Video card trouble

[Borglord]

I have just recently been experiencing a problem with my GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x. at lease I think its my video card. a few days ago I was playing Horizons online and the game locked up. after closing out the game I noticed tiny little dots on my desktop background so I rebooted my system and on reboot just as the video card takes over the display, I had multi colored vertical lines about a centimeter thick equily spaced across my screen until XP started to bootup. After XP finishes booting up and I get my pesktop up again I still have the tiny dots. they appear on some differant applications like when i veiw jpgs and sometimes on differant web pages but not all applications. I also have been freezing on playing mpgs on windows media player now. I haven't had any troubles till now. I checked for updates on drivers and I have the most recent and I upgraded to DirectX 9b from 9a. still hasn't helped. is there any programs I can run that will diagnos any problems with my GPU or the RAM on my card? any info would be helpful.I get the wierd evrey time i boot up now.

[Inka]

I agree it does sound like a Graphics card problem. Has anything happened to the pc recently (new hardware / software?)

Easiest thing to try 1st - Resating the graphics card. They do have a tendancy to work loose sometimes. Is the monitor cable securely attached?

If you have a spare graphics card, try it just to see if the problem goes away. It may not be graphics at all - it could be something like the RAM on the mobo.

[CuratoR]

Are you overclocking your card?
Or Have you been overclocking your card?

Which version of the nVIDIA driver(detonator or forceware) are you using?

Give some info about your mobo!

Could be a driver issue!
Having most recent driver doesn't mean that you have the right driver.

PLzz, post back so that we can help.

[Bullman]

I am pretty sure the GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x does not support direct X 9.0 or above. I have heard of some problems with cards using it that do not support it. Did you upgrade to 9.0 about the time the problems started? It may not be the problem but I thought I would throw it out there.

[gwallen4]

Sounds like the video card burned up. Take a look and see if the fan is still working and if there is any accumulation of dust on the GPU heat sink. However, I think it's too late now. The damage has already been done - especially if you have the problem on a cold boot.

Most TI4200's are still in warranty, so if you go to the manufacturer's web site, you may get information on RMA'ing it.

[CuratoR]

I am pretty sure the GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x does not support direct X 9.0 or above.
DirectX 9 is backward compatible, as other versions has always been.

[Borglord]

ok thanks for the repies people! ok! my MOBO is a XFX Mach4 KT400-ALH.
I have noticed that it didnt do it on cold boot this morning so I am going to blow out the case with some compressed air and see if it is a heat related problem. the video card is not over clocked I didn't think i needed to take that step. but I know Horizons can put a high load on graphics. maybe it got a little hot. it seems that the card has been slowly recovering from trauma since I havent played Horizons after what happened. as far as the DirextX 9 version I have had it installed since I have built the system and thats been a year now so i dont think DirectX is the issue. I would still like to know if there is a program that I can use to watch out for heat issues on the card though. CPU heat and all other components are running fine.

[Borglord]

Oh! By the way I love your ending there Curator! very nicely said!!!:D

[gwallen4]

Also the 50 series drivers don't seem to work well except for the new FX cards. You could try an earlier driver version like 45.23.

I had a 440MX card overheat a few weeks ago after installing 53.06. Just a thought.

Another possibility is to slow the card down from 8X to 4X to prevent overheating.

[CuratoR]

Yes, Forceware(50.XX) series drivers are optimized for FX lines only. You may use any set from 30.82 to 45.23. But, I would suggest you to use 44.03, its the most bug fixed one as far as I know, though its not WHQL signed. First completely get rid of the old driver and then install the new one.

Is the AGP card fan spinning?!
I don't know if your AGP card has Hardware Monitoring Chip installed, I think forcewares enable a page with temp info in driver control panel if such a mechanism is on the card.

[Borglord]

I just got done talking to tech support from eVGA and I didn't even get out a word before he said " does it cause vertical lines and are there colored dots on your screen" and I told him yes and there sending a geforce 5600 fx to replace it. so I want to than everyone for thew support. Now the question is will this new card be ok with DirectX 9b. and should I remove my drivers before installing the card and install new drivers then or is it ok to install and use the drivers installed already because the drivers I installed for the old card are the same for the new one.

[Borglord]

AAHH! I hope you all could understand that. I just read it and I thought it was confusing. I think i had to much coffee!

[CuratoR]

Hmm, so you are getting a new FX 5600. Congratulations mate! I hope they're giving you FX 5600 Ultra. Plzz note that if its a non Ultra that you are getting it could be a downgrade from your previous Ti performance-wise. Yes, FX 5600 is DirectX 9 card, infact the entire FX series is optimized for DirectX 9. Ti series is not DirectX 9 series that doesn't mean that Ti series won't work with DirectX 9, its just that it won't get the most out of DirectX 9 features.
You have to match the nVIDIA drivers for the card as well, 50.XX series of drivers are DirectX 9 optimized drivers.But it depends on what sort of games do you play, games like Halo, MotoGP2 are Dx9 games.

[Borglord]

thank you again for all the support and info. card hasn't arrived as of yet but should be here this week sometime. this will help me make better choices in the future when designing new systems.