I don’t know what is going on but the last 2 days I have been experiencing what I believe to be OpenGL stability issues.
The symptom essentially is weird “shards” of my screen flickering and showing odd colors, usually purple+pink, for split-seconds. Sometimes it is a triangle, other times it is a line, or a trapezoid shape, or a combo of those. It is kind of wacky looking, like as if your LCD shattered right before you eyes, so lots of sharp lines and geometric shapes.
I first noticed this 2 nights ago while playing Quake Wars (ETQW). I have been playing ETQW for over a year on this PC, usually 2-3 hours a night (or more admittedly, I’m an addict, at least I can admit it though!)
Last night it was so bad Quake crashed and hung my entire system.
I rebooted and then Windows was crashing/locking up video-wise and thusly locking-up entirely moments later.
I let my PC cool off a bit thinking that was the issue. It didn’t seem to matter. I let it cool and left it idling overnight, like I always do, and it was hung this morning.
I installed the new NVidia drivers this morning and it seemed fine all day but when I tried Quake a bit ago, it began to do the same thing. At one point trying to get Quake going last night, I managed to alt+tab out and I happened to see a popup (hidden by Quake’s screen but I could see it in my system tray) that said something about Nvidia OpenGL. It looked like it was some error popup, but I couldn’t get to it in time (I’d have to move it to my other monitor) because Quake right then locked up my whole system.
I also just downloaded FurMark v1.6.5 and ran that. Within 60 seconds, it began to do the same thing. It was not as bad and it didn’t lock up my system, but I exited it about 3 minutes into the test, just in case.
So now I am almost convinced it is related to OpenGL, but specifically I am certain it is related to my video card/settings in some way.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN MONTHS in terms of video settings, quake settings, or even windows system or display settings.
Here are my specs, for reference. My system has not changed in about 8 months and like I said, Quake has been working great for months (800+ hours logged), up until now:
Windows XP SP2 - 32bit
Intel QX6850 3.0GHz (quad-core, not overclocked)
Asus P5Q-EM Motherboard
XFX 8800GTS 640MB (the “overclocked” GTS model)
NVidia 182.08 WHQL Driver for XP 32bit with stock settings
2 x Dell 22" Widescreen High-Color LCDs (1920x1200 each)
Several system fans
SATA 120GB HD
Internal IDE & External USB 500MB SimpleDisk both for Backups
(Yes I mirror my SATA drive each night alternating just in case)
3 x 1GB DIMMs (not cheapies, onboard heat sinks/blades)
Rosewill 500W PSU
Lots of USB peripherals
Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, USB Mic, etc…
This is really annoying and I don’t know if it is Hardware related (like a bad video card or bad memory), or if it is dust in my system (like my video card’s fan), or if it is something else. My system is not too hot, even when gaming, and I checked my Nvidia GPU temp using NVidia Monitor (and also confirmed with FurMark just a moment ago) and it idles around 58-60C, and gets up to 65C when gaming or during the FurMark test. I’ve read reports that these GPUs can easily withstand 90C temperatures under load, and I’m coming nowhere near that. I busted out my can O’ compressed air and took it to my PC internals, but that didn’t seem to do anything (except make me sneeze a lot). I also ran my PC for a while with the case open. I think it actually made my system run hotter (according to Nvidia GPU temp) by 1 or 2 degrees, if you can believe that… But still, no dice.
ANY IDEAS ON WHAT IT COULD BE OR HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT??
I could not find anything in the XP Event logs, and I can’t find anywhere to troubleshoot or log NVidia, OpenGL, or Direct3D functions, so I don’t know if it is related to that or if that would tell me more info or what…
Thanks in advance!!