Video problems:

[Steel.Inferno]

Just posting this to see if anyone here has an idea:

The problem: My video will fail horribly if the resolution is set to 1600x1200, it's hard to describe but the screen will look sort of like colored TV static... Doesn't lock up though. (If the program auto-resets the Res, it fixes itself). Just thinking of it, it does NOT crash if the desktop is set to high resolution. But I know for a fact it happens in Source, Bioshock, and I'm pretty sure I've tested WoW and had the same issue.

The second problem: My system will occasionally blue screen and insta-restart so I can't see the error message. This most reproducibly happens when running two games at once (WoW and CSS, for instance), and alt-tabbing between them. Needless to say this is frustrating, and I think the problems are related.

Rough Specs:

3.0 ghz Intel (2 CPUs)
2 gigs ram
256 mb 7900 GS (Nvidia, latest drivers and I've tried non-latest, reinstalling them, etc).

The graphics card is about less than 4 months old.


I'm going to try re-seating the graphics card after I eat lunch unless someone comes in with a different solution.

 

[Asus]

Not sure why it does the TV static thing. Might be over heating. Tried different drivers?

It doesn't seem strange for it to blue screen when you alt+tab between 3D games. But have you tried switching from game to other window to 2nd game? Not directly between games.

 

[Steel.Inferno]

I reseated the graphics card (even put it in a different slot I have) and reinstalling the newest drivers, and high resolution works in WoW now (or always did?), haven't had a chance to try Bioshock yet.

When I put the graphics card in I noticed it doesn't seem to fit correctly. It's pretty loose for up-down motion and a bit off-center so the case doesn't close quite right. I'm not sure what's up with it, might be nothing.

If reseating doesn't work I'll go with the overheating thing and stick my fan right next to the case with it open.



EDIT: Just on a hunch, I think I fixed it. Apparently, at least for bioshock, I can't set my game resolution higher than my desktop resolution (1280x1024). So now I'm off to enjoy 1600x1200 (or higher?) Bioshock . That still seems a strange problem to me, perhaps it's something in my Nvidia settings, or something, I know I've fiddled with it before to fix other problems. Note: this fixed the "tv static" looking problem when I would increase resolution. I haven't had the BSOD in a while, but then I haven't tried running multiple 3d games as I know it's a hardware killer.