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Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my PC from these ingame screenshots?
It's a custom built gaming PC that i bought from e-bay for 400$.
Can't remember the link. (it's on my old PC)
OS - Win Xp Pro.
2GB RAM
Processor- AMD ATHLON II X2 240 Processor, 3D now (2CPUs), ~2.8 GHz
Video- NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
Display Mode- 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
It has happened in other games too. Oblivion, Darkfall, WoW, and Farcry. (Have not played many other games though)
It also crashes every once in a while and says it has recovered from a serious Error.
Here's the link to the screens.
http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/Totalstupidity/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_122709_100114.jpg
http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/Totalstupidity/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_122709_100108.jpg
http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/Totalstupidity/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_122709_100103.jpg
http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/Totalstupidity/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_122709_100100.jpg
http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/Totalstupidity/?action=view¤t=WoWScrnShot_122709_100046.jpg
EDIT~
Here is a link to the e-bay auction on my PC.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230404186025&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
My video card is not the same as the one i was supposed to get and i think my processor is different too. I used dxdiag to find out what my PC has and it does not say REGOR anywhere. Not sure what they did or didn't put in my PC.
The frame is also different, it is an Alien ware Dracula and not what is shown in the picture, basiclly the same though.
I also forgot to say that the graphic problems are not permanent and going through a loading screen or restarting the game makes them go back to normal.
I downloaded the updates for my card just a little while ago and i will try my games soon, i also downloaded the
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163 and it says i am running at 35c as I'm typing now and i have not tried it on a game yet. (Not sure if i looked at the right thing)
EDIT~ Was just playing WoW and it was at 36c but hit 40c a few times. I have no heater and it is like ~20 Degrees ATM in my house so that may be effecting the temp.
(My hands and feet are burning and numb at the same time, thats true hardcore gaming lol)
And about the power, if i have everything shut off in one side of my house would that help at all or would the power issues (if any) only be a PC hardware problem.
Example- Is there a caped amount of power that can go into the PC and the fan is using a lot of it but the Graphics needs a lot too but since the fan and other stuff needs a lot of power the graphics card can't get the power it needs to survive?
^ Really bad at explaining things. (lol) I'll try to explain through math. (lol)
Computer power cap is 100-> Fan uses 40 of it-> RAM uses 20-> and the Video card needs 60 but is only getting 40 of it.
Is that how the power supply works? Like i said i know nothing about computers.
Feel free to laugh at my explanations. (lol)
BTW i do not know what Overclocking is, could someone tell me.
Monitor is LCD.
Inherited Will, the Destiny of the Age, and the Dreams of its People. These are things that will not be stopped. As long as people continue to pursue the meaning of freedom, these things will never cease to be! - Gol D. Roger
Comments
Could be something with the graphics card overheating. I am by no means a computer expert, but I know I had some graphical problems when my card would overheat.
Seems the video card is about to "die".
At least that's my impression the video card probably can't keep on going at that rate if you are seeing it on all games.
I agree, it looks like his card is overheating.
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Yup this is how it started for my old 7600. Textures started warping, then they came in multiple colors and eventually it turn into this. Pulled the card out and the caps were busted.
Could you explain what would make it overheat?
I don't know much about computers.
I also posted this question on Yahoo Answers and the few responses I've got say
"Try updating your drivers (See link)
also, run an anti-virus program or two.
i recommend malware bytes"
and
"it may be a virus a have avg(windows xp) and its great. if not you can underclock your graphics card or get better cooling, thats probably a last resort. reinstalling the game or defragmenting the hardrive id try."
Any chance it is a virus or or that i need to update my drivers (not sure what that means).
Inherited Will, the Destiny of the Age, and the Dreams of its People. These are things that will not be stopped. As long as people continue to pursue the meaning of freedom, these things will never cease to be! - Gol D. Roger
Looks like the card is Dieing, cuase, the Fan on the Video card my be Sputtering out, make sure its not covered in Dust, use a good can of AIR blow it out, but honestly i if i were you would consider getting another video card, about 60$ would get you a card that can handle the games you have mentioned, if your tight for cash
I seen that before, the graphics card have overheated (or had bad components) and are about to die.
A new fan will most likely don't save it now, you need a new one.
You should also add a fan or 2 to the box, or move it if you have it so that air has hard to move around it. Fans for the box is really cheap, GFX cards however isn't but there is nothing you can do that will save this one, it will just get worse and worse.
Sorry but this happens sometimes, I burnt 2 GFX cards myself during my PC gaming. One was a 7900 card that just was a bit to much factory clocked, the other and old ATI Rage 2 card that just got a bit too hot or had a bad component.
Just bought the PC a 3 weeks ago got it in the mail last monday.
Inherited Will, the Destiny of the Age, and the Dreams of its People. These are things that will not be stopped. As long as people continue to pursue the meaning of freedom, these things will never cease to be! - Gol D. Roger
Yeah, I would attempt to try and make sure the card/fan is dust free and are running fine. If the graphics are keep doing that, as the person above me suggested, I would just go get a cheap graphics card that can handle WoW, ect.
Ignore the yahoo answers.. wont help at all.
As mentioned looks like your card is over heating or on its last legs.
Are you running any overclock programs? when was the last time you cleaned the fans on the gfx card or any case fans?
This tool http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163 should tell you what temp ya gfx card is running at, anything above 85C (while playing games) and 50C (while idle) could cause such issues but does depend on the make/model of card.
Looking up info on the 9400gt its a cheap gfx card costing about $45 and some are passivly cooled (no fan) if yours is passivly cooled then it is likely overheating due to poor airflow in the case, take the side off the case and play some games see if the issue remains if not then you'll need to install a case fan to get some air into the case. Failing that buy a half decent gfx card with fan =D
While I'm sure I can guess the answer; what kind of monitor are you using? LCD or Old fashioned kind?
If by chance you have one of the old kind (looks like an old TV) then what you're seeing may be a magnetic source screwing up the colors.
I had the same thing happening on my wife's system and it went away when I passed on my old LCD screen to her. Didn't have anything to do with the video card in that case. If you have an LCD screen then I'll bow to the other learned posters here.
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Just bought the PC a 3 weeks ago got it in the mail last monday.
I agree with the other posters that the card is bad (or dying). New computer? I'd send the whole thing back and ask for a replacement.
Its defo not a monitor issue, the artifacts are very specific, look at the 3rd image only the name and texture on the goblin are screwed up.. this would indicate the graphic cards not rendering the texture properly. Magnetic interference could not limit it's self the the exact space a goblin filled on screen.. plus the discoloration would be present in the same location in all games and desktop... but I am no expert.
The 9400 GT being a fairly bottom of the bucket budget card that generally doesn't even have a fan. There is little to say that it is indeed overheating. Generally most 9400's are not going to overheat because they are already so stripped down and underclocked as it is.
You issue could be any number of things but before I went out and spent money on a new graphics card I would check a few things first. Are your drivers updated (the 9400 is no beast of a card by any streatch of the imagination so its more open to bad driver issues then most cards that are not stripped down). Have you overclocked the card at all? If so I would underclock it since more then likely its a passively cooled card. If your motherboard has onboard video try hooking directly into it and seeing if the issue occures with any games (Easiest way to find out if its something else or if its something related to the card).
I wouldn't think its a power related issue but its entirely possible that your power supply may not be strong enough for the card (A $400 ebay machine could be just about anything any joe had for spare parts or old junk).
Since you are experiencing system wide crashs I would try and find that issue first before replacing the card. A graphics card isn't going to soft crash your system. A graphics driver could cause that to happen and could be the true cause of your problems here. A card overheating isn't going to softcrash your system, it will cause you to get some crazy images all the time even on the desktop but its not going to cause your system to flake out.
Another thing could be that you have some bad ram. Bad ram can call all sorts of graphical type issues and even cause a system to just act wonky and randomly soft / hard crash. I know I have had that happen in the past when a 1 gig stick of ram decided it was time to half way die but still manage to work.
Not to be a jerk but.. see spell errors, this is frequent in your post.
classic case of a duff gfx card mate, either the GPU or the video RAM, either way I suspect you will have to replace it. IMO
Once you get texture corruption like this, your video memory is already damaged. No amount of canned air will save your card. Buy a new one and save yourself the troubleshooting time.
Definitely the video card, but you should check the company's warranty.. some video card manufacturers have very generous warranties such as XFX's double lifetime warranty, that would still cover your video card even though you have no original receipt.
But the 9400GT is bad enough that you may want to pick up a new video card anyway.
Looks like the video memory is faulty... need a new card or take off each memory block until u find the faulty one.
nVidia entry level discrete cards have been shoddy since the GeForce 8000s. The integrated 9300 is good, but the 9400 is a rehash of the 8500 which had overheating issues.
Seems like overheating, but that doesn't have to be the case.
The first thing you want to do is to update your computer. Get the latest XP updates and update to the latest GPU drivers. It can also help to do a bios update.
It might not help one bit, but it might fully fix the issues.
Besides that, it's never bad to update your computer.
Mail? Try re-seating all the cards and memory. If you're really brave try re-seating the CPU.
I had a problem with a new video card earlier this year. Graphics in WoW would freak out occasionally, with textures corrupted and swapped. Once Ratchet bay was tiled all in flame textures. Even had a cool one where the end caps of the button bar were replaced by miniature copies of the full screen!
Mostly though games would just lock up. Then I loaded Vista and Vista would lock up!
Turns out the power supply was being over taxed by the new video card, a 9800GX2. I replaced it with GTS 250, which draws less power.
Now all is good.
Did you get extra devices with your new PC? My machine had 2 extra 500G drives added since I bought it, which probably pushed the power requirements up so when I put the 9800GX2 in, the PS couldn't handle the extra load reliably.
Hard to think a new machine wouldn't have an adequate PS in it though....
------- END TRANSMISSION
I agree about power supply and problems from loose components. But before opening your PC try to download the latest drivers from Nvidia at http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Choose Gforce as product type.
Choose Geforce 9 series as product series.
Choose Windows XP as operating system. It's not a 64 bit Operating system is it? If it is choose windows xp 64-bit drivers. (Right click "My computer" Icon and then left click properties to see if it is 64 bit).
Choose English as language and then click on the search button and then click the download button. Choose run or save (if you know where you can find the driver installation file later).
After installation reboot your PC.
(If you know how) During reboot enter bios and make sure there is no Graphics card overclocking or CPU or any overclocking at all. I get similar colors when i overclock my nvidia beyond its capabilities and i always get recovery from serious error when it happens.
(If you know how) After boot Goto "Nvidia control panel" by clicking at the control panel of your computer (Start->programs->control panel) and then adjust settings for high performance.
That's indeed a texture memory problem. Before spending money just lower the desktop resolution to a minimun value and then launch a game. Adjust the resolution of your game to lower settings since lower resolutions like 800x600, 1152x864 affect your graphics card free memory and perfomance.
If it all fails open your PC and check if all fans are working , remove dust and try to re install the cards but before doing so make sure to remove static electricity from yourself by touching a metal component of your place like a faucet or a heater.
Its your psu not providing enough juice
disconnect your dvd player see if it makes a differece