Very weird display issues

[Kakumba]

OK, I have had my new system running for over a week now, no issues to speak of till now.

Then, last night I was playing Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (that game is still real fun), and the display went weird (lots of yellow dots in a grid. I will try get a screenshot, coz I dont know how to describe it in less than 10000 words).

Now when I turn the computer on, I get 5 vertical lines of dots (not continuous, but a fair few dots per line. This dissapears at teh next screen, and doesnt show in BIOS either. Shows up again when XP is loading, and then when in Windows, just some icons dont show, and I get some dots by the cursor (moves with the cursor).

Any ideas? I reset BIOS to defaults, and it still happens. Im thinking maybe I overvolted something, but I dont really believe thats the cause (voltage was lower than what others have run I know)

So, the specs:

Opteron 165
DFI SLI-DR Expert
XFX 7900GT (non voltmodded)
2x1gig OCZ EL Platinum
WD Raptor 74gig
Seagate Barracuda 300gig
running XP Pro SP2

CPU was at 2790 I think (have been playing with it anywhere between 2700 and 2799, definately stable at 2745) at 1.475 x 1.048 volts, had RAM at 2.84 and chipset at 1.65 volts. Hence I dont think I overvolted anything.

Considering re-installing XP, just to see if it helps, but if this can be avoided I would be glad.

So, any ideas? Like I said, this was running fine for a week or so, and so I cant work out what has gone on (didnt change anything before this happened...)

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Off hand it sounds like corrupted drivers. When you say definately stable, have you run prime95? I'm not familiar with DFI boards from personal experience but sometimes raising the Northbridge chipset voltage a little can get the GPU to settle down.

 

[Kakumba]

yeah, I ran 2 instances of prime. 2799 was definately not prime stable (instant fail on small FFTs), but 2745 does seem to be.

Yeah, the chipset voltage I increased plenty (default is 1.52 on this board, I was running at 1.65). I am thinking I agree with you on the corrupted drivers, now I gotta find out what the best current drivers are....

 

[Kakumba]

ok, installed 91.31 drivers, and that didnt help. It has made me think even more strongly that it IS a software issue though, because things looked a touch better for a little while (then it got worse, now back as it was basically).

any other ideas before I reformat and start again?

 

[Kakumba]

*bump* Seriously, anyone else got ideas. Otherwise will have to go through and reinstall windows.

 

[Oxides]

Sounds like hardware related to the graphics card to me.

1 Have you reset all your clocking to normal to see if this still happens?
2 Graphics card isnt heating up?
3 Powersupply voltages arent too high or low?
4 Sure you arent overclocking the pci buss? (1. should have tested this)

 

[Kakumba]

reset to defaults, I havent played with the graphics card at all. I might try swapping out for another card.

Pretty sure the PSU is all good, will have to try another card and reinstalling windows if its not that. if not either, then I think motherboard.