HELP! Texture error \"washout\"

[Storm]

Well - I just got a VERY valuable clue as to what is going on, and this is probably the answer to my problems.

My video card is in all likelihood not getting enough power. Possibly the power supply is inadequate, and there are supposed to be TWO power cables connected, and I have only one. More on this shortly....

===== =====

I looked over the PDF for these new NVidia drivers, specifically the installation instructions. You see, sometimes they say to uninstall the old drivers first, and in other releases the installation instructions simply indicate to click on the installation program. This time it indicated to simply click and install. (previously, in some versions, uninstalling the old drivers caused minor headaches).

Okay so I install the drivers.

I am now getting a warning EACH and EVERY time I power up or restart (and apparantly no way to disable the warning, not that I would want to). Here is my Flickr photostream address, click the picture "NvidiaPower" to enlarge it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34159828@N06/

The bottom panel "NVIDIA Power Warning" is displayed when I click "More Information" from that top panel. Again, the top panel pops up with every reboot.

Troubling is the indication that "the graphics card has lowered its performance to continue safe operation".

Also it mentions a "supplimental power cable". More on this shortly....

I started Evochron Renegades to see if the "lowered performance" was obvious. My savegame = parked just off of Port Rivoch Station. Nothing immediately obvious. Everything APPEARS to be normal. But I have to play the game a while and see.

===== =====

Thing is, my system has ALWAYS been this way (since I purchased it two years ago from a local custom computer builder) and I didn't realize it.

Two years ago I was desperate to have a custom computer built. I had previous bad experience with having custom systems built and SHIPPED to me - I received damaged shipments.

So I dealt with local people. This is a west Texas town - NOT known for competence or intelligence. But anyway, I talked to several vendors on the phone, scratching them off the list based on my impressions during the conversations I had. I settled on one guy.

Initially, things seemed ok. But long story short, while he was waiting for the parts to arrive, and I was talking to him, I had some doubts. For one thing, I told him that every piece of literature I found indicated that an 8800GTX needed an 800w power supply. He INSISTED that 500w was good enough.

Then he delivered my system. I hated the way he set up my hard drive, folders, and OS (the details aren't important.... suffice to say...).

He didn't follow my instructions on certain things.

He installed a PIRATED version of Nero! Without asking me. Insisting that it was okay, HE was *OEM* and had a license, and it was better than the Vista native CD/DVD burning app.

I started emailing /phoning him with problems. At one point that Nero software "caught on", I got a notice (from the app) AND an email (from Nero) that it was pirated. I called this local "OEM" guy and let him have it over the phone. I CALLED a contact at Nero and explained, and stated that I uninstalled the software. I called the guy back and stated that I informed Nero that he was a software pirate, and that he installs pirated software on his OEM systems and sells them.

Long story short, our business relationship was VERY heated after I stopped talking to him. I went on to learn from the web, corrected his mistakes, etc.

My final impression was that he was a take-the-money-and-run kind of guy, an oily dishonest snake-in-the-grass with only BARELY ENOUGH knowledge on how to build a system.

I should have built my own system, but I have health concerns, not sure if i have the stamina to do massive research, pick the components and put them together and get a working system. I would have warranties for the COMPONENTS, but not for the SYSTEM.

ANYWAY - I opened the 8800GTX box, looked over the manual. The manual CLEARLY indicates how to connect TWO power cables (including that "supplimental" power cable mentioned in that bootup warning that I am getting). Looked at the graphics card in my computer. Just ONE cable (the primary).

I tried to call the guy - it was 4:10 PM here, recording said that his hours are 9 AM to 5 PM. Okay, so he closed shop early (not suprising). I no longer have his email address. I WILL call him tomorrow and give him a piece of my mind. For the money I gave him, MORALLY he owes me at least a listen and an apology. The computer only had a 1 year parts & labor warranty, the situation is convoluted, so I don't have a legal leg to stand on.

I know someone else in town that does on-site repairs - fairly reliable (I hear); so maybe I need to have a new power supply installed (800w versus the 500w that I have, with BOTH cables going to the graphics card).


[Edited on 1-9-2009 by Storm]

[Vice]

How much power you need can vary depending on what other hardware you install. But the card does need its power chords, which could indeed be a big part of the problem. Glad you found this out, hope it fixes the problem!

[MMaggio]

Storm, You wouldn't believe the number of techs I've seen and the thousands of dollars I've spent, been ripped off for, etc. before I found a competent, reliable and honest PC tech. I share your grief and agree the lack of power might well be the problem.
I am a gamer and don't know how the damn things work. I'm still looking for "any key". But with the help of people like Vice and the brutal teacher, "experience", I can do more than I ever dreamed I could.
Fortunately, I have found competent, fair techs, but a lot of money went to pay for my "education".
My father used to say, "Know something about everything and everything about something"!
I'm an old codger myself. I hope you get your problem fixed and your education cheaper than mine!;)

[verbosity]

One of the reasons that I don't sell my services as a techie ( even though I get call daily from people who know I do it) is due to there being too many people with not enough knowledge on the market. If I even mention that I'm a techie I'm sure to get a nightmare story about how the person got ripped off since they paid cash and the job wasn't done properly.

