wavey screen flickering when looking at dark pictures/games

[rockstar6181]

I have noticed that my monitor has wavey type lines moving up and down (almost like interference)...I seem to get it most when the screen is dark or when loading up a game...for example I loaded up Crysis, Grid, R6V2 and all on the intro screens looked like the screen picture was split in half and you could see the join line..I have tried playing around with the res and refresh rates but not having much luck..got a 22" montior and a 8800GTX graphics card - all drivers are up to date.

 

[smarteyeball]

Is it only happening in games, or is at the desktop as well?

How old is the monitor?

Have you enabled/forced VSYNC?

 

[RestlessShadow]

Also, how long have you had the card, and have you used it a lot?

 

[rockstar6181]

Thanks for replys.

Monitor is about 12 months old - 22" TFT Asus VM202 i think

Graphics card was bought about a year ago too at same time - i noticed the waveryness first on the windows sidebar when i had a black background. I turned the sidebar off and didnt notice it again till i started playing games recently.

In game it doesnt really do it, its mostly when loading up the game and all the ads are coming up etc - the screen alomost looks like its joined together and slightly out of sync with the bottom to top half.

I will check VSYNC tonight. I also use a VGA to DVI convertor. but will try straight DVI.

 

[smarteyeball]

Checking the straight DVI connection is a good idea. Connections and cables are known culprits.

Does both the monitors menu / OSD and Windows / Nvidia control panel report report the refresh rate @ 60hz when it's at 1680x1050?

Do you recall updating any drivers around the time it started to waver?

When you notice the waver, does cycling through the inputs fix it?

 

[rockstar6181]

yeah at that res (1680x1050) the refresh rate will only allow max of 60hz.

Havent managed to borrow the DVI lead for this evening but should get it shortly..do have another tft monitor I will try later on tonight.

many thanks

 

[thepizzaman]

a 8800GTX graphics card.......

there is your problem

 

[rockstar6181]

thanks all replies..The issue is now resovled!!!!

It was Vsync - I enabled this and it fixed issue - many thanks to Smarteyeball who advised me to do this.

 

[BrutusBMN]

Sorry for digup but i have exactly same problem and what's worse, vsync does not help.

I have 9600GT and everything works great but this one thing.

The screen darkens when while in the game i walk to very dark place or when i turn to dark place.. so when scene is getting to dark.. picture darkens suddenly even more.

The weirdest thing in all this screen darkening is.. HUD does not get darker with the scenery.

Ofcourse all drivers are up to date (i was actualy updating them), all system patches installed, messing with settings does not fix or change the problem in any visible way.

Any advices?

 

[MrNeeds]

Sorry for digup but i have exactly same problem and what's worse, vsync does not help.

I have 9600GT and everything works great but this one thing.

The screen darkens when while in the game i walk to very dark place or when i turn to dark place.. so when scene is getting to dark.. picture darkens suddenly even more.

The weirdest thing in all this screen darkening is.. HUD does not get darker with the scenery.

Ofcourse all drivers are up to date (i was actualy updating them), all system patches installed, messing with settings does not fix or change the problem in any visible way.

Any advices?

have you tried playing with the nvidia control panel?

sounds like an issue with either your LOD bias or maybe gamma correction, it's definately something to do with the GPU settings.

MrNeeds

 

[BrutusBMN]

Yes. I have turned on all options that i had without change. And when if failed i set them all to off. And when this didn't help i've set all to default.. also without fixing the problem. In-game options doesn't fix this also. And.. this is second game i have problem with. One is Fallout 3 and second is Splinter Cell:CT. Are there any good custom drivers for vidia cards i should try?

 

[MrNeeds]

Yes. I have turned on all options that i had without change. And when if failed i set them all to off. And when this didn't help i've set all to default.. also without fixing the problem. In-game options doesn't fix this also. And.. this is second game i have problem with. One is Fallout 3 and second is Splinter Cell:CT. Are there any good custom drivers for vidia cards i should try?

The drivers are backwards compatible with older games, the problem will not lie with the drivers, have you changed any of the hue and color settings within the Nvidia control panel? The gamma settings sound like the most obvious cause for this strange behaviour.

MrNeeds

 

[The lynx2]

I had the same problem with fallout 3, and at first assumed it was part of the game (in keeping with the theme of post-apocalyptic/dusty surroundings) but then after a couple of months the back light on my sony Vaio blew out while playing Fallout. not sure if this is related though?

 

[BrutusBMN]

@The lynx2
I don't think that you monitor could blow out from playing any game. This is not the case.

@MrNeeds
I have all the settintg to default. But theres something more.

The whole thing is strange because i have same problem with just a few games (the other ones could just not get dark enough to allow this effect to occur, tho) and it happened few times already after fresh install of my system. Happens every time. So the drivers are fresh and settings have norhing to do with it (ithink) it seems that the card if somehow faulty.
Somehow...
Although all this darkening looks to me like there was some contrast (gamma etc.) boost that disables when it is too dark, cuz it thinks that theres not much to display to keep the setting on so it just goes automatically off. But there are no settings in controll panel that could change it.
Yet i think i should be able to turn every option on and off but i just can't fine one responsible for this.

 

[The lynx2]

ok thanks i guess it was something else then.

 

[MrNeeds]

heres a thought, something that happened to me a while ago, i used to have a really old monitor when i first started playing pc games, when i was playing doom3 and medal of honor pacific assault, my games would get really dark, it was a CRT monitor so i dont know if it applies to you or not but have you considered borrowing a monitor off someone or using a tv or something just to test if its the monitor? the problem sounds very similar to what happened to me.

MrNeeds

 

[BrutusBMN]

Well.. wasn't easy to borrow monitor but i'v finally found a flat-screen tv and connected.

Seems you were right, MrNeeds.
Yet i have no idea what can cause this.
I have a LG Flatron so it is not old nor CRT, yet it seems that something's really wrong.
I tried to mess with monitor settings with no effect.
Still need to check if changing cable for current monitor will fix the issue.

If not.. is there a way to upgrade monitors firmware?

___________
I have just confirmed.. i've plugged my monitor to card with found VGA cable instead of my usual DVI and the effect's the same so it's totally monitors fault.

I will write to LGs service but in the meantime if anyone have any ideas on what can be done, please tell.

_________

Found the guilty!

The monitor was doing this to me.
The solution is simple.

There are 6 buttons on my monitor and most of them have more than one function.
There is one button called Menu and other with brughness/contast settings (a shortcut fo tunction to which you can access with 'menu' and another that i thought was kinda useless, since everything i wished to change was avaiable in 'menu'.
And that's where i've made mistake.
There are three separate menus in the monitor.
Two of them have own buttons. One menu is turned by button that already has a function.
I've pressed it only because i mas messing randomly in ore that i'll fix it accidentaly.

There are two functions in there named ACE and RCM by default set to minimum.
Changin any of them to any value causes the screen flickering.


So.. my problem was solved.
Thank you all for help.