Video corruption

[figmentpez]

I'm gettting some strange video artifacts. Here is a pic of them, the JPEG compression is surprisingly accurate, though not perfect.

Pic of the corruption
(hope it works this time)

They get worse when scrolling, move up and down a webpage and the text becomes almost illegible. Switching between windows or Minimizing and Maximizing will remove most of the artifacting, but not all. The desktop wallpaper is fine, it views perfectly on another comptuer.

My system specs
Epox 8KHA+
-11-02-01 BIOS
Athlon 1600+ (1.4GHz)
- NOT Overclocked
- Alpha PAL-8045 Temps from 36C (~72F Ambient) idle to 40C (~76 Ambient) under stress
512 MB (2x256MB) Crucial PC2100 RAM
Radeon 7500
- 6.13.3276 Drivers
IBM P96 19" Monitor
Dell 1025TM 17" Monitor
Windows XP
- With latest updates
SB Audigy
CL Modem Blaster
Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB HDD
TDK VeloCD 16/10/40X
Pioneer 106S-DVD
Antec SX-1030B case with 300W PS


Problem is visible in most video modes. It happens in safe mode. Booting up into pure VGA, no drivers and it still happens. Disabling hardware accelration doesn't help. Disabling write combining lessens the effects, but they are still noticably there. It occurs both in XP and during the installation of 98 (which I quit after it was apparent the problem occured then too). Artifacts are not apparent in really simple video like DOS or BIOS setup.

Problem is identical on both monitors (when they're set to mirroring each other). Problem occurs weather both monitors are used or not. With all PCI cards removed the problem is still there.

I believe the problem is MB BIOS related. I flashed my BIOS to the latest version to try and fix a USB keyboard support problem, and the problem appeared sometime about that part. (my computer was having a lot of problems, thus the want for USB keyboard support to make it easier to press F8 and get into safe mode) Unfortunately I didn't do the right procedure when reverting to the old BIOS and now no longer have a copy of it. I can't get to Epox's site now (I think it's down) so I don't have access to other BIOSes at the moment. (It was working before, I got impatient trying to fix other things and screwed it up worse. *sigh*)

Video display seems to be the only problem (but boy is it a doozy). I haven't noticed any instabillity or any other problems.

Any ideas? Is this a problem with my motherboard BIOS?

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figmentpez

 

[ianbergman]

sounds to me like a dead or going dead video card. I'd pull the Radeon and try another card if you have one lying around. Also, check that the fan on the radeon (do they have fans?) is running; if it's not, the card could be overheating. It might not hurt to give ATI a call and ask for a new video card.

 

[figmentpez]

I think you're right, it probably is a bad video card. It'd been working fine for over a month, I'm not overclockin and the fan is still spinning, so I hadn't given that possibility much thought. I traded it out with an old 16MB TNT card from my previous system. The TNT ran fine, and the Radeon 7500 displayed the same corruption on the old system (though I didn't install drivers for it). I'll see what I can get ATI to do. Thanks for your reply.
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figmentpez

 

[cookdog]

I have been having a simular problem with my PC. Win 98 end edition. 16MB Savage 4 AGP card.
I get little red dots randomly clinging to mostly text. It happened after I had to re-install Win 98. and got the updated drivers from Windows Update. I think it could be a driver problem