My computer decided to mess up everything pretty bad earlier today. My computer is 5 year old, though my graphic card is only 4 (AMD HD5750). It is overclocked (not anymore for now) and this has already caused some problems (as seen on this thread). My computer was cleaned a week ago, the temperatures are monitored and are correct, and DX/driver wise nothing has changed recently.

Full story (utterly detailed):
I opened Payday and joined a server, after a few minutes (5 or so) the screen flashed pink and the camera suddenly pointed to the floor (pretty scary moment with girly scram included over TS xD). Some seconds later the game crashed, Steam had to resync the game (never saw that before). After some seconds it allowed me to launch the game normally, but things were worse, the intro videos were already artifacting like hell so I closed it. Opened LFS to check a different 3D application and got the same problem (flashing textures, corrupted images...).

I rebooted Windows, opened LFS and let it sit at the main menu for some minutes, everything working ok. Hoping that this was just a hang I opened Payday, but after less than 2 minutes it crashed again, LFS broke again, Chrome interface got messed up, etc.

I disabled OC on CPU & GPU, rebooted again and tried to open LFS.

This is the funniest part:
After several tries where it just crashed on load I got the the main menu. After some more crashes I got to the track. As soon as I try to drive, my car falls down throught the floor and I get retired. If I enter the garage screen my car bounces until it just fly away. Or the front tires steer to the right, then one of them dissapears and the whole car leans because of the gravity

If I reboot and don't open any game it works fine. As I'm not an expert on this issues I have several questions:
- Which seems to be the cause of the problem? Fried card, driver/Windows related, DirectX... (does it relates to GFX card memory usage? could I limit it?)

- What would I need to try first? My motherboard has an integrated card, and I have the old one somewhere (under a pile of newer hardware boxes xD), but I'll wait for your suggestions before doing anything (don't want to mix drivers and those things if I don't need to).


I tried to record a video on my phone, but it force closed due to unknown causes. Today was an interesting day

It would be ashame if after this huge wall of text I missed some key information

TL;DR: Huge artifacts and broken physics.

Is your system memory overclocked? What are the specs? What frequency and timings do you have set?

Falling through scenery would not happen if it were just a graphics issue. That's physics data corruption.

He could download crystaldiskinfo and see in how good shape his hd is. Or try some of the other hd tools from his hd manufacturer. It could be an old hd dying.

Agree with Forbin, sounds like the system RAM is dying. Try running memtest86.

I forgot to mention the audio errors. While LFS is failling, its audio is corrupt (high pitched crackling), but Team Speak audio works fine. May that be something related to DirectX audio?

Quote from Forbin :

Is your system memory overclocked? What are the specs? What frequency and timings do you have set?

Falling through scenery would not happen if it were just a graphics issue. That's physics data corruption.

My RAM has never been overclocked. I have 1333MHz modules mixed with 1666, I just let it adjust automatically.


The reallocated sector count is on 36 for a long time now (though I don't understand much of that program, so I don't know if that's worth mention or not). My games are installed in C, unless LFS which is in D drive.


I'll try memtest later, never used it so, so I'll learn something new today xD

I've had similar issues to this with an older 3870. Horribly the best advice back then was to bake it in the oven. (I know, sounds mad) The reason being that at the time the fabrication plants were having QC issues and the memory on a number of AMD and Nvidia cards were getting shoddy solders for the memory chips. By baking it in the oven it melted the solder slightly and improved the circuit. I'm not saying that is what this issue is or that should be your first resort but it is possible.

First, disassemble your entire PC and give it a proper clean and plug it all back in but leave out anything that is not strictly required, so no sound/network card no additional drives no USB stuff etc. If your issues are resolved then it is possibly a PSU/dirt issue. Plug more stuff in and see if the problem comes back if it does then PSU/power delivery is the issue and replace your PSU - unfortunately it might be your Motherboard but you'll find that out when your new PSU arrives...

If that does not sort it try borrowing or using someone elses graphics card, doesn't need to be powerful just enough to get some tests going. If your issues are still present then it's not the graphics card.

If it's not the graphics card then try running with only one stick of memory, it is unlikely that they'd fail together so try one then try the other. Replace as required.

If none of the above has shed any light on the issue then it is most likely a motherboard or CPU failure and unless you have some very patient and helpful friends testing your CPU in their rig is not an option.

tl;dr
clean and rebuild your PC
test by component
bake your graphics card

PSU, another part to the growing list of posible causes It is 7 year old, the oldest part in my computer by far.

