nVidia 8800 Windows 7 problem

C

czajunia

Weaksauce
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
68
Hello,

Recently I've noticed some unusual pixel flickering under Windows 7 using Gainward 8800 GT PCX. There are red pixels randomly switching on and off on some dark areas of the screen. First I thought it was definitely a graphic card problem but then I realized that I didn't see any of these under WinXP. I double checked and when running XP the card was fine. I had the latest Win7 nVidia drivers installed so I thought that maybe there was a bug and downgraded to the first Win7 drivers available but the problem is still there.

I uploaded a video showing what it looks like. The displayed picture was intentionally darkened with a color balanced changed a bit so it's not that extreme in real life - there are less red pixels which are usually more random compared to the video. Also they are red and look much smaller (pixel size).

Has anyone noticed similar problems? How likely is that the card is fine and there are some drivers/monitor incompatibility issues?

Thank's a lot for your answers and suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Just a thought, but have to tried to see if your getting the same issue on another monitor?
 
I think your card is on the way out, and Windows 7, which uses a 3D based GUI, is more sensitive to this than XP, which uses a "traditional" 2D based GUI. Sorry; I doubt you'll be able to RMA to Gainward. It had a good run, though.
 
Wow, that sucks pretty hard. I wonder if its just a bug with the nvidia drivers or something wrong with Win7...
 
im with circuit on this one, sounds like the card will soon be heading to the happy gaming grounds in the sky
 
any overclocking of anything? hows your temps.. usually see that with heat... your power supply beefy enough?
 
Check the heatsink -- is it clogged? If so get some canned air and then give it another try. These cards are getting older, something those of us still using them tend to forget since they're still very capable. Check temps and drop any OC on the card back to stock as the poster above said.
 
The card has never been overclocked for some reason. :) The temperatures seem to be fine - around 45/53 C when idling (depending which reading you are looking at) and 61/68 when running some 3D stress test. No problems doing that either - it runs stable when testing.

Weird thing is that after I posted on the forum yesterday I haven't had any issues even under Win7. The problem was unbearable a day before as I could see red pixels even while watching a movie. But it's gone now. It's happened before as well - the card would work fine and suddenly start showing the problem. Someone on other forum suggested that if this doesn't happen all the time maybe I should check the connections. So following this piece of advice I have unplugged all the cables, removed the card and put everything back together just to make sure everything was plugged in properly.. Oh, and I checked the heatsink - it was fine. I remember cleaning it a few weeks ago.

So far so good - I still don't see any red pixels but maybe it's just a coincidence. If the problem comes back I'll try to underclock the card to see if this does the trick. I haven't played any games yet but I ran GPUTool Stress test for a couple of hours and it was fine.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks a lot for your help so far!
 
Last edited:
For anyone who followed this thread - just a closing post. After a few days of playing a 3D FPS I can definitely say it was a connection issue. I haven't had any problems since last week.

Thanks again for your input!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top