Need some help/advice, graphics issue (PC)

[Apie]

Update: I no longer need help with this, I will just use an old graphics card and buy a new one when I can afford it. Thanks



Hey, thanks for reading. Even though I will mention FFXIV in this post, my problem is FFXI related, that comes a little down in the post, but it's all connected.

I think I messed up my PC. Let me explain from the beginning. I bought a PC to handle FFXIVARR better since in the beta my PC was running it pretty crappy. When I bought it, the guy asked if I wanted it overclocked, I said no since I heard it reduces the lifespan of your PC. Oh yeah, btw, I know very little about PCs, especially about overclocking, I know nothing about it.

So FFXIV comes out and with this new PC, I'm still going at like 15-20 frames per second. I know I can reduce the settings to make it run better, but I wanted it to look good. So I went into the ATI settings and turned on all the overclock settings. The game ran better but now I was getting the blue screen of death all the time.

Here's where FFXI comes in, I went to do my daily Repeat Login (unaware that the day before was the final day lol) for the first time since the overclock the day before. As soon as I went in, the game was completely messed up. The floors would flash when moving, going from invisible to a messed up version of the moghouse floor. The colors were very off, I don't know how to describe it, it was like if the colors were inverted then brightened. Also most NPCs, mobs and other stuff were missing graphics or mostly invisible, but you can still tell what they are. Moving is horrible cause it does a strobe light-like flash, hurts the eyes, have to look away from the screen constantly.

There were weird side effects though, I could see a TON of NPCs everywhere, some with names, some without. I wouldn't say I know where NPCs belong, but I know the game well enough to tell when things are out of place, like Star Sybill hanging out near the moghouse, now I KNOW she wasn't there before (or was she and I'm insane. lol) Also, when I left town, there were dead enemies but no one fighting mobs and they wouldn't respawn. I went into battle a while later and the mob dropped a blue chest, had 4 things in there including a daelous wing, so I took it and left the chest. But then I realized there was an MP potion in there, so I went to click the chest again and I think I clicked on the dead mob right on top of the chest and the game did a very strange freeze. I restarted PoL and went back in, same graphics problems. I did a little more exploring, but it was hurting my eyes too much so I had to stop it.

I went back into the ATI settings and hit the default settings to undo my changes. Went back into FFXI and everything was back to normal. Tried FFXIV out, worked fine with no blue screen of death. So about 2-3 logins later of FFXI, I was starting to play and about 10 minutes (or so) the graphics started flashing when moving, but still looking normal. So I teleported to mea and once the screen loaded, it was back to that insane version I was playing earlier with the graphics messed up and dead mobs that don't respawn. I clicked on something, who knows what and the game did that strange crash again. So I restarted the game and it was working normal.

So my question, did I just completely kill my PC? What do you think I broke, was it the graphics card, motherboard, RAM, processor? I have no idea how to proceed from here. I played FFXIV today for a while with no problems and I logged into FFXI (or at least I think I did) earlier today and it seemed fine but I was only on for a few seconds just to see if it was working okay.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention this, but FRAPs also stopped being able to take screenshots, all screenshots come out black with nothing on them. Even after I set ATI back to it's default settings, FRAPs still won't work. Haven't tested the FRAPs video feature since I almost never record videos (the videos take up a ton of gigs just for a couple of minutes, not worth it to me.)

[Fritobandito]

Sorry, I didn't read your post word-for-word but I skimmed over each section and I don't see any mention of installing the most up-to-date video driver for your particular card. Have you done that?

[Apie]

Hmmm, I didn't even consider that. Thanks for the tip.

I went online and everything I've read says that I damaged my graphics card, but not anything else on the PC. It happened because I set all the overclock setting to the highest and you're supposedly not supposed to do that, plus playing FFXIV for such long periods at full settings while it was overclocked didn't help. So my choices are: Have it kinda work and have FFXIV occasionally Blue Screen of Death and have FFXI occasionally flip out graphically; or put in the graphics card from my previous PC and run FFXIV at low settings until I can afford a new graphics card.

I chose to just put in the old graphics card until I can afford a new one in a couple of months or so. Sucks, but what can I do. I already put in the old graphics card and windows recognized it without me having to install any software.

Thanks again for the help.

[bungiefanNA]

Overclocking increases the voltage to the processor, which makes it heat up faster. Blue screens and corrupted graphics are a symptom of an overheating CPU or GPU. You have the system overclocked too high for the cooling you have attached if it is doing that. Continuing to run it in that situation could cause damage to the graphics card or CPU. Stock fans are usually insufficient for overclocking, and you need to be really careful about airflow inside your case when doing it.

You said you set it back to normal, but how many times did you run it overclocked and get BSOD? If it's still having problems, you likely fried part of the graphics card.

[Apie]

Overclocking increases the voltage to the processor, which makes it heat up faster. Blue screens and corrupted graphics are a symptom of an overheating CPU or GPU. You have the system overclocked too high for the cooling you have attached if it is doing that. Continuing to run it in that situation could cause damage to the graphics card or CPU. Stock fans are usually insufficient for overclocking, and you need to be really careful about airflow inside your case when doing it.

You said you set it back to normal, but how many times did you run it overclocked and get BSOD? If it's still having problems, you likely fried part of the graphics card.

Hi,

I really wish I had known it was more complicated than just changing the setting. It did give a warning before my settings saved, but I figured it was a standard warning, so I hit OK. To answer your question, I ran FFXIV for hours and easily 11-12 BSoD. What I would do is after every BSoD, I would reduce random settings in the FFXIV graphics options, hoping I would reach a point where it would stop doing the BSoD. It was kinda dumb of me to do that, but I thought it would work out.

Before I switched it out with the old graphics card a couple of hours ago, I was playing FFXIV and it did a similar graphic glitch to the FFXI one, except I couldn't see any extra NPCs and it didn't do the strobe-light effect, but all the colors were messed up with missing graphics all over everything and it made a loud echoed spell effect, but only once, through the speakers as soon as it flipped out. Scared the crap out of me so badly. I had seen The Conjuring for the first time last night, I didn't need anymore scares. LOL

So yeah, this is gonna be a harsh lesson. Not because I have to buy a new graphics card, but because I have to tell my wife that I have to buy a new graphics card and she didn't even want the new PC to begin with, I'm dead.

[bungiefanNA]

You might want to hang out on the HardOCP forums a bit if you have a custom-built computer, want to upgrade your own, or want advice on settings like that.

[Dragoy]

Just a side'ish-note: if you did not actually use the new device for long, it's quite possible it was never good.

I would hope things to shut down automagically before overheating too much. Excessive use of voltages higher than the thing can take, however, include a greater risk (in my opinion) of permanently damaging anything.

But yeah, if you did not try FFXI with it before, I might suggest doing some more testing with it before deciding the final outcome. Perhaps under-clocking it, so as to see if the problems arise even when the device is using clocks below its defaults. If it had any warranty left still with it, it's of course likely to be void now (for most retailers).

Something else I thought of is that, is your FFXI really okay otherwise? What you described seems rather funky to come from mere GPU's doing. Makes me think of some evil third-party software's doing, but I can also easily imagine it being possible to pull that off with over-clocking alone. I've personally witnessed some quite interesting results, but not quite anything what you described. ^^

Whenever over-clocking something, it should be indeed done in small increments, as you might have discovered now...


As a final note, even if Windows recognises your device without you installing any software, it does not mean you should use the drivers it installs for it. I'd definitely suggest on procuring them from whoever manufactured it instead (goes for any device, really).