I was planning to buy a new computer Early™ next year. So if it is a HW problem it won't be too much of a problem to buy something now, but I'd still like to delay the purchase as long as I can.

Looks like VRAM is dieing to me. I had same kind of artifacts with old ATi 1950 but also with voltage chip overheating. If that's the case there is nothing you can do. Maybe buy an old used GPU cheaply online if you're in a hurry.
Ofcourse, before that, I'd test some stuff people have said, starting with PSU.

Sound issues may be related to HDMI sound drivers that came with ATi card. If the card is dieing, who knows it may affect it's sound chip. It was the first thing i removed. I just use the MOBO sound card.

PCs don't like summer very much

I've played Assetto Corsa for a while and everything is fine, how the hell is that possible?

Quote from Nilex :

PCs don't like summer very much

I know, I cleaned it the other day, it runs almost 20 ºC cooler now. And I thought it was not that dirty

1+ hour playing Payday and other games and nothing have failed. I understand less and less.

Join the club

Cleaning done the trick then?

Quote from yegadoyai :

Cleaning done the trick then?

Didn't change anything :S I just hibernated it, and the next day everything worked fine

Due to overheating and cooling contacts to the board get affected. First signs are temporarily fails, the end result will be a permanent failure. See it as a warning to get your savings in order.

This is what you get with overclocking by the way, more heat and a shortened lifespan. But I'm sure I am not the first one who says this to you.

My unnofficial diagnostic is "unplugging the power cord fixed it". For now I don't have any overclodk, though the D-day it failed after disabling it, so... I can only think about the power being cut for the night.

Quote from cargame.nl :

Due to overheating and cooling contacts to the board get affected. First signs are temporarily fails, the end result will be a permanent failure. See it as a warning to get your savings in order.

I got worried on February by some artifacts, but I found that it was caused by too much overclock to VRAM speed, just had to decrease it a bit. I agree with your advice, I have already checked some new parts in case of a breakdown.

Quote from cargame.nl :

This is what you get with overclocking by the way, more heat and a shortened lifespan. But I'm sure I am not the first one who says this to you.

Yup, you are right, but that is exactly what I intend. I don't need a computer that last 10 years being crappy, so after 3 years (when it can't quite keep up with new games) I started to do some OC. At first it was not that hard, but as time passes I don't have that much problem exchanging lifespam for performance.

I think I know the risk/benefits of OC'ing, but I could be wrong.

Overclocking as such is not a problem. The issue comes with heat and the long term damage and degeneration that causes.

If you can keep the overclocked heat at or below the heat the standard settings generate or the 'factory settings' then your overclock should be fine.

The trick is to have a case that allows enough cool air to circulate to achieve this, and water cooling if your really keen.

I run an iCute server case (Free) with a 280mm fan in the side, 2 120mm fans bringing in cool air for the HD's and motherboard, and 2 120mm fans expelling the resulting heat. My ancient Q6600 runs at 3.2, up from 2.4 and still runs at 45C during gaming. All I'm running is a better CPU cooler than stock but not running water.

And given that this processor dates from 2007 (7 Years old) it's safe to say I've got my moneys worth.
Dust and clean it every 6 months, keep an eye on your temps, lot's of cool air and there's no reason why you can't run a decent overclock for a lengthy period of time safely.
And O/Cing your video card has the same requirements.
BUT !!!, keep it cool and keep it dust free. (Same thing really)

Watch this space, I've picked up a Xeon 5430 ($15 NZ, (9.7 euro) LOL, waited for the right auction!) that with a minor hardware mod (and possibly with a modded bios) fits on a 775 board. And these things OC really well, and 12meg Lvl 2 cache, Quad core.......
Should run LFS really well on one core, leaving the rest to torrent Lama p@$#..........
It's really more than possible to build a cheap/fast/reliable box with a bit of knowledge (google) and time.

Overclocking/modding is a part of IT that, with today's idea that you just throw money at it and buy the latest and greatest i& toy, has in my opinion been lost to a certain extent .........

Who remembers playing with Himem.sys to get that extra 1k of upper memory ?

Disclaimer; this only applies to your gaming/play box. NEVER to a production box or one that runs critical software required for making money.
It also instantly destroys your warrenty etc..... If in doubt, DON'T DO IT.