graphics problems

[Chrysalis]

Ok I got this weird problem I will try to explain as best as I can

The problem:

Menu's dont show or only partly show, examples are right click menu's, drop down menu's and the start menu. Popup windows dont show and are replaced by an error beep, examples are confirmation windows such as when closing an app and window asking are you sure, loading event view causes error beep instead of loading up. Dialog boxes, examples are windows media player options only half of them might be visible, mirc options box only partly showing (missing buttons etc.). Task manager this is in reduced size with missing info. To summarise their seems to be resource exhaustion and it is unable to display stuff.

When it happens:

It usually happens after around 3 days uptime, when I bootup my pc I load up 1 explorer window for file management, 1 mirc window which is on around 25 irc channels and 4 networks, 1 outlook window which checks my email every 15 mins, 1 Maxthon window which has approx 40 tabs open, 1 opera window which has approx 55 tabs open, 6 or so securecrt windows (ssh app) a few ftp client windows and sometimes the odd extra window like a command prompt or notepad. This is usually fine for around 3 days or so then the above problem starts happening, if I close an app the problem goes away for a short while but then comes back and I have to close another app, to completely relieve the problem I have to reboot.

What I have tried:

I have tried dozens of different display driver version's even rolling back to a driver over a year old that I know worked fine, I have tried rolling back nforce2 drivers, I have tried changing loads of bios settings like agp arpeture size, I have tried swapping ram chips and I have tried using a lower screen resolution. I have also tried killing some apps which I thought might cause the problem.

What software I run:

The above in taskbar and in system tray I have, netlimiter, task manager, soundstorm control panel, volume control, ati menu, msn messenger, the proxomitron, logon loader, nero drivespeed, rage 3d tweak, kerio firewall v2.1.5 and mccaffee virus scan pro V7.03.6000 (auto scan disabled) I run Windows XP with SP2 and all patches, current drivers for gfx are catalyst 3.10 but have tried the latest versions as well.

My Hardware:

Asus A7N8X deluxe v2 - 1008 uber bios, AMD XP 2200+, 1GIG DDR ram, ATI Radeon 9600 PRO, Maxtor 60 gig, Maxtor 120 gig, Maxtor 120 gig SATA, Liteon 832s DVD burner, smc 1211 lan card.

As you can see I heavily multitask the machine it has a lot open and running at once, but I think it really should handle it I have 1 gig of ram and the graphics card has 128 meg of display memory, the swap file has a 4 gig limit so I dont think this is memory exhaustion, and I have ran my pc like this for well over a year, even with older hardware liek 512 ram and a geforce2 pro, probably bit less multitasking but the same sort of usage pattern, these problems seem to have started happening around a month ago I think. I am hoping it is not failed graphics card, I havent really found an app that can be used to diagnore the gfx memory, I know my ram is fine, I am hopeing to avoid a windows reinstall but will do it if I cant fix the problem.

Any ideas?

[erp]

With all of that running at once, I'm surprised it moves at all. Add more RAM, at least another gig. 55 tabs in opera? :wacko:

[Chrysalis]

opera only uses around 150 meg of memory, my free ram in task manager has bottomed out at 350meg so it isnt been filled up, but I think my radeon is broken as I get artifacts in aquamark, I have no put in my old geforce2 pro and will see if this problem goes away, and like I said in my 1st post I used to do almost as much with 512 meg of ram.

[Andre]

Prolly a leak in some program. Or, some of those programs might be spawning a lot of GDI objects (you can the numbers in the task manager by selecting to show the corresponding column) and forgetting to clean up them which results in overflows and loss of visual attributes.

If that's not the case, and I doubt it is, then most likely it's the use of so many programs at once. IRC with so many channels can also be the main cause of the above.