WTF is going on

Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
edited March 2004 in Hardware
I keep getting these little purplish squares popping up all over the place. I backed down to stock speeds. Video card was never overclocked. Temps are @ 37c/28c. I'll try touching the video cards heatsink.

It's my p4 rig on the right in my sig.

By doing the touch test with my hand:
CPU is freezing
VideoCard Sink is Freezing
Memory is freezing

/me thinks it's time for a little memtest86. ****ty Kingston :shakehead

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    Try different drivers maybe?
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    I'll give that a shot. I can't run memtest cuz this pc doesn't have a floppy drive. Is there a way to run it within windows?
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Create a bootable cd with it on. I think it's downloadable from memtest.org
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited February 2004
    Are those errors just on that image on your desktop? Are you sure the image itself isn't currupted?
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    Trust me they aren't of the image. They randomly pop up even when I'm typing this. I tried disabling vpu recover to no avail. I cleaned my drivers a little, did nothing. This is even present at the POST screen. If I lower the resolution they pop up faster. Ah this is going to kill my production.
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2004
    Do you get them out of Windows as well? e.g on the post screen (EDIT: You've just answered that, if it's at post as well, then it's obviously not a driver or software problem. Start testing that hardware.)

    I've encountered those little purple squares before, and it's always been hardware related. Check memory, swap out video card. Those are the first two things you should do.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Al_Capown wrote:
    I'll give that a shot. I can't run memtest cuz this pc doesn't have a floppy drive. Is there a way to run it within windows?

    If you have Nero, burn the ISO CD as type 2 ISO-- let Nero use type 2 defaults, they should be right. Boot from CD. Don't bother with no floppy. If you burn anythin Linuxish to a type 1 ISO in NERO or EASY CD Creator, you get the wrong file system. Since I have Nero Ultimate Edition 6, I am going from memory as to exactly what to click where, but know that Nero does better than Easy CD Creator with *nixish ISOs.

    Basicly, you want a Rockridge file system structure, 2K blocks on CD, CD will not to be runed as overburn as about 1\5th of it max will be used. DO NOT use drag and drop, burn like you downloaded an ISO but you do not want a regular Windows ISO burn either.

    Nice to have a backup of the memtest86 CD, I burn three when I burn that one. Artifacts like that, without feelable heat, are often wrong or corrupt driver (right, Mark) or way to advanced a DirectX for video card, or BOTH.

    Most likely one of those three things.

    John D.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited February 2004
    It is.

    http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
    Mackanz wrote:
    Create a bootable cd with it on. I think it's downloadable from memtest.org
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    I had similar problems with a vidcard and it was corrupt video memory that was the culprit. I drove myself nuts trying to figure it out.
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    Even present in SafeMode
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    Got another video card to try out? Anything?
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    I think it's your videocard that is calling it a day i'm afraid. I have only seen that on 2 Nvidia's i had though and the fault was the memory on the card.
  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    i'm thinking the video card is dying, before my ti4600 died, when i played games, it always have artifacts without overclocking, and sometime the game will just crash, but never had anyhting like this on desktop.
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    Yea I pulled it and i've got it sitting next to me. I put in a TnT2 and I got to toy around in the bios and there weren't any artifacts. Now since I went from ati->nvidia I'm gonna have to reinstall windows, and now is the worst time for any parts in any of my rigs to bite the dust. Ahhh. Bastard Crucial card. Don't these have lifetime warranties or something?

    CRUCIAL ROCKS! :clap::clap::clap:
  • SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
    edited February 2004
    Al_Capown wrote:
    Don't these have lifetime warranties or something?
    I don't know about lifetime, but you should be able to get a replacement no probs. Glad you figured it out.

    Cheers
  • JengoJengo Pasco, WA | USA
    edited February 2004
    hmmm...

    interesting, i have seen that on some older ATI cards when they are OC'ed. i wonder if you are not getting sufficient cooling or something, maybe the fan died....
  • JengoJengo Pasco, WA | USA
    edited February 2004
    oh and why do you say you have to re-install? i dont get it... its just the video card drivers man...
  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    Jengo wrote:
    hmmm...

    interesting, i have seen that on some older ATI cards when they are OC'ed. i wonder if you are not getting sufficient cooling or something, maybe the fan died....
    I checked the card. It's not due to insufficient cooling as the heatsink was room temperature to the touch.

    When you go from ati to nvidia drivers many times you must reinstall. This is one of those cases. I can't get into windows.

    BTW: I'm still waiting on that paypal money ;)
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    i agree jengo. seems silly to me. windows xp is not windows 98. just uninstall drivers and install the new ones. at the very worst, all you have to do is a repair install. I just did that changing mobos, going from VIA to NF2 chipset. i had to do a repair install in that case, but everything works the same. going from nvidia card to ati vid card i just changed the drivers. I only formated my windwos xp install after a year because i was bored.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    I got artifacts like that when I OC'd my old GeForce too much. If yours is doing that at stock speeds, your card is most likely in its death throws. Sorry man :(
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    That second screenshot is exactly what my first All in Wonder 9700 Pro looked like one day after 6 months of regular use. I RMA'd it to ATI (built by ATI) and 6 months later I got a working card from ATI. Worst RMA experience of my life.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited March 2004
    6 months?
    That's a long wait.
    Did they need to hand solder a new card for you?
    That wouldn't even take a week though.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    6 months and four cards later.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited March 2004
    Four cards?
    What are you doing to them? ;)
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