GF4 TI 4200 Video Distorted while playing games?

[Oakenfold]

Okay a member of the forum is having a problem with his new ti 4200 that I sold him and I'd like to try to help him.

I might not be able to explain this very well but maybe you can take a look at some of these pictures and see if you have had a similar problem, so please bear with me until he can post and give us some more info.

It looks like there are some textures corrupted or not being drawn in some of the screenshots, anyone had this before or know what it could possibly relate to?

Look @ the trees

Roof

Windows

More Windows

Hopefully Shimsham will post and give us more details when he can.
I know he's currently running

shuttle ak31a Via Chipset
Ti 4200 Gainward, tried latest drivers
Windows ME


Any and ALL ideas welcome!
Thank you in advance for your time and thoughts.

 

[shimsham]

the pics pretty much say it all. the lines across the windows, roof (seam) and on the trees. also along any pictures. they are thick when i am far away, and get thinner and "roll" across as i get closer, and then disappear when i am right up on the object. happens in other games like battle field 1942 also. i never got these with my gf3, so im stumped. ive changed drivers 6 times, tried all resolutions, upped my refresh rate, played with all the settings in system properties, changed apg aperture size, updated 4in1s,etc etc. ive even used a backup hdd with win me on it to make sure the os wasnt screwed (well as not screwed as ME can be). only thing i havent done that i know to do is flash the bios on my mobo, flash the bios on the card, and re-formatted the hdd. nothing is overclocked. heres my specs:

athlon t-bird 1.33
shuttle ak31a
384 ddr ram
10 gig hd
winME

anyone seen this or have any ideas? thanks in advance!

 

[Oakenfold]

Google search turned up nothing useful. I really don't recall seeing anything like this before myself. Surely someone here has?

 

[shimsham]

ok i just downloaded the new No One Lives Forever 2 demo, and i have the same problem. one thing i have noticed is it only appears on textures that overlap textures, such as windows, window shutters, and trailer skirts. lol, check the nolf2 demo. textures that have nothing overlapping them such as walls, the ground etc., dont have this problem.

anyone have any idea?

 

[WT]

Is it possible to try the card in another PC ? Thats always a great suggestion to determine exactly what component is the problem. If its flaky RAM on the card then go from there (warranty hopefully still applies). If its the board, then its a bit of a hassle, as I'm sure you know.

 

[shimsham]

yes, ill be going to a friends house to try it on his machine this evening.

 

[shimsham]

ok, i tried it in my friends sony vaio, and still having the same problems. what now? any suggestions?

 

[WT]

shim, its obviously something going south with the RAM on the card, or something hardware on it. Was this a new card that you bought ? If it is, what about a warranty ? Some cards have lifetime warranties, but I don't think Gainward would be one of those companies (PNY springs to mind). Your only recourse is to try and have it returned. Have you tried lowering the default memory and core speed ? I doubt it's heat related since you did in fact try it in your friends PC.

 

[shimsham]

well, here is a new devolopement. something i didnt ever think to check, cause i thought that it would make no difference, was color depth. i run at 16bit in all my games, cause in fast paced FPS i really dont notice the deeper colors. when trying changing the resolution on my friends comp, i thought "you know, thats the one thing i havent tried". i bumped the color up to 32bit, and lo and behold, the glitches went away. no i came home, slapped it back into my box, upped the color, and got the same results on my machine. tried it with other games, and it fixed the problem in them. changing texture bit from 16 to 32 has no effect, only the color. any ideas why that may be? to me it seems like that wouldnt make a difference, but it does? and it fixed the texture problem in all the games ive tried. i am still confused. suggestions?


and thanks for the replies WT.

 

[WT]

So your desktop color depth is now set to 32 bit depth ? And your games were set to 16 bit depth all this time ? Arghhhh, that was just dumb on my part for assuming you were running @ 32. It's common knowledge that weird things show up at 16 bit on some games, and I imagine the more advanced the game engine, the more strange things show up. I first noticed it in UT in my old Diamond TNT when I launched grenades from the Rocket Launcher. When they exploded, they created a funny pixel dot explosion that was fixed by me switching the game to 32 bit depth. You WILL notice some slowdown now since its at 32 bit but if it fixes the texture problem, then stay with it. I hate it when I assume something simple and that turns out to be the one thing I should have asked immediately.

 

[shimsham]

my desk top is still at 16bit, and i have seen nothing wrong with it while running explorer, media player,etc. its only in games where there is a problem with 16bit and the gf3 i traded this for always ran in 16bit in all games with no problems.

 

[shimsham]

anyone else ever seen this. its only when i run games at 16bit color. goes away when i use 32bit. happens in every game, and didnt happen with my old gf3.

 

[Oakenfold]

, that was just dumb on my part for assuming you were running @ 32

Don't feel bad bud...I did the same thing!
I don't even see the 16bit as an option anymore...

What's bad is I haven't run 16 bit on a 3D app in a long time(another indicator that I buy way too much hardware) so I"m totally at a loss for words here as if this is a common occurrence...

 

[WT]

Well now, add me to the list of disgruntled GF4 4200 owners. I got my new card last night and my old BX board was always a problem with a newer video card ( had to set AGP Aperture Size to 4 from its default 64) since my GF2 Pro went in it. Now the GF4 boots up but the monitor power indicator goes to a blinking green light when it gets into Windows. It runs in Safe Mode but I'm thinking it must be a power supply issue ?? I have an old 230 unit in that case. I have a 300 to borrow and swap in tomorrow so I hope that fixes it. I tried it in my spare PC but that also has a 230 watt and did load into Windows, but soon flashed large 1"x3/4" alternating colored blocks in rows. It was obviously my desktop background in HUGE blocks but the image was so screwed up I couldn't read any menus. I may have a bum card too. Again, if the PS swap doesn't help, its gonna go in a friends unit to test it. Dammit, I hate something dhat doesn't just drop in and work.

:|:frown: