I say "artifacts" because that's kinda what they look like, but not normal ones. It's not incorrect pixels, it's rectangular blocks, anywhere from 2x2 to 2x12 pixels in size. My graphics card doesn't seem to be overheating, as it stays under 50C (aftermarket cooling = ) throughout playing LFS.

And it either shows up at the beginning, or never at all. It's really kind of confusing. I also can't seem to figure out any pattern, as it doesn't show up that often (maybe 5-10% of the time?).

EDIT: look at the bottom of the screenshot. It only happens down there. Sometimes it's about as "tall" as that, sometimes it's about 2-2.5X taller, going up to the middle of the gloves or so.

EDIT2: Eh, also, it seems to happen a fair amount of the time when I Shift+F4 after the game is behind a window (like this webpage) for a few minutes. But if I then alt-tab from in the game, back to this webpage, then click on Live for Speed in the Start bar, it'll be gone.

Uh oh, looks like your graphics card starts to fail, though as you say the temp should be okay, maybe a driver update solves this? If not, it's really your card that is (becoming) faulty, regardless of the temperature.

E: Btw, my screen looked like this when the card finally broke down, but the issue was overheating related in my case.

I've got the latest forceware drivers for my 6600GT, so that's not it. Also read my edits, the artifacts don't stay if I do some crazy trickery.


EDIT: I just downloaded ATITool, and will scan for artifacts to see if it picks up something.

EDIT2: Nothing found after 15 minutes. Also sometimes the entire LFS screen will go black after I Shift-F4 (back to full screen mode), All I can do it Shift-F4 back and click the X, so I'm thinking my problem is elsewhere.

is there dust on your GPU by any chance ?

i had that once, not ingame tho, and i think some dust one the card caused it.

Yup, that looks a lot like an overheating graphics card. I'd suggest you clean it up a bit. If that doesn't work, you should get a better cooler for your computer.

Quote from daNieLbuM :

is there dust on your GPU by any chance ?

i had that once, not ingame tho, and i think some dust one the card caused it.

Hmm, I'll check that out, but I don't see how that could be it, since any possible dust isn't causing any overheating (like I said in the first post, I'm not even reaching 50C(as reported from Nvidia's control panel and ATITool which is very cool for a GPU)

EDIT: Looks pretty clean to me. Also my case has these dust catcher things in front of the intake fans, so that's not really an issue inside my case.

Quote from Yaamboo :

Yup, that looks a lot like an overheating graphics card. I'd suggest you clean it up a bit. If that doesn't work, you should get a better cooler for your computer.

Uhhhh... what?

Quote from pik_d :

My graphics card doesn't seem to be overheating, as it stays under 50C (aftermarket cooling = ) throughout playing LFS.

If you're convinced it is not due to a hardware problem, play another game and see if artifacts show up.

does this ever occur when you start LFS without any other apps open? if you then alt-tab/shift-F4 back to windows and then back to LFS with a browser window somewhere in there it's most likely to happen, right?

also, do the artifacts appear to be in a solid state or do they flicker and move about?

If you are 100% certain its not an overheat issue then I am sorry to say it looks like the death throws of a GFX card.

Does it happen in all games? Do the artifacts only appear after a while or as soon as you start LFS?

Quote from kompa :

does this ever occur when you start LFS without any other apps open? if you then alt-tab/shift-F4 back to windows and then back to LFS with a browser window somewhere in there it's most likely to happen, right?

also, do the artifacts appear to be in a solid state or do they flicker and move about?

It happens seemingly 100% of the time when i shift-f4 and let something else take focus for a bit then shift-f4 back. Then the artifacts go away 100% of the time when i alt-tab out of LFS, then click on LFS to bring it back up. This is what confuses me, if it was a hardware issue, I don't understand why I can get it to go away so easily.

When I start, I *think* it may have happened once or twice, but NOT all the time.

They flicker.

Quote from Woz :

If you are 100% certain its not an overheat issue then I am sorry to say it looks like the death throws of a GFX card.

Does it happen in all games? Do the artifacts only appear after a while or as soon as you start LFS?

I just downloaded the Max Payne 2 demo, to see if I wanted to pick that up, and it happens, but only when looking right into a mirror. No other part of the game does this. So I'm kind of wondering if it's something that's so rare it hasn't been fixed in Nvidia's drivers.

do you have any mods installed in lfs?

somtimes these can have corrupt files in them, i found hi-res mods and better track graphics will not work on a low end card as well as they do on the higher end cards, i have tested tem all from low end to high end, it happend with the FX5200 with the Hi-res mod, upgraded to a x1300 and didnt happen at all now im back to a 6600GT and not a prob, my specs on my 6600GT=Core freq 500mhz, mem freq 900mhz, aa 4x af 8x, lfs if at full settings, and i get 110 fps


idd suggest if your getting artifacts in other games then time for a new card upgrade now before it becomes a bother,

thanks racemania

No mods, unless you count patch V8 (but this didn't just happen in V8).

I may try backing off with the AA/AF and seeing what happens. I want to wait until the 8600 and X2600 cards come out to see what i want, so I'm gonna hold out for another month or two with this 6600GT.

DHZer0point 0.9291 (Forceware 92.91)

Tried these yet? I haven't got a clue if these are any good but it might be worth a shot.

http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/zeropoint.htm

Such a weird problem I really don't have anything else to suggest.