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Texture Bugs Driving Me Insane

Associate
Joined
9 Jun 2006
Posts
954
Location
Manchester
Hi guys,

For a while now I've been getting annoying texture bugs in any game I play. I would be playing COD4 or CSS and lines would be appearing all over the place flickering on and off.

I've always put this down to the GPU overheating but even after a good cleaning it still doesn't help.

My spec is:
AMD 4400 @ 2.5Ghz
X1900XT 512Mb
Asus A8N-E

Does anybody know how to solve this? It's driving me insane!
 
Sounds like the vram may be dying. Have you tried changing drivers, etc?

Aye, I've tried full formats (including new HDD) with the latest drivers. It's quite an old(ish) card now but I can't afford to upgrade yet - my money is being spent elsewhere with my gf :(
 
Try setting your pci-e to 101 :D (a fair few x19xx dieing nowadays it seems).

What PSU do you have?

Matthew
 
very likely to be your voltage regulators overheating. They're at the back with a pathetic heatsink on them and no other cooling. I get exactly the same problem with my x1900 and i have to take the case side off and position a desk fan to blow on to them when i play a game
 
Try setting your pci-e to 101 :D (a fair few x19xx dieing nowadays it seems).

What PSU do you have?

Thanks for that. How would I set the above? I have a ~400W Seasonic PSU which hasn't given me problems before.

very likely to be your voltage regulators overheating. They're at the back with a pathetic heatsink on them and no other cooling. I get exactly the same problem with my x1900 and i have to take the case side off and position a desk fan to blow on to them when i play a game

Is this something that will show up on Speedfan? Speedfan isn't showing any dangerously high temps but it does definatley help having the side off the case which does indicate airflow/heat issues to me.

Cheers for the help so far guys :)
 
Is this something that will show up on Speedfan? Speedfan isn't showing any dangerously high temps but it does definatley help having the side off the case which does indicate airflow/heat issues to me.

Cheers for the help so far guys :)

No it wouldn't. There's no temp sensing on the vregs so your temps can be fine but you'll still get the issue. Touch the heat sink after a few minutes playing a game, they will be quite warm. If you have a desk fan try running it over them and see if the artifacts go away
 
Ok so my options are:

1) stick a fan in the side of my case when gaming.
2) lower clock speeds (how do i do that?)
3) set PCI-E to 101 (again, how?)

Thanks for the advice guys :)
 
Ok so my options are:

1) stick a fan in the side of my case when gaming.
2) lower clock speeds (how do i do that?)
3) set PCI-E to 101 (again, how?)

Thanks for the advice guys :)

Answers :

1) Put a fan on or angled at the heatsink (where power attaches basically, and this should keep your VRM's cool enough. You don't need to get excessive and put a deskfan on as suggested previously, that just indicates badcase airflow (to me, but I could be wrong).

2) You can lower clock speeds by using the program 'overdrive' inside the catalyst control centre (right click on desktop, then press properties, then overdrive. Or you can use an aftermarket 'freeware' program such as ATi Tool or Ati tool tray (I personally think ATI tool is better as gives more voltage options). I don't think this will help though, but worth a shot.

3) You set the pci-e frequency in the bios when you turn on the pc (press delete or F2 (it will tell you when it boots up)). It will probably be under the same section as CPU overclocking/freq/multipliers. You can set the pci-e freq to say, 99/101/109/110/115. Try 101 first though :) For some reason a lot of boards don't like the default 100Mhz, for reasons unknown. BF2 incidently it particulary sensitive to this problem, and will cause severe texture artifacts (triangles, stretched textures across screen etc).

I initially thought my pci-e freq problem was temp related as it would run ok with fan on 100%, even though temps were still within very low range. It was way too loud and it was a corsair rep that suggested the pci-e freq change. Sorted my problems completely. Please be aware that this might not be your problem, just a possible solution.

extra 4) The psu's efficiency will degrade over time due to aging components (as will the gfx cards efficiency), so will be putting out less power and more heat than when it was brand new. It could be that the seasonic was above the threshold to run the card, but now it has dropped below that threshold. If it is an old unit (out of warranty), then leave it for a day to totally discharge of power (leave for a few hours with plug in wall so earth supply, then unplug and leave the day. Will stop you electrocuting yourself). Then take apart and clean out the fan, heatsinks etc of dust and check the fans are working ok :)

extra 5) Your drivers might be corrupt. Uninstall all ati stuff. Boot into safe mode and use the program (once installed in normal mode) called Driver cleaner pro, and remove anything ATI related. Restart and install latest (7.10 at present) catalyst drivers. Reboot, and check for problems.

extra 6) Last resort if not in warranty. Check the Thermal paste under the cooler. This may have dried out over the time you have had the card, and you may need to clean up the old stuff and apply some fresh stuff on there (easy to do). The reason being, that if it's dried out, it won't conduct the heat very well from the core on memory chips. I think however the memory chips have pads on them, so unless the glue has gone and the pads have come away, I kinda doubt its this.

Matthew
 
Answers :

1) Put a fan on or angled at the heatsink (where power attaches basically, and this should keep your VRM's cool enough. You don't need to get excessive and put a deskfan on as suggested previously, that just indicates badcase airflow (to me, but I could be wrong).

In my defence the deskfan is a temp messure until i can sort something better out. My case airflow is pretty good, it's a tidy case.

Interestingly i installed a new graphics cooler on mine last night which claims to cool the vregs. All it does though is blow warm air over them off the gpu and it now locks up almost instantly. I'm at a loss to be honest and i'm fed up trying to fix it. I will try the other things you suggested, thank you and sorry, toosepin, for butting in your thread but i believe our problems are the same.
 
This flickering bug sounds like what i'm getting with my x1900, does it look any similar to this:

It also shows green blobs whilst posting BIOS. :eek:
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm loading up ATI Tray Tools now to check the temps given on there, today COD4 has been forcing a full system crash after about 10 minutes of play and on a reboot my screen has a few dead pixels here and there which fade after a little while.

Calexico I don't get a problem like that in any other situation other than in game. I'm running dual monitors and the flickering/artefacts are confined purely to the game.

Thinking about a shiny new Corsair HX520W for the rig until I can splash out after xmas for a new cpu/mobo/ram/gfx combo pack :)
 
That's exactly what happened my X1900XT (and many others).

Looks like your card is borked :(

how long did you have it untill it broke? I thought after it surviving the scorching summer heat :rolleyes: I would be safe until next spring and wouldn't need to spend any money on my computer. I've already blown this months wages on a new Kite and its christmas next month!!! I heard Slade on the radio the otherday. :*(
 
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