severe artifacting on gtx280

[InspectahACE]

Has anybody heard or experienced this same issue? im about to go nuts over this..I really didn't want to send this back already..but its still under the exchange limit so I thought id get any word if this has happened before i do...doesn't artifact on Max Payne 2 but when I played Rainbow Six Vegas it did horribly, and I tried Mass Effect, but not even 2 minutes into that it went crazy...hell even Hunting Unlimited started to stutter uncontrollably(that game is only 650-700 MB too...not much to it compared to others) Now, when i quit Rainbow Six, it wouldnt go back to windows..I would have to reboot my rig. I also left it on to see how long it would take, but by golly the rig rebooted itself I just read a post on another site( forgot the name..not here though ) that mentioned there was a high rate(40%-60%) of people who had this, are having similar issues if not issues altogether..there was even a review on NewEgg with the same model as mine saying both of his gtx280 had ot be RMA'd due to the same issue..I even downclocked the beast to see if that was the issue( was factory OC'd at 650mhz) but it went ape still...just different looking that time

[Apoptosis]

could it be bad memory? When the frame buffer gets to a certain level maybe it's getting to the bad area?

[Apoptosis]

take a screen shot if you could.

[InspectahACE]

couldnt get a screen shot since it was freeze the whole rig when i exit out of R6-Vegas...but i did manage to take a pic on my camera...only issue is..it only artifacted part of the way..you'll the top halves look all pink with some texturing..but what you wont see int he pic(sorry) is ia big ass transparent artifact box..this is actually the best lookin shot i could get in the time being..im still trying to get a spot where its extremely artifacted...guess my best description would be how the old NES games would look like when the game wouldn't boot then..weird how it didn't do it this time..im sure this isnt the greatest shot for ya but like mentioned, ill try to get a better one..just woke up lol

[InspectahACE]

Well after a bit of tinkering, I think I might have fixed the issue...not sure yet tho..just haven't had any crashes or graphical hitches yet since..I guess there is an option in the nvidia control panel under the 3d settings..the option was called "conformant texture clamp". description said to turn it off if i noticed any artifacting in the application so i turned it off...so far no issues yet..hell even R6Vegas let me shut it down with no hang ups..it did hang one time a few minuets ago during play but not sure if that was a hitch or just a fluke..but so far so good..not out of the woods yet..sorry i didn't get more pics up..the screen grab wasn't working right and no matter how hard i tried with my Canon XTI...it wasn't showing all the artifacting i wanted to show.. ..

[martini161]

Well after a bit of tinkering, I think I might have fixed the issue...not sure yet tho..just haven't had any crashes or graphical hitches yet since..I guess there is an option in the nvidia control panel under the 3d settings..the option was called "conformant texture clamp". description said to turn it off if i noticed any artifacting in the application so i turned it off...so far no issues yet..hell even R6Vegas let me shut it down with no hang ups..it did hang one time a few minuets ago during play but not sure if that was a hitch or just a fluke..but so far so good..not out of the woods yet..sorry i didn't get more pics up..the screen grab wasn't working right and no matter how hard i tried with my Canon XTI...it wasn't showing all the artifacting i wanted to show.. ..

try FRAPS

[InspectahACE]

Well i tried that..and call me noobish (or anything else i guess lol) but I'm not sure what FRAPS would do..wasn't that use to judge how many fps you get or is there another part of it im missing? I ran it and all I saw was the fps counter...nothing froze or crashed yet but for the first time using FRAPS I thought it was only used for gauging the performance..I haven't tried it on R6Vegas yet(since that was one game havin an issue)

[DMB2000uk]

I think when fraps is running you can use one of the F buttons to grab and save screenshots automatically.

It's on the options page (or somewhere) when you start up fraps.

Dan

[InspectahACE]

ahh ok...i knew I was missing something lol...hopefully it doesn't do it..I just know when it does..the game wont shut down correctly and hangs the pc...but regardless.. if it happens.. ill use the screen grab to hopefully capture the craziness....

[InspectahACE]

well $h*t.....I've updated the drivers to 177.83 (nvidia power pack) and still had a game get an artifact or 2...this time it was Tiger Woods 08...it went away after i pressed the windows key and went back to the game..but my main concern now is that, this system has not been stable since i've gotten this card...I mean things will load fine, it's just the initializing the process thats taking a while..Meaning, I double click an icon to start a game or app..and it takes like..15+ seconds from that time to actually start even loading...same with ending or exiting out of a game/app..I just had a BSOD to not too long ago..i mean..I'd have pic s but every time this happens the damn thing either hangs or takes so damn long i forget to do it..could it be the video card is bad or is there another thing(like my cpu) bout to take a dump? the ram is good btw..memtest passed all 4 sticks


Update: Apparently had a serious system error(all i did was reboot the thing and i get the notice)..and microsoft error reporting said it was the video driver...Error code i got from microsoft was '
Error message in Windows XP: "STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER" ' ...foul thing is..it says that the cause is usually hardware ..

[DMB2000uk]

If you grab atitool (probably the lastest beta is needed) and run the artifact scanner on there, is it able to get very far without beeping because of artifacts?

You might have to open a support ticket with newegg to start the RMA process

Dan

[InspectahACE]

honestly, I just woke up to see my rig frozen with artifacts.....on the screen saver lol...and it keeps making a log of a serious error..same code and all..RMA is a must now ...

[InspectahACE]

just tried the ATI tool...it said no errors but if you can see the pic...to me...that doesn't look right..but..in all fairness.this is the first time ive used atitool

[DMB2000uk]

lol. The yellow bits show up when there are artifacts. It looks like there are so many it's broken it's ability to check for them

It's supposed to be a pink fluffy square thing.

You definately need to RMA that sucker!

Dan

[InspectahACE]

yea..i never did like yellow lol...bummer...well...sadly im not the only one who's having issues...looks like the 200 series should be included in that snafu with the 8 and 9 series...funny thing is...it still folds like none other...but thats about it lol...i just got a 28 in ch monitor too so i got to see that I was surrounded (well seemed like it with that size) by yellow lines...ahh well..I never had to RMA a part i bought since ive bought stuff online, so I guess there's a first for everything..probably why im not that pissed......yet...no good when even it goes nutty when you lower the clocks too

[martini161]

if you bought it from newegg, the rma proces is very easy. the only problem is you have to pay return shipping

[InspectahACE]

yup Newegg was the way to go for me..yea its a little bit of a bummer ot payt he shipping but its worth it to get a replacement that works ..just means I get to send back both the video card(to newegg) and my Asus board(to Asus of course) to get repaired/replaced at the same time in one visit hehe wish the RMA process was as easy as it is where i work though(free return shipping)...but thats just me being spoiled

[InspectahACE]

How's this for a trip.........I installed my 880GTX so I can pack up my 280 to start the RMA...that wouldnt work...ati tool and the other prog said that failed..and artifacts went nutty on atitool...on the 8800!!..so after i stormed out of my room out of any other idea i can think of..I got the bright i dea to reinstall windows...because..why would BOTH my card fail the same tests when the 8800 was perfect before?..so i reinstall XP..and wouldnt ya know...I have my 280 right now...i ran ati tool scanning or artifacts fo the last 3 minutes...no errors...no aritfacts..nada...i'd say i must screwed somethin up somewhere along the line..running just past 5 minutes with ATI tool scanning for errors/artifacts..nothing bad yet..spose i better update the OS now lol

[InspectahACE]

bah...im sending this thing back..ati tools isnt showing anything wrong yet i still get artifacts..doesn't look too cool on San Andreas..oh well..it was a valiant effort to try to make it work

[Apoptosis]

are you overclocking the CPU?