Graphical Artifact Issue

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libelula5

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Jul 24, 2007
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Hey guys,

I have an issue with my graphics that is driving me crazy. PC has worked fine for 5 years until do a clean install of W7 around 3 weeks ago. Basically I have one of 3 symptoms:

1/. When playing a game I get booted to desktop with no error message at all
2/. When playing a game I get booted to desktop with either a "randomgame.exe has crashed" or "nvidia driver xxxx has crashed"
3/. Huge amount of artefacting starts in game and needs reboot to remove, exiting game does not solve this and desktop also has a lot of artefacting prior to issue.

Build is:

Thermatake Toughpower 750w
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Gigabyte GTX 660 TI
i7 - 920
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB


Things I have tried:


1/. different PSU: same issue

2/. stress test card with Furmark on two different rigs: no issue at all, temps normal and run for around 2 hours on each.

3/. used card in another rig: played for a few days with no issues

4/. stress test RAM with memtest+ : overnight run with no issues

5/. changed PCI-E frequency from "auto" to "100": seemed to work but around 45 min in it crashed again.

Something to note: I also had a Creative Titanium Xfi PCI-E sound card installed but after Windows reinstall I had to remove it. The drivers caused BSOD each time I tried to install them and it was not showing up on device manager.

Any ideas???

Thanks in advance for your help :)
 
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coozie7

coozie7

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Jun 2, 2007
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Make sure you installed the motherboard/chipset drivers they're easily forgotten.
Reset the BIOS to factory defaults, reset the card/CPU to its default speeds if overclocked, no point troubleshooting with a modified BIOS or with anything overclocked, you'll just end up chasing shadows.
Check the CPU temperature.
Uninstall any tweaking software (Afterburner etc) and delete any saved profiles when asked.
Uninstall the current video/sound drivers and run something like DriverFusion in Safe Mode to fully remove them before installing the latest WHQL certified software directly from the manufacturer site/s.
 
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libelula5

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Jul 24, 2007
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Hey Coozie7,

Thanks for the reply.

Chipset drivers were installed (latest from Gigabyte)
BIOS was reset (only modification was setting PCI-E frequency to 100 manually)
CPU temp is normal
No tweaking software on the system
I actually reinstalled windows again yesterday so did clean install of graphic drivers (latest from nvidia)

As you can see I have been pretty thorough before coming here :) I'm stumped.


 
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coozie7

coozie7

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Jun 2, 2007
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Guessed you'd already done that so it seems to rule out software issues.
Failure of the system to recognise or use the Xfi card and random crashing looks like either a power or motherboard problem.
Getting reliable voltage readings can be hard, try checking the BIOS, there's often a health section there which gives voltages, failing that something like HWInfo should help.
Also check the chipset temperatures, again HWInfo can help, an overheating chipset can also lead to random crashes, especially on older system where the PCI-E controller is not built into the CPU package.
Trying another card in the current system is another common test.
 
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libelula5

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Jul 24, 2007
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Ahhhh, great suggestion for the HWInfo! I had forgotten about this great piece of software.

Will try that and another card tonight.

Still not sure why the stress test (Furmark) would work for 5-6 back to back 15 min runs but then crash in game after a few min...
 
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libelula5

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Jul 24, 2007
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Hey again,

Just wanted to update to let anyone else with the same issue possibly solve their issue.

The problem is no longer apparent.

SOLUTION : Changed PCI-E on the Mobo from Auto to 100.

This may not be what fixed it but it was the last thing I did and although it crashed immediately after this change it has not since after multiple sessions of several hours at a time.

Going to try putting the sound card back in tonight and close up the tower as it's been open for the past few weeks whilst I tinkered with it :_)

Thanks for the help Coozie7!
 
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