Absolutely horrible visual tearing when watching... anything, really.

[Metaler]

I don't remember when I started noticing it, but my computer has been experiencing earth-shattering amounts of visual tearing. It happens with pretty much anything on the screen that moves, not just videos, but also games. And I mean, ALL games. I was just playing Doom the other day and I STILL got visual tearing, even in a game as old as that.

Needless to say, whenever I'm watching anime and whatnot, this completely kills off the immersion, and I just bought a horror game on Steam and I can't play it because the visual tearing is driving me nuts more so than the atmosphere.

I'm not computer savvy or anything, but I tried everything: different players (I usually use Media Player Classic), Vsync, triple buffering, resolution changes, everything. Still nothing. I decided it was time to ask for help, which is why I made this thread. Is this problem solvable at all? I really hope so, as I don't want to spend money on any new parts like monitors or graphics cards.

My GPU is a Nvidia Geforce 310, monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080, with 2GB of RAM.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[synaesthetic]

First try using your integrated graphics. Yank the video card from your PC and plug the monitor into the DVI port on the motherboard. Try doing things that cause screen tearing again; if it doesn't happen, you may have a cooked GPU.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Assuming his mobo has integrated graphics.

So:

1- Is your PC overheating? You can use programs to check the temp like "PC Wizard".

2- If not overheating does the tearing happen in the POST or when u enter the bios? It might not happen since not much happens there. If you have another cable or card you use should use test out. It could be the mobo, the card or the cable.

3- If none the above it might just same corrupted drivers... unlikely thou.

[synaesthetic]

If it's anything recent it has integrated graphics. Everything from the first-gen i-Core up has on-chip or on-die graphics, and all the C2D chipsets have integrated graphics in the northbridge.

[-KarumA-]

Check temperatures, look up in google how vram dying or gpu dying tearings look like and compare. I think it's your gpu, int he end you get square blocks on your usual windows desktop as it gets worse before it doesn't work anymore at all.

[Metaler]

Thank you for taking your time to help me, fellas.

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Assuming his mobo has integrated graphics.
1- Is your PC overheating? You can use programs to check the temp like "PC Wizard".

Nope, not overheating... I think. PC Wizard says it's a little bit over 40C.

2- If not overheating does the tearing happen in the POST or when u enter the bios? It might not happen since not much happens there. If you have another cable or card you use should use test out. It could be the mobo, the card or the cable.

I didn't think about this... I actually just changed monitors recently. I used to have a 1400x990 monitor, and got screen tearing with it, too. Unfortunetely, I only have one cable for both of them, but I'll look around.

3- If none the above it might just same corrupted drivers... unlikely thou.

I really hope not. orz

Check temperatures, look up in google how vram dying or gpu dying tearings look like and compare. I think it's your gpu, int he end you get square blocks on your usual windows desktop as it gets worse before it doesn't work anymore at all.

Well, I'm not getting any other artifacts other than tearing, really. It's just really, really bad. As I said, though, I'm not exactly good with computers, but is it possible that the tearing is happening because the GPU or RAM is using up too much memory to reproduce the image in the screen?

First try using your integrated graphics. Yank the video card from your PC and plug the monitor into the DVI port on the motherboard. Try doing things that cause screen tearing again; if it doesn't happen, you may have a cooked GPU.

I'll give this a shot later, but is it safe? I didn't even think you could remove the video card like that. o_o

[synaesthetic]

As long as the computer is off, of course you can. How do you think it was installed in the first place?

[Tiberium Wolf]

BTW, did u mess with the refresh rate?

[Metaler]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

As long as the computer is off, of course you can. How do you think it was installed in the first place?

Haha, you have a point there. Didn't think of that. derp orz I'll give it a shot!

BTW, did u mess with the refresh rate?

I tried going to my video card's control panel, but it only lets me use 60Hz... o_O

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Metaler

I don't remember when I started noticing it, but my computer has been experiencing earth-shattering amounts of visual tearing. It happens with pretty much anything on the screen that moves, not just videos, but also games. And I mean, ALL games. I was just playing Doom the other day and I STILL got visual tearing, even in a game as old as that.

Needless to say, whenever I'm watching anime and whatnot, this completely kills off the immersion, and I just bought a horror game on Steam and I can't play it because the visual tearing is driving me nuts more so than the atmosphere.

I'm not computer savvy or anything, but I tried everything: different players (I usually use Media Player Classic), Vsync, triple buffering, resolution changes, everything. Still nothing. I decided it was time to ask for help, which is why I made this thread. Is this problem solvable at all? I really hope so, as I don't want to spend money on any new parts like monitors or graphics cards.

My GPU is a Nvidia Geforce 310, monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080, with 2GB of RAM.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Graphics are always drawn in an offscreen framebuffer which is not displayed until the drawing has completed. This technique is known as back buffering (double or triple buffering when an extra buffer is used)
Tearing occurs because of either one of these reasons (that I can think of):
1. there's something wrong with your vsync signal either at the sink device (monitor) or at the source (graphics card) during receiving of the signal, and the framebuffer swap is not taking place at the correct time, ie. when the monitor is consuming the displayed buffer, the buffer is swapped before the consumption is complete.
2. drawing is not back-buffered and literally takes place in the framebuffer that is currently being displayed

In any case, do you remember what is it that you did before the problem occurs?
I suggest you try booting in safe mode and see whether the problem occurs.

[sa547]

Waitasecond... What's the threadstarter's Geforce driver version? This because some weeks ago nVidia released a set of drivers that unexpectedly caused problems to GPUs, forcing them to pull them out and asked that everyone should downgrade their drivers to an older stable version.

[demonix]

Originally Posted by sa547

Waitasecond... What's the threadstarter's Geforce driver version? This because some weeks ago nVidia released a set of drivers that unexpectedly caused problems to GPUs, forcing them to pull them out and asked that everyone should downgrade their drivers to an older stable version.

Well the OP doesn't know when it started along with the card being a few years old, I'd have to guess that the driver is the one that was provided with the card (that is if the OP used the driver CD that came with the card and didn't check for a more current driver at the time, but that is if the card was installed by the OP and isn't a pre-built system).

[Drkz]

Check and see if the monitor can work with another computer or even a laptop. The first time I bought a geforce I had the same problem. It was a huge black tear or random blinking black pixels. I had to exchange for a new one... It can also mean your graphics poofed and you need to get a new one. The only other way you can check is to see if you can plug it into a new computer or switch out the cable thats connecting your gpu to your monitor.

[Dhomochevsky]

Before you touch the hardware, just remember that 'off' means 'unplugged', not just shut down.
And switch off the switch on your power supply if there is one for good measures... those capacitators can hold quite a bit of energy even when unplugged (hoping it disconnects on the right side ).