What's wrong with my video card!

[Ryuken]

i dunno what happened but 2 weeks ago my video card has been acting weird. u know how when u boot up ur computer the screen changes and on my computer when the screen changes there's these waves and it's brighter than normal, it's weird. also when ever i try to play CS the screen would go black and nuthin would response but the computer is still running. i'm not sure if it's just CS or any thing 3D so right now i can't play any good games. so is this a harware problem or is it just my window messed up? my video card is rosewill ati radeon 9600 256mb. i really hope that i don't have to buy a new video card. if i do which one should i get that under$100

[Gryph]

First question, are all your drivers up to date and such?

[Ryuken]

i think so, i'll check again

 

EDIT: yup it's up to date

Edited April 23, 2005 by Ryuken

[Nusumenai]

Some things to try.

 

 

Actually take a look at the video card: Open your rig up, and take the card out. Make sure the fan is clean.... Dust can gather after a few months of use. Make sure the heat sink is properly screwed on. Also, make sure you computer is getting proper ventilation and that all the other fans are working properly. Heat can become a very serious issue.

 

Now... If that doesn't fix it... Unistall your card drivers, restart your computer in safe mode and use THIS program to clean out the excess files left over by the unistall. Use the cap cleaner aswell (it takes a while sometime, keep that in mind). After that, restart your computer normaly, and install the last drivers that worked well on yoru rig.

[Ryuken]

i'm thinking that it could be from a CS hack ( i used it for fun but those hax were stupid so i deleted them anyway) because when i was playing FarCry it worked perfectly, so i uninstall Steam and my driver and installed it again but it still didn't work. but when i reinstall the driver, i didn't use the drivercleaner(above) because i didn't know about it, so should i try it again??

[Gryph]

Yeah, go ahead and uninstall and use Driver Cleaner.

 

Also, you said this:

know how when u boot up ur computer the screen changes and on my computer when the screen changes there's these waves and it's brighter than normal

Did that happen during POST? If so, then that has nothing to do with drivers since it doesn't use them yet.

 

But if you're able to play one 3D game which is much more demanding that CS, then that means there probably isn't a heating problem as Nusumenai suggested.

[Ryuken]

that's y it's weird since during POST and the boot screen is looks funny but it doesn't seems like a heating problem since i can still play farcry but since i'm Dling something i'll try that later

[ken_cinder]

I get funny waves/lines across the screen at my Boot selector when I hit Enter (I dual boot 2k/XP), but I attribute that to being something to do with NTLDR or the fact that I'm using a different bootscreen. Don't have any problems otherwise, but that still is wierd.

[Ryuken]

now i'm seeing weird wave line when i'm in window i think it's gettin worst , couls it be my monitor? cuz i don't c those weird lines on my TV but can the monitor cause the computer to frezze?? btw when that happens and i restart it say there's something worng with the device driver so i'm starting to think it's not my video card