Bizarre graphic corruption
By
BayBlast,
Posted on: 2009-04-29 15:25 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
I got something like that on my 8800GT card, though more severe. However, it didn't just slow the fps down, it totally locked it up. In my case, the card was overheating, severely. <_<;;
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Could be one of two things.
First could be overheating.
Second, the memory in your video card could be failing.
I recently had a 9800 die on me, and had those same artifacts appear all over my screen. Eventually the card itself completely died.
First off, to try ruling every other component out, try taking that video card out and put it into another machine. If you don't have one, try asking a friend. It's definitely worth it if you can rule out all the other components.
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I got something like that on my 8800GT card, though more severe. However, it didn't just slow the fps down, it totally locked it up. In my case, the card was overheating, severely. <_<;;
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Hey, you aren't the only one. CoH destroyed my card. I'm pissed. This needs to be fixed immediately.
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Hey, you aren't the only one. CoH destroyed my card. I'm pissed. This needs to be fixed immediately.
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LOL!!!
O.. M.. G.. becky.. the game is too uber! Quick, make it suck! 
.
.Driver Sweeper * CohHelper * HijackThis * TweakCoH * CPU-ID
* Defraggler * Program Security Scan * PC Performance Scan *
You laugh, but I'm dead serious. Something went very wrong with the last patch that is causing some people's graphics cards to violently overheat. My card has physical damage visible on it now. It wouldn't just randomly decide to start overheating and freezing my entire computer, forcing manual shutdown, while sitting at the character selection screen or standing around in Pocket D unless something was wrong. I've been playing TF2 and Crysis in the last few days as well. You'd think if my gfx card was overheating because of a problem on my end it would be giving me problems during those games as well, but it's only been having problems in CoH and only since the last patch went out.
And again, the funny thing is, it isn't giving me problems or crashing while I'm engaged in fighting massive amounts of enemies with full teams on full settings, when you think it might start overheating. It's overheating, giving me texture glitches and crashing while I'm specifically NOT doing anything intensive, such as running across a zone (even an unpopulated one like Brickstown), standing in Pocket D, Atlas, at the start of a mission waiting for everyone to zone in, and yes, even at the character select screen before logging in. I've locked up entirely and had to manually shut down in all of those situations.
Hm. I'm not finding any heating issues. The card is reading at normal temp and the fans are both running normally (I don't even have the sides on the machine, so it's got plenty of ventilation). Are you sure this is just a hardware issue? I've had no problems on any other games.
It isn't. It's a CoH issue. I'm having the same problem. The card overheats during CoH, and only CoH. My temperatures read normal outside of and in CoH. Something in CoH causes the card temp to rapidly rise and freeze the computer or cause texture glitches.
Wow, the last time I saw an image like that was 2 years ago right before the vid card fried in my previous machine.
Not to say that your card is about to blow (because quite honestly, I14 is causing some serious havoc for people all across the board), but I'd do some serious investigating before ruling that possibility out.
I'm no tech expert, just relaying my passed experience with video-card-flambe'. 
I hope it's not the card, I only recently got it (recently being a few months ago).
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It isn't. It's a CoH issue. I'm having the same problem. The card overheats during CoH, and only CoH. My temperatures read normal outside of and in CoH. Something in CoH causes the card temp to rapidly rise and freeze the computer or cause texture glitches.
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In theory, if your graphics card is properly cooled, nothing software-side can actually overheat it, even if it keeps the GPU at 100% utilization from here unto eternity. Unless the software is modifying hardware settings (and I don't think that you'll find City of Heroes OCing your GPU), there's no way any software should be able to force your card to overheat unless the card isn't properly cooled in the first place. This isn't necessarily true in your case, but I frequently see people adding big fat graphics cards into prebuilt PC cases that have a cooling system that isn't designed to support it (I'm looking at you, HP and Acer. And Dell. And... yeah, I could go on a while) or building their PC in a cheap, generic case because they couldn't see the point in spending more money on the one with the shiny lights and extra fans. Then they get upset when their card starts failing (and frequently ask me to "fix it").
/endnerdrant
Or it could be a bizzare driver/game engine issue. I find that more likely, since you aren't having problems with other games (and if any game is going to make your graphics card cook, it's Crysis). Are you monitoring your temperatures while playing CoH? If so, I'm curious what exactly they're hitting when/right before you crash.
Well as they say: Nothing lasts forever... even if it's under warranty, LOL. Just a fact of life in the electronic jungle.
