshooting steps should I be taking next? My gut feeling is that I might be looking at a dying video card, which would absolutely suck right now. Seriously, it could not be worse-timed.
Running Vista x64, 2x 8800s of some stripe in SLI mode.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
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Windows (via Device Manager) is now reporting that one of the cards is not using any resources because it has an error. Unfotunately, right-clicking on it does not give you a "Troubleshoot" option or a "List Errors" option, so I'm still digging.
They're 8800 GTs, BTW.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Okay, so it turns out the error is "This device is stopped because Windows cannot load device driver."
So, I went back to nVidia, downloaded their most recent driver, had it do a clean install.
When my computer starts up, I can see the BIOS splash screen, then Windows loads.
The nVidia control panel tells me that I have an SLI capable system. Turning SLI on causes the nVidia control panel to crash, which does not save the SLI congifuration information. Upon restarting, Windows had to boot into Safe mode.
I uninstalled both cards' drivers, and loaded them up with the defaul VGA adapter, and then made a (what I hope is) a "no, seriously" clean install of the drivers. It now recognizes both cards as 8800 GTs.
I'll now try restarting into normal Windows mode to see what happens.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Go into settings, disable sounds.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Hah! No, I meant more like, I downloaded Avast as a second check for viruses, just in case my primary AV program missed something. Avast didn't find anything, so I wanted to turn it off and uninstall it (since running multiple AV programs still isn't, as far as I know, recommended).
I couldn't find a "Shut down" option in the Avast control panel, I couldn't end the associated processes, and I couldn't uninstall it because it was running. I ended up uninstalling it while my computer was in Safe mode.
Turning off SLI results in a stable system - so far, at least. More testing is required to ensure which card is going bad - because it's not entirely bad yet, and will run for hours sometimes before borking, but I think I've got my answer. Thanks for the help!
Now to research video card upgrades. To the Build Thread!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
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