Vista Locks up with strange video displayed

[jtracey]

I have been having this very frustrating problem with Vista 64. The machine seems to be find and I can run anything I want, but then it will just lock up. The screen shows what ever graphics was there but its all scrambled. This can happen at an time after the desktop show, 2 minutes or 2 hours. I can run in safe mode all day and night so I'm thinking graphics or some other driver. I have run tests using Everest Ultimate and everything seems fine, except it will lockup like everything else. I have had this issue since the beginning, when I had 1 video card. I have gotten Crossfire enabled and SP1 installed. I am using the latest Catalyst driver 8.3. One note, when I installed the newest driver, it changed how the screen looks when it locks up, but its still the same issue. Any ideas or settings that I should look at, I have tinkered with them all with no results. I hope someone has the answer!:D

 

[infodon]

I am having the same issue with an ATI Radeon 3650 on Vista X64. The problem started fairly recently. For no apparent reason the syem freezes and the display scrambles. I have not been able to isolate the issue. But I think that the video card is a prime suspect.

 

[dmex]

Hey guys, I would say its either your memory or Graphics card malfunctioning as I have had the same issue on older computers and is usually the cause.

dmex

 

[hkancyr]

My card too was getting crazy. On one map in Crysis I ran across this problem recently too. Both monitors got scrambled and screwey. I restarted and started playing again and it did it again.
I am seeing this problem in forums more recently. I wonder what that's all about. People usually say that the board is going bad. That may well be the case, but I seem to have fixed mine with a driver update. Since I suspected heat to be a contributing factor I went in an blew out the case vents and video card fan.
I had been running 169.44 nvidia drivers and I went and found 175.63 and the problem hasn't reoccurred yet.
I hope that I have fixed the problem, time will tell.

 

[dmex]

Actually while im thinking of it....overheating causes this exact problem...
Towards the end of last year we got a batch of NVidia cards without fans and ended up returning the lot because they would run fine for awile before crashing showing a mess of lines and other assorted visuals...


Does your graphics card have a fan and are all your motherboard fans working?

 

[hkancyr]

Maybe I'm seeing it more because it's starting to get warmer out up in the northern hemi.

 

[infodon]

The problem seems to present itself while I have Outlook 2007 open. I am reviewing another thread with similar symptoms. System stable until I open Outlook....

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Try uninstalling your video drivers in add/remove programs. Then, run a driver cleaner to get rid of all the legacy crap. Once done reboot and reinstall the new drivers. Next, get software to set your fan speed to 100% on the video card. If you can, free up the slot next to the video fan. Check your power supply 12V rail voltage to see if its below 12V. If under 11.84V, replace the power supply. I have seen this cause your issue. Use a multi-meter not software to check voltages.

 

[infodon]

I just updated the drivers from ATI Dated May and re-opened Outlook. So far haven't had the lock-up dispaly scramble issue,but it is early in the testing. I will update if it happens again. Hope that takes care of the issue. I did initially notice some flashing on some of the Ads in IE7 on some websites like NASDAQ Stock Market - Stock Quotes - Stock Exchange News - NASDAQ.com but that symptom has subsided at last check

System is AMD Phenom 9850 ASUS silent square pro thermal fan with 2- Visontek (ATI) 3650 video, Adata memory, No overclocking on Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 (rev. 1.0)