Greaser

Hey all, I really need some help here. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to assist! I have a custom laptop with the following:
- Pentium4 3.4 Ghz
- Intel 865PE+ICH5 Chipset Socket 478 Mobile Motherboard
- 1 GB Ram (PC3200 DDR400)
- ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 (256MB)
- Windows XP Home Edition

Here's my Issue:
When playing Red Orchestra, my screen goes "haywire" with all kinds of funky flashing colored lines/triangles, etc... (sorry, I'm not a techie, so don't know the word to describe this). The issue comes and goes, but when it's happening, it makes it impossible to play. I tried the Omega Drivers as a possible solution. I downloaded them (v3.8.273) and the issue did not get any better. In fact, in addition to the "haywire" issue, I am now getting a checkerboarded screen during gameplay that causes me to quit (it's that bad) and re-start my computer. After 2 years of never having any graphical issues, this just started - I also loaded up BF1942 just to check and sure enough, having the same "haywire" on that game. The only change I made to my laptop is I added an Audigy2 ZS PCMCIA card because my mic wasn't working (I was using on-board sound from Motherboard and the voice input was not working). I'm stumped. Any thoughts/suggestions?
-Doug (Greaser)

Randomness

Hello:

It sounds like your GPU might be overheating. Try cleaning your air vents, and/or possible cleaning the heat sink assemblies inside your notebook. (You open you notebook at your own risk).

Sometimes the easiest way to clean your vents (and even the heatsinks) is to use some canned air that you can buy at most electronics stores.

I would suggest removing your PCMCIA audio card and trying game-play, to rule out it being a possible cause.

Good luck, take care.

Greaser

Thanks Randomness. I suspect you may be right. I'm shipping the laptop back to the mfg for them to attempt to repair. Some other funky stuff going on as well, so I'm pretty sure I won't be able to fix this on my own like I was attempting to do. Thanks again.....

RaveneR

just to let you know, Red Orchestra is developed on the Source engine. It is pretty taxing on your GFX which means that if you play too long your GPU might overheat, thus giving you those weird artifacts which you have described. you might have to upgrade your gfx in order to play it smoothly...