Curly's World

I have some issues with my computer and maybe someone has an idea what is wrong. When I use the internet there are always several green pixel in the Windows taskbar. They disappear when I click on the taskbar or when I switch to the desktop or another task. I also have some graphical issues in the first (about) 15 minutes after I start my computer and some screen flickering in the first 30 seconds after I start certain games. All these issues (except for the green pixel) disappear after the computer runs for a while.

Is my graphic card (AMD Radeon HD 6800) failing or can it be something else?

Display problems are brutal to diagnose and easy to blame on bad hardware. Last time I had similar problems turned out that my video card RAM was shot.

First things first...update everything! Windows, display drivers, directx, the whole kit and kaboodle.
You should exhaust every possible option before settling with hardware problem...

Sometimes Microsoft releases some crap that overwrites a newer version of some dll from your video card supplier with an older one, or some routine that is just completely bonkers that requires a newer version of your video card's drivers.

The fact that it happens when you turn your computer on probably rules out that it is overheating, unless it is overheating FAST.

I was thinking about the video card RAM as well. As most of the issues only appear when I'm using the internet, I turned off hardware acceleration for Firefox and deleted a certain add-on. Seems to work much better now. I think time will tell if really is something wrong with the video card. No need to hurry, it's still new and I have 18 months of guarantee left.

I guess I should have asked if it happens in all browsers.

My video ram issue manifested as 6 to 8 parallel white lines about 5mm long in random spots on the screen...by the time the card manufacturer got back to me about it the warranty was expired. Then I was stuck with a bum card. But that happened irregardless of what I was doing and didn't go away they just kept moving whenever the display would refresh.

If you have a spare card you could always try swapping it out to see if it is a slot connector issue.

Pager wrote:by the time the card manufacturer got back to me about it the warranty was expired. Then I was stuck with a bum card.

I thought that in all civilized countries the warranty covers stuff that happens during the warranty, not whenever the other party decides to do something about that.

If you have a spare card you could always try swapping it out to see if it is a slot connector issue.

Another option is if you have a recent CPU with integrated video, just to use that.

Zyx wrote:Another option is if you have a recent CPU with integrated video, just to use that.

Agreed.