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Ripples and stripes on the computer / laptop screen (artifacts)

User question

Hello!

Recently, stripes and ripples have begun to appear on the screen of my computer, the picture can sometimes twitch when passing a horizontal strip.

This happens only in games. I tried to reinstall Windows, change the video driver - the effect is zero. These are artifacts on the video card (they told me so at the service center), and it needs to be changed. Or are there other options?

Good day!

In general, the presence of any distortion on the screen is a very alarming sign. Stripes and ripples on the screen can appear both in case of problems with the software and in case of problems with the hardware. In this article, I will try to disassemble the most basic things that one has to face, what can be done and taken to diagnose and find the cause (well, knowing the essence of the problem, it can often be eliminated on its own 😉).

Photo of a monitor with vertical (horizontal) stripes and ripples (as an example, to understand what is at stake)

By the way, such distortions on the screen are often called artifacts ... On monitors, in addition to such defects, you can often observe white (sometimes red or blue) luminous points - these are defective pixels ... I have a separate blog article about them, I recommend: //ocomp.info/monitor-bityie-pikseli.html.

What to do if ripples and streaks appear on the screen

STEP 1: check if the cable connecting the monitor to the computer is intact

The first thing I want to start with is with the cable (perhaps this is somewhat corny, and yet!). The fact is that he can be accidentally killed, gnawed (by a pet, a cat, for example), etc.

And in general, many users do not always screw the VGA cable (for example) with bolts so that it does not come off. Often, a simple plug correction solves the problem.

The photo below shows a damaged USB cable (the video cable is damaged the same way) ...

I'll add a couple more notes (regarding wires):

  1. do not use long cables: if the length of your video cable is more than 3 meters, then the image on the screen may begin to distort (here, of course, a lot depends on the monitor's connection interface);
  2. see if the video cable is intertwined with the cable of the printer, telephone charging, cable TV, etc. The fact is that such elements can interfere (especially in the absence of shielding). Try placing the video cable away from other wires.

STEP 2: pay attention when artifacts appear

The next thing I would recommend to decide is to find out specifically when artifacts appear on the screen (under what circumstances). Here are a couple of options:

- immediately after turning on the computer, i.e. they are present when entering the BIOS (how to enter it), and when loading the OS, and after it has loaded, in all applications and games;

- appear only at a certain stage: for example, when loading the OS, and then disappear. Either when you enter a specific game, or after some time spent in the game.

If in the first case it is impossible to work at the PC at all and you need to eliminate the cause (you can spoil your eyesight), then in the second, for example, you can continue to work for quite a long time.

By the way, such a simple observation will help determine the cause of the malfunction. For example, if you have artifacts in only one game, then most likely the problem lies in the temperature, driver, errors of the game itself.

I also note that in the second case, the chances of recovering a PC / laptop (without material costs) are much greater!

STEP 3: connect another monitor for diagnostics

This step is very important!

It will allow us to determine whether the problem of artifacts is connected with a malfunction of the monitor, or with problems in the system unit (video card, motherboard).

Surely in every house where there is a PC, there is a TV, or some other kind of screen ✌.For example, if stripes appear on a laptop screen, connect it to a regular monitor and see if there is any distortion in the picture. Now any modern monitor can be easily and quickly connected to a computer using an HDMI cable (sold in almost every computer store).

Instructions!

1) How to connect a laptop to a TV - //ocomp.info/kak-podklyuchit-noutbuk-k-tv.html

2) How to connect a monitor to a laptop - //ocomp.info/kak-podklyuchit-monitor-k-noutbuku.html

In the photo below: a TV was connected to a laptop in order to see if there will be artifacts on the TV screen.

The laptop is connected to the TV - the image is transferred to the screen

If there are no artifacts on the other screen and everything is fine: then the problem is related to the monitor. By the way, CRT monitors used to have quite often the problem of horizontal stripes. In general, if the monitor itself is to blame for the stripes on the screen, then, having no experience in repairing equipment, you cannot do without a service center.

If artifacts are present on another monitor: then the problem is probably in your computer: the problem is either with the software or with the hardware. Let's figure it out further ...

STEP 4: check the temperature of the components (graphics card, CPU)

With stripes on the screen, first of all, you need to look at the temperature of the video card. This can be done using specials. utilities: //ocomp.info/harakteristiki-kompyutera.html.

An example is shown below. Checking the temperature in the GPU-Z utility (see the "GPU Temperature" line).

In general, it is difficult to give an exact value. critical temperature of the video card : here you need to watch your specific model (use the website of your manufacturer). But in general, everything above 80 gr. Celsius - should alert you to a thorough check.

To help!

How to find out the permissible and critical temperature of your video card: //ocomp.info/temperatura-videokartyi-normal.html#i-2

If you suspect overheating - it is recommended first of all clean your computer from dust , replace the thermal grease. Dust often blocks ventilation openings, reducing air circulation. As a result, the temperature inside the system unit (laptop) begins to rise.

To help!

How to clean your PC from dust - //ocomp.info/kak-pochistit-kompyuter-ot-pyili.html

Cleaning a laptop from dust at home - //ocomp.info/kak-pochistit-noutbuk-ot-pyili.html

In laptops, by the way, it is easy to determine overheating if you bring your hand to the ventilation holes (usually they are on the left): very hot air begins to come out of there, you can even get burned.

By the way, these utilities can measure the temperature during your game, tracking all the highs and lows. As soon as you notice the appearance artifacts - check what the temperature was.

To help!

I recommend that you stress test your graphics card for stability. Links to their instructions are given below.

