Corrupt graphics

[admin]

My old computer is now showing corrupt graphics, lots of weird digital noise from when the thing boots up. This is the same computer that had the RAM problem, but was solved by increasing the voltage slightly.

The graphics card causing this problem is the obvious thought, but perhaps the power supply could be to blame too? If changing video cards (AGP, obviously), any recommendations?

[doctorhardware]

If you can, measure the 12v and the 5v line and make sure that the voltages are in spec. Also measure both lines for AC ripple, set you multi-meter to the lowest AC measurement and there should be no AC riding on the DC line. Having AC ripple on the DC line can cause a lot of weird problems.

[admin]

Finally got around to doing some tests, and it seems it was the graphics card that was faulty. Replaced it with a new