Video Card Flicker - VIDEOS INCLUDED - Page 2

Ya, I think I will go that route. Hard drive is a bit cluttered anyway, hopefully it will get cleaned up.

Oh, and, as I said earlier, I actually haven't overclocked my 7950gtx (the current card) because of my bad experiences with the last 2.

I'll let you guys know how the reformat goes. Thanks for all the input. Oh, and what drivers are you using, Zolutar? The 97.92 mobileforce?

-Jon

Bah, update, finally.

Seems the Geforce drivers thread that was stickied at the top of the forums got removed.

Anyhow, I did a complete reformat, fresh install, etc. Installed the laptop's drivers from the Dell resource CD, except the video driver. Got Tony's drivers onto the system, installed, and rebooted. Same slow performance as before, was like a driver wasn't even installed except for the high resolution. Then it crashed on me.

Uninstalled, then put on the Dell stock driver's from their support site. No problems, but the same damned flicker is still happening in games.

Further, I have been able to play around in a new game "World in Conflict" and get the issues there too (z-fighting/flickering) and, even more frightening, I got what I recognized as a vertex issue, where textures are stretched off to weird points in the distance. It happened in WIC when I backed the camera through a building and came out the other side, to find that the textures in the game world had been basically mutilated. I didn't know the screenshot command for WIC, so I didn't get an image of it, but I have gotten one from World of Warcraft before, with my old video card.

Here are a few shots of the World of Warcraft version:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...707_182427.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...707_182417.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...707_174510.jpg

At this point I am at even more of a complete loss than I was before. The Warcraft problem was the first sign that my 7900gs was heading downhill. Short of a Memory Parity Error BSOD and BIOS artifacting, this 7950gtx has now officially shown IDENTICAL symptoms to the faulty 7900gs.

My gut tells me there must be something else wrong with my system, there is just no possible way that I could have gotten 3 consecutive faulty video cards with such similar symptoms. On other other hand, though, why would a problem elsewhere in the computer result in failed video memory tests using the diagnostic?

The motherboard seems like the only possible culprit, but I currently don't know how to go about testing it. I haven't tried reseating the video card on the mobo, primarily because opening this thing up is a rather large pain, but I am willing to try that if a loose connection has any reasonable chance of being at fault for these problems.

At this point, I'm willing to try anything. I just need to know ASAP so that, in the extremely unlikely case that this card is also faulty, I can make good use of it's warranty. I figure if it IS my MOBO that is frying cards and Dell keeps having to send me replacements, they might get a bit pissed off and, considering it was their idiot tech support that couldn't figure it out in the first place, just send me a new one.

Ya right. But I can dream.

Any help is, as always, greatly appreciated.

-Jon

Ya, I know what you are talking about with the levels loading. The screen occassionally goes completely haywire. I've always gotten that, so I don't worry about it. These other issues seem distinctly unrelated. Combined with the fact that video drivers that work for everyone else aren't working for me (mobileforce drivers, for example) makes the whole thing seem highly suspicious.

I'm going to head into BIOS and get the info about the video card from there, see if there is any weird stuff going on at that level. Not sure what good it will do, but I'll post the information back here in a minute.

BIOS Version is 005.071.022.045.006.000

I'm assuming that's normal, though I did a quick search and couldn't find what the stock BIOS version is supposed to be.

No other useful information that I could look up there.

I tried downgrading my BIOS to A06 as suggested in another thread on these forums that I found. I'll post back with the results, though I'm not expecting any wonders.

I have yet to see my video card get hot enough for it to be overheating.

I'm gonna open a very angry line with Dell tech support. Do they even test their video cards before they send them out?

-Jon

Wow. This was interesting.

I contact Dell Tech Support using their web chat. I tell the guy that I have a problem with my video card and that I haven't been able to figure it out despite extensive research. He tells me he is sorry, and will do what he can to fix the problem. I tell him that this is not my first time having trouble with a video card and that it really seems like they don't properly test their hardware replacements before sending them out.

He then, without asking me what the problem even was, says "Don't worry, I will replace the card for you. First, I need to confirm your shipping address..."

WHAT?!??!

He didn't even ask what the problem was, much less what I had tried to do to fix it or solve it. He just offered a replacement.

So... it's on the way. That was easy.

At least, once I replace the card, I will know for sure whether or not it's the card or the mobo.

Here's hoping it was the card.

-Jon