Hm, it HAS been a while since I updated my drivers. Let me try that and I'll report back.
(Actually, I'm suprosed I didn't think of this sooner)
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Could be one of two things.
First could be overheating.
Second, the memory in your video card could be failing.
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or... it's a glitch in the Matrix.
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
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It isn't. It's a CoH issue. I'm having the same problem. The card overheats during CoH, and only CoH. My temperatures read normal outside of and in CoH. Something in CoH causes the card temp to rapidly rise and freeze the computer or cause texture glitches.
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In theory, if your graphics card is properly cooled, nothing software-side can actually overheat it, even if it keeps the GPU at 100% utilization from here unto eternity. Unless the software is modifying hardware settings (and I don't think that you'll find City of Heroes OCing your GPU), there's no way any software should be able to force your card to overheat unless the card isn't properly cooled in the first place. This isn't necessarily true in your case, but I frequently see people adding big fat graphics cards into prebuilt PC cases that have a cooling system that isn't designed to support it (I'm looking at you, HP and Acer. And Dell. And... yeah, I could go on a while) or building their PC in a cheap, generic case because they couldn't see the point in spending more money on the one with the shiny lights and extra fans. Then they get upset when their card starts failing (and frequently ask me to "fix it").
/endnerdrant
Or it could be a bizzare driver/game engine issue. I find that more likely, since you aren't having problems with other games (and if any game is going to make your graphics card cook, it's Crysis). Are you monitoring your temperatures while playing CoH? If so, I'm curious what exactly they're hitting when/right before you crash.
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My CPU idles at around 28 and hits about 40-45 playing CoH. I'm not sure about my GPU since Speed Fan can't find my graphics card, but none of my internal temps go over 50. I guess it's possible it isn't overheating, but there are signs of physical damage on the card, but I guess that could be old (not sure when it'd be from though, I don't think it'd be overheating, it isn't a huge clunky card and my case is properly cooled). Again, this isn't happening during times of extreme stress on the card. It's happening at the exact opposite times, when I'm standing around doing nothing or sitting at the character select screen even. Changing the graphic settings seems to have no effect. The texture glitches I am getting correspond with glitches you'd receive if your card was overheating, so naturally I'd think it was overheating. And, to boot, it happened with my old drivers, so I updated them to see if it would help, and it didn't.
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My CPU idles at around 28 and hits about 40-45 playing CoH. I'm not sure about my GPU since Speed Fan can't find my graphics card, but none of my internal temps go over 50. I guess it's possible it isn't overheating, but there are signs of physical damage on the card, but I guess that could be old (not sure when it'd be from though, I don't think it'd be overheating, it isn't a huge clunky card and my case is properly cooled). Again, this isn't happening during times of extreme stress on the card. It's happening at the exact opposite times, when I'm standing around doing nothing or sitting at the character select screen even. Changing the graphic settings seems to have no effect. The texture glitches I am getting correspond with glitches you'd receive if your card was overheating, so naturally I'd think it was overheating. And, to boot, it happened with my old drivers, so I updated them to see if it would help, and it didn't.
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What signs of physical damage are we talking about, exactly? You MIGHT just have a failing card that's shooting itself in the foot somehow, either from faulty hardware on the card itself or an improperly installed or malfunctioning cooler. Again, though, it would be strange for it to only crash when CoX is running, but perhaps (this is just a stab in the dark, mind you), the particular way City of Heroes (or more precisely, OpenGL's instructions to the NVIDIA drivers) utilizes the hardware resources or something obscure in that regard is what causes the issues to rear their ugly head.
Long and short of it is to get yourself a new card unless your current one's under warranty (and then you instead have your card's manufacturer get you a new card). If it shows signs of physical damage, it's probably damaged and said damage subsequently probably is the source of your problems. I always recommend buying hardware from manufacturers with a good reputation (EVGA and Asus will be good examples in your case) who don't skimp on specs for exactly this reason.
I have to admit though, this is a rather odd issue if you can't replicate it at all in anything outside of City of Heroes. If you can tell us what card it is (manufacturer and all) I suppose someone else on the forums might be able to mimic your configuration and see if anything odd happens.
I think it's an EVGA, GeForce 7600 GT. The physical damage is that two of the components, look like little batteries, were blown out the top, some chemicals inside kind of foamed up through the top.
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I think it's an EVGA, GeForce 7600 GT. The physical damage is that two of the components, look like little batteries, were blown out the top, some chemicals inside kind of foamed up through the top.