1) Checking the video card for performance, test for reliability and stability - //ocomp.info/stress-test-videokartyi.html

2) How to perform a stress test of the processor and the system as a whole, does it hold the frequencies, is there overheating - //ocomp.info/kak-vyipolnit-stress-test-videokartyi-noutbuka-v-aida-64.html

At all, pay special attention to temperature in hot summer months, when PC components are often heated to significant values. To reduce the temperature in the system unit - just remove the side cover, and put a regular fan on the contrary.

There are specials for laptops. coasters that help improve air circulation (due to which it is possible to reduce the temperature by 5-10 degrees Celsius).

To help! The laptop is warming up, what to do - //ocomp.info/greetsya-noutbuk.html

STEP 5: check and update the drivers for the video card

Drivers are the head of everything ...

Drivers for a video card can significantly affect the quality of the picture (especially for 3D games).

For example, 15 years ago, I had several driver versions (official and not) on the ATI Radeon 8200 video card (if I'm not mistaken).

So, on the official drivers, on the most recent version, there was a glitch: some elements in games (in particular fire) were not shown - some squares were running instead, stripes in places ... When switching to another version of the drivers, everything worked, as it should be.Over time, the developers have fixed this bug ...

I recommend downloading the driver from the official site of your video card (several versions are better). Then remove your old drivers and install new ones. Then check how the PC / laptop will behave.

By the way, pay attention to how the computer will work when you uninstall the drivers: whether there will be stripes or ripples. Below is a link to an article that will help you remove and update drivers.

To help!

How to update the driver for an AMD, nVidia and Intel HD video card: from A to Z - //ocomp.info/kak-obnovit-drayver-na-videokartu.html

STEP 6: a few words about overclocking the video card

If you overclocked your video card, then it is likely that artifacts could appear (especially if you have never done something like this before and there is no practical experience 👀).

Overclocking, in fact, is a whole science, where you need to know and feel quite accurately how the hardware will behave (and, of course, there is always a certain risk).

Try to reset the frequencies and check the functionality. As a rule, if the problem was related to unsuccessful overclocking, it is solved.

Screenshot from the Doom 3 game: note the white dots - the result of unsuccessful overclocking

In general, in most cases, with unsuccessful software overclocking, modern video cards, processors and memory reset the settings to safe ones by themselves.

STEP 7: check if there is support for the required version of shaders

Each video card supports a specific version of shaders (and games, by the way, also require a specific version, see the description for any game).

Those. requirements for one of the computer games

A shader is a computer program designed to be executed by video card processors (GPUs). Shaders are compiled in one of the specialized programming languages ​​(see below) and compiled into instructions for the GPU. See the continuation here.

The bottom line is this: if you are trying to run a new game on a far from new video card, it is quite possible that it does not support the required pixel shaders.

In general, usually, in this case, Windows will inform you that the game cannot be started, an error will appear. But sometimes this does not happen, and the game starts with distortions in the picture (especially now there are special shader emulators that allow you to run games on video cards not approved by the developers).

Therefore, if you have a problem in any one game, check : is your video card model included in the list of supported by the game.

To help!

How to find out the amount of memory of a video card, its type and other characteristics - //ocomp.info/kak-uznat-obem-pamyati-videokartyi.html

STEP 8: what else to look for (hardware malfunction: video card, motherboard)

As a rule, in case of problems with hardware, artifacts appear everywhere: in the BIOS, when loading Windows, in games, in any other programs. In some cases, artifacts appear when the video card heats up to certain temperatures (for example, in games), etc. Most often, the reason lies in the delamination of the graphics chip, or with overheating of the memory chips.

You can try the following: open the system unit, remove the video card and inspect it. Is there any visible damage on it? Most likely, there will be no visual signs of a breakdown on it (statistics from personal experience).

However, with abundant dust and high temperatures, the AIDA, Speccy , I recommend this:

1) First: clean the system unit from dust (you can blow it out with a regular vacuum cleaner). How to properly clean your computer from dust.

2) Pay special attention to the video card contacts. Try cleaning its contacts with a regular rubber band (cleaning the part that fits into the motherboard). Then blow through the very entrance where it is inserted. This method helps with artifacts, but not in all cases.

3) If the artifacts have not disappeared, it will not be superfluous to check the video adapter on another working computer (although, I understand that this advice is unlikely to suit ordinary users, not everyone has 2 PCs at home ...).

By the way, I also recommend paying attention to the capacitors on the motherboard and video card.If there are swollen ones among them, you can try to replace them with exactly the same ones (if you have experience in soldering ...).

The photo below shows what normal capacitors look like (red arrows) and swollen (circled).

The motherboard / video card could fail for reasons beyond your control (i.e. without overclocking). For example, electricity jumped, factory defect, overheating, etc.

In general, in case of problems with iron (and lack of repair experience), it is better to contact a service center.

True, I want to warn you right away:

1. Some craftsmen may suggest repairing and replacing the chip on the video card. It is expensive (almost like a new video card), and it is not known how the repairs will be carried out, and how the video card will behave later. In general, I do not recommend it;

2. They may offer to warm up the video card (sometimes they call it hot). This topic is specific and extensive. But I want to say right away that such a repaired video card (at best) will not work for long, a maximum of another six months. Then it ends anyway ...

The most preferable option for these problems is to replace the video card with a new one. Ultimately, it is cheaper for the wallet ... 👌

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By the way, I want to give a couple of links to DIY video card repair:

//nauka-prosto.ru/page/kak-pochinit-videokartu-v-duhovke - can the video card be repaired in the oven;

//geektimes.ru/post/256898/ - reanimation of the old video card.

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That's all for me, good luck!

👣

Article revised: 01/18/2019

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