World of Warcraft Graphic Problem

[TheBiggmann]

My brother has been complaining about a graphic problem on WoW for a while now, and I kind of wrote it off until recently when I got home from college. When playing/walking around the graphics will distort, breaking up into just fragments, or there will be fragmented lines coming from things. It will also result in a blue screen sometimes, citing nv4_disp.dll as the culprit. I have tried uninstallin/reinstalling drivers, uninstalling, booting into safe mode, using driver cleaner pro, restarting in safe mode, installing the new drivers, and then restarting normally, but that doesn't work either. Does anyone have any idea why this is doing this? I can post a picture if someone can enlighten me as to how I do that, I just don't see the option right now. I also apologize if this is in the wrong section.

 

[I Saw OJ]

WoW does that to me every once and a while when my video card heats up. I would check for excessive dust buildup or maybe a broken fan?

 

[TheBiggmann]

I just cleaned out the fan, still does it. The fan works, plus its an aftermarket heatsink/fan. It will do it from the moment it starts up, it doesn't even need time to get hot. I suppose I could monitor the heat levels when I start WoW to see what they are at, but the fact that it does it right from the start makes me think its not a heat problem, at least not with the GPU. Btw, the GPU is a GeForce 7800GT

 

[manimal]

I just cleaned out the fan, still does it. The fan works, plus its an aftermarket heatsink/fan. It will do it from the moment it starts up, it doesn't even need time to get hot. I suppose I could monitor the heat levels when I start WoW to see what they are at, but the fact that it does it right from the start makes me think its not a heat problem, at least not with the GPU. Btw, the GPU is a GeForce 7800GT

7800gt's memory went bad all the time when they were new. At this age it could be on its way out. Lower the clocks a a bit and see what happens.

 

[TheBiggmann]

How do I go about doing that?

 

[GreenGhost]

My wife is having the exact same problem. First time I saw I thought it was a serious hardware problem. It started 2 weeks ago, after I updated the nVidia drivers. It happens every couple of days. I noticed that as soon as you logout the problem goes away. For us, it does not appear to be heat related or anything.

PS: 8600GT.

 

[TheBiggmann]

It doesn't seem to be heat related for me, but it doesn't go away if I log out. I'm thinking it has to be the graphics card. It does the same thing on Warcraft III and Diablo II, so thats kinda of making me lean more towards the graphics card. Maybe I'm wrong though. Anyone else on the directions on how to lower the clock on it?

 

[borisvodofsky]

Check your system ram.. could be that as well...

 

[CKent]

Happened to me during TBC, it was my 1950xt dying.

 

[Juddog]

Last time this happened to me my video card died 2 weeks later. Check and see if it's still under warranty, it's usually a sign that it's about to full blown fail. Also reseat the video card(s) as well.

 

[yh125d]

I've had what sounds like similar problems with wow before


I'd get tons of purpleish triangles in 3d space, usually originating from some object like another player and obstructing most of my view. If thats what he's seeing, heres what I know


It's not heat related
It happened on two separate cards, 8800GT and 9800GT, with a few different driver versions
It was not caused by a dying card
Clean OS/driver install doesn't necessarily fix problem
Fairly intermittent. Doesn't happen every time I played, but at its peak happened once every few days


I haven't had any of these graphical errors since I bought my 4890 almost a year ago, so I'm pretty sure it's exclusive to NV drivers/HW

 

[TheBiggmann]

Well, i think I'm going to try and replace the video card and see what that does. Any suggestions on a decent one? I dont want to spend $300 on one, looking to spend more like $150 at the max if thats possible. It doesn't need to be amazing, just enough to play WoW efficiently and smoothly. Something similar to the 7800gt would be good, maybe a slight step up if I can for the price. Maybe I can't even do it for $150, I dont even know anymore, its been so long since I've looked at cards.

 

[TheBiggmann]

Also, if i put an aftermarket fan on my card, will that have voided my warranty or will i still possibly be under warranty? It sounds like it has a lifetime warranty so i may just send it back in if i can.