whoa what was that???

mrcooler1

Hello all, strangest thing just happend while playing WC3FT my entire screen became striped from top to bottom with red orange and black stripes... just like pinstripes... had to do a hard shut down to get the system back up and running, once rebooted everything is fine and I started playing WC again with no problem..

Anyone know what caused that?? I have been playing the game for quite some time and no probs and have the cat 3.6 installed for two weeks already also with no probs...

XP 2000
512 RAM
FIC 9500 PRO
WIN XP

HawK

Looks like overheating

The_Neon_Cowboy

that or video memory issue also likely....

try a see if you can get it to do it agin

mrcooler1

I was wondering about that myself... my CPU is at 54 sys at 40 and what I guess is the GPU is at 65, but I am not sure about the meter on the GPU because it has been at 64/65 since I first installed it weeks ago(never has gone below 64). I have two front in fans two out fans in the back and 2 fans in the case's side - one blowing on the Gcard and the other on the CPU... BTW I am in Germany and you know about the Heat wave I am sure... What is the norm temp on the 9500 pro? Oh, I also have a out blower two pci slots below the Gcard. I am using MBM 5 for the meter and the main board software that came with confirms the temps. thanks for you helps

Oh and I almost forgot: EVERYTHING IS AT STOCK, no overclocking

The_Neon_Cowboy

some airco would help!!!!!!!!!!!!

54C for cpu is too hot needs to be under 50 @ full load to ensure stability ...

vga wise i dunno but sounds hot to me ...

what the room temp there?

HawK

this could disturb the airflow from the cpu/gpu coolers,
try them to turn around i.e. let them suck the air out, and see if thats any better

mrcooler1

What is airco, cowboy?

I installed the side fans a few days ago because the CPU was shutting down the PC at 66... was getting way too hot in there, seems as this has helped as the CPU has come down 16 degrees to 53, but if that is still too hot perhaps I can experiment by changing the direction of the side fans like you suggest hawk... I do have a regulator on the side fans and I turned down the side fan over the CPU and the temp sky rocketed. Room temp is like 40... way too hot I know... it could come down to just shutting the PC off during the day until the heat wave is over A friend has suggested setting a fan directly on top of the Gcard... ?

The Keeper

You're wrong. I'd be worried about stability if CPU temps goes over 70C in full load.
Over 50C is perfectly fine even if it just idle temperature. Hell, latest laptops utilizing new P4's have idle temp of over 50C and almost 70C when in full load. Stability is still fine.

As long as air changes inside the case you should be doing just fine. That's why at least one 80x80 case fan is recommended.

Besides, because of recent heatwave (is it still going? been quite cool this week) on Europe, we're nearing 30C room temperature at all times. Somewhere even near 40C. So it is no wonder if computers are having stability problems because there's no cool air to get inside the case.

Too bad I don't know what's an acceptable temperatures on graphics cards since I don't have any temp monitoring on my cards.

Judas

My machine...with a 1900+.... runs 50*C idle.... and will hit 60*C when on a constant full load.... I ran at 61*C for a full week.... (was compiling a map).... the sucker is rock solid as the compiler is useing everyavailable cpu cycle/physical and virtual memory..... I've setup my machine to give me an alarm at 63*C and shutdown at 65*C

Judas

BTW, to the orginal poster.... possibility of a hit and miss of some sort on the video card itself.... a simple quirk of the day.... If you CAN'T get it to do it again... i wouldn't worry about it to much...but keep in mind that it very well could get worse at anytime... if it starts acting up anytime soon.... i'd advise you to take it back if you can... and get a replacement or refund of somesort...

Judas

I'm not sure if this is a good drawing.... i did it really quick....

But the Blue is for the fan set to suck air into case.... purple if for blow air out of case

The black rings represent a fan.... now i don't have all of these fans, nor do i think that you should have them

I just put them there as they are a common placement of fans....

Usually, you want all air to come in through the fron as much as possible.... and the air to go out the top... the back...and the sides.... If you have to much air going in...it just excapes out the closest hole..



BTW, the thing below what looks like ATI in red (which is a very bad drawing of a vid card.... is what i tried to make it look like a slot fan....

mrcooler1

Thanks for all the tips!! I have been playing quite a bit since the original weird thing happened and has not repeated, at least not yet. I hope it does not become a problem because I got the card off of E-bay for 199.00 EUR. If between 50 - 60 for CPU is acceptable then my computer is fine... I will reverse the side fan for the VGA as suggested. I also noticed a lot of air is coming out of the top front bay of my computer.

