Screwed Up Graphics.

[hpfreak26]

Alright, I've been having this problem for quite a while now, but it's either getting worse or just annoying me more. When I play games (not flash games, installed ones on my computer), they start to "stretch" or distort on the screen. It happens in almost every game I play, to varying degrees and few exceptions.

It generally looks like these, sometimes with more color distortions.





Games it affects me most in:
Oblivion
Portal
Homeworld II
Age of Empires III
Sins of a Solar Empire
... that sort of thing.

The odd thing is, some games don't show any symptoms like it. For example, Civilization IV:Warlords, or Stranded II are very rarely/never affected.

Occasionally, after I close out of the game (usually having to kill the process) my desktop starts to freak out as well, with my screen flashing black every few seconds. When that happens, I have to restart before I can do anything else.


Like I said, this has been happening to various degrees since I got my computer (a year and a half, maybe). I've had a suspicion that it's a DirectX issue, but I've tried to reinstall before, with no luck. Of course, it could just have been that I wasn't doing it correctly. I dunno.

I don't think it's my video card because some games play just fine, while others are marred by the problem constantly. I've tried playing the games in all sorts of resolutions, and (while it may change it back to normal for a few seconds) it never does any permanent help.

Please help, good community of TechSupportForum. I would forever be in your debt (and by that I mean a quick thank-you before I start actually enjoying my games. :)

Specs:
Power Supply: NZXT PF-500 500 Watt Power Supply
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400
Motherboard: Asus P5N-SLI
Memory: 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2
Video Card: Geforce 7900GT 256MB

[koala]

Hi, welcome to TSF

It looks like a video RAM problem, possibly caused by overheating or a weak PSU. Do these artifacts appear as soon as you start playing in fullscreen or do they get worse the longer you play?

When you restart the computer, do you get random characters and flickering lines during bootup? (black screen, white text before Windows loads)

Make a note of your temperatures and voltages in BIOS.

Download PC Wizard and click the 'Voltage, Temperature & Fans' icon on the left. Run a game for a few minutes and when it starts to display these artifacts press alt-tab to switch back to the desktop. Take a screenshot of PC Wizard and post back with the screenshot and BIOS details so we can see how your system copes under stress.

I don't think this will make much difference, but have you installed the latest motherboard chipset drivers and graphics driver?

[funkmunky]

Yeh, I'd have to agree, it looks like PSU issue... For that setup you could do with more juice... I think the minimum PSU requirements for the GF7xxx are around 650W? I'd recommend going higher than that anyway, for future proofing purposes...

Before you run out and buy a new PSU though, it could just be bad drivers. Download the latest forceware for your card from nvidia (I think the current whql ones are 175.16 - but betas are also available). Uninstall your graphics drivers, reboot, then install the new ones. It probably won't help, but it might...

[hpfreak26]

Alright, thank you both for helping me with this. The artifacts do start as soon as I play in Fullscreen mode (well, within a few seconds), but they do get worse as I go along. It could start as a flicker on an object, managable but annoying. At about 5 minutes in, pieces blot out my screen so I can't play at all. When I play in windowed mode, it stalls it for 5 or so minutes. It plays just fine for a while, then progresses normally.

Nothing odd when I restart my computer, it just restarts like normal.

I've got the PC Wizard stats here:

This is before I play the game


And this is after (or during, whichever)


The after picture is only a minute or two after the beginning one, so it may not show very much.

I actually have had problems with overheating, mainly being that my computer heats up the room considerably. I usually have a box fan running near my 'puter, but it still gets kinda hot. I'm on a bit of a budget so if it turns out I do need to buy something, I want the most for my money.

As for chipsets, I have the latest firmware for my video card, but I don't really know how to update my mobo chipset drivers.

[funkmunky]

There are some good low cost methods for cooling:

You can get a heatsink and fan to replace the one on your CPU, along with good quality thermal grease such as arctic silver for less than £25... I like the coolermaster gemini II hetasink, fits on most boards (if your case is big enough) and you can stick two 12cm fans on it... remember, with heatsinks, bigger IS better. I use the gemin II with 2 silent 12cm fans, and my CPU runs at about 30 degrees, up to 38 under HEAVY load... I've got good airflow through the case too.

Your graphics temperature should be fine, nothing to worry about there, although if you want to reduce it further you can get one of these: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/gaming/vf1000

I have to point out, PC wizard's results aren't very accurate on my system, you might want to try EVEREST instead?

You can update your motherboard drivers from the manufacturers website, in your case http://www.asus.com/