odd JPEG corruption?

[mrtube]

Hey, I've had win 7 64 running on my mothers computer since around august. Just installed the released version and this problem stayed. Shes not sure if it showed up for sure when i installed win 7 in august or not, so it may be moot.

When viewing jpeg's she says sometimes a horizontal black line shows up in the picture in random spots. Or sometimes rainbow like dots in spots on the picture. Almost makes a persons arm look like a topographcal map. it randomly happens to random pictures. if she closes it and reopens its not there.

I immediately assumed monitor or video card. BUT, she was able to send me screenshots of it using the win 7 snipping tool. And sure enough it picked the effect up.

Now I have no idea what to do. Can a failing video card cause corruption in screenshots?!

video card is an ATI X1900XT. the computer is an AMD 5200+ in a gigabyte motherboard, 4GB DDR2 800. machine is going on 3 years old.

[glc]

When was the last time the dust was cleaned out of it? What does it have for a power supply?

[mrtube]

She vacuums the dust filter once a month "antec P160" and i last vacuumed the heatsinks out good in august. System stays pretty dust free.

Power supply I believe is a "Antec True Power Trio TP3-550 550W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply with Three 12V Rails" Not sure who antec was buying from in late 2006.

[glc]

I think that's one of the better CWT's.

Dunno if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I'd prolly start by reinstalling the video driver, checking rail voltages and temperatures, and running memtest.

[mrtube]

Atleast you found some tree to bark up. When the snip tool picked it up i was totally confused.

I Really don't trust ATI's latest drivers for these cards. For awhile the latest driver claimed it worked on the x1900xt and x1950xt but i couldn't get them to install. Then they released a new "legacy" driver that did install.

[glc]

You can always buy a $25 Nvidia card, such as a 8400GS, and try it. This should do anything your mother would need unless she's into FPS games.......

[Force Flow]

Is this only when JPEGs are being viewed? Does it happen at any other time?

What software is being used to view the JPEG files?

[mrtube]

She had said specifically Jpegs. I believe shes using the default viewer that comes with win 7. I guess windows photo viewer. I'll ask her today if I talk to her.

[mrtube]

Ok, finally got to work on the computer, the corruption isnt just on jpeg's. Infact if i run a 3d game as the card heats up the artifacts get far worse, I've even had it crash. SO looks like time for a new video card.

Question is. Its running an X1900XT 256MB right now. Id like to get her something thats at least as fast as this card. But I dont know how it compares to other ones.

I assume a 9800GT is *far* faster. how are the lower cards?

[glc]

I would stick with ATI, and this is an amazing card for the price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121328

[mrtube]

Ok GLC. Ordered it.

I assume that will out perform the x1900xt?

[glc]

3 generations newer - yep.

[Strider]

Hmm, interesting for I have that happen to me in Firefox I just refresh the page and it's gone. Until now I thought it was just me and a bad install of Firefox. Well at least you know now it's not jpeg corruption. Yes I'm running Windows 7.

[mrtube]

Strider : I had it happening in a few programs, and Had it go from normal to a few artifacts\lines in 3dmark05 to the screen completely corrupting to the video card driver\directx crashing completely. It gets worse as the card heats up, yet temps are fine. I ran prime95 for hours, no problem, as well as running memtest86+ for awhile, So i'm sure now its the video card.

Was kinda cool to watch it get worse and worse running 3dmark


Thanks again for the help GLC.

[mrtube]

Well, Joy oh joy.

Her computer just locked up and won't start anymore. It turns on for a second and turns right back off. Unfortunately the replacement video card is at her house in a box.

But since this REALLY worries me, I just ordered a new corsair supply for it as well just in case.

The turning right off screams supply to me. Tho she said something thats REALLY confusing me. Her USB keyboard stayed litup when the computer was off.

I had her unplug the computer for right now, we're going up there for christmas.


I'm hoping to god its either the video card or power supply.