This is not to say that there are not good techies out there, just gets my goat that I can't make a living doing one of the things I'm best at....

[Storm]

I dunno ... the game seems to be running just fine.

And the vidcard power situation has been like that for 2 years.

When I played Vegastrike 0.4.3 for about 8 months or so back in 2007, it ran fine. (the only other game / D3D intensive / DirectX intensive app I have used on this computer).

So it isn't like my system is blowing up or anything.

I did a flythru in Glacia's atmosphere (a little). Docked to refuel.

Since I now had > 20 million credits, I decided to explore for better systems to get goodies (that was a goal; get 20 million before ship-and-gadget shopping in other systems).

So immediately after refueling, I (nervously) jumped through Olympus Prime, Onyx, and into Cerulean. Bought some FINE weapons and missiles. By that time, hostiles were showing up so I didn't believe that I had time to go into the shipyard; I just wanted to run back to friendlier territory.

When back in Sapphire, I flew through Glacia's atmosphere again, then back to Port Rivoch.

NO video errors noted.

Maybe this new video driver is doing the trick by ramping down the vidcards performance / power requirements a bit. Things are certainly no worse than they have been (unknowingly) for the past 2 years.

I'll call the shop that built my computer tomorrow. I will be polite, businesslike and diplomatic - at first. When I feel that I've (calmly) explained the situation to him, and pointed out that the manual clearly explains how to PROPERLY install the card, I will ask "How do you suggest this be resolved?" My next words will be dictated by his answer. I think that half the phones lines here are going to melt, when I "project".

Somehow or other I will get another power supply installed, and properly wired for the vidcard.

I just did a complicated run in ER that included some of the conditions that SEEMED to trigger the errors before, and teh errors did not occur, so I guess the matter is resolved.

VICE; THANKS for taking the time to look over that report - examining it closely enough to lead to your suggestion - it pointed the way to the solution.

[Vice]

That's great news, glad it seems to be working now. Hope that continues

[Storm]

Yes, its continuing.


I gave the game another thorough workout, duplicating those conditions. Another thing that seemed to trigger the errors before was the blue nebula in Fauston System - I made an aborted attempt to "find a certain something interesting" before but too many bad guys were chasing me and had to give up (I'm getting much better at combat now, and instincts are developing, I'm getting better at losing bogies as well).

So; I landed on Glacia, bought some energy products, and re-did "something interesting" in the rings. Went immediately to Fauston, successfully did something interesting in the blue nebula. Fought some on the way out, sold cargo back in Sapphire.

No video errors.

That NVidia panel that pops up every reboot is now giving me an option - a checkbox not to display it again - but I will leave it cleared so that it continues to pop up until the power supply situation is resolved.

[Storm]

Things progessed to being resolved today.

I contacted the builder, tried to be polite and politic about things, he started getting defensive, AND stubborn. He insisted that there was a second PCI-E connecter in there somewhere, he was sorry if he forgot to connect it, but I would just have to find it. His cabling was encased in a thick layer of electrical tape. The one year warrantly was expired, and " .... ** I ** should have caught it earlier !!?!! ". He said that he would do an "on site repair" IF I bought another power supply from him; there was an arguement back in 2007 whether the NSpire 500w supply was sufficient, I wanted 800w, he insisted that the 500w was good enough. He refused to take any real responsibility to correct the situation.

Later I did manage to carefully remove the "mummy wrappings" around the cabling. Only ONE PCI-E connector. What probably happened is that he DIDN'T "forget" to connect, he simply DECIDED to foist that Pwr Supply on to me, because he knew that I probably wouldn't notice (at the time) that there was no supplimental connector.

I called him a dishonest and incompetent schmuck, hung up, and called the Better Business Bureau. As it turns out, they had "heard of him".

I called a tech here in town that I know (he did a couple of minor jobs for me before), and we came up with a game plan.

On monday he is coming over to eyeball and look over my system (just in case, to get it firm in his mind if he is ordering the right components); with an invoice of suggested parts - I will be getting an 800w supply with enough PCI-E connectors, and also I will be upgrading from 4Gb to 8Gb RAM (something I've been considering for a while due to a raytracing application I have).

When the parts arrive he will come over and install.

In the meantime he suggested that I download and install "Riva Tuner 2";
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

It works pretty good. I can adjust the VidCard fan speed (and other things that I am not interested in).

As it turned out, the default VidCard's fan speed is at 60%. I set up 3 presets; 60%, 80% and 100%.

