Author Topic: Some flickering with NWN and else  (Read 2499 times)

DM Tarokka

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Some flickering with NWN and else
« on: February 25, 2017, 05:15:18 AM »
This computer a year ago died, for a graphic card failure, apparently. And then I spent some money to have it fixed, but it seems something is not yet working as it should.

The specifics are : NVIDIA GT 220 (2 gb) Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz 8 GB RAM. OS is Windows 7 Home edition 64 bit. It used to have a NVIDIA GTX 250 (1gb).

What happens is that occasionally it gives the OpenGL “lost connection” message. For NWN it means the game simply is shut down. Another consequence of it is the appearance of some dots here and there on the monitor, and relogging on NWN has some bigger dots around things, reddish somehow. The dots appear also in Firefox, even in "simple" pages as this, i.e. with no animation whatsoever.

I have tried most things suggested in several google-searched troubleshooting. Specifically, I've updated drivers, I've set the "causing" program (in this case NWN) to less fatiguing settings, I've used NVIDIA control panel to link the monitor to the GPU (PhysX) and to give to 3D settings more performance than quality. Of course I had already set Firefox not to use the hardware acceleration. By restarting the computer the issue seemed fixed, but in fact it showed itself again.

Any suggestion on what I could try to do alone?
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DrXavierTColtrane

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2017, 12:18:48 PM »
You sound as though you know more than most about what you're doing. If you are comfortable modifying your Windows registry, here is a specific suggestion for troubleshooting the OpenGL message you received:

Quote
You may try increasing the timeout value to allow more time to complete more intensive rendering.

KeyPath   : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
KeyValue  : TdrDelay
ValueType : REG_DWORD
ValueData : Number of seconds to delay. 2 seconds is the default value.

That's just something to try, and I have no idea whether it will help or make things worse.
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2017, 12:26:40 PM »
Yeah I'm scared to work on the registry...
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DrXavierTColtrane

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2017, 01:00:06 PM »
If it makes you feel any better, that suggestion is from Microsoft.

Also, if you implement it and the problem goes away, then you've isolated it. You can decide whether you'd rather live with the issue or with having modified your registry. You won't have to keep trying other things.

If it doesn't work, you can put your registry back the way it was.

Note that for testing/debugging purposes NVIDIA recommends developers set the value as high as 10 seconds.

http://http.developer.nvidia.com/NsightVisualStudio/2.2/Documentation/UserGuide/HTML/Content/Timeout_Detection_Recovery.htm

So that makes me think that increasing it only slightly (such as from 2 to 3 seconds) should be fine.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2017, 01:01:42 PM by DrXavierTColtrane »
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2017, 12:13:20 AM »
I wouldn't even know how to enter the registry...
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Weyland

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2017, 12:17:58 AM »
don't go in there!  high level dungeon, be afraid!

Arawn

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2017, 12:39:29 AM »
That video card (if it's the model I think it is) is extremely elderly. Most gaming cards are not designed to live this long. It may simply have come to the end of its operational life. Considering you can replace it with even a slightly more modern card for an absolute pittance, that's where I'd start.
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2017, 02:29:57 AM »
The card model is quite old yes, but it has been replaced recently (I didn't want to spend too much on a "mule" computer afterall), it's not a matter of that. To be fair, the one I had replaced (the gtx 250) had started, a year ago, giving the same initial issues. Somehow I think the issue is not the card in itself. I had paid for this computer in late 2011 some 800 euros, it broke a year ago in this period more or less, then last Christmas I spent some 250 to have it fixed, to be honest quite a theft. Not going to use it much (just when I come to visit my parents), and for sure I wouldn't like to spend in it a further cent :)
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Arawn

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2017, 02:47:23 AM »
The card model is quite old yes, but it has been replaced recently (I didn't want to spend too much on a "mule" computer afterall), it's not a matter of that. To be fair, the one I had replaced (the gtx 250) had started, a year ago, giving the same initial issues. Somehow I think the issue is not the card in itself. I had paid for this computer in late 2011 some 800 euros, it broke a year ago in this period more or less, then last Christmas I spent some 250 to have it fixed, to be honest quite a theft. Not going to use it much (just when I come to visit my parents), and for sure I wouldn't like to spend in it a further cent :)

Well, those cards were only produced from '08-'09, so the card you bought, regardless of when you bought it, is at least eight years old. Also, the issue you're experiencing is clearly a rendering issue. Were the issues with the GTX 250 exactly the same, or just similar?
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2017, 02:55:06 AM »
They started the same, I guess this will end in the same way in some time of using it.
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Arawn

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #10 on: February 26, 2017, 02:56:35 AM »
They started the same, I guess this will end in the same way in some time of using it.

Can you take a screenshot of what you see?
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #11 on: February 26, 2017, 02:58:49 AM »
Yes, when the issue re-occurs (now luckily it's not happening).
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DrXavierTColtrane

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #12 on: February 26, 2017, 11:05:21 PM »
If the issue is no longer occurring, then this is all moot, but--given everything you've said--all the more reason to try editing the registry (assuming the problem comes back).

That is, if you don't want to spend any money on the computer, then you'll have to fix it by tweaking. Second, if you don't use it much, then the risk is less.

One trivial thing you might try if you haven't is making sure the ventilation is good and blowing the dust out of your computer, especially the graphics card. That's because you say this happened before and seems to be a gradual thing that worsens. Dust/heat can cause a gradual deterioration in performance such as you describe.

Editing the registry is not that difficult, but you do have to be careful. Here's an excellent, detailed tutorial:

http://www.wikihow.com/Edit-the-Windows-Registry

This is not as detailed, but it covers the specific value you need to change:

https://community.amd.com/thread/180166
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2017, 08:36:37 AM »
Okay the problem happened again and I could not take screens, it simply didn't allow me to take one (next time I will just take a picture of the monitor, if it happens).

I decided to venture in the registry following those instructions, Ezra protect me.

We'll see how it goes.
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DrXavierTColtrane

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #14 on: February 27, 2017, 08:43:09 AM »
Bwahaha...

Spoiler: show


 :P
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #15 on: February 27, 2017, 08:45:59 AM »
What I found fun, and maybe was the origin of the issue to start with, is that the TdrDelay string wasn't even there, I had to add it...
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DM Tarokka

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Re: Some flickering with NWN and else
« Reply #16 on: February 28, 2017, 10:35:41 AM »
It has not given the problem since yesterday...
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