Fuzz/Snow/Odd Patterns on Screen

[-Noah-]

Let me start off with a little background. I have had Windows Vista on my computer for a few years now and have not had this issue before. I installed Windows 7 and have not had problems until a few days ago, maybe a week ago.

When I play Guild Wars, sometimes there is a sort of screen tearing where (part of) the screen is temporarily black for a split second. It usually gets worse when more things are happening on the screen, ie. when there is not a static image on the screen. I have turned down the graphics settings for a bit and then put them back up and then did not have the problem again within that gaming session. Today however, I started up Guild Wars and as soon as I could see my character in the game world, the problem returned and it quickly became much worse. It started out with the black-screen screen tearing and then there was "snow" on the screen, where scattered pixels where blinking and white I believe. Then it got worse, more pixels acted this way and then strange patterns appeared on screen. I minimized GW for a second to see if it was just acting up within the game or not and the effect transferred over to the Windows environment. I closed GW and played around with some graphics settings to no avail. Upon restarting my computer, everything has returned to normal but I have yet not tried playing Guild Wars again. See the screenshots to see what I'm talking about. The effect on the second screenshot is sort of hard to see because it partially blends in with the background. The effect on the third screenshot took over the whole screen soon after I took the screenshot.

It also seems that RivaTuner has been acting strangely recently (I don't know if it has been acting strange before this issue came up because that is when I checked out RivaTuner to make sure everything was alright). RivaTuner has always had a couple of pop ups when my computer starts up asking for administrative privelages, which I always grant. However, RivaTuner refuses to show up in my SysTray or the hidden area of the SysTray. It is not listed in running processes either, yet I think it is still running. I can open RivaTuner from the start menu and everything looks fine, but when I close it or hit okay it does not go down to the SysTray, it seems to dissapear, but I can still hear my graphics card fan speed up and slow down (RivaTuner is set to auto). By the way, when I had the screen tearing and "snow" problems, I checked RivaTuner and the graphics card temp was stable, at a normal temp as usual.

One last bit. It seems that around the same time this problem started my computer began to make an odd noise sometimes which seems to only happen when the graphics card fan speeds up (ie. when I play Guild Wars for a little while and the card heats up a bit). If I press a bit on the computer case in a certain way the sound is quieter or goes away altogether, but when when I stop pressing on the case the sound returns.

I don't know if all of these problems are related but I believe there is something wrong with my graphics card. It has served me well for a couple years and I have never had any problems. The reported temperatures in RivaTuner are completely normal and are not in any way outstanding. So what's wrong? I am currently downloading the newest NVIDIA drivers from their website per Windows' recommendation.

Thanks,

Noah

EDIT: I have found the issue to be in Guild Wars only. Next step is contacting Guild Wars support.

EDIT2: I have recently discovered that I had been running Guild Wars in Compatibility Mode for Windows Vista. I don't know how that was set because I would never run a game in compatibility mode. Anyway, I turned off Compatibility mode, letting Guild Wars run natively in Windows 7, and I have not had any problems since. The RivaTuner issue was resolved by a setting in RivaTuner's options. I still don't know what is causing the reverberating sound coming from my computer.

EDIT 3, duplicated in latest post: I have now found this problem to affect multiple videogames, not just Guild Wars. It seems the odd patterns have gotten even worse and more frequent when I play videogames; they appear shortly after I start playing and the patterns and artifacts have become horrible and even discolored. Furthermore, I have tried running Vista 32-bit from my secondary drive, which I have not touched for months, and the problems also occur there, ruling out virtually all software solutions. So the problem must lie in the hardware if I am not mistaken. If I close the affected videogame quickly after the problem comes up, I get an error message from the systray area which says, "The display driver nvlddmkm/169.52 stopped responding and has successfully recovered." I take this to be a general error for when something has gone wrong with the graphics card. So my graphics card is at fault, then? For the hell of it I will also try running my computer with only one RAM stick at a time since it was suggested on other forums that this issue could possibly be caused by a faulty memory stick. If I don't find a solution, though, I will have to contact BFG and get a replacement card.

Edited January 3, 2010 by -Noah-

[InterceptorX]

Sounds and looks like the card is going bad.

[Pretzel]

I'm not a hardware person, but if you have an LCD monitor, you should test it, just in case. :)

[crispkreme]

I'm not a hardware person, but if you have an LCD monitor, you should test it, just in case. :)

If it was his monitor, it would not show up in screenshots.

[-Noah-]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

The graphics card driver update did not help. I saw some of the same problems in Guild Wars and I quit out quickly so the problems would not affect Windows again. It seems as though I can quit out of Guild Wars and not have any problems as long as it hasn't gotten really bad in GW with the horrible patterns and such.

There is good news, however. I have just played CoD4 and NFS: Shift, both of which being more graphically demanding than GW, for about 45 minutes altogether and no such problems occurred. Therefore I come to the conclusion that there is something wrong in Guild Wars itself. But why, then, would the problem transfer over to Windows after I have quit out of Guild Wars? Hmmm...

