Occasional Pixels and Flickering

Kosmiche · 10 Sep 2011 at 11:54

Hi guys, thought you might be able to give me some advice.

Twice, in the last two days, I have been getting a screen full of pixels and flickering lines as soon as I get to the windows 7 login screen.

I have "solved" this by restarting the pc which gets rid of the problem. Also, recently my pc has been doing hard restarts for no apparent reason. This appears to only happen when I'm installing a game, and does not happen when I'm just at the pc browsing the internet or playing a game.

The only thing I can think of is my cpu overclock is not stable - q6600 @ 3.4ghz, although as I mentioned the pc never crashes during gameplay.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Kosmiche · 10 Sep 2011 at 12:47

Could it be my graphics card is on the way out?

It's a 4870, had it since when 4870's were new. I game nearly every day although not for hours on end.

Thoughts?

RJC · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:06

Usually that does indicate a problem with the gpu.

Kosmiche · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:09

Ok, but when I boot up the pc and there is no flickering present...

I am able to play games as much as I want without any issues. You would think if there was a problem with my GPU something would happen when I am playing games like artefacts but the games are error free.

I've just updated to catalyst 11.8, if errors persist I will try using a older catalyst driver.

RJC · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:16

Usually during the boot process the system is using default drivers and when windows loads it will start the proper graphic drivers. Weather it's this transition which is coursing issue.

Like you mention I would expect you to see issues during game play.

Kosmiche · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:18

I see, so something is wrong with the driver software and not the card itself?

I've just updated the drivers, I'll see if it happens again.

RedvGreen · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:28

Eames said:
I see, so something is wrong with the driver software and not the card itself?

I've just updated the drivers, I'll see if it happens again.

Windows uses the default (i.e. OS/Core/Systems) drivers. Not ones for the card.

Kosmiche · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:30

At the login screen it doesn't switch to the catalyst drivers I have installed?

RJC · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:34

I am not sure exactly when the drivers would load, weather its card or drivers it hard to say, run older drivers and see how you get on.

I had issue with my 4870x2 were I would get strange colours during the first go of a game or benchmark, I needed to exit the game and restart the game and all would be well, retuned the card under warranty and ended up getting a fefund.