Black streaks in new game

[Trebuchet]

I'm playing the new PC superhero game Freedom Force (Love it!), but I'm running into a graphics problem I've never had before. I'm getting occasional thin black streaks on my screen. These are generally vertical, and typically 3-6" long. They usually last only a second or less. They are distracting, but the game doesn't crash or anything.

I shut down all other apps to play the game. My graphics card is rather old (Guillemot GeForce DDR 32Mb), but well within the recommended range for the game. Any ideas how I might correct this?

(I'll be buying a Leadtek GF4 4400 soon, I hope)

[TimPoet]

Hi, Trebuchet,

when's the last time you updated the drivers?
Give us all the specs on your system like I have showing.

[Trebuchet]

My System:
Motherboard: ASUS CUSL2; BIOS 1009 Final (151 FSB)
CPU/HSF: Intel Pentium III 1GHz @ 1132 MHz w/Alpha PAL35t
Case: InWin Q500N; 2 intake & 4 exhaust fans
Power Supply: Antex PP412X 400 watt
Memory: Crucial 512Mb PC133 2-2-2 5/7t
Hard Drive: Maxtor 20G DiamondMaxPlus 7200 RPM
Video Card: Hercules Prophet GeForce DDR-DVI 32Mb
Monitor: NEC MultiSync 70 17"
Soundcard: Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks PC Works
Modem: US Robotics 5610 Performance Pro
CD-RW: TDK veloCD 12/10/32X
DVD-ROM: Pioneer DVD-106S Slot loader
Removable Media: Digital Research LS-120 Superdisk
Trackball: Microsoft Explorer
Keyboard: Microsoft Internet Pro
Scanner: Microtek Slimscan C6
Printer: Lexmark Z42
Graphic Pad: Wacom Graphire2
Joystick: Saitek Cyborg 3D USB
Game Controller: Microsoft Strategic Commander
OS: Microsoft Windows 98 SE/XP Pro dual boot

Video card drivers are 23.11 Nvidia reference drivers. I know they are far from current but the 28.xx's I tried caused problems.

[Alfie]

Sounds like a driver issue,have you checked on faqs at the game's site and at the video cards site?
There may be a known issue.
Are there any drivers between the current one you're using and latest for your video card?
Is the agp speed set correctly or is it overclocked?

[Trebuchet]

I haven't checked the game's home page yet, the game is so new they don't even have a patch out yet.

There are probably at least a half dozen driver releases between my current driver and the latest one. Every later driver I have tried has caused problems, so I have kinda lost my enthusiasm to try new ones. I suppose I could try another driver, it's easy enough to reinstall the old one if it doesn't work right.

My video card is overclocked by about 10%, both GPU and RAM. AGP is 4X. Think I should try going with stock video card speed to see if that corrects it?

[glc]

Declock both your video card and FSB to stock and try it.

[Trebuchet]

I installed the most recent reference drivers from Nvidia (v28.32), and after some difficulties getting it set up correctly (I had to remove a GeForce tweak from my System Configuration/Startup), it seems to have corrected the streaking problem. The only negative seems to be a slight decrease in 3DMark2001 score, but it's less than 1% so it's probably just normal statistical variance. It's only a synthetic benchmark anyway.

One other interesting item I noticed, though. The screen image in both 3DMark2001 and in the game were noticeably darker. I corrected it in Display settings, but is it common for new video card drivers to effect gamma and brightness? I've never had that happen before, and I've probably updated my card drivers at least a dozen times.

Thanks for the help. I hope to have my new GeForce4 Ti 4400 by next week.

[Alfie]

I've noticed that,too.It could be the game resets itself and you have to correct it via the game options(that's what i do),also if that doesn't work,as you said via the settings.
Also if you've changed the colors and settings via the cards software,these settings are lost and the card resets itself,so check to see if the card has options for adjustments.