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8790 Artifacting - Page 2

post #21 of 385
12/29/04 at 12:37am
I just got my 8790 back today from sager. It had the same exact problem: artifacts ruin any game that uses 3d acceleration. I dunno what they fixed, but have been playing some games now (vampires: bloodlines) for 2-3 hours @ stock clock with no artifacts at all. So whatever they did fixed the problem for me. Also it seems my machine is running a lot cooler than b4. Normally idling temp is 45 ish with my laptop cooler and 60ish gaming. Now it's idling at 40ish even without the cooler, and gaming is 50ish w/out max fan. So i'd definitely recommend you RMAing your machine.
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post #22 of 385
12/29/04 at 1:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strife
The problem definitely isnt with heating because it doesnt get up to gaming temperatures when artifacting. Before it started artifacting, it would go up to about 63-66C every time I did anything at all that involved the graphics card, even run a GBA emulator. Now with artifacting, it tops out at 58 (highest I've seen it go), which means (or would appear to suggest) that there is something hindering the function of the GPU, be it software or hardware malfunction. I have cleaned out my system as I said before, and I did see two dust bunnies in the fans. I tried to remove them with a needle, but gave up and figured I was satisfied with the job I had done after removing a dustbowl from the inside of my laptop.

There does, however, seem to be a correlation between artifacting and heat dissipation in this case. If I turn the fans on turbo, it will slow the eventual artifacting, however it will not stop it from completely destroying any hopes for gaming for over 10 minutes at a time. I have taken a couple of screens in an effort to help explain.


This is what UT2K4 looks like about 3 or 4 minutes into it. Rapidly appearing/unappearing triangles take over your screen in a mess that resembles something of an animal being slaughtered infront of you, and its insides being thrown against your screen...in 32x speed.


This is what happens after you get out of the game and try to go to a website. It starts artifacting pretty badly like this if you try and scroll down.

Hope this helped spark a bit more interest in this particular problem and/or solved a couple questions.

Your screen shots look exactly like mine. I RMA'ed my 8790 this week. Hopefully when I get it back he artifact problem is gone. Its wierd how all these artifacting problems are appearing around the same time.
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post #23 of 385
12/29/04 at 1:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by blade
So i'd definitely recommend you RMAing your machine.
RMA is the only option here. I understand them fighting because I did the same thing for several months (had to send mine to Taiwan, tho'; details in my review) due to money issues.

However, for all involved, the sooner you RMA it, the sooner you'll get a working unit back. And as for what Ratmyr said, I'm of the same opinion, really. There's got to be a point where this gets to be too much. I figure fix it ASAP, so if it craps out one or 2 more times, then at least there's the possibility of being covered under warranty. Since these've been discontinued, how long are motherboards going to be available? I have an idea that, at this rate, we're all going to find out sooner or later.

For everyone w/ these problems, do you have the older original models (like mine? One of the initial units sold by PCT in March) or the newer WSXGA+ models? I'm thinking that the older units are the ones that are more susceptible here, but I wanted to ask and make sure.
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post #24 of 385
12/29/04 at 1:25am
Problem with trying to guage the heat of the GPU is that we simply can't do that with any available tools. Mobmeter only presents CPU heat and that area is way on the other side of the machine. Try cleaing out the area underneath the keyboard and see if that makes a difference.

I think that the GPU is under the QWE123ESCF1F2F3 area of teh keyboard and the CPU is below the power button. Mat be wrong; but that's the areas that get warm (Hot) on occasion. Not the left wrist pad - thats teh HDD, Bluetooth, and WiFi "Heaters".
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post #25 of 385
12/29/04 at 1:30am
i got mine around march and rma'ed it last week.
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post #26 of 385
12/29/04 at 3:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by skooma_diver
i got mine around march and rma'ed it last week.

Same here
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post #27 of 385
12/29/04 at 2:52pm
Mine was of the April bunch and I received it in May. The screen shots you showed above (especially the web) was exactly what mine was doing. It got worse if you kept rolling the scroll bar up and down fast. I knew it was something that I had to get fixed right away and so I rma'd it. No problems since and I am going on almost three months now.

When I started having problems, I did the "loosen the screws" bit, completely cleaned it out with spray air and other items. Just could not find a solution. Oh well, definitely happy now.
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post #28 of 385
12/29/04 at 2:54pm
Forgot to mention (and can't figure out if I can re-edit my post). When my problems started, I had to seriously downclock my system. And even after awhile, that was causing the artifacting as well.

