Graphics help

**General Danilius** · July 16, 2007, 03:07 PM

I have a Radeon 1600XT with the latest Catalyst drivers installed and all of the sudden I get a strange graphics error.

I tried reinstalling the drivers and reinstalling the game and no luck.

Please help

This is what it looks like now:

I think it's even gotten worse:

**Zhou** · July 16, 2007, 06:35 PM

Does this only happen in medieval? Those lines that you're seeing are artifacts. The most likely cause is your video card overheating. Try and remove your case cover and see if this problem continues to occur.

**General Danilius** · July 16, 2007, 07:08 PM

Thank you for the reply.

Medieval II is not the only game. I'm seeing the same issue in my other games. GPU overheating would make sense. The computer is right now in a poorly ventilated room that receives a lot of sunlight. Will try what you suggested and see how it goes.

EDIT: Tried taking of the cover and letting the computer rest, but that didn't help.

**Zhou** · July 16, 2007, 10:15 PM

GPU heat problems are a bit more difficult to tackle then CPU ones. Just opening the case in a poorly ventilated room might not be enough. I'd suggest you try and take it to a cooler place to see if that helps. If that's not the problem, check out your power supply, which is the second most likely culprit.

**General Danilius** · July 16, 2007, 10:27 PM

Well, I put the computer in a cooler room for a while and the problem hasn't changed. The PSU seems to be working just fine and I know it met/surpassed my card's requirements. Everything else seems to be working just fine. The only problem is with game graphics.

**sapi** · July 17, 2007, 02:21 AM

It's overheating, in the vast majority of cases.

The surest test for heat is to open the side of your case, point a desk fan into it, and resume playing (to see if the problem occurs). If it doesn't, heat was your problem.

**General Danilius** · July 17, 2007, 10:36 AM

I don't think it's heat. The case is open and the computer was left in a cool area for a whole night. I checked with ATI Tool when I turned the computer on this morning. The readout for the GPU temp. was 43 degress C and I still got this issue.

**Juggernawt** · July 17, 2007, 01:41 PM

Did you uninstall the old version of your driver before installing the new?

**swiss1** · July 17, 2007, 04:55 PM

The last time I saw screens like those, it was while trying to play Rome Total War. It looks like "artifacts" to me (That's what my choppy video lines, chunks, and pieces were and cooling it off with fans didn't help.) My video card had crapped out and even though it was a couple of years old...Powercooler company exchanged it for a new one. I was hoping I'd have to buy a newer, Nvidia card as I'm kinda put off Radeon lately but I can't justify the cost just yet.

**swiss1** · July 17, 2007, 07:57 PM

If you google "video card artifacts" or something like that, you'll get more info on your video problem than you ever thought you needed!

**Mighty** · July 17, 2007, 08:41 PM

Or try contacting Radeon, they should at least know something

**skullman86** · July 17, 2007, 08:45 PM

Get some canned air and clean out the fan/heat sink area, also consider updating drivers or downgrading if your previous ones didn't have a problem

**General Danilius** · July 18, 2007, 03:54 PM

Looks like there might be some permanent damage done to the card.

I downloaded ATI Tool and I scanned for artifacts and none were detected. And the card stays at a temperature of 45-50 degrees Celsius most of the time.

What I think happened was that on a particularly hot day, the AC wasn't working and the GPU overheated itself running the Folding@Home Client. I probably forgot to turn the PC off because I had to go take care of some things outside of my home rather quickly. Maybe the card overheated too much and some permanent damage was done. I'm not sure really

Btw, thank you everyone for all your help