[Xcell]

Okay, So at christmas I had a new computer, I played with it, Messed around etc, BTW, This is a Gaming Spec PC

The specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 5600+ X2 2.8GHz

2GB 667MHz (Says its 333MHz)

nVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3

This is running on Windows XP (32-Bit) And My monitor is at a 1680x1050 resolution.

It plays games beautifully but after playing them for about 15mins, I start to get Horizontal Lines constantly going across the screen.
But when I restart the PC, Everything is fine, When I am not playing games this never occurs, It just seems to be when I am playing games.

If anyone has any advice or has had this problem and fixed it, Please could you tell me what to do?

Thank you very much,

Xcell

[alex]

Firstly, the ram is shown as 333mhz because that's the true speed of 667mhz ram.

As ddr2 or double data rate 2 ram sends data on the rising and falling edges of the clock cycle it's effective speed is, effectively, doubled, hence 667mhz.

The lines are caused because your card doesn't have the umph to game at the resolution you're gaming at. Try lowering the resolution in the game from the native resolution of the monitor to 1280x1024 and see if the lines appear then.

[Xcell]

Okay, I will try doing that and playing for 30mins or so, ;) I will report back, Thanks.

[Xcell]

Right, I turned down the resolution to 1280x960 and after playing for about 15mins the lines are happening again, As I type they are on the screen everywhere.

What can I do?

[alex]

Okay, sorry, should have asked you about detail settings and AA/AF.

Just to get rid of this option (or to prove it) turn the res down to the lowest available in the game, and also change your monitor's resolution in windows to the same resolution.

Turn off all detail settings and AA/AF.

Now run it again to see if this has helped. If not we can look at other options.

Also, do you have your screen set to it's native 60hz refresh rate?

[MJM]

Please disregard this post. I was too slow in replying.

[Xcell]

Originally Posted by MJM What motherboard do you have? I don't quite get why your ram is slower than it should be.

I cant find what MotherBoard I have, But in the BIOS it tells me 667MHz Ram but while running on XP, Using CPU-Z It appears to be 333MHz, Im not sure why.

Oh and alex, I have turned off AA and I will try to see if it happens now.

[alex]

Originally Posted by Xcell I cant find what MotherBoard I have, But in the BIOS it tells me 667MHz Ram but while running on XP, Using CPU-Z It appears to be 333MHz, Im not sure why.

"Firstly, the ram is shown as 333mhz because that's the true speed of 667mhz ram."

[Xcell]

Originally Posted by alex "Firstly, the ram is shown as 333mhz because that's the true speed of 667mhz ram."

Okay, but it still happened when i had turned off AA :S Why?

It cant be my GFX card overheating.. Cause after a 20 second boot time it is fine, And it cant be the screen since I turn it off for about 5 mins and turn it back on and it still continues.

[Carbon]

It cant be my GFX card overheating.. Cause after a 20 second boot time it is fine

What exactly does this mean? Why would this mean your card isn't overheating? Plenty of overheating problems take ten minutes or so to surface.

[mrdaveyk]

installed the latest drivers for your card?

[Xcell]

Originally Posted by mrdaveyk installed the latest drivers for your card?

Yep..

[alex]

Originally Posted by Carbon What exactly does this mean? Why would this mean your card isn't overheating? Plenty of overheating problems take ten minutes or so to surface.

(Now I'm back): Carbon's correct Xcell. Artifacts such as the one you're describing can be caused by excessive heat from the gpu.

Just to rule out the monitor have you another you can use, to test?

[Xcell]

Originally Posted by alex (Now I'm back): Carbon's correct Xcell. Artifacts such as the one you're describing can be caused by excessive heat from the gpu. Just to rule out the monitor have you another you can use, to test?

But if it was excessive heat from the GPU then it would stay for some time wouldnt it? It wouldnt go in under 15-20seconds on a restart?

And I dont have another monitor

[MJM]

Originally Posted by alex (Now I'm back): Carbon's correct Xcell. Artifacts such as the one you're describing can be caused by excessive heat from the gpu. Just to rule out the monitor have you another you can use, to test?

Couldn't he just post a screen shot for us to see? If we see the artefacts it can't be his monitor can it?

Do take a screen shot hit the print screen (PrtScn) button, open mspaint (start -> run -> mspaint), paste and save the image as a PNG.
Either add it as an attachment or upload it to a site like imageshack.