Check out this nasty screenshot (gf3 ti500)

[mistersquare]

Quake 3 screenshot

Yeah, that's my gf3 ti500(Visiontek). I really don't know what's wrong with it. Bought it about a month ago. Worked great for weeks. Now it just seems to be overheating is what I guess it is. In windows it's fine, til i play Quake 3 for about 3mins then it starts to look like the above screenshot. And I have to reboot after that because it won't go back to the desktop. On the video card post I get some green blocks/artifacts whatever ya wanna call them. Til the card cools off. It's not overclocked. Onboard fan on the card is working properly. Just doesn't make sense. All I did was swap cases, same PSU and all. No other hardware changes. Could ESD of caused this? I barely handled the card at all. Emailed visiontek but they're takin forever, going to try to get a new one hopefully. Just wanted to know if there is anything else it could possibly be, since it was working properly before I changed cases. Also checked and card is securely in it's slot.

SYSTEM:
amd athlonxp 1.8+
128meg samsung 2700 ddr
gigabyte 7vrxp
visiontek geforce3 ti500 (not o/c'd)
ibm 30gig ata100 hdd

 

[ElDonAntonio]

eeeghhhhh you're right, that's one ugly screenshot!!!! What if you try running the game with the case open? or maybe there's a lot of dust in there?

 

[AgentofEvil]

Yuck, probably a faulty card, but what sort of case cooling have you got? Pop off a side panel and blow a household fan into it. If that cures your problem it's overheating, and you'll want to invest in some case fans.

 

[bacillus]

I agree with the above 2 on overheating or bad card!

 

[Zugzwang152]

*throws up chunks*

Ewww...you might want to also check your monitor connections and make sure the cable isn't corroded or something. In fact check both the cable connectors AND the monitor/gf3 connectors. Let's take care of the easy fixes before throwing out a card.

 

[mistersquare]

Well my case is adequately cooled. It's a big Chieftec fullsize server tower, with 4 case fans... and a Alpha Heatsink/Sunon fan combo on my cpu. And the side of the case is open right now as we speak. It still produces that. I'm thinking the card is bad. my previous case had worse cooling than this and it ran fine. So.. I think it just decided to die on me. Hopefully Visiontek holds up to their lifetime warrenty.:disgust:

 

[mistersquare]

There's pretty much no reason it should be overheating. Plenty of cooling, case is dustfree right now as we speak. Card's fan is running. So I'm leaning towards it being a bad card. All the cables are fine. As I mentioned above, it doesn't do anything like that in windows, once maybe it did it.. but before it reboots it has time to cool down. So... I can operate fine in windows using it. It's what I'm using now.

 

[Mavrick007]

Heh Do you still have your "old" case?

I think it has something to do with the extraction and then reinstallation into the new case. Something must have happened during the new case install. Check the pcb on the card and the mobo to make sure there are no cracks or capacitors coming loose.

 

[acejj26]

has nothing to do with the monitor connection....if it was a bad monitor connection, but a good internal rendering, you would have a clean screenshot...but it would look bad on the monitor

what happens when u run other games? same thing? if so, RMA time. if it's fine in other games, then it may be a driver issue.

 

[mistersquare]

Originally posted by: Mavrick007
Heh Do you still have your "old" case?

I think it has something to do with the extraction and then reinstallation into the new case. Something must have happened during the new case install. Check the pcb on the card and the mobo to make sure there are no cracks or capacitors coming loose.

Yeah I'll have to try another card to make sure it's nothing on the mobo. If it works fine I'm going to RMA the card. I set the card on an anti-static bag and then reinstalled it... didnt have a hard time with it. So if something is loose I'm going to RMA this mother

 

[grant2]

Did you wear an ESD wrist strap when you were transferring the components? ... didn't think so =)

 

[billyjak]

I would try and get an adapter for the fan 3 pin to 4 pin molex and plug it in the main power instead, that picture looks loke a cooling issue.

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: mistersquare

Originally posted by: Mavrick007
Heh Do you still have your "old" case?

I think it has something to do with the extraction and then reinstallation into the new case. Something must have happened during the new case install. Check the pcb on the card and the mobo to make sure there are no cracks or capacitors coming loose.

Yeah I'll have to try another card to make sure it's nothing on the mobo. If it works fine I'm going to RMA the card. I set the card on an anti-static bag and then reinstalled it... didnt have a hard time with it. So if something is loose I'm going to RMA this mother

Umm did you know that the way an anti static bag works is the outside of the bag is coated with a conductive film to absorb any static charge and contain it on the outside of the bag thus protecting what is inside.

 

[MournSanity]

Don't sweat it. My graphics look like that all the time...



























...In Bizzaro world

 

[boi]

Im pretty sure that is a bad card. RMA it. I have to same problem w/ a geforce4 ti4200. Sometimes it wouldn't even get into the Windows desktop when I start up the computer.

 

[TheGrandHooHa]

I'd have to say it was a bad card. If it were overheating, it would still produce funky video when you exited Q3 and went back to Windows (the card wouldn't cool down THAT fast from being overheated).

TGHH

 

[Jeff7]

Woah, that's not the kind of "bad" I was expecting. I saw results like that when I used a card with dying memory.

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: boi
Im pretty sure that is a bad card. RMA it. I have to same problem w/ a geforce4 ti4200. Sometimes it wouldn't even get into the Windows desktop when I start up the computer.

 

[TheWart]

cool Q3 mod!

 

[foofoo]

i agree with jeff7, this definitely looks like bad memory of that vid card. rma it

 

[Booster]

Well, to me it looks like a broken cooler on your vidcard's heatsink. Plain and simple, it's evident that it's overheating in this or that form.

 

[AnMig]

if this was a ATI card everybody will be screaming DRIVERS

but i agree try to get or borrow another video card to test your other components.

or just get a 8500

 

[Bozo Galora]

classic sign of bad vidcard ram, or corrupted bios.

try twisting the card up and down in back near ram while its running to see if it clears up. (bad solder joint)

 

[mistersquare]

I put in an old tnt2 ultra.. ran quake3 for an hour or so and not a problem. Then I put my gf3 ti500 back in and it works fine now too. I'm not sure if I should still rma the card. Wouldn't a bad soldier joint mean that it would do this all the time? Since it only does it in quake3 i think it was overheating but I don't know what would cause it to overheat, and why isnt it overheating now?

 

[Tominator]

Classic sign of drivers not installed properly....