graphics problem..please help

[likeomgyoudaman]

this happens every so often when im near a big city. is there a way to fix this problem without buying a new graphics card?http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/7895/bahhhtu5.th.png (http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bahhhtu5.png)

[clevins]

Um... wow


OK, aside from the cool artistic value... does it only do that in WoW or is it wonky all the time? If only in WoW... I wonder if it could be heat related - WoW exercises the card more than, say, Firefox. If it is, make sure the fan's running, vents are open, etc. Blow dust out of the motherboard and off the card. Reseat the card too (Pull it out, push it back in firmly).

Rename the WTF folder and the Cache folder. That resets your preferences if you have something off there.


IF this happens in all apps ignore the last step.

[likeomgyoudaman]

it only happens in wow. i dont know if it's heat related because, if it happens..i just hit the windows key, and then bring wow back up and its fine for 10 or 15 minutes..then it goes back to it.

[clevins]

Ok, one more thing... when it does this, if WoW is in windowed mode (not fullscreen, but windowed so you can see the desktop etc) does the whole screen flake out? If so, it's hardware.

but Yeah, sounds heat related. Do everything I mentioned above... make sure the fan's kicking in, make sure it's pointed out (yes, I've see fan installed backward so that the suck air IN). Make sure all of the vents are clean etc.

Also, how hot is the room your computer is in when you're playing WoW? All of the above could be true... but if the room is 95F or 45C... you might just be unable to play until it cools off.

[likeomgyoudaman]

do i just rename the WTF and cache to anything?

[clevins]

Yeah, anything else will work. But if it's a hardware issue, that won't do anything, so make sure you troubleshoot that first.

[Artad]

the fact that it clears itself when you go back to the desktop and then reappears after 10 - 15 minutes of game play indicates to me that it's heat related.

I would suggest that first of all you need to clean out the fans using a can of spray duster (compressed air), secondly I would suggest using Rivatuner or evga's Precision to increase your fan speed for the card (I am not sure however if they work on non Nvidia cards tho).

[likeomgyoudaman]

ok, ill check the fans but when i was playing i turned all the video options to low, and increased the refresh rate to 85 and the problem hasn't happened since..but i also turned my fan on in the room..so it could be either

[clevins]

interesting... Yeah if your room is warm, air circulation will help. Do all the cleaning stuff I outlined.. oh and one more thing. A lot of times people put the computer in a tight space (between a desk and a wall, etc). That inhibits air circulation... try to give the computer some room around the case, esp near the vents. You might also want to grab a cheap, small fan and aim it at the computer to circulate air even better.

[likeomgyoudaman]

you described my set up exactly..the tower is between the desk the wall and an end table..

[Tunga]

This doesn't sound heat related at all to me: going to your dekstop for ~10seconds doesn't drop the heat on a card enough to make it last another 15mins. More likely this is driver related. Have you updated all drivers (not just graphics)?

[clevins]

hmm good catch Tunga, I misread his post and thought he was coming back after 10-15 mins.

[likeomgyoudaman]

well i tried updating my graphics card, but then it just screws up monitor..then i have to uninstall the update and reinstall my video card..i dont know what to do..but making the refresh rate seemed to do the trick for now.

[Tunga]

Can you provide full system specs for us?