Posting this in general hardware as although its a graphics problem im almost convinced its NOT the graphics card.
Ok i will try and cover everything we have tried to fix this.
Problem is green dots in windows and graphical corruption in games and also when playing video on the desktop ther are vertical lines running down the video. Its random as to what it does, loads of green dots everywhere is the main thing and games just go weird, jaggies everywhere and tearing.
System is an AMD 3500 single core jobbie, its this one http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-037-OK&groupid=43&catid=781&subcat=
Upgrades to the system above are:
- Graphics card is a Sapphire x1950Pro
- 2gigg of Geil 5200 ram
- Hiper 580W PSU
The system is not overcloked and was running XP Pro SP2 all latest patches applied.
The problem happended before we upgraded the PSU and initially thats what we thought the problem was (previous PSU was a 250w one) also i have tried a second 1950 pro card and also another 1800xt card and the same coruption occurs. So it cant be the gfx card.
Next we tried various drivers and still no change. I then tried a different DVI cable and a different monitor and still the same problem, also tried taking sticks of ram out etc. So to this point we have ruled out:
GFX Card
PSU
DVI Cable
RAM
Monitor
Drivers
Next we went for a total format and a clean install of Vista Ultimate, all the latest patches were applied and the latest Catalyst drivers installed (7.4). Initially it seemed fine and then after playing civilization 4 the artifacts start again, then back to the desktop video has lines in it and general nastiness.
I rolled back windows to get rid of the civilization 4 install and still doing it in video.
Ok so what is it? It has ben whittled down to the motherboard OR cpu, my money is more on the motherboard. The weird thing is though that when running the pc with onboard video and NOT using the graphics card in the pci-e slot we dont get artifacts atall, which points to a driver/gfx issue really. But because we have ruled these out im utterly bewildered as to what this can be.
Any one help before a new motherboard and cpu are puchased.?
Ok i will try and cover everything we have tried to fix this.
Problem is green dots in windows and graphical corruption in games and also when playing video on the desktop ther are vertical lines running down the video. Its random as to what it does, loads of green dots everywhere is the main thing and games just go weird, jaggies everywhere and tearing.
System is an AMD 3500 single core jobbie, its this one http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-037-OK&groupid=43&catid=781&subcat=
Upgrades to the system above are:
- Graphics card is a Sapphire x1950Pro
- 2gigg of Geil 5200 ram
- Hiper 580W PSU
The system is not overcloked and was running XP Pro SP2 all latest patches applied.
The problem happended before we upgraded the PSU and initially thats what we thought the problem was (previous PSU was a 250w one) also i have tried a second 1950 pro card and also another 1800xt card and the same coruption occurs. So it cant be the gfx card.
Next we tried various drivers and still no change. I then tried a different DVI cable and a different monitor and still the same problem, also tried taking sticks of ram out etc. So to this point we have ruled out:
GFX Card
PSU
DVI Cable
RAM
Monitor
Drivers
Next we went for a total format and a clean install of Vista Ultimate, all the latest patches were applied and the latest Catalyst drivers installed (7.4). Initially it seemed fine and then after playing civilization 4 the artifacts start again, then back to the desktop video has lines in it and general nastiness.
I rolled back windows to get rid of the civilization 4 install and still doing it in video.
Ok so what is it? It has ben whittled down to the motherboard OR cpu, my money is more on the motherboard. The weird thing is though that when running the pc with onboard video and NOT using the graphics card in the pci-e slot we dont get artifacts atall, which points to a driver/gfx issue really. But because we have ruled these out im utterly bewildered as to what this can be.
Any one help before a new motherboard and cpu are puchased.?
