What's this Pixel Error?

[Xordae]

Hey guys. Three weeks ago, I assembled the computer I am using now from all-new parts. Everything works, but I noticed some strange behaviour in games. After a while, white pixels started blinking up in little bunches around the cursor and certain icons / menus in the game. When I exited and moved windows around, they would leave bad pixels in their wake. This screen here is self-made, when I took a screenshot the bad pixels would not show at all.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9830/72808781.jpg

What I've gathered so far about the issue, and my thoughts in brackets:

- It happened in two demanding games, not at all in older 3D games.
- It happened after I'd Alt-Tabbed between the game and the Desktop multiple times (I am thinking the RAM did this, because Alt-Tabbing may tap into more RAM and then by chance reach the faulty segment)
- When I don't Alt-Tab, the issue doesn't come up, or hasn't yet.
- It continues to happen after I've exited the game, and just until I reboot (if it was overheating, it would go away quickly after the game closes. My temperatures are decent)
- I don't get any BSODs, the boot screens are all good and my monitor is fine.
- I've used BurnIn Test to determine the working state of a few components. GPU okay, VRAM okay, RAM has a single, or very few sectors that are faulty.

My question.. can graphical errors like these come from bad RAM? I've got my fingers crossed hoping it's not the graphics card. Thanks!


Mobo: ASUS P5Q Pro
CPU: Core2 Quad Q9550
Ram: Corsair 2x2 GB DDR3-800
Gfx: Leadtek GTX 275

 

[mpilchfamily]

Check your temps and make sure you have the latest drivers.

You image does show some scattered white and black pixles in the background but not in the Southpark video your watching. Chances are its just a driver issue or the screen isn't refreshing right for some other reason.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Either overheating or card has bad memory. Make sure its cooled properly and update your drivers

 

[Xordae]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

I did check the VRAM with BurnIn Test, like 10 cycles, and there were no errors shown. As to overheating, I'm using Nvidia Performance Tools to manually regulate the fan speed so it will reach 100% at only 80°c. It never gets that high, I could tell by the noise level alone.

In the Nvidia control panel, the resolution is listed as 1680x1050 (native) BUT for the refresh rate I can decide between 59 Hz and 60 Hz. (edit) Nevermind, I looked this up and it's just a rounding issue.

I have up to date drivers for the graphics card, as well as the monitor, and I'm running Windows 7 7600. (it's an Asus VW222U).

 

[sivart]

Originally posted by: Xordae
My question.. can graphical errors like these come from bad RAM? I've got my fingers crossed hoping it's not the graphics card. Thanks!

Yes, but everytime I've seen it, the spots / errors show up during boot, too. If you have multiple sticks of RAM you can try booting with one at a time and see if you can reproduce the issue with any / all of them.

 

[Xordae]

Okay, I've nailed it down to Alt-Tab. It happened just now in Mass Effect, except that this time around it totally scrambled the screen in chunks of 4x4 pixels each, or something. It does really look like something was wrong with the hardware, but I'm starting to think this is just a driver issue. I can play games for hours on end on highest settings without any problem, then I Alt-Tab and this stuff happens. I've set the power profile from "Adaptive" to "Performance" in hopes that it won't switch between clock speeds while inside a game, and will try to set it in RivaTuner so it'll keep 3D speeds even when on the desktop. If it still happens then, I'm out of ideas.

 

[Nizology]

This happened on mine and it most likely is a driver issue. Check and see what version you have and if there are any updates for that card.

 

[Xordae]

It was the newest driver, 190.62 that was giving me the issue. I reverted to 182.xx from the Leadtek CD and turned off Aero and Desktop Composition, and for now it seems the issue is gone. Now I'll try to use another non-Leadtek driver. 186.xx are supposed to be pretty good.