Graphics Errors + Sound Cracking

[Lyokofreeze]

Hello all!

Bit of an issue I seem to be having any time I go to play a game, watch a video, or sometimes even just listening to music. My sound will start to crack and the graphics on the screen start pixeliating and appearing in random places... sort of like the screen is flashing and glitching out... not sure what is causing it... Any ideas?

 

[Lyokofreeze]

Oh... figures... I forget to post the info...

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N-SLI Premium 1.02
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS A8N-SLI Premium ACPI BIOS Revision 1009 10/21/2005
2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded
2048 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS [Display adapter] (2x)
Default Monitor
HP w2007 [Monitor] (20.0"vis, s/n CNN7094QNR, February 2007)
Creative SB X-Fi Sound Card

 

[gamerk316]

Any freezing or BSODs? If so, could be the mobo (nforces are a bit touchy), but it could also be overheating (probably VRAM if I had to guess). Could even be the old SCP issue that Creative sound cards run into, although that seems unlikely...

 

[Lyokofreeze]

Not usually. The only time it really freezes is right as it crashes. There are maybe one or two games that actually start to freeze almost instantly when I start them up. And forgive me... BSOD's?

As for the temps... unless I already warped something bad, I've been keeping a stand fan beside it blowing air in, I know for a fact my case is too small for what I run (a fact which I am working to correct.)

On the sound end, it's just odd that mainly it only happens when Im in a game or watching a video.

 

[gamerk316]

BSOD = Blue Screen Of Death, occurs when Windows encounters a fatal error.

This sounds like the nforce lockup that plauges all nforce motherboards, although the issue itself seems quite random (I'm guessing memory corruption if Windows doesn't even get the chance to BSOD). Your chipset is a nforce4 I believe...

Basically, at totally random points (usually startup, videos, or gaming), your sound gets crackly, comp slows to almost nothing, then totally freezes, with the last sequence of sounds repeating, and possible graphics glitches. I fought this issue on my 790i for over a year, and finally got it stable (1 lockup in past three months, as opposed to 2-3 a day for over a year)

I really don't have a permant solution other then more Northbridge/RAM Voltage, and a 1:1 link between the FSB-RAM. Less agressive RAM timings and a lower memory speed may also help.

Below is the thread where I posted what I had to do to get stable (someone else with the same issue started it). Doesn't seem to work for everyone, but worth looking at. The only true 'fix' I know of is to change to an intel/amd based chipset.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=30&post=252088&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0