Multitude of Graphics problems :(

[Delta 5-1 3]

For a while I was receiving help from some gracious guys over at www.armedassault.eu, I had problems with my visuals cascading out with white jagged shapes after about 1 minute after a mission started...since then I've tried everything only to find out that for some reason my machine refused to be able to use high detail anymore....since then I've lowered down to low settings and the "jaggies" disappeared but now I have a major problem with constant CTDs and system reboots especially when I zoom in on any action or city terrain...I have no idea what to do anymore but to think that my gfx card is fried, even though the only game I EVER have problems with is only ArmA and the card is only 4 months old now, every other pc game I own runs absolutely fine even at the occasional high settings I place them...if anybody can help my situation I would be gratefully thankful as this is causing me to lose faith in the stability of this magnificent game...I'm patched up to 1.07 beta fix'd...here's some specs:

Pentium D 2.8 ghz dual core

2 gb DDR2 RAM

Radeon 1900GT 16x PCI-E

Foxconn 955+ Motherboard

All updated drivers even 7.4 Catalyst

[jackass888 0]

everything... so what exacly have you tried?

i guess the gpu temps you have already checked. reset without any warning or bluescreen? and has it ever done it without arma running?

if it is software related id say the fastest way to get rid of it is a format.

and with jagged white shapes you mean something similar?

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

[Delta 5-1 3]

Thanks for your reply, I'll check out that link you sent me as well as the GPU checks..when I said everything I meant everything related to software problems - uninstalling/reinstalling drivers, ArmA, repairing Windows XP w/o actually formatting so I can keep the important stuff that I can't lose from my PC...sorry for not clearly stating so in my first post, I guess I'm in hopes for a quick answer from ppl with similar problems in the past...I haven't opened up the case in hopes that I can solve the problem by modifying software settings as I'm starting to feel that my video card is responsible for this complete mess...it only happens with ArmA and NO other PC game which is a total piss off....here's what my artifacting looked like, this is not my actual screenshot but same situation...this situation was actually remedied through lowering my overall graphics setting to very low/low but now I get CTDs with DrWatson32 boxes for the most part, BSDs (however, this not lately after changing page file to run directly off of physical RAM) and system reboots without warning at times especially when zooming in on environment for all instances...even though I get a very good fps for the short time I can play...

Similar Screenshot - Pay no attention to the gfx settings in this pic, it's somebody else's...just wanted to illustrate what my PC is doing only...

[Delta 5-1 3]

Ok I tried underclocking to about 50 mhz below the standard running rate for vRAM and GPU settings and I can get through a little further on a mission before the artifacting slightly shows up before a CTD, especially when I move into a city with buildings...all this while still running on ArmA low gfx settings....is this the diagnosis for a weak video card?

[Delta 5-1 3]

Update:  I ran testing for GPU Temperature on screen, when I start to approach a city with enemy soldiers, the temperature jumps up to 72+ degrees C for the short time I can play w/o crashing a couple of minutes...I think the temperature would drop if nothing was going on around me...ArmA kept CTD'ing without any warning while keeping the desktop at the resolution that only ArmA was set to..ugh, this is so awful...two-three months and I haven't been able to play my beloved ArmA because of this consistent crap I was thinking if my power source may have too much power as it's a OCZ GameStream 700W and could this have perhaps fried my video card? I don't think a reformat will solve the problem as the situation keeps pressing even with constant software alterations that I attempt in vain.

Edit: And this all occurred when I still had the underclocking active, -50 GPU and -50 vRAM

[jackass888 0]

72 c isnt that much for a 1900gt. and no you power supply cant have too much power . from the screen it looks like bad vram but it could also be caused by system ram. there are some bit difficult methods to test ram but none for vram. you could still try some registry repair or atitool artifact test so you could turn in your guarantee... if you have one.

[Delta 5-1 3]

Ok I ran a "certain" gfx driver cleaner and the artifacting is non existant however I am still CTDing when I zoom in, here's a pic while I was zooming into my destination on foot 1 min into mission...the pic might be kinda small but nonetheless ArmA is on low detail and like I said all i did was zoom in on the city...no artifacting occurred at least :\

This is what happens when I zoom in..

