Slicing and tearing(?) in games... FREEZING

[LeftHandedShrew]

Alright.

I've been trying to fix this forever: What happens is, these artifacts or slicing of the game (TFC, CS) or SOMETHING I cannot describe beyond that, flash up during my game. Sometimes causing my games to freeze.
I know you can get 'artifacts' from an overclocked vid-card... but mine's not overclocked. It also IS NOT v-sync. That is turned on. And it's pretty much impossible to take a screenie because they flash so fast.

I hope this isn't too confusing but I'm trying my best to explain what I see. I'm about to give up because nothing I do will work. I've tried many, many different video card drivers. Installed them just about any way possible. Took all overclocking off of my card, turned on V-sync. NOTHING WORKS.

I am fresh out of ideas. I figured I'd ask and see if I'm missing anything.

P III 450
Herc. GF2 MX
192 MB RAM
SB Live! 128

*sigh*

 

[Koy]

What OS?

 

[Double Trouble]

I've seen this happen with cards that have been pushed a little too hard in overclocking. Even if you stop overclocking them, it seems like there's still something messed up in the core that causes the artifacts and such.

I'd try a couple of things. First, see if you can get your hands on another video card -- any other video card -- and see if the same artifacts persist. Since you already have the latest drivers, it's probably not the drivers directly. However, it could be settings in the registry that cause the drivers to act a certain way. Completely remove the video card in safe mode, along with any registry keys related to it. Then do a 'clean' install of the drivers to see if that helps.

Finally, I've also seen this when a video card has a bad memory chip on it...... I'm not sure how you'd diagnose that in your case, but it could be the problem as well.

 

[LeftHandedShrew]

I'm running Windows 98SE.

Arrg. That would suck if it was my card. Well, I'm due for an upgrade anyway... :*(

 

[LeftHandedShrew]

Ok, well I've been messing with this whole friggin' thing and found out that this only occurs in OpenGL mode. I'm pretty sure it does NOT occur in Direct3D. (It doesn't have that same tearing and then crash.) Now, even stranger, it *seems* to only occur in the Half-Life engine. I haven't done enough testing to know if that's true or not.

But I'm not so sure if this is a problem on my side or on HL's side. Because now, whenever I shut down my computer completely, I boot up and everything is garbled, I pretty much can't see anything, 16 colors total.... I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IT IS! Here are a couple pictures of that bootup problem: #1 #2 (oh yeah, keep in mind this is not the worst... Usually when I boot up I cannot see a damn thing because all the text is messed up and there is a weird trail behind the mouse, like boxes or something)