Graphical error

Hey y'all. Got something that's been bugging me a bit over the last couple months. Since I moved to Windows 7 on my laptop, I've had some graphical errors while playing pc games. Basically, in certain cases, I will get screen tearing(or at least, that's what I think it is). Basically, I get these lines popping up on screen that will flicker and kinda look like spikes or tree trunks or something in certain parts of pretty much every game. For example, in Dragon Age, I get the issue while outside, but not inside. While playing M2TW, I get it while in battle, but not in campaign. While playing EUIII, I get it while having some map modes on, but not on others. Its not exactly super pressing as an issue, as I'm fairly patient, but it would be awesome if I could get the issue resolved. Any suggestions? I have an ATI 2600HD graphics card, and windows 7 64 bit OS.

Have you updated your video drivers?

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Have you updated your video drivers?

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Haven't tried in about a week, but yeah.

What version of DirectX are you running?

Uhm.... I'm not totally sure how to check that. Bit o' help with that, please?

Start menu -> Run -> type "dxdiag" w/o quotes -> if a box pops up with Ok as an option, click it (it may not if you've already run this before) -> the screen that then pops up with your system information will list the direct X version at the very bottom

DirectX 11. My graphics card doesn't support it. That the problem?

I'm not positive, but that would certainly be worth investigating. Try rolling back to DX10.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

I'm not positive, but that would certainly be worth investigating. Try rolling back to DX10.

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I might need a touch of help with how to do that.

After reading a bit more, it appears that DirectX 11 is supposed to be backwards compatibile for everything, and apparently Windows 7 automatically installs it anyway. So, I'm not sure whether that would solve your problem or whether you'd be able to remove it even if you wanted to. Since it's happening on multiple games though, it definitely sounds like some kind of driver issue. I would recommend browsing ATI forums for driver problems with those games and/or Windows 7.

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Originally Posted by Yaseikhaan

Hey y'all. Got something that's been bugging me a bit over the last couple months. Since I moved to Windows 7 on my laptop, I've had some graphical errors while playing pc games. Basically, in certain cases, I will get screen tearing(or at least, that's what I think it is). Basically, I get these lines popping up on screen that will flicker and kinda look like spikes or tree trunks or something in certain parts of pretty much every game. For example, in Dragon Age, I get the issue while outside, but not inside. While playing M2TW, I get it while in battle, but not in campaign. While playing EUIII, I get it while having some map modes on, but not on others. Its not exactly super pressing as an issue, as I'm fairly patient, but it would be awesome if I could get the issue resolved. Any suggestions? I have an ATI 2600HD graphics card, and windows 7 64 bit OS.

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Hello all, Caius reporting in... with the same problem.

While I'm playing, nothing happens, but the problem comes when I'm restarting my computer from an hybernation and well, I see the same. I'm using an Upgrade kit of Win7 Home Premium 32 bits. I didn't format the whole thing, I just updated as told by Acer. I got an driver update from Windows Update, which I accessed to install, since then, hibernation does the same thing to me. I'm glad that my computer is not the problem, it seems to be the new drivers and the like.

DX 11 is not something updated, hence can not be downgraded. It comes with Win7 and the structure of your game decides which version to use. It has previous ones built into it.

I got some very annoying issue as well. I'm hoping for Windows 7 to settle down with the surrounding software.

you should also see how hot your laptop gets: from experience if the graphics card is inadequately cooled and gets too hot, it may cause symptoms as you mentioned - it certainly happened to me before

taka

It's a vsync issue. Open your ATI Catalyst Control Center and check 3D>All Settings --- there is a setting labelled "Wait for vertical refresh", slide the bar up to max quality aka "Always On". This should fix it, but may not as some applications override the basic GPU settings.

Linky. You don't have to read the article, but what you are experiencing is the second image correct? Vsync corrects that.

Yeah, if it's really tearing that you're describing then vsync is your solution. Most games allow you to set that in their graphics options, but when they don't your only choice would be to force it in the driver as Psychonaut describes.

I recently built a new desktop PC for myself and when I reinstaledl DragonAge, I experienced bad tearing until I enabled vsync in the games graphics options. :yes:

Psychonaut, I'm having trouble finding my catalyst center. Where exactly is it?

There should be a link to it in the start menu. The shortcut should be called 'CCC', if it's not there the actual exe should be at 'C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLI.exe'.

Ok.... for some reason, my ATI Tech folder is.... empty. :inquisitive:

Ok, figured out the catalyst center issue. Got the setting changed. However, the issue still persists, same as before.

In game try either of setting AA to x2(or less) if it is higher than that or turn off screen buffer.

Sadly, no improvement.

Also, if it helps at all, here's a screenie of what it looks like:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/93130672-3.jpg