Monitor or Graphics?
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:43 amI've been having display problems, but I can't figure out if my GPU or my monitor is to blame. I've mostly just ignored them up 'till now, but I think it's time to iron them out.
#1: I hooked up my laptop to my monitor so I could have a display that didn't suck for awhile. Ever since, my monitor only displays correctly on certain resolution/refresh rate combos. They all worked before.
#2: When I start up Steam, the Valve intro movie does not play on resolutions above 800x600. I never even knew Half Life 2 had titles at the beginning at every chapter until recently. ::)
#3: This is what spurred me into action. I bought Star Wars: Empire at War, and things went screwy. The program froze during the videos. I was able to play after video driver updating. The intro videos showed some artifacts, and while playing the screen would go blue sometimes. It was just sluggish overall. Also, I don't think the "Star Wars shrinking text" was displayed. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough? Before I updated drivers, the D3D tests in DXDiag could not run. AGP texture acceleration was greyed out as well. Windows detected my GPU just fine though (hardware manager). Maybe I'll just play on my laptop. It seems more stable. ::)
When my hard drive failed, I gave everything a good dusting. My GPU in particular was caked in dust. Perhaps some of the dust got lodged somewhere? I can come up with no explanation for #1 though.
Maybe I'll just use my laptop. 
Kinda defeats the purpose of having a gaming rig though, even if it's dated.
PS: GRAW ran fine, but it's intro videos acted up some too.
PPS:I think this is everything that could matter.
#1: I hooked up my laptop to my monitor so I could have a display that didn't suck for awhile. Ever since, my monitor only displays correctly on certain resolution/refresh rate combos. They all worked before.
#2: When I start up Steam, the Valve intro movie does not play on resolutions above 800x600. I never even knew Half Life 2 had titles at the beginning at every chapter until recently. ::)
#3: This is what spurred me into action. I bought Star Wars: Empire at War, and things went screwy. The program froze during the videos. I was able to play after video driver updating. The intro videos showed some artifacts, and while playing the screen would go blue sometimes. It was just sluggish overall. Also, I don't think the "Star Wars shrinking text" was displayed. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough? Before I updated drivers, the D3D tests in DXDiag could not run. AGP texture acceleration was greyed out as well. Windows detected my GPU just fine though (hardware manager). Maybe I'll just play on my laptop. It seems more stable. ::)
When my hard drive failed, I gave everything a good dusting. My GPU in particular was caked in dust. Perhaps some of the dust got lodged somewhere? I can come up with no explanation for #1 though.
Maybe I'll just use my laptop. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a gaming rig though, even if it's dated.PS: GRAW ran fine, but it's intro videos acted up some too.
PPS:I think this is everything that could matter.
- BFG 6800 (mfg. OC)
- DVD+/-RW
- DVD-ROM
- Samsung Syncmaster 997df
- 600w PSU