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Dooooooood, that sounds bad... seriously! Seems to me that at one point your card was on the verge of taking a nose-dive and I'm quite surprised it's still functioning. Also, the fact that it's an old card (and has aparent damage from overheating) could definitely factor into the problems you're experiencing.
Again, I'm no expert, but even I know when to upgrade. o.O
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I think it's an EVGA GeForce 7600 GT. The physical damage is that two of the components, look like little batteries, were blown out the top, some chemicals inside kind of foamed up through the top.
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Blown capacitors? Yeah, replace the card. Still odd that only City of Heroes gives you issues, but if your card died tomorrow it wouldn't surprise me too much (not likely though).
Depending on what your other needs are, this might be a good replacement:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130424
I know it's EVGA, but if you register with them you get a 2 year warranty for the card, which is pretty good.
It only began after the last patch. Actually I played all last night without any problems, but the night before I crashed 4 times while pretty much just standing around.
Again, it's possible that damage was there beforehand, and maybe it's just superficial, because my card is still running fine, even on CoH, I have no framerate issues or anything like that, just occasional texture glitches that can be fixed by changing my World/Character texture settings and then clicking Apply to reload the zone, as well as the computer lockup crash.
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It only began after the last patch. Actually I played all last night without any problems, but the night before I crashed 4 times while pretty much just standing around.
Again, it's possible that damage was there beforehand, and maybe it's just superficial, because my card is still running fine, even on CoH, I have no framerate issues or anything like that, just occasional texture glitches that can be fixed by changing my World/Character texture settings and then clicking Apply to reload the zone, as well as the computer lockup crash.
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If you have blown caps, it's probably going to be random like that. The bottom line is still that you have a bad card and the fix is to get a new one. And City of Heroes is NOT the culprit here - the capacitors' manufacturer is.
Doesn't change that the only times it happens is on CoH. Need a new computer anyways.. whatever.
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I think it's an EVGA, GeForce 7600 GT. The physical damage is that two of the components, look like little batteries, were blown out the top, some chemicals inside kind of foamed up through the top.
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"If any part of your computer can be described as "oozing", you need professional help. It might be the Geek Squad or it might be the Ghostbusters, but you need to do something about it *soon*." - me, in an earlier discussion about blown caps
Jokes about letting the magic smoke out aside, not only can you expect erratic failures, you may actually be damaging other parts of your computer's electrical system. Capacitors are generally there to level out the rapid swings in power demand from a video card, and if they're shot on the card, those are being passed on to the rest of the system. At the very least, you're probably shortening the life of the caps in your power supply.
If you post some more info about your system (particularly, what sort of graphics slot you have, and what your power supply is (ideally the exact sort, including the +12v rating(s) in addition to the overall rating)), what sort of monitor / resolution you use, and your budget, we can help recommend a card.
I would also recommend a review of your cooling and power. It's not clear what combination of electrical and heat damage caused the original problem.
Make sure you're plugged into a good surge protector at the least (and remember that they wear out after a few years); if you're in an area with erratic power, a UPS is well worth the investment. Visually inspect the capacitors on your motherboard and, if possible, in your power supply (don't open it up, but see what you can through the vents with a flashlight). Note that on many motherboards there will be a row of capacitors near the CPU; these frequently end up hidden by the exhaust ductwork if you have one of those plastic ducts to direct airflow. Anything else with signs of bulging, oozing, or venting indicates you've got problems elsewhere in your system.
Check to make sure that the airflow in your case is working with, not against, the cooling on your card. Software can't "cook" a properly functioning and properly cooled card; if running it at full power causes heat damage, you're not cooling it correctly. If you've got a semi-enclosed or fully-enclosed card, make sure you've cleaned it out properly; they can accumulate a surprising amount of gunk where you can't see it.
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Hm. I updated my drivers, but had to roll back because my card stopped working. I guess the new NVidia driver doesn't run a 7600GS.
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Hm. I updated my drivers, but had to roll back because my card stopped working. I guess the new NVidia driver doesn't run a 7600GS.
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Odd. According to NVIDIA's website, release 182 (the latest) still supports the 7600 GS. Try uninstalling your drivers, running Driver Sweeper, and then installing the drivers. Make sure you have the appropriate version of the drivers for your operating system and card (which will be listed under the GeForce 7 Series).
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k...9-18-03-16.jpg
This is what I've been getting. It started when I-14 came out, as little spots and lines in the edges of the UI. This new thing happens when working on missions, and is accompanied by a framerate drop to around 0.7 fps.
Any idea what might be the problem?