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Rob Oplawar
July 3rd, 2007, 11:58 PM
I'm at a loss here, but it's becoming clear to me that I cannot fix this problem on my own. Everywhere I look on the internet they tell me the solution to my problem is to make sure I have the very latest graphics driver installed- well, I've even gone to the point of uninstalling my graphics driver altogether and installing the latest fresh off the internet from safe mode. I've tried everything I know of on the software side, and I'm afraid to go messing around on my own on the hardware side, so I'm gonna need some help. You guys are my last resort before I swallow my pride and call tech support.

Here's my problem:
When I start a game (any 3d game that uses Direct X, doesn't matter) everything starts out just hunky-dory. After a while, a couple of sprites/decals get corrupted and acquire strange colors (usually blue and red). Next go the textures- I start seeing textures with big patches just corrupted. After that I start seeing big stretched out triangles, like somebody grabbed one of the vertexes and yanked it off to the edge of the map. That starts on players, but then it extends to scenery and objects, and finally the level itself. If the level has no skybox, the area beyond the stretched/missing triangle does what's expected, but it's really ugly to see. This gets progressively worse, if I keep running the game, until finally, the game freezes, and I get the blue screen of death.

The message the blue screen gives me is that the driver nv4_disp.dll has become stuck in an infinite loop, which it says is likely a hardware problem (damn). nv4_disp.dll is part of the graphics driver.

And yes, I have followed various techniques for making sure that the dll is up to date.


If I quit the game, then my secondary monitor gets all messed up. It's hard to describe... suffice it to say that it becomes unusable. And then it goes to blue screen of death anyway.


So, here's the relevant hardware: my graphics card is a 7900 GS
it worked fine until I made a series of upgrades, any of which may have caused a hardware issue:
I hooked up a second monitor (bringing the resolution up to 3520x1200, which may itself be an issue, but shouldn't be)
I hooked up an expansion card for my sound card- I'm thinking I may have knocked something loose or shorted something when I did this, or it may simply be that hooking up an extra device to a Dell XPS power supply, which is, let's face it, the very minimum they could possibly give me to power what I bought (cheaper for them, eh >=D), may be too much for the power supply and now the graphics card isn't getting the current it needs.
I installed a new hard drive, which has the same possibilities as the sound card.

The power supply is 375W- not a lot, but it should be able to power:
Mobo,
2 hard drives,
1 vidcard,
2 soundcards,
1 optical drive,
and 2 fans, right?

I know cooling is not an issue because the processor has the biggest heatsink you've ever seen and it's got 2 12cm fans, so it stays pretty cool in there.


So I'm pretty distraught because my computer has bluescreened about 12 times now, and every single time it was this problem. I reeeeeeeaaaally don't want to call tech support on this one- does anybody have any suggestions? I have been planning to upgrade my vidcard anyway- do you think doing so will fix this, or is it perhaps a power issue?

Here's a vid of the errors:
HYPSMI1EyVY

Con
July 4th, 2007, 12:10 AM
You're probably right, your graphics card isn't getting the current it needs with that power supply. These are the sort of things you see when a card starts to die, but since you have good cooling then it's probably the power.

TPE
July 4th, 2007, 12:53 AM
I'm %99.99R sure its your power supply

Go get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104953

InnerGoat
July 4th, 2007, 09:24 AM
Probably that shitty PSU they threw in there. If you want, you can unplug the sound card and HDD that you added, and the game should go back to normal.

Unless you put the sound card right under the video card, which would block almost all airflow to that little heatsink on it.

Atty
July 4th, 2007, 09:52 AM
I got that type of error when I had failing memory on an old x1900GT.

SMASH
July 4th, 2007, 10:25 AM
I got that type of error when I had failing memory on an old x1900GT.

You makes me feels likes an hillybilly with my x1900GT :haw:.

Mr Buckshot
July 4th, 2007, 06:06 PM
Get rid of the soundcards for now and maybe one of the hard drives. If nothing works, upgrade the PSU. If there are still problems, replace the video card.

Warsaw
July 4th, 2007, 07:48 PM
I get that error if I don't under-clock my graphics card because the factory over-clocked it too far. Maybe under-clocking your card would help.

Atty
July 4th, 2007, 07:52 PM
What is the temperature of the video card while the problem is happening?

Rob Oplawar
July 4th, 2007, 08:01 PM
Good question. How do I check?
</nub>

Warsaw
July 4th, 2007, 08:27 PM
Right click the nVidiaa icon in the system tray, and go down to "nVidia Display." Then, it should say "Digital Display." Click that. Once the window pops up, click the "Temperature" option on the stickied tab. Voila.

I just noticed that my GPU is currently idling around 65 degrees Celsius...not good at all. :eek:

Amit
July 4th, 2007, 09:30 PM
It's most likely the PSU, you might want to upgrade to at least a 450W PSU to ensure everything works. And I thought I was getting by with a 420W PSU for an x1950PRO with 2 HDDs.

soccerbummer1104
July 5th, 2007, 09:02 AM
since this is similar, i was wondering if u guys here think a neo he500 psu coulsd power a e6600 overcocked to 3.2 ghz, a striker extreme, 2 hard drives, 4 120 mm fans, zalman 9700 cpu fan, and a 12 cm fan, and then (this is realy what im woried about ) an 8800 GTX, or an ultra.?

Warsaw
July 5th, 2007, 02:13 PM
Might want to up it to 650W just to be on the safe side.

Phopojijo
July 6th, 2007, 03:29 PM
Heat is the issue, almost guaranteed. The powersupply is probably too weak, but heat's definitely at play.

The 7900 series were rumoured to have been fit with incorrect voltage regulators from Samsung. One of XFX or eVGA acknowledged an issue but I can't tell which since its been a year and most news sites have since flushed. What I do is open my case and put a desktop fan on it.

Not sure what else you could do at this point.

Warsaw
July 6th, 2007, 03:31 PM
Cleanse the inside of any and all fuzz and other macro-sized airborne particles.