Hi, I'm posting this in the hopes of getting some outside views on what exactly the problem might be
with my system, or at least getting a better idea of which part, exactly, is giving problems.
First, the machine:
Duron 1.3ghz processor
300W PSU (Was a 230W PSU for about 6 weeks, but was replaced last night with 300W PSU)
1.6gb WD hd, 20 gb Seagate hd
Abit Siluro T200 (A GF2 MX200) running Nvidia 21.83 release drivers
256 of SDRAM in 2x128mb modules
GA-7ZXE motherboad (Rev. 2, no ISA slot)
Win '98
Machine has been operating in above form since about December 20th or so .I upgraded it at that
time, replacing previous processor, mobo & PSU. PSU I purchased at the time was the 300W but
was faulty so had to be fixed, which was only possible a few days ago. Also purchased the GF2 with
the upgrade, to replace the on-boad chipset that had previously played this role...
Problem(s):
Okay, the problem is basically this. Since last night I have suddenly started to experience some
very very yucky graphical artifacts, mainly in the form of the sudden appearance of black
vertical lines, although in some cases in the form of black pixels, on the screen during
operation. However, the problem is not continoues and is actually very unpredictable.
I think the first symptoms began to occur 2-3 weeks ago. I noticed that, every so often,
while I was playing Diablo II (Expansion, patch 1.09d) the grapahics would suffer a weird
problem were certain sprites in the game (Mainly explosions, etc) would suddenly be glitched
with blackened lines while in-game text was marred with glitched colours to a certain degree.
This problem only occured infrequently so I pretty much ignored it. However, since the beginning
of this week it began to occur far more frequently. Yesterday, after installing the fixed 300W PSU
the problem started to occur very very often, in Diablo II after about 20 mins play, sometimes
shorter. Also, on occasion the Win98 startup screen would be glitched with artifacts and Win98 would
not start. Re-inserting the graphics card seemed to solve it temporarily, but I'm not sure whether this
is actually the case, or whether it just comes down to luck. Initially the problem only affecte Diablo 2,
but has also begun to occur other games as well as on the Win 98 desktop once or twice. In the desktop,
it affects the whole screen sometimes, othertimes only objects like the mouse cursor. In games it often
only affects certain textures and visuals within the game. Also, certain games seem to be perfectly
fine (My sister enjoyed at least an hour's worth of un-glitched Baldur's Gate 2 earlier today before
vacating the machine). Another note is the fact that earlier today, my Father was working on the
machine, left to take a break, and came back to find the screen was completely blue with a small, light blue
square present in the top-right quarter of the screen. Perhaps of final note is the fact that generally,
after such glitches have occured while operating, if the machine is reset the Win98 startup screen is
glitched out as well.
Currently, I have taken the GF2 out and will be taking it round to a friend's tomorrow and let him run it
in one of his machines for the weekend and see whether the same problems occur. However, I am
also aware that this problem could somehow be related to a partial failure of the AGP slot, which has
happened to my machine once in the past, although when most of the hardware was completely
different (I think only the cdrom drive and 1.6gb hd are the same). Currently the machine is running using
a backup card, an S3 Trio 3D 4mb which someone gave to me as a freebie. It has been running using
this card for the past couple of hours with no problems at all. However, this is not necessarily a sure
sign that there is a problem with the GF2 and not the AGP slot, as on the previous occaison that I had
an AGP slot failure, none of my TNT2 cards would work properly at all, whereas this same Trio3D worked
fine (Most likely because they use the AGP port in different ways?)
Anyway, after this whole long description thing, it comes down to the question, does anyone know anything
about this kind of problem? Have they exerienced it or a similar problem? Do they have any idea as to
whether it is the AGP port of the GF2 which is the problem?
if you know anything, or have any ideas, please reply...
Thanks
OOPMan
with my system, or at least getting a better idea of which part, exactly, is giving problems.
First, the machine:
Duron 1.3ghz processor
300W PSU (Was a 230W PSU for about 6 weeks, but was replaced last night with 300W PSU)
1.6gb WD hd, 20 gb Seagate hd
Abit Siluro T200 (A GF2 MX200) running Nvidia 21.83 release drivers
256 of SDRAM in 2x128mb modules
GA-7ZXE motherboad (Rev. 2, no ISA slot)
Win '98
Machine has been operating in above form since about December 20th or so .I upgraded it at that
time, replacing previous processor, mobo & PSU. PSU I purchased at the time was the 300W but
was faulty so had to be fixed, which was only possible a few days ago. Also purchased the GF2 with
the upgrade, to replace the on-boad chipset that had previously played this role...
Problem(s):
Okay, the problem is basically this. Since last night I have suddenly started to experience some
very very yucky graphical artifacts, mainly in the form of the sudden appearance of black
vertical lines, although in some cases in the form of black pixels, on the screen during
operation. However, the problem is not continoues and is actually very unpredictable.
I think the first symptoms began to occur 2-3 weeks ago. I noticed that, every so often,
while I was playing Diablo II (Expansion, patch 1.09d) the grapahics would suffer a weird
problem were certain sprites in the game (Mainly explosions, etc) would suddenly be glitched
with blackened lines while in-game text was marred with glitched colours to a certain degree.
This problem only occured infrequently so I pretty much ignored it. However, since the beginning
of this week it began to occur far more frequently. Yesterday, after installing the fixed 300W PSU
the problem started to occur very very often, in Diablo II after about 20 mins play, sometimes
shorter. Also, on occasion the Win98 startup screen would be glitched with artifacts and Win98 would
not start. Re-inserting the graphics card seemed to solve it temporarily, but I'm not sure whether this
is actually the case, or whether it just comes down to luck. Initially the problem only affecte Diablo 2,
but has also begun to occur other games as well as on the Win 98 desktop once or twice. In the desktop,
it affects the whole screen sometimes, othertimes only objects like the mouse cursor. In games it often
only affects certain textures and visuals within the game. Also, certain games seem to be perfectly
fine (My sister enjoyed at least an hour's worth of un-glitched Baldur's Gate 2 earlier today before
vacating the machine). Another note is the fact that earlier today, my Father was working on the
machine, left to take a break, and came back to find the screen was completely blue with a small, light blue
square present in the top-right quarter of the screen. Perhaps of final note is the fact that generally,
after such glitches have occured while operating, if the machine is reset the Win98 startup screen is
glitched out as well.
Currently, I have taken the GF2 out and will be taking it round to a friend's tomorrow and let him run it
in one of his machines for the weekend and see whether the same problems occur. However, I am
also aware that this problem could somehow be related to a partial failure of the AGP slot, which has
happened to my machine once in the past, although when most of the hardware was completely
different (I think only the cdrom drive and 1.6gb hd are the same). Currently the machine is running using
a backup card, an S3 Trio 3D 4mb which someone gave to me as a freebie. It has been running using
this card for the past couple of hours with no problems at all. However, this is not necessarily a sure
sign that there is a problem with the GF2 and not the AGP slot, as on the previous occaison that I had
an AGP slot failure, none of my TNT2 cards would work properly at all, whereas this same Trio3D worked
fine (Most likely because they use the AGP port in different ways?)
Anyway, after this whole long description thing, it comes down to the question, does anyone know anything
about this kind of problem? Have they exerienced it or a similar problem? Do they have any idea as to
whether it is the AGP port of the GF2 which is the problem?
if you know anything, or have any ideas, please reply...
Thanks
OOPMan
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