Tons of black lines/pink pixels across my screen!

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Zeji

New Member
Nov 8, 2008
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When I was playing a game of UT2004 yesterday, my screen froze and there were a ton of white and pink pixels splashed across my screen. At the time, I thought it was just a '2004 problem, so I shut my computer off and went to bed.

When I started my computer up this morning, there were a bunch of horizontal lines going across the Vista logo. My computer would then stay at the logo. However, I don't think my computer actually froze- the screen might have refused to update.

I restarted again, this time in safe mode. It got to my desktop, but then froze when I opened up the menu. There were a bunch of green lines going across my mouse. Several other restarts would mess up at the 'Start Windows with Safe Mode On' screen.

I restarted my PC 4 or 5 more times, giving it 10 minute breaks between restarts. Now it loads past the Vista logo, and I can run everything, but I have tons of black lines filled with white/pink/light blue pixels.

My system specs are:

Vista 64-bit with SP2
AMD Phenom 9850 Quad Core Processor
6 GB of ram

I can hardly see what I'm typing. What is this crap? :mad:
 
Last edited:
NeoNite

NeoNite

Starsstream
Dec 10, 2000
20,275
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In a stream of stars
What type of graphics card? How old is it ? Drivers up to date ?
What type of monitor ? How old is it ? Noticed anything strange before ?
What were you playing ? Vanilla (typical) UT2004, or a heavy map/mod ?
How long was your computer running ?

I've no experience with vista, or quad cores. BUT if you answer the above questions, it might help people sorting out your problem a bit more.
 
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Zeji

New Member
Nov 8, 2008
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My graphics card is a Nvidia 9800 GT. I updated the drivers a week ago. I have an acer monitor (wide screen). I don't remember what exact model type I have, I'll check that in a few minutes. Both the graphics card and monitor are almost a year old. I also have Speedfan just to be sure my computer doesn't over heat, because the computer that I have was said to have that problem sometimes.

The only strange thing I remember before is a problem with the UT3 Titan mutator- becoming the titan would create several lines around the screen that would make the blur appear very jagged.

I was playing Antalus with Ballistic Weapons when it froze. I've used BW on larger maps without any problems before.
 
hyrulian

hyrulian

Rainbow Brite
May 20, 2001
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hyru.ath.cx
I'm thinking your graphics card is hosed. There's a few things that lead me into thinking that: (1) It happens in Safe Mode too (so drivers wouldn't be the problem), and (2) It happens when the boot loader is asking you if you want to try Safe Mode or not (so Windows probably isn't the problem).

If you have another video card, try swapping the video cards and see if your computer runs fine again. If it does, check the problematic video card to see if you can take steps that might help reduce overheating (which could be causing the problem). Try to clean out as much of the dust as you can in the heatsink and fan. Perhaps you could even remove the heatsink, clean the surface of the heatsink and GPU (and other components it contacts), apply new thermal compound, and reattach. It is not suggested that you do this if you still have a warranty, because taking off the heatsink might void your warranty, and in that case you might as well just send it back to them for service.
 
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Zeji

New Member
Nov 8, 2008
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Thanks, I'll take a look at it. I do have a warranty, though, so I won't be able to take anything out. :(
 
SkaarjMaster

SkaarjMaster

enemy of time
Sep 1, 2000
4,870
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Sarasota, FL
The exact same thing happened to me about 5 years ago on my 2nd build (I call it the nightmare build) and it was the video card. I'm pretty sure it's the video card as others have said.
 
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