Wanted to share that in case someone has done this and thinks this has solved their problem. Thanks.
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post #29 of 385
12/29/04 at 5:04pm
Thread Starter 
I ordered mine in July and got it in the beginning of august, so its the newer version with the WXGA+ screen. When you guys clean the keyboard, did you remove the keys? I'm going to pick up some dust off right now and give it one more try. Sager should be calling me within 2 hours to set up and RMA
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post #30 of 385
12/29/04 at 10:30pm
Thread Starter 
I ordered mine in July and got it in the beginning of august, so its the newer version with the WXGA+ screen. When you guys clean the keyboard, did you remove the keys? I'm going to pick up some dust off right now and give it one more try. Sager should be calling me within 2 hours to set up and RMA
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post #31 of 385
12/30/04 at 3:48am
Thread Starter 
Mine was ordered in July and recieved in August, so its the later version with the WXVGA+ screen. I'm going to buy some dust off and give it one more try. I requested an RMA call for tomorrow. When you guys clean under they keyboard, do you remove the keys or leave them on?
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post #32 of 385
12/30/04 at 5:52am
Mine is of the March edition with the old screen. I RMA'ed it two weeks ago and it will be arriving today. Unfortunately, I'm in Bahrain until the 4th, and won't have a chance to play with it until then. As a side note, Sager claims to have replaced just about everything (unwillingly as they still claim there is nothing wrong with it according to their tests). Power supply was "fine," but I made them replace it anyway; the motherboard was replaced, a hard drive was replaced, and Windows 2003 was installed?; and the Bios was updated.

So, even though "nothing was wrong with it" a lot of major components were replaced. I can't wait to see which parts were actually replaced.
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post #33 of 385
1/23/05 at 11:32am
I saw some minor artifacts a couple months ago, then didnt play 3D games for a while. Now I load up HL2 and see artifacts! Omegadrivers didn't help, and removing the screws on the metal plate under the keyboard didn't help either. The top surface of that metal plate itself was not dirty so I didn't clean it.

Is there anything else I can try? It'll be a big pain if I have to send it back, because I'm overseas right now.
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post #34 of 385
1/23/05 at 1:53pm
Unfortunatley I have joined your sad group of artifacting 8790's. I recieved mine in august and it is now beginning to artifact and run at temps like 60+ gaming... which is very unusual. I am going to do the standard cleaning, but I am also considering an RMA... which will be the most likely of actions. The only problem is that I am at college right now and need a computer . I have not done any major overclocking 470/280 and that was only for about a week. So I am very upset and dissappointed to have my awsome laptop now become a general use computer .
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post #35 of 385
1/23/05 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anifes
I am very upset and dissappointed to have my awsome laptop now become a general use computer .

Welcome to the club
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post #36 of 385
1/23/05 at 2:56pm
I guess I also am joining the club. I'm using the latest omega drivers running at stock, and am getting quite a bit of artifacting. I tried reverting back to old omega drivers but it's still happening.
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post #37 of 385
1/23/05 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
I got mine back this monday, but I turned it on once, left it on for about 5 hours, and when I got back, it was freezing up a bit. I turned it off to restart it and lo and behold, it will no longer boot up. Very disappointing, this happened the SAME DAY it came back from sager. It looks like the hard drive is fried, yet I dont know how that could have possibly happened. Oh well, gotta go back to my dorm and check what my computer's serial number is now so I can request an RMA number.
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post #38 of 385
1/23/05 at 6:31pm
Thread Starter 
on a lighter note, however, when I turned it on, artifacts were gone. I played 2 games of artifact-free UT2K4.
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post #39 of 385
1/23/05 at 11:39pm

Another unwilling member of the 8790 screen problems club

Ordered mine right away when they became available. Got it in March. As I stated in another thread I RMA'd mine and got it back Jan 14 2005. My screen issue is fixed but as soon as I got it back and powered it on I started having Windows internal system errors and now I'm having ATI driver failures as well. I am working with support to resolve those issues.

What's the best way to monitor temps? Is there something available in free ware or do I need to buy software?
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post #40 of 385
1/23/05 at 11:44pm
I'm wondering if you just need to reformat/reinstall. My system seemed a bit gummed up after a mb replacement from Clevo (still haven't had the time to do reformat mine- haven't had time to play games, either ).

As for temp monitor, most ev'one here seems to use MobMeter/MobileMeter. A quick Googling ought to come up w/ a link. Or search the forums and you'll eventually find a link.
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