Vertical wavy lines

[emerald876]

I noticed that these vertical wavy lines have shown up on my monitor earlier today. I tried to rule out as many things as possible, such as it being the monitor itself, which it's not. I plugged the monitor into a different computer and there were no wavy lines anywhere on the screen.
I had tried to reinstall my graphics card drivers but it didn't do anything to help the problem.

I'm thinking it may be a bad video card, but I'm not sure. I've ruled out any interference there might be, taking away anything new that has been added to my desk.

My setup is
AMD Phenom II X4 945
4GB DDR3 PC10666 G.SKILL ram
ZOTAC GeForce GTS450
SAMSUNG Spinpoint 1TB
ePower 600w PSU

I really would appreciate any help to solving this problem as it has been annoying me a lot.

 

[emerald876]

I apologize for the double post, but I have tried the onboard graphics, and the wavy lines seem to disappear.

 

[bystander]

That would indicate a bad video card or PSU.

 

[emerald876]

It's only a faint kind of static on light grey or light blue colors, that's where it's the most noticable. I'm going to try and get a hold of a different computer and try my video card there, but it's not going to be easy.

 

[Specop]

From personal experience with this, its usually damage to the GPU. Slight damage, such as warping! Its usually caused by heat, like prolonged exporsure in the upper limits of the card or one or two times of it overheating. (back in the day I had two 8800 ultras with reference coolers, it happened to them because they loved to be in the high end of it, I got some custom coolers and it prevented it from going further.) also on this laptop the fans didn't spin up once and the card began overheating (FPS drop from 60 to 3... great fun).

I'd check to see if it consistently is getting hot (I don't mean warm I mean hot to the touch) when under load... if you can't rest your finger tips on it for a bit then its probably heat damage sadly. (obviously ground yourself and careful what you touch while its on...)

Lastly, a good idea would be to try and clean your case and heatsink. Heck even try cleaning the contacts on the card and cables... (rubbing alcohol does welL) It may correct the problem.

If you haven't voided your warranty (overclock with volts, or install a custom cooler) you can probably get it replaced.

As the above post mentioned it could also be a bad PSU, though I don't believe that is the case.

If it only happens under load it can be either the psu (try to monitor the current the PSU is putting out and make sure its not spikey and it meets the needs of the system) or the GPU (the silicon has expanded under heat and the traces may not be making a proper connection anymore.). If it happens constantly then I would bet money on it being the GPU, simply because it doesn't seem your system is unstable.

You're doing an excellent job troubleshooting.

Hope it helps!

 

[emerald876]

I've checked through Speedfan, the GPU temp has never went over about 65º. I don't think dust in the case and heatsink is an issue for the heat, I just got the computer less than 2 weeks ago. I've been trying to get a hold of ZOTAC support and see what they say about it.

EDIT: There have also been a few points where momentarily white turns to a greyish color, and the lines become more defined. It had did it continuously before until I restarted my computer.