I've started to bump the fan speed up to 80% whenever I power up my system or reboot the OS (Riva Tuner simply ups the fan speed, then you close RivaTuner.... it isn't resident... the fan speed stays at wherever you set it until you run RivaTuner again or your OS restarts, then the fan is at the default 60%).

There is supposed to be a provision for * automatic monitoring and adjustment *, but this does not work in Vista. Thats okay, the main thing is that I can force the VidCard to be cooler. And I know that my computer case is adequately ventilated.

When I run Evochron, I bump the fan up to 100%.

I put the side cover back on. The game seems to be running just fine, with a faster running fan - but I did have ONE artifact once - Planet Sapphire was glitched - the planet texture held OK, but superimposed on top of it there was a "huge semitransparant rectangle in space, with some kind of "grids" or "grooves" on it".

I assume that glitch was probably (hopefully) due to inadequate power, and NOT failing video memory or other damage done to the card in the past 2 years.

I called that tech up, he says that all things considered, the videocard is probably still good - its just underpowered.

Sorry this thread has gone on so long, but maybe others can benefit of they encounter a similar situation.


[Edited on 1-10-2009 by Storm]

[Goatnado386]

Originally posted by Storm
I am now getting a (fairly severe) texture error (on objects, not backgrounds) in Evochron Renegades.

When I start the game, everything is fine at first.

Within minutes, textures (on objects; such as asteroids, stations, planets, and my ship in 3rd person view) become "washed - out" - like an overexposed photograph. Then eventually the textures "seem" to disappear altogether and everything looks like pure white blobs with no surface detail. The shapes/meshes/polygons are fine, they just get "all-white". Backgrounds seem to be unaffected. But overall, I think it is some kind of "lighting/specular" error ? (since at first they get "washed out", but with SOME surface detail, before they become COMPLETELY washed out)

When I first configured the game, I had mipmaps turned off. I turned them on, but this does not seem to help.

Resolution setting is optimized (to my flat screen monitor, 1680x1050). All other settings are on their max (best) settings, color depth = 32 bits.

Now, this started happening after I first jumped out of Sapphire system... to Glacia... flew to the city on Glacia (snowy foggy atmosphere)... then through the rings until I found Beacon Two. Shortly after I flew by Beacon Two I noticed a weird washed out sort of cloud / fog on everything, but I flew out of it OK. Then back to Sapphire, and I noticed this "washout" thing happening.

Again - I restart the game, and everything is fine at first, then the error starts to occur after a few minutes.

I have the latest drivers for my NVidia 8800GTX card. No problems have been noted with anything until now (IE the drivers ARE stable).


[Edited on 1-7-2009 by Storm]

I'm getting this same issue, only in ER, and only in certain systems... like Rucker, for instance. Others look just fine.

I have a Diamond Radeon HD3870 w/ 512MB RAM. I also have 4GB of system RAM and I'm running Vista x64. I was using the 8.12 ATI drivers, I think. But, I just upgraded to the latest 9.1 drivers, so I'll see if that helps the situation.

My GPU and VRAM isn't overheating, nor is it remotely even close to doing so. I haven't read the rest of this thread, so I'm about to look through the replies.

[Storm]

NCC386;

In my case it was *probably* finally diagnosed - NOT resolved just yet... with an acceptable TEMPORARY solution.

After looking over an MSINFO32 report, Vice suggested that I update my video drivers (I had previously done so about ~ 9 months ago).

With the NEW driver, I get a panel that pops up with every restart... an "NVIDIA WARNING"... to the effect that my card is not getting enough power. Clicking on 'more details' indicates that I should check to see that the "Supplimental Power Cable" connection be checked. As it turns out, the builder that put together my machine (a local small outfit, single owner) used a cheap power supply, and THERE IS NO supplimental power cable attached.

This panel also indicates that the drivers will FORCE the vidcard to operate at lower perfromance for safety.

Parts are on order for an 850w power supply with more than one PCI-E cable. Also, I'm upgrading from 4Gb to 8Gb of ram at the same time (I need it sometimes for a raytracing application). They were initially supposed to arrive last friday, but the tech I am using (who has an excellent local reputation) said that the shipment was delayed until next week.

I'd say check the last time you upgraded your video drivers....

I've found out since then that being underpowered can CAUSE your vidcard to overheat.

In the meantime, my probs have been temporarily solved by downloading and installing RivaTuner 2. With it I bump my vidcard fan speed from the default 60% to 100%. Every once in a GREAT while, I get a graphics error now, especially if my apartment's thermostat is close to 70 (fahrenheit) or above... I turn it down to 65, and things are fine.

(EDIT)
Opps - sorry - not awake yet, and just skimmed over your post. I hope your driver download did the trick.

If not, you might check the card's power situation.

Like you, I had ONLY noticed this with ER. But I haven't installed any other games on this machine (other than VegaStrike, back in 2007-ish, and I didn't play that long).


[Edited on 1-30-2009 by Storm]