Geforce 2 MX400 now FX5600 SE problems

Hi , thanks for reading this and thanks for your great service here.

I originally had a gf2 mx400 32 meg in my machine and eventually started running into problems with my monitor flashing off and back on periodically. it would only stay off for a second, but often would freeze for a few seconds before hand.
Sometimes it would do this often, sometimes not for days.

I recently upgraded to the fx5600 256meg hoping it would solve this problem. Well , it changed it. My monitor doesn't flash off and on, but does "skip" periodically. Its hard to explain what it does, it almost 'jumps' then goes back to the way it was.

While playing games now, especially multiplayer , ( and especially Tom Clancy games for some reason -- syberia 2 has never given me a problem ) I will be playing fine, and notice no problems at all, the card seems to be working great, then out of nowhere, sometimes 1 minute into play, sometimes 3.5 hours into play, the screen will distort and show graphics that aren't there.

An example is today I was playing a map that was all desert, with mountains of sand, all of a sudden a mountain top appeared, green, lush , etc.. and the rest of the screen distorted. This is the same view I saw last night once or twice, but it does change.

Often I can still play, the scenes change a bit but are still very distorted and unrecognizable ( almost always graphics that are not even in the game at the time ). Once in awhile it only disrupts the colors in a game, removing fill in colors and seeing only outlines of things.

I have 512 meg of ram, and what I suspect might be the problem, my motherboard is :

PCCHIPS M700MR Socket 370 MB-SK-370-M700-RB

Its not full of peripherals, one hard disk, one dvd burner and pretty much all fans after that ( i installed 4 fans into my system thinking heat may be the problem ) .

Can anyone give any advice as to what I might check? I was honestly unable to find any useful video options in my bios, and short of buying a new motherboard ( i just really don't want to spend the $100+ right now if i I can avoid it ) have tried everything I can think of.

Thanks for your help, if I left out any details that would be useful please let me know. I tried to include as much information as possible. I have included a screenshot of the game today that I was speaking about. This scene was supposed to be all spiked mounds ( mountains ) of sand, you can see the sand in the bottom right third of the screen ( roughly ) . The other scenes had nothing to do with this map whatsoever, or any game I had played this morning and my pc was shutdown last night.

 

I am pretty sure this is it:

You video card is not being properly cooled. Do you have a Heatsink and fan for it? If not, you MUST get one. Also, get some fans (unless you have some) for your case.

Last, update your driver

 

Sorry, I should have mentioned that. The fan did come with a heatsink and a fan, both seem to be working properly. I have installed 4 case fans between yesterday and today, and still no luck.

I tried the Detonator drivers ( or whatever they are calling them today ) when I got the card ( just got the new card last week ) , and last night reverted to the WindowsXP nvidia drivers. Having the same problems with both.

I am really at a loss here, I am almost ready to buy a new motherboard and processor but fear the wifes wrathe if that wasn't the problem.

 

This sounds more like a few bugs with the games themselves that may be solved with whatever the most recent patch may be.

Another thing you could try is running MemTest to check your memory for errors.

Try playing the games with the side of the case open to see if you still get the same problems.

Have you tried using a different monitor yet?

 

yeah, I have tried a few, got a new ( larger ) one a couple of months ago

 

I have been running the case open for awhile now, it didnt help. The screen "flashes" outside of games, inside of games the graphics distort. The games are all updated as well though, something I always do out of habit.

MemTest showed no errors after running it twice. Is there a better program to try?

 

Hmm..any new BIOS updates for your motherboard available?

Do you have all the most recent Windows updates for your version?

 

It could be a bug in the game. And yes, do try to update your BIOS