So I guess the next step will be contacting Guild Wars/NCSoft Support. It is too bad they will probably not have an answer for me and they will instead blame it on my computer/graphics card. I'll try playing around with graphics settings for Guild Wars and see if I find the culprit, but as nothing has changed graphics-wise in Guild Wars as far as I know, I don't know what the problem could be.

-Noah

[-Noah-]

I have now found this problem to affect multiple videogames, not just Guild Wars. It seems the odd patterns have gotten even worse and more frequent when I play videogames; they appear shortly after I start playing and the patterns and artifacts have become horrible and even discolored. Furthermore, I have tried running Vista 32-bit from my secondary drive, which I have not touched for months, and the problems also occur there, ruling out virtually all software solutions. So the problem must lie in the hardware if I am not mistaken. If I close the affected videogame quickly after the problem comes up, I get an error message from the systray area which says, "The display driver nvlddmkm/169.52 stopped responding and has successfully recovered." I take this to be a general error for when something has gone wrong with the graphics card. So my graphics card is at fault, then? For the hell of it I will also try running my computer with only one RAM stick at a time since it was suggested on other forums that this issue could possibly be caused by a faulty memory stick. If I don't find a solution, though, I will have to contact BFG and get a replacement card.

[sonrah]

Definitely a graphics card issue. Seems like the it's overheating.

[-Noah-]

Definitely a graphics card issue. Seems like the it's overheating.

Thanks for the response, but if you read my first post you will see that the graphics card temps are completely normal according to RivaTuner. Nevertheless I have the same feeling that the graphics card is faulty.

[2xSilverKnight]

overheating or not, it's definitely a graphic card issue. 100 % sure.

i've seen this happens with my last graphic card.

In my case, one or many memory chips on the card went bad.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Yeah I hate to say it but something is giving out on your GPU. I am absolutely certain of this. One of the pipes or something is just on its way out, and you see it overtime as the heat eventually makes it even worse. That is why it takes some time for it to happen. Eventually it will get to the point where 2 minutes will cause it to happen instead of just 45. What you are seeing right now is the beginning of your graphics cards death. I truly hate to say it but that is pretty much the certainty of the situation. I have seen two cards die first hand, mine and one of my friends, and this is pretty much the first stage.

What brand do you have? A lot of graphic cards manufacturers these days have extremely good warranties, a few brands even offer lifetime warranties, and they actually do stick to them. So finding out what brand the card you have and then looking into the warranty is pretty much your next step. If that does not wind up yielding any results, will be time to start thinking about a new card.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

There is no explicable reason why the same problem would occur all the time other than the fact that your graphics card is faulty.

[SyntaxError]

I've had graphics cards do similar things just before they die. Had nothing to do with heat issues in my case either. Hardware just wears out eventually.

There's an interesting phenomenon called "electromigration" that becomes more and more important as electronics get smaller and smaller.

It's basically physical wear on a subatomic level caused by moving electrons.

[-Noah-]

Thanks for all the responses. So the graphics card is approaching its death. Thankfully I got a BFG card (8800 GT OC2) which comes with a lifetime warranty, so I will contact them and get a replacement card. Does anyone know how the replacement would be done? Or would they be able to repair it? Since BFG no longer offers 8800 GT cards, would they still have some laying around that they could send to me or would they send me a new card like a GTS 250? I ask because I need the card to be pretty slim. I got the 8800 GT specifically because it could fit in my case; I believe anything wider would not fit. I'll have to open up the case and see how much room I have.

-Noah

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Lifetime warranty doesn't last forever (It's different to an unlimited warranty) - it only lasts until the manufacturer stops making the product. Plus you (usually) have to register the product within 30 days to get this warranty.

You'll have to check with BFG if you're still covered.

[SyntaxError]

Lifetime warranty doesn't last forever (It's different to an unlimited warranty) - it only lasts until the manufacturer stops making the product. Plus you (usually) have to register the product within 30 days to get this warranty.

You'll have to check with BFG if you're still covered.

I was going to mention having to register within 30 days of purchase to activate the warranty. It's amazing how many people never do that.

I can't speak for BFG, but XFX's double lifetime warranty is kick ass. If your card dies and they don't have that model anymore, they will actually give you a current model in the same series, if available, and you are still covered.

[-Noah-]

jamesyfx and SyntaxErrror, I registered the card on BFG's website before the 30 day period was up. I believe I can still get a replacement card according to BFG's warranty. The warranty includes many restrictions, but I meet those requirements and the warranty states in the first line that, "BFG Technologies warrants to the original purchaser of the graphics card included in this package ("Product") that the Product will be free from defects in material or workmanship for as long as the original purchaser (residing in the United States or Canada) owns the product, when given normal wear and proper usage." The warranty does not mention anything about the product still being in production, so I should be covered.

[SyntaxError]

Sounds like you are covered to me. Good deal then. Hopefully you will get a brand new card in a newer model instead of a refurb of your current card.

All products sent in for Return Merchandise Authorization (?RMA?) in connection with warranty claim must include a copy of the original invoice or receipt.

Hope you still have the receipt or can access a digital copy online.

I had to RMA a 4 year old Antec psu earlier this year. Thankfully Buy.com still had the receipt on file, cause I had thrown away the invoice ages ago. Lesson learned.

Edited January 5, 2010 by SyntaxError