Thanks for the drawing Judas and yes the heat wave is still going on I mean, I love warm weather, but this is insane!

Anyone know what the temp of the GPU should be and if setting a fan directly on top of the card is a good thing or not?

THANKS AGAIN for ya's time!!

shuki

IMO, that type of lock or occurance with the vertical bars is not caused from overheating but rather the card itself having hardware issues....

Dyre Straits

Shuki,

I'm with you on this. Whenever I've had suspicious overheating, I get a lot of artifacts on the screen that resemble multi-colored slanted blocks. I can still barely make out what's being rendered. The only times I've had this happen is during very high and intense rendering going on in a game or a benchmark like 3DM2k3. In those instances, I've been able to back off my overclocking to reach a stable setting.

The vertical bars description seems, to me anyway, to point to a loss of sync between the card and the computer.

mrcooler1

Well, seems like you know about this problem Shuki... could you please be a little more clear? Is there anything I can do or is it due to a bad card or bad system configuration?? Or was it simply a glitch? please explain... thanks

that was a little more, but what do you mean by loss of sync... what I really want to know besides the above is if I need to be worried... I guess we were typing at the same time... again thanks for any and all advise!!

Judas

As i had very simply said above..... having a component fall out of sync from the rest of the computer can cause something such as what you had.... nearly all components have a cycle to complete in a certain time.... if something misses a a cycle...it usually waits for the next...but on very rare occasions. sometimes something gets forced through causing a display like or similare to what you got.... and usually a forced reboot is the way to fix it.... it's usually nothing to worry about.... but quite a ways down the road....might start showing up more and more...

Dyre Straits

I'm not Shuki, of course, but I'll volunteer this:

"Loss of Sync" means that communication between the computer and the card has failed. Once that happens, it takes a reboot of the system to get it back....USUALLY.

What you should do is check to make sure that the card is firmly set in the AGP slot. Sometimes they can vibrate loose and lose temporary connectivity.

You might also check to make sure that your video card and sound card aren't sharing an IRQ. The reason to check this is that if things get intense in a game where heavy video and sound are working against one another on an IRQ, you might get a serious conflict and one gets booted...... = loss of sync.

mrcooler1

XP 2000
512 DDR infenion
FIC 9500 Pro
Leadtek MBO NCR 18D Nforce 2
Soundblaster LIVE
DVD Panasonic CD/CDRW Sony
WD 30 GIG WD 40 GIG WD 80 GIG not stacked

Thanks I will open up and make sure the card is placed properly and check the IRQs (btw which is the easiest way to check IRQs and change them if necassary?)

Yes Judas, I read your earlier post but I was under the heat impression at that time... learn a lot quick on this forum.. you guys are great!!

Dyre Straits

To check IRQ settings:


Go to Start, Control Panel, and double click on System.

On the next screen click the Hardware tab.

Next, click the Device Manager button.

Next, click on the View option at the top.

Select Resources by type

Now, click the + in front of Interrupt request (IRQ)

Note which IRQ assignments are given to your devices.

It's always best for the video and sound card to be isolated from other devices.

ALSO NOTE: If you have any PCI devices plugged into the slot adjacent to the AGP slot, it will automatically use the same IRQ as the AGP card. So, if anything is there, it would be best to move it to another slot. It's the only way to split them up.

Judas

Best way to get a full systems IRQ listing as well Sharing/conflicts is by going START>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information .... after waiting a short time for it to load and find all nessary information it should right of the bat give you a fair of info... Now to get to the irq's..Click in the side window ..HARDWARE RESOURCES>IRQs.... if you want to see if you computer has any detected device problems that maybe doesn't show up in the device manager...click COMPONENTS>PROBLEM DEVICES

shuki

solid advice here guys! great job

for now all I would do is take out the GPU and re-seat it firmly in. then I'd let it go and see what happens... if it start becoming a regular occurance worry about it then

mrcooler1

Thanks again guys!!! The graphics card is set and on it's own IRQ 19. Really easy to find with your directions in both places.

For now I guess the last advise, is well, the last advise.. I will wait and see if it happens again, hopefully it was a one time quirk.


THANKS!!!!!!!

Judas

i think it may have been a one time quirk..... it just when i happens a second time within a week..and maybe a 3rd time..it time you thought about keeping money handy... even if it doesn't do it for 6 months after that..