Display problem, screen "blips" every second or two in Windows XP Pro

[Haggard]

[attachment archived by Gobalopper]

[jacobdouds]

Do you have the newest XP drivers for your monitor and video card? Check, as sometimes the newest drivers are still not compatable.

[Nyarlathotep]

Try different drivers (btw, the ones you have installed are from July 2001, there may be newer drivers).

Also, try lowering your desktop res to 1024x768 and make sure ingame graphical settings aren't set to high (try low first) and in EBFD, make sure shadows is off.

[Haggard]

Try different drivers (btw, the ones you have installed are from July 2001, there may be newer drivers).

Hmm...that's definitely odd, because I just downloaded and installed the XP drivers from ATI's website and I believe the site dated them 6-13-02. That's most likely my problem. Looks like I'll be gettin' a new card soon...

Also, try lowering your desktop res to 1024x768 and make sure ingame graphical settings aren't set to high (try low first) and in EBFD, make sure shadows is off.

I have tried lowering my desktop resolution and game settings and get the same results. And it's not only games that it is doing this to, but all of XP. For example, if I play an .avi file, the video will do the half-second freeze every second or so. Everything that is animated (with the exception of the cursor) does the half second freeze.

[Nyarlathotep]

Still it remains weird that before you installed UT, all worked fine, even EBFD !

Have you tried playing in Win98 mode ?

Also, you might want to check for any patches on the UT site..

[Haggard]

Still it remains weird that before you installed UT, all worked fine, even EBFD !

Yeah, I've been talking to people all over and no one has an idea that helps.

Emperor was the first thing I installed and yeah, worked great. I'm not saying that UT is the culprit, but that was one of the first things I installed after that and it was the first time I noticed the freezes. I uninstalled UT and also cleaned out the leftover UT registries, but it still does it, so I dunno if UT is to blame.

Have you tried playing in Win98 mode ?

Also, you might want to check for any patches on the UT site..

I don't know much about XP, or, hell, Windows in general, so bare with me here. Is Win98 mode an alternate way to boot up XP or something? Or do you mean try installing Win98 and seeing what happens?

[Nyarlathotep]

Here's an copy from Microsoft:

"To run programs in Windows Application Compatibility mode in

Windows XP, follow these steps:

Right click on the link of the program that you want to fix.

Click on Properties .

Click on the Compatibility tab.

Click on Run this program in compatibility mode and select one of these:

1) Windows 95

2) Windows 98

3) Windows NT 4

4) Windows 2000

Under Display settings, check mark the mode that you think that is necessary for the program to work correctly:

1) Run in 256 colors.

2) Run in 640 X 480 screen resolution.

3) Disable visual themes.

Click on Apply .

Click on Ok.

Double click on the program.

NOTE : The Compatibility tab is only available for programs installed on your hard drive. Although you can run the Program Compatibility Wizard on programs or setup files on a CD-ROM or floppy disk, your changes will not remain in effect after you close the program. For more information about an option on the Compatibility tab, right-click the option and then click What's This."

Hope it helps..

[Haggard]

Playing in Win98 mode did not work :(

On Tuesday, I'll be putting in a new card, a nVIDIA 64mb (can't remember the name of the card) that my friend just had layin' around. I'll let you know how that goes...

[Nyarlathotep]

Alright, good luck and make sure you install the latest Nvidia drivers from www.nvidia.com

[Haggard]

>:(

Alright, so I got a GeForce 4 MX 420 AGP and the problem still exists.

However, my brother in law came over and tried to solve the problem hands-on, and he thinks it has nothing to do with the video card, but rather there is something running in the background that shouldn't be.

I think you said you didn't have XP, but maybe you'll still be able to make something of this:

When I look at my Task Manager, under the Performance tab, it says that my CPU usage fluctuates from about 12%-15% while, according to my bro-in-law, should be around 1%-7%

I have no applications running and it stays at that amount, but my processes include:

Image name Mem Usage

explorer.exe 17716k

svchost.exe 11520k

wcmdmgr.exe 4576k

winlogon.exe 3696k

taskmgr.exe 3556k

services.exe 2516k

csrss.exe 2288k

svchost.exe 1912k

svchost.exe 1788k

svchost.exe 1316k

svchost.exe 1152k

nvsvc32.exe 1148k

spoolsv.exe 1116k

lsass.exe 1028k

smss.exe 208k

system 28k

system idle process 20k

Not sure if any of that helps, but oh well...

[Gobalopper]

Looking at my task manager in XP the two I don't see are:

wcmdmgr.exe and nvsvc32.exe

Any idea what those could be? I think the last could be nVidia's display controls...

[Haggard]

I dunno what wcmdmgr.exe and nvsvc32.exe are, but I agree that the latter is probably the display controls.

Well, I tried ending both of those processes and it still....goes....on...

[Nyarlathotep]

Does this problem only happen ingame or also in windows general ?

[Haggard]

It happens in Windows general. However, in Windows I don't mind because the cursor isn't affected so I don't even really notice it (cursors in games ARE affected, though). But I can see the little "blip" when I play movies or anything else that's animated in Windows.

[Nyarlathotep]

What driver do you have installed for your new video card ?

[Desert_Eagle25]

try defragmenting

[Haggard]

What driver do you have installed for your new video card ?

I first installed the ones that came with card (I dunno what they're called), and now I'm using the XP Detonator drivers from nVidia.com and I can't tell any difference.

And Eagle, this started the day after I got a brand new hard drive, so I don't think defragmenting would do a thing....but I tried it anyways, with no results.

[Desert_Eagle25]

ooo...well then i dunno...i think i had a problem siliar to this and all i needed was a good defrag....

[Nyarlathotep]

Have you tried re-installing Directx ?

[Haggard]

Have you tried re-installing Directx ?

Hmm...well, looking at http://microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/drx81.asp I can't see anywhere where it says 8.1b for XP....do I just download the Windows 2000 version or what?

[Nyarlathotep]

Look at the installation notes on the bottom of the page, first point ;)