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Does anyone know what could be causing these weird artifacts?

L

lolwot

Junior Member
I've been having some weird texture problems with my XFX 4770. I was recently trying to create a custom fan speed profile in ATI Tray Tools, but I didn't click the check box that confirms I want to save the fan settings to the overclocking profile. Shortly after, I started to notice that textures looked totally awful. Here's a picture from FEAR 2 that shows one of the corrupt textures:
dm9q9t.jpg

Textures have looked sort of like this in any 3D game I've played. Obviously, my first suspicion was that I permanently damaged the graphics card. But the issues have persisted even when using the motherboard's integrated GPU. I've tested the 4770 in Furmark, and there weren't any artifacts. Passmark Burnintest didn't find any errors either. I've even tried fully uninstalling all display drivers, using driver cleaner, then reinstalling them, but that hasn't had any effect. Has anyone here seen something like this before? Should I just RMA the 4770 and hope that solves the problem?
 
No, but how would that help?
Is there any way to troubleshoot a problem like this without buying new hardware?
 
lolwot said:
No, but how would that help?
Is there any way to troubleshoot a problem like this without buying new hardware?
Click to expand...

Since you have an IGP, then you don't need to buy any new hardware. The GP and 4770 exhibit the same problem, thus it's a software issue or an unrelated hardware issue (like memory). Could be a driver bug, or that your OS has gotten into some weird state.
 
mfenn said:
Since you have an IGP, then you don't need to buy any new hardware. The GP and 4770 exhibit the same problem, thus it's a software issue or an unrelated hardware issue (like memory). Could be a driver bug, or that your OS has gotten into some weird state.
Click to expand...

I actually meant to ask if there's any way to troubleshoot without testing a different motherboard, RAM, power supply, etc. I can't really afford to buy an entirely new computer, so I need to know which part is defective before purchasing replacements. Has anyone here seen anything similar to the screenshot I posted?
 
mfenn said:
Have you tried reinstalling the OS (maybe to a spare drive or partition)?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've done that. I completely formatted the hard drive (after saving important files to a flash drive), then reinstalled. For the most part, I feel like I could safely rule out driver issues.
 
If you don't have any memory problems (try memtest) then, yes I would say that you would need to either live with the artifacts or buy some new stuff.
 
I just installed the repaired graphics card, and there are no improvements. It might also be worth noting that some icons on the desktop are noticeably more blurrier than others. Also, the voltages listed in my motherboard's BIOS hardware monitor seem normal, so I don't think the power supply is causing this issue. Should I try replacing the motherboard?
 
lolwot said:
I just installed the repaired graphics card, and there are no improvements. It might also be worth noting that some icons on the desktop are noticeably more blurrier than others. Also, the voltages listed in my motherboard's BIOS hardware monitor seem normal, so I don't think the power supply is causing this issue. Should I try replacing the motherboard?
Click to expand...

Never trust software voltage monitoring. Break out a multimeter to be sure.

Regarding the blurry icons, are you using VGA? I could imagine a case where your new card had a problem with that output. The motherboard shouldn't have anything to do with it though.
 
No, the monitor is connected with a DVI cable.
I've tried using another monitor, but no video displays when the PCI Express GPU (a 5750) is connected.
Also, to clarify what I said earlier, there didn't initially seem to be any artifacts when I first used the replacement graphics card, but they very quickly became apparent again as I was playing a game. In specific, shadows and textures were flickering and distorted. Now if I connect the PC to my monitor with the 5750, I can't even open any remotely graphical applications, including streaming video, games, etc. And when I last restarted the computer, a HDD check was automatically started.
In case it makes anything clearer, these are my computer's specs:
Athlon II X2 245 CPU
MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 motherboard
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU
2 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive, 22X DVD RW
All are at stock settings.
 
The artifacts usually show in an overclocked card that overheats. Did you check your card's fan if it works properly? Maybe heating is your problem...
 
Socratesx said:
The artifacts usually show in an overclocked card that overheats. Did you check your card's fan if it works properly? Maybe heating is your problem...
Click to expand...

Yeah, the fan is working properly. And I think the card was somewhere in the 40s (celsius) at idle.
 
lolwot said:
No, the monitor is connected with a DVI cable.
I've tried using another monitor, but no video displays when the PCI Express GPU (a 5750) is connected.
Also, to clarify what I said earlier, there didn't initially seem to be any artifacts when I first used the replacement graphics card, but they very quickly became apparent again as I was playing a game. In specific, shadows and textures were flickering and distorted. Now if I connect the PC to my monitor with the 5750, I can't even open any remotely graphical applications, including streaming video, games, etc. And when I last restarted the computer, a HDD check was automatically started.
In case it makes anything clearer, these are my computer's specs:
Athlon II X2 245 CPU
MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 motherboard
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU
2 GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive, 22X DVD RW
All are at stock settings.
Click to expand...

Check your voltages. It could be that your PSU is giving out. That can lead to all sorts of strangeness.
 
lolwot said:
No, the monitor is connected with a DVI cable.
I've tried using another monitor, but no video displays when the PCI Express GPU (a 5750) is connected.
Click to expand...

Getting no video should have been an obvious red flag.

About five years ago I gave away my old P5/133, which included an even older Nokia 447L monitor. The reason it had to be a package deal was that there was a pin problem with the video cable, so it would only show all primary colors while connected to the Matrox Millenium of this machine...connect it to any of my newer boxes, and video output was horrid.

If your cable has a broken-off pin, it's probably inside your monitor's DVI connector, or the card's DVI connector. Which would explain having no video at all with a different monitor.
 
I don't have a multimeter, but the voltages listed in the BIOS and CPUID HWMonitor seem well within the safe operating range for +3.3V, +12V, and +5V.
edit: I should probably also mention that when my previous GPU was dying, I would frequently get BSODs with divide by zero and double fault errors shortly after starting a game.
 
Last edited:
lolwot said:
I don't have a multimeter, but the voltages listed in the BIOS and CPUID HWMonitor seem well within the safe operating range for +3.3V, +12V, and +5V.
edit: I should probably also mention that when my previous GPU was dying, I would frequently get BSODs with divide by zero and double fault errors shortly after starting a game.
Click to expand...

Like I said, don't trust software voltage monitoring. Not having a multimeter is really no excuse. $20 will buy you a really fancy one and its something that every computer enthusiast should have.

Honestly, you just need to accept the fact that you're looking at replacing some parts here. It's going to be either the PSU, motherboard, or memory (in order of probability).
 
I'm on the second replacement now. This time, I bought a new power supply and motherboard. The artifacts aren't as terrible as usual, but shadows constantly flicker. Also, the 3.3 volt rail is listed at 1.90 volts on the motherboard BIOS. The highest GPU temperature I've seen is 72 degrees celsius, which I would think is well within the range of safe operating temperatures. I think I'm just going to give up on PC games.
 
lolwot said:
I'm on the second replacement now. This time, I bought a new power supply and motherboard. The artifacts aren't as terrible as usual, but shadows constantly flicker. Also, the 3.3 volt rail is listed at 1.90 volts on the motherboard BIOS. The highest GPU temperature I've seen is 72 degrees celsius, which I would think is well within the range of safe operating temperatures. I think I'm just going to give up on PC games.
Click to expand...

Well...I guess that's one way to solve the problem...

How about more hardware information?
Motherboard?
CPU?
RAM? (brand, speed, model #, how much?)
Power supply?
Monitor?
 
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