gaming graphics problem when playing

Ed71

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Feb 21, 2014
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Lately Ive been having these weird graphics when gaming non online games (whilst disconected). I first encountered this problem with Steam bought game called "Spellforce 1 platinum edition". Game would freeze for like 4 seconds then the graphics would somehow reset and then everything was jumbled and (game was running normally but graphics were not) and you could see boxes outlying moving objects and looked like something which was in its programing graphics stage. Well I noticed that the resolution setting was for 16 bit and changed that and had no problems.

Then tried playing "Warhammer 40k SoulStorm" (which I had on computer for awhile) and then the exact same symptoms occur as in the previous game.

The only thing I can think of is the Nvidia drivers (which are up to date) since I had read alot of problems occur from these drivers.

My system is an old 3.14GHz single core pentium4 running on WinXP 2 hard drives and a Geforce GTX 285. 3 gigs main memory. Ive never had any problems with gaming for years until now. Yes I try to do full installs of the OS every year, defrag, and never play while connected online (unless its an online game) or with the virus scanner running (unless playing an online game)

Can anyone here give me some hints to what is going on here?
 

Joniostis

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Oct 13, 2013
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It could be your system starting to fall behind. That single core processor and a gtx 285 are REALLY old, as you might know. But honestly, i have no idea what exactly is going on. It could be your graphics card, that just kinda broke after all this time.
The way you describe it it semms like a GPU-related program.

Sorry for not being able to help you any further :/

Joni
 

Ed71

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Feb 21, 2014
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Well first off the games being played are about the same time this system was around. So only being a few years off couldnt make much difference unless Im playing more newer modernized games which have benched on newer systems and OS's So a few hours ago decided to re-seat the graphics card and still I get the same problem. I'm wanting to roll back the Nvidia driver (since over 5 years I keep reading that Nvidia keeps coming out with crappy drivers..not sure if this is true or not) But the site doesn't allow you to go back that far and I cant seem to find older drivers beyond 331.21. Forgot to mention that any wording (such as menu, resources, anything with lettering in it) seems to be replaced with blocks once it comes out of the freeze.
 

Ed71

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Feb 21, 2014
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Well guys just did some driver changes. Originally, the driver was Nvidia v332.21. Then upgraded to Nvidia v334.89. And still had the same problems. So decided to roll back and found the site with the older driver and installed Nvidia v314.22. All these drivers come with an option to clean install it. (I'm guess the program erases the older driver...but somehow I dont trust this) Unfortunately, I still had the same problem. Now I'm more closer to thinking that the card is somehow screwed. Only thing I can think of is maybe the direct X is corrupted or something. Ive had heating issues before but most of those came along with BSOD. (and I fixed those issues) Maybe I will have to upgrade to a newer OS and newer hardware.
 

Ed71

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Feb 21, 2014
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Update guys, you'll find this interesting. I think I found whats causing the crashes. I usually play the single player games offline (simply disconnect from high speed) Have been doing this for years since no reason to have my computer connected to the world whilst I play for hours. (do this with my steam games also) Only time I connect is when I play online games or do internet stuff.

Well, I decided to just run the game while connected. And to my amazement, the game didn't crash. It went for a whole hour until I manually shut the game down. Then deciding to try it again, This time I disconnected online connection and played the game (like Ive always done) and before you know it, after 12 minutes, it crashes. So then once again re-connected to online and played game again and walla! It ran for a whole hour never crashed.

Now Im thinking something is causing my games to crash trying to connect online. Im not sure what it could be. Maybe the Nvidia control panel? Or maybe steam? Can anyone here give me some tips on some programs that would try to connect? A malware perhaps?

Ed