Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

toffyrn · 2011-02-15 09:26:25

Sometimes after my computer has been on for a while I encounter small green artifacts.
Usually I see them first in firefox, but after a while it "spreads" to the entire desktop, and also to the terminal.
I tend to reboot to get rid of it, but one time I waited long enough to get an error message in tty1:

I think I experienced this for the first time sometimes during christmas holidays.
The biggest changes done before this:
- Switched to catalyst instead of xf86-video-ati for my radeon hd4870x2
- Overclocked i7-920 a bit to 3.5 GHz

Does anyone know if one of theese can be the reason for this problem?
Or could it be a hardware fault?

I have no problems when running windows...

Last edited by toffyrn (2011-04-22 08:16:54)

nTia89 · 2011-02-15 10:51:30

green artifact are common problem in overclocked vga, specially when it comes to vga memory, so it's an hardware problem

further to overclock issue this artifact comes with bad aeration in your case, that is a too high temperature problem

i advice you to control if fan are clean and inside the case there isn't dust
after i'll try to restore original cpu clock and see if you have again this problem......

tramusen · 2011-02-15 22:09:07

I think nTia89 is right on this. You could check it fairly easily by using a LiveCD and stress-testing the graphics hardware from there. If you see artifacts, then you can be fairly sure it is hardware.

As nTia89 said, check the cleaning and remove the overclock. If it still has issues after that, check the temperatures if you have any temperature monitoring. If it is simply a cooling issue, more fans might help.

Otherwise, you could have a cracked solder joint in your graphics card, or some other component on the card starting to fail. Fixing that is a whole other issue. Do you have a spare graphics card you could try in the system? What card are you using? Checking for other reports of artifacts for the same card could indicate if there is a known hardware problem.

toffyrn · 2011-02-15 22:45:45

Thank you for answering!

I doubt that something is overheated. The system has no problem with temperature, monitored even when playing intensive games in windows.
I have restored cpu and gpu clock's back to standard, and did experience it again

Will try to run some stress testing! Any good suggestions on what tests to run?

The thing that is nagging me is that I never have seen this in Windows, as this is where the system is pushed hardest...

TigTex · 2011-02-16 02:00:50

The best way that I can remember to test graphics stability is to use 2 windows software: intel burn test 2.5 AND OCCTPT gpu test, both at same time. Your pc will get hot, always check your system temperature.

with linux mprime and a unigine game / benchmark is also good

nTia89 · 2011-02-16 07:47:08

first i post this useful link: http://www.stresslinux.org/sl/

second, if there isn't an hadware issue i think that the problem is vga driver related: is the nearest thing with an hardware issue......

for example vga driver couldn't handle cooling as well as windows driver ..... unfortunately

i suggest you to switch to another vga driver. i'm not a radeon's expert but i know that there are three drivers:

- catalyst (official by AMD)
- radeonhd (in AUR)
- ati (in repo)

try with this

and the last suggest is to read about thread (also in other forum....googling) about your vga and linux because you have a very powerful but particular vga....

nTia89 · 2011-02-25 16:04:38

you have installed a different kernel than -ARCH ?

ewaller · 2011-02-25 18:29:22

And how about a tripod for your camera ??

toffyrn · 2011-02-27 16:25:34

No custom kernel.
No tripod

The fact is that i have not experienced this anymore, so i'm not sure what it is, or if it will come back again at some time...
Will post back when/if it happens again!

Thx

nTia89 · 2011-02-27 16:31:37

ok, we hope never post here !!!

Last edited by nTia89 (2011-02-27 16:32:32)

toffyrn · 2011-03-28 08:26:23

So. I need to ressurrect this thread.
The last week, after doing some OpenCL work I experienced this green issue again.

After a while with no gaming, i finally tried crysis 2. And I see huge graphical glitches.
https://orion.toffyrn.net/gallery2/v/78 … ewsIndex=1
Because of this I decided to test with Black Ops which ran smoothly without glitches last time I tried it. Not as big and bad as in crysis 2, but some artifacts are definitely there now:
https://orion.toffyrn.net/gallery2/v/78 … ewsIndex=1

And As I'm writing this, firefox is slowly filled with green boxes :@

This looks a hardware bug to mee, and probably related?

I am going to run memtests, and try the graphics card in another computer.

Last edited by toffyrn (2011-03-28 08:28:15)

toffyrn · 2011-04-22 08:16:24

I can mark this thread as solved now.

Sent this card back to seller, and will get a replacement card.
The new card i'm getting is a radeon hd 6970 2GB.
To my understanding this is also a better card than 4870x2

TigTex · 2011-04-22 14:16:33

Yes it is oO Have fun with that

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-15 09:26:25

Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#2 2011-02-15 10:51:30

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#3 2011-02-15 22:09:07

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#4 2011-02-15 22:45:45

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#5 2011-02-16 02:00:50

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#6 2011-02-16 07:47:08

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#7 2011-02-25 16:04:38

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#8 2011-02-25 18:29:22

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#9 2011-02-27 16:25:34

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#10 2011-02-27 16:31:37

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#11 2011-03-28 08:26:23

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#12 2011-04-22 08:16:24

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

#13 2011-04-22 14:16:33

Re: Green artifacts on screen [SOLVED]

Board footer