Weird 3D display problem

[philou]

Okay, folks, please bear with me. I am uttermost illiterate when it comes to all things related hardware.

Since recently, my display acts up when I try to run 3D games, it works for a short time, but then goes all crazy:

At most times, the pc crashes after that. I installed new drivers, but to no avail.

I don't really have the heart to admit this, but recently I took my graphics card apart too clean it from dust... I really hope I didn't damage anything.

The card's a ASUS X800GTO Series Secondary, according to AIDA32.

Did I really feck up my graphics card..?

[iGo]

Dude... looks like the card's running hot !!

Open your cabinet, start your PC and check if the heatsink fan is running on your card... if it's not then shutdown and take out card, check the fan connector.

If it is running, then it's possible that heatsink is loose and not in proper contact with graphic chip, see if you can tighten it again. If not, don't try anything fancy and get it done by someone who knows it.

[drakesteele]

For one, if you are using the secondary and not the primary AS your primary display, some drivers may trip out... You may want to swap ports on your vid card or the adapter coming off if you aren't running dual displays, so that you can correct that.

The other thing I can think of might be that you've told your card (either via a jumper/connector, or via software) that you're running in CrossFire mode, and you only have one card. CrossFire draws your screen using two cards and each draws a pattern similar to that for your 3D displays if it's set to CrossFire mode...

I'd start there.

- Drake Steele

[iGo]

Now that I look at the the screenie again, I notice the pattern which I earlier thought was artifacts... The Crossfire problem sounds logical to me.

[philou]

Argh, I was dead tired yesterday and forgot some info - thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at the fan (which I took off during cleaning)... D'oh!

On the secondary thing... I'm running a dual monitor setup, the primary port connected to the primary monitor.

During games, I still can see the Desktop on the secondary monitor, which screws up too, at the peak of the errors. (but in a different pattern.)

I've never even heard of a crossfire mode, but I'll look into it.

The pattern on the screen is like a second (but frozen) image - which overlays suddenly, not gradually. I'll try to make a video of the problem later.

Thanks for your advice, guys!

Edit: The fan's running, as far as I can see. I'll check the card itself later.