Artifacts

[masterceo]

it's been quite a long time now that i get sometimes artifacts, usually it's just a black line that flashes on my screen for about a sec or two. It all began when i changed my graphics card, I used to have a BFG8800GTS 512mb but, well, it failed at some point and i sent it back to BFG. They sent me back a 250GTS, but from the first day something was wrong. I would get bizarre flashing in CoD:MW, however it was acceptable. Since then it kept getting worse. The flashes are more frequent and started happening in all the games I have. Normally those are the symptoms of overclocking, but I haven't changed any frequency. It's not the temperature either, my PC was never running above 60C, because i bought a supplementary fan to keep it cool and quiet. All my drivers are up to date. It's really annoying since it breaks all the immersion. Any ideas guys?

PC specs:
motherboard:MSI K9N platinium
RAM: GEIL 2x1GB
Graphics card: BFG250GTS
CPU:AMD Athlon x2 5600

[karambaitos]

you actually might be that unlucky that you got 2 defective cards also nvidia drivers can sometimes screw up try using the driver you got in the box you could try and reinstall DX and overclocking isnt smart as you loose your insurance.

[[R-COM]Darkpowder]

I'm guessing your system is fairly old given the spec of the processor.
Ignore the software for now and consider: (and post here)
- Age, model no. and specification of power supply, check the amps on the rail powering your card.

[masterceo]

Ah yes, i forgot to mention: my old GFX card burned because my power supply failed. I bought a completely new one, it's a OCZ600SXS. It was working fine on my other PC.

EDIT:My power supply is about 3 months old

EDIT2: I had a similar problem on my old MSI 7900GT, with the difference that the textures would stretch on half of the screen and i wasn't able to see anything. It turned out there was some dust blocking the fan. I have no idea how it got there because i clean my pc once in 2 months. It's perfectly clean right now.

[[R-CON]Tim270]

Check your temps also, might be getting hot without dust, but as others have said be sure to clean/reinstall drivers.

[masterceo]

As i said, i have a much more performant cooling system, the avg temperature in my pc is about 50C, i checked the temp of my card, it's normal-54C. I completely reinstalled the drivers for my GFX card, still, no improvement.

[[R-COM]SnipingCoward]

overheating symptoms may still persist, due to previous overheating that permanently damaged components

have a look at the mainboard and cards and see if capacitors are leaking, bloating of rusting (http://www.mad-monkey.co.uk/resource.../capacitor.jpg) this means grave system failure is imminent and the part needs to be replaced

aside from possible hardware defects:
maybe you are having other driver issues, like with chipset for your motherboard
also you could check if there is a bios update for your mobo - this might fix/help find optimal clock speeds

[masterceo]

checked all the cable connections and capacitors, they're all in perfect order. What is surprising tho is that i just played a 3 hour long round on PR and for the first time i had no artifacts at all, but just as i turned off BF2 my pc blue-screened. I have no idea what is going on.

EDIT: as i stated earlier, all drivers are up to date (at least that's what nvidia and MSI software tells me)

[[R-COM]SnipingCoward]

When having a blue screen (BSOD) it is important to write down the error code (e.g. 0x000000F4) and message. Googling this error can give you a hint towards what component might be in trouble or what files might be damaged. Also posting it here can help us help you.

I suggest you reinstall the drivers (use a driver cleaner tool that you trust). It can also be helpful to revert your driver to an older, more stable version.

[masterceo]

right, next time i'll make sure to write down that error code.
I will try to reinstall the drivers, could you recommend any software for cleaning them?