[Delta 5-1 3]

Interesting development:

I ran ArmA on low once again this time with a page file, I ended up getting a lot further down the mission however when i was near some buildings I got the damn artifacting syndrome again (this time for a whopping 5 mins) until receiving a BSD stop error that said page_fault_in_nonpaged_area along with the error causing file ati3duag.dll...rebooted after BSD, I then turned off the page file which was now set to 0 mb and running directly off of my 2 gb of RAM, restarted ArmA, I then got the same zoom in CTD at the beginning of the mission (30 secs in) which kicked me back to the desktop with same resolution as game once again....

[Delta 5-1 3]

I might add that I was able to play for 5 mins, the artifacting only appeared when I faced the buildings that I was using as cover, as of now I'm running a thorough test of GoldMemory v6.92 to see wth is wrong with my memory or if it's just ArmA programming...

[OFPDude 0]

if you have been overclocking then it seems to me you may have caused some heat damage to either the video card or some other components on the motherboard.....try the following:

1. swap out the video card with another.

2. reset bios to defaults.

bad system ram is usually detected at bios boot phase, so are most catastrophic hardware failures. Overclocking components can cause artifacts and intermittant hardware failures under load.

why are you messing with the page file ? you can't disable it no matter how much you try

[Delta 5-1 3]

OFPdude,

Never overclocked the video card, messing with page file to make sure the game ran off the 2gb RAM and not my slow ass HDD which is pretty old..

[OFPDude 0]

well you can't disable the page file, it's always in use (try delete it....I bet you can't).

I still think it's an overheating issue, arma really pushes your components to their limits...whever I zoom into dense bushes all the fans in my system go into high rpm.

[Delta 5-1 3]

Nah it's an ATI driver leak confirmed by ATI/AMD...thanks anyways..

[Delta 5-1 3]

On 2nd thought you may be right OFPDude, today I tried something different and set my resolution to 1280x1024, the first missions went well...then the bad news, on the third time i got the restart...gonna crack open the case and see what's happening inside....thanks

[xmongx 0]

Sorry to dig this up but the issue keeps coming up and every time people presume its a hardware problem.

The problem is due to the ATI drivers the behaviour you get looks a lot like what happens you have when you have stuffed youre card by overclocking too aggressively.

I had the problem myself when i used an ati card.

Revert to catalyst 6.7 if you can which will most likely fix it.

Check this thread:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=55868

[Stonewall Jackson 0]

Not sure if this is related too the ATI card but I had the same prob with my Nvidia, I tried setting "antialiasing" too low or disabled and I have'nt had these poly spikes since.

If this works for you then I think It's a program bug and not a hardware flaw. let us know how it went.

stonewall

[Delta 5-1 3]

Ok thanks, will turn off AA, anything that gives me hope at this point -_-

[Delta 5-1 3]

Yeah xMongx, I think it is the driver problems...didn't see your post on first page 'til now..I tried the 6.7 catalyst and my CTDs happened right away after the mission started...a lot quicker than how ArmA ran with the new 7.4 drivers.

[Delta 5-1 3]

Ok good news so far, it seemed I only crashed out immediately after mission start with 6.7 drivers when i was using the beta 1.07 patch/mod...when i use the standard 1.05 patched ArmA my game is once again playable! Will update to see how it goes...thanks a lot men..

[Delta 5-1 3]

Well it's confirmed, my ArmA works again as it did, with small glitches that it had when the game first out which I can deal with (slow texture loading) but it IS the ATI 6.7 drivers that only work...they are not compatible with the 1.07 beta patch at all and will only work with the 1.05 patch. I'm just happy I finally get to play ArmA again...not a hardware problem at all as my PC is NOT overheating as many have stated to others and me...I'm just glad I didn't fork out the cash to get a new video card. So my advice is to simply revert back to ATI 6.7 catalyst and ONLY use the 1.05 patch, you will get the old texture loading slowness, but the game WILL work if all is well. Once again, thanks to all that helped me here!