Plagued by Odd Graphics Issue

[hztetra]

Some errors (what I'd call them ) began to happen last night. 3D games are impossible to play, and when I boot up, the computer manufacturer screen and the windows loading screen have lines composed of blocks. I couldn't get screenshots of that, but I do have screenshots of windows... Only way I can describe it Even though I get the error before windows even starts up, I reinstalled drivers to no avail.

Specs
Proc: 1.4ghz AMD T-Bird
Mobo: Asus something or another... I'll get model if that's important.
Vid card: ATI Radeon 9700 128mb Pro.
DX Version: 9.0c

Here are the screenshots :
http://www.echoshift.net/tet/aiee1.jpg
http://www.echoshift.net/tet/aiee2.jpg
http://www.echoshift.net/tet/aiee3.jpg

And if I have to RMA my card: It has a 5 year warranty, however, I don't have the receipt still (it's been about two years). But the 9700 as a model isn't even 5 years old, so would ATI make me have the receipt?

 

[DimZiE]

is the card overclocked ?

i had the same problem on my old rig, it was a GFTi4600 o'ced you could probably RMA it depends on where you bought it. if there is no phisycal alterations/mod on the card usually u could RMA it

 

[obes2k]

you'll need some kind of proof... whether it be email of sale transcript, order slip from shipping, SOMETHING that shows you baught it from that specific company. Otherwise, with LUCK, you can call and see if they still have you on file for the purchase, but you better go out and find a 4 leaf clover before you call... Also, if you paid via credit card, you can see if your CC company still has it on file, they could be nice and accept that as enough to show you purchased it, but you never know...

As far as testing goes, put your comp thru the works in the meantime. memtest86 each stick of ram seperately (atleast 8 hours each), monitor temperatures, check event viewer for anything that might indicate something going wrong around the date / time you started noticing it, and ofcoarse, dont be afraid to put a little time into basic maintenance (defrag, check volumes for errors, run full virus / ad ware scans, things like that) If possible, isolate hardware, if the computer doesn't NEED it to run, unhook it (cdrom's, slave hard disks, expansion cards) just to check to make sure that the problem isn't originating from hardware conflicts. Also, insufficient power supply has been known to cause errors of that sort before, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check into that as well. Good luck

 

[hztetra]

DimZiE: My card isn't OC'd at all -- haven't even messed with it.

obes2k: I don't think it's my PSU because I've been running it for about 3 months with no errors whatsover. Is there a for sure way to check if it is the powersupply? I checked all of event viewer for yesterday, and didn't find anything. Also I ran diskchecker.

One observation I've noticed: It is beginning to differ in severity everytime I restart. Sometimes there will be no errors until I attempt to run a 3d app, and other times it will be very severe from the moment I turn it on. When I run dxdiags, the tests run fine, save for the lines and blocks on them.

The pattern goes similar to this:
.. .. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. .. ..

and so on down the screen. During the dxdiag's, these are dots, instead of blocks.