Artifacts / Crashes In Games.

[spectrum]

Hi there, I know I should probably post this on a tech forum, but I thought I might as well try here before I bother making an account on one
My computer has recently devoped a problem with running 3D games. The first time it happened, basically I was playing a game for about an hour and then the screen filled with flickering square artifacts, I panicked and switched the computer off. I reinstalled graphics drivers cos I thought that could be the issue, but its not, because i've done that twice now, and the problem continues.

I thought then that heat could be the problem (at this point I assumed it was the graphics card) so I cleaned out all the dust from the fan, I also downloaded MSI Afterburner and set a custum fan speed configuration, and now the card never gets above 61oC. Monitoring the temperatures did seem to fix the problem at first, for the last few days it had been fine. Then it did it again, whilst I was playing Fallout: New Vegas (Not massively graphically intensive) and now it keeps doing it, within 1 minute of gameplay, every time I play New Vegas.

Now i'm not sure heat is the issue, I can run Furmark, Crysis and Just Cause 2 and there are no artifacts or issues whatsoever within a small while of gameplay and the card never reaches anything higher than 61oC. I would be inclined to think it is an issue with New Vegas but I had been playing it for ages with no problems, and until recently it was all the games causing the crashes, now it just seems to be NV. I'm wondering if it isn't even the graphics card.
By the way NOTHING is or ever had been overclocked by me, everything is at default config apart from graphics card fan speed.

PC Hardware-
PSU: Cit 500w
CPU: AMD Athlon II 250 x2 (3013Mhz)(Never reaches more than 35oC)
Graphics Card: Radeon HD 4890
Motherboard : ASrock N68C-S UCC


Problem is, i'm not a computer expert and I don't know how to diagnose the problem. I'm worried that it is the graphics card, but the fact that it was fine in Furmark surprised me, so I don't know what to think .
Any advice on what could be the problem, or how to find out, or even how to fix it would be brilliant. Thanks guys

 

[moochy13]

new vegas was mega buggy when it was released. on the xbox they have since released a patch with the first new mission pack that, surprisingly, has actually fixed the bugs. is this upgrade patch available for the pc ? or even needed ? seems odd only NV is affected. do you have a second save game you can load from ? your save game could have been currputed when the game crashed, happened to me on my xbox.

 

[spectrum]

I'll see if I can get Dead Money DLC as I wanted it anyway but I think its odd how the crashes have only just started, it had been fine for a several weeks on NV.

 

[JoshuaA]

Download Unigine Heavem benchmark, run that and watch to see if you get any artifacts. That benchmark is a brilliant stress test for graphics cards and if it shows up there you probably have dud memory modules on the card.

If nothing happens then I will point hte finger at Las Vegas, I have a similar problem with Battlefield Bad Company 2 I get purple blotches and then green blobs afterwards occassionally but every stress test under the sun results with no issues. The card hasn't be overclocked but I am yet to have a problem with any other game since doing a complete driver rewipe.

If you want to remove the drivers properly what you will need to do is download something like driversweeper, then uninstall the drivers normally, log off and restart in safe mode. When safe mode loads up run driversweeper and remove all the ATI drivers that are associated with the card (the program does it for you, self explanatory). Reboot in normal windows mode again and install the drivers from fresh, make sure you download the most recent ones and do it. Doing a normal uninstall/reinstall doesn't truly remove all the driver data, much of it is left in the registry and in some hidden ATI folders. It solved my problem... I also noticed one of the recent releases of drivers by ATI was heavily bugged and caused my card to bluescreen and become unrecognisable by windows. Following that guide above I just used a hotfix found else where other than the AMD site and it was golden.

Final note, As far as I am aware the MSI afterburner program does state that reconfiguring your fan settings voids the warranty of the card because of the potential for you to turn the fan off or set it to max. I am unsure whether the manufacturers are able to work out whether you have or not but if you were to file an RMA over the failure of the card you might have a problem or two.

 

[spectrum]

Thanks for that link, i'll give it a try, I just ran a VRAM stress test and that was absoloutely fine also, so i'm more inclined to think its not the Graphics card, i'll still try this and see what happens.

About the warranty the card was second hand from ebay for £70 so the warranty is probably long gone
Also its not just New Vegas thats causing it to crash and burn in anymore, Cryengine Sandbox 2 caused exactly the same thing, within 1 minute of playing the screen filled with whitish pink repeated patterns of flickering squares .

I've tried to download memtest86+ to test the RAM but can't get that to work as of yet.

I'll also try what you suggested with the drivers at some point, thanks for the help

 

[spectrum]

Just ran Unigine Heaven Benchmark and it was fine for absoloutely ages then really far into the test BAM, the screen once again filled with squares, this time they were a lighter colour than usual, with two colours instead of the usual 4 or 5. Also, it did something that has never happened before, as the screen was spasming out, the sound went really distorted and horrible, which it never normally does, the sound usually just freezes and repeats.

 

[JoshuaA]

Just ran Unigine Heaven Benchmark and it was fine for absoloutely ages then really far into the test BAM, the screen once again filled with squares, this time they were a lighter colour than usual, with two colours instead of the usual 4 or 5. Also, it did something that has never happened before, as the screen was spasming out, the sound went really distorted and horrible, which it never normally does, the sound usually just freezes and repeats.

I know what you mean, how old is the card? Check if its within warranty as if it is you may well be in for a replacement card because theres provable evidence that your card is buggered.

You aren't overclocking your CPU are you? Normally the sound goes distorted for me if I'm pushing the CPU past what it can comfortably handle.

Edit; Missed your first post, you're best off buying a brand new card if its out of warranty though I'm curious to see if you're at standard clock settings on the CPU.

 

[spectrum]

Yep, default CPU frequencies, I had intended to overclock but I don't think my current power supply would be too happy about it.
How would I check if its within warranty?

Edit; Just checked the sapphire model of my card is covered by warranty for 2 years, but I have no idea how long the previous owner had it for.

 

[Tech-Frog]

The card is boned, you can't get it fixed on warranty (no original proof of purchase).

If you were a little more confident and the problem was worse, I'd advise baking it. There's nothing you can do now. It will slowly get worse and worse.

 

[JoshuaA]

The card is boned, you can't get it fixed on warranty (no original proof of purchase).

If you were a little more confident and the problem was worse, I'd advise baking it. There's nothing you can do now. It will slowly get worse and worse.

Nicely put.. Baking it haha.

If you give us a price range I'm sure a few of us will help you find a good card to replace it with.

 

[Tech-Frog]

If you know what you are doing, baking often can extend the life of graphics cards as it is, after all, what companies do when they 'refurbish' cards, albeit in a rather barbaric way.

 

[JoshuaA]

If you know what you are doing, baking often can extend the life of graphics cards as it is, after all, what companies do when they 'refurbish' cards, albeit in a rather barbaric way.

Yup it's a little similar to the issues with RRoD with the Xbox, most of the issues can be solved by heat gunning around the CPU causing the metal that fractures from heat expansion to "reconnect" though it normally doesn't last long. I probably have the xbox under the heatgun more than the xbox is actually on now. The first few series of motherboards were poorly designed that heat sink clamps would break etc.

I wouldn't mind trying it but then again... burning silicon is thick black smoke and is awful it would kind of putting my cooking to shame.

Edit: I always thought the manufacturers transferred everything to a new chip board - malfunctioning parts. Never knew they baked them as well, interesting to know though.

 

[spectrum]

I think a new card will have to wait a while, I still have the HD 5450 that came with the PC. Xbox gaming for me again . On my income (pocket money ) I can't really afford a brand new gaming card, if I want gaming quality its going to have to be second hand, like a HD 5850 from ebay. Thanks for the help with this.

 

[JoshuaA]

Think you should of learnt your lesson, don't go second hand haha.