Odd Visual Artifacts

drelidan7 · 02-09-2005, 09:20 PM

My problem is a little hard to explain. The horizontal "lines" of my computer don't all, well, line up. Some parts of the screen start ever so slightly further to the right or left, making straight lines appear jagged instead. I can still run games, and they run quickly (brand new ATi x800 XT built by Sapphire). I considered it being the power supply, but my power supply is 420W and has 29A (at least according to the Enermax website), and a 12V+ rail. Someone also suggested that it wasn't getting enough bandwith, since I had to BIOS flash my motherboard so it could support 8X (was released a month or two before AGP 8X was). Anyway, does anyone have an idea as to what could be the problem and how to fix it? I'm reluctant to actually call tech support, since I find it expensive and useless, and I don't want to send it back just yet.

Thanks in advance.

**UncleMacro** · 02-09-2005, 09:46 PM

Are you sure that it's not a problem with your monitor having a hard time synching to the output of your video board? What happens when you set different screen resolutions and different refresh rates? If you do a frame grab on the screen, does the resultant image file looks correct? (You kinda figure that it would). As for that "not getting enough bandwidth idea"... That doesn't really make any sense. I assume that you have done the standard "download the latest video driver" drill. It might help if you could take a close up picture of the monitor and post it as an attachment.

drelidan7 · 02-10-2005, 01:19 PM

Well, here's a picture attachment. I've tried this on two different motherboards and two different monitors. I also tried downloading new drivers, but to no avail. The problem happens anywhere, even in the bios and MS-Dos, so I doubted drivers would help, but it was worth a shot. I also tried different resolutions and refresh rates. The problem is the least noticeable in 1280x1024 (res that the screen was taken at) but refresh rates haven't seemed to have affected it much if at all.

**UncleMacro** · 02-10-2005, 09:04 PM

Lets recap:

1) It's definitely not the drivers because it happens in the BIOS.
2) It's (almost certainly) not the monitor because you've tried two of them at various resolutions and refresh rates and the problem never fully goes away.
3) It's (almost certainly) not the power supply because the problem occurs in 2D mode where the video board isn't drawing much power.

About the only other thing you could try is install it in someone else's computer and see if you get the same problem. You might also try reflashing the video BIOS if you can find one for your x800 XT but most folks do that only to implement hacks. I don't think video BIOSes really have much in them these days but that's the only place where software could cause output problems in the BIOS.

This just looks like a hardware problem to me. Sorry, but it sounds to me like it's RMA time. You might try calling Sapphire just to exhaust all the possibilities. If nothing else, you'll get to listen to some fine muzac.

drelidan7 · 02-11-2005, 01:05 PM

Thanks for the reply, and I think that I may do just that. :)

02-09-2005, 09:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
drelidan7 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3 OS: Win2K	Odd Visual Artifacts My problem is a little hard to explain. The horizontal "lines" of my computer don't all, well, line up. Some parts of the screen start ever so slightly further to the right or left, making straight lines appear jagged instead. I can still run games, and they run quickly (brand new ATi x800 XT built by Sapphire). I considered it being the power supply, but my power supply is 420W and has 29A (at least according to the Enermax website), and a 12V+ rail. Someone also suggested that it wasn't getting enough bandwith, since I had to BIOS flash my motherboard so it could support 8X (was released a month or two before AGP 8X was). Anyway, does anyone have an idea as to what could be the problem and how to fix it? I'm reluctant to actually call tech support, since I find it expensive and useless, and I don't want to send it back just yet. Thanks in advance.

02-09-2005, 09:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	Are you sure that it's not a problem with your monitor having a hard time synching to the output of your video board? What happens when you set different screen resolutions and different refresh rates? If you do a frame grab on the screen, does the resultant image file looks correct? (You kinda figure that it would). As for that "not getting enough bandwidth idea"... That doesn't really make any sense. I assume that you have done the standard "download the latest video driver" drill. It might help if you could take a close up picture of the monitor and post it as an attachment.

02-10-2005, 09:04 PM	#4 (permalink)
UncleMacro TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,133 OS: Vista SP1 My System	Lets recap: 1) It's definitely not the drivers because it happens in the BIOS. 2) It's (almost certainly) not the monitor because you've tried two of them at various resolutions and refresh rates and the problem never fully goes away. 3) It's (almost certainly) not the power supply because the problem occurs in 2D mode where the video board isn't drawing much power. About the only other thing you could try is install it in someone else's computer and see if you get the same problem. You might also try reflashing the video BIOS if you can find one for your x800 XT but most folks do that only to implement hacks. I don't think video BIOSes really have much in them these days but that's the only place where software could cause output problems in the BIOS. This just looks like a hardware problem to me. Sorry, but it sounds to me like it's RMA time. You might try calling Sapphire just to exhaust all the possibilities. If nothing else, you'll get to listen to some fine muzac.

02-11-2005, 01:05 PM	#5 (permalink)
drelidan7 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 3 OS: Win2K	Thanks for the reply, and I think that I may do just that. :)