Strange video artifacting -- cooling problem?

N

NeuralClone

Guest
I recently started playing Half-Life 2 again after upgrading my RAM and CPU. I used to be able to play HL2 fairly smoothly with my old setup (Athlon XP 1700+ and 512 MB DDR PC2100 RAM) with very few problems. There were occasional slowdowns and short freezes but I never had serious problems. Now, after upgrading my CPU/RAM I am getting some major artifacting when trying to run HL2 on high detail. Here are a few examples:

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/3947/d1canals1200013lv.jpg
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/2632/d1canals1200028bm.jpg

These problems seem to come up at random times but they always shows up after about 20-30 minutes of play. Looking in a different direction usually fixes the problem but as soon as I go back to the same location/angle the problem comes back. Random objects are affected but it's almost always surfaces that are nearby. Weapons and nearby walls seem to be affected most often.

At first I thought it might be a problem with reflections but I've tried using simple reflections and the problem still shows up at seemingly random times. I've also put all the video options on the lowest possible detail but it still happens. I don't seem to have this problem in other games either (DOOM 3 runs beautifully).

My video card doesn't have a heat sensor on it so I'm unable to tell if my card is overheating. I have two exhaust fans directly above my video card and the air doesn't feel very warm.

Also, I am having the following problem when I take screenshots and when I save my game:
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/2065/d1canals0700004rx.jpg

When I go to the load or save screens, almost all the save shapshots have those red lines through them.

System specs (nothing is overclocked):
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (currently set to 2083 MHz)
ASUS A7V8X motherboard (revision 14)
Corsair 1 GB DDR400 PC3200 RAM (currently at 333 MHz due to motherboard limitations)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB (Omega 2.6.53)
SoundBlaster Live!
Windows XP Professional SP2

Average CPU temperature (idle): 43-45 C
Average CPU temperature (full load): 45-49 C

Game settings (all recommended settings):
Resolution: 1280x960
Model detail: high
Antialiasing mode: none
Texture detail: high
Filtering mode: trilinear
Water detail: reflect world
Shader detail: high
Shadow detail: high
Wait for vertical sync: disabled
Sound quality: high

I've tried various versions of Catalyst and Omega drivers, all with no effect. I'm really at a complete loss and could really use some help to get to the bottom of this. Thanks in advance!
 
You gotta touch the video card. If you can hold it for 10+ seconds without getting too hot, temps are fine.

Anyway, I had that problem a month ago, but it went away. I don't know why. Sorry that I can't be of much assistance.
 
Well, the card doesn't appear to be overly hot. I was able to touch the card for 30 seconds without getting burned.

I tried switching to AGP 4x and the problem doesn't seem to crop up as often now but it still comes up every now and then. Oddly enough, my framerate is now averaging 60 fps instead of 40 fps.

Here's another example of the rainbow colors showing up:
http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/240/d1eli0200026rk.jpg

Again, it looks like a problem with reflections. Has anyone else had this problem with their system? The problem doesn't seem to cause crashing but it drastically influences the game experience (Alyx shouldn't have rainbow makeup :p).
 
Personally, I think it gives a pleasant "saturday night" feeling to the screenshots. But that's just me.

I never heard of your problem and never saw it. The fact that your card is ATi makes the problem even weirder. nVidia cards sometimes have the weirdest bugs, but I finished HL2 with a 9800XT and a 9600 Pro and never encountered the problem.

Does it still do that when you alt-tab out and in the game?

Also, try verifying your files.
 
Beerdude26 said:
Personally, I think it gives a pleasant "saturday night" feeling to the screenshots. But that's just me.
Click to expand...
:LOL:

I tried turning down reflections, alt-tabbing out of the game, and verifying my files, all with no effect. If I reload my game or change chapters the problems goes away for a few minutes but it almost always comes back a few minutes later.

I just ran 3DMark03 and didn't experience any artifacting whatsoever. I didn't score as high as I would have liked (5574) but that's another topic. ;)

I played the game for 30 minutes and didn't experience any artifacting problems. There was a buried setting in my BIOS that let me choose my type of graphics card. It was set to PCI when it should have been set to AGP.

In ATI Tray Tools I set my Direct3D/OpenGL profiles to "Normal" and set anisotropic filtering to "Application controlled."

While doing all this I discovered yet another problem. Now fonts randomly vanish while playing the game. For example:
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/6759/d3breen0100003ml.jpg

When this problem shows up (also at random times), even the menus are affected. I had my health completely vanish and reappear, the end credits were completely garbled, the menus were unreadable (including menu options), and to top things off, the infamous stuttering bug showed up in full force. I used to have minor stuttering from time to time but now characters can't say a complete sentence without it stuttering.

So now I'm off to reinstall the game because clearly something got messed up during the install. Hopefully the problem won't show up after a clean install.
 
A complete reinstall didn't solve anything, unfortunately. I'm still having massive artifacting and font problems.
 
Hmmm... Maybe your fonts are corrupted? I'll upload them so you can download and replace them with yours.

EDIT : Linkeh
 
Thanks! Unfortunately, it appears as though the file has been removed. :(
 
Sorry about that, you just have to copy the link into your link window (forgot the right name for it lol)
http://www.freewebs.com/dotheboogie/cs.zip

BTW, it REALLY sounds like you've got some piece of hardware not wanting to work with another right. Try RAM/HD/Videocard
Oh, and Creative soundcards have a tendency to destroy your copy of HL2. Try taking it out.
 
Beerdude26 said:
Sorry about that, you just have to copy the link into your link window (forgot the right name for it lol)
http://www.freewebs.com/dotheboogie/cs.zip
Click to expand...
Thanks! :) Unfortunately it looks like my fonts were already okay.

BTW, it REALLY sounds like you've got some piece of hardware not wanting to work with another right. Try RAM/HD/Videocard
Oh, and Creative soundcards have a tendency to destroy your copy of HL2. Try taking it out.
Click to expand...
I've tried removing my sound card and that didn't seem to have any effect. However, I tried turning my texture detail down to medium and that seemed to solve the problem in DoD: S. The game recommends high detail but apparently my Radeon 9800 Pro can't handle it in the Source engine. This is the only engine I've found that seems to have these issues with my card.
 
NeuralClone's Avatar NeuralClone said:
I tried turning my texture detail down to medium and that seemed to solve the problem in DoD: S. The game recommends high detail but apparently my Radeon 9800 Pro can't handle it in the Source engine. This is the only engine I've found that seems to have these issues with my card.
Click to expand...
Might be because DoD:S uses HDR, which totally assrapes you computer. Try turning HDR off in the video options.
 
HDR lighting is already off. I haven't even bothered to try that out since I know my computer is no match for it.
 
Your problem sounds really weird mate,...
Have you tried posting a complaint ticket at Steam support?
 
Not yet. I was hoping to avoid that for as long as possible but it looks like I may be left with no other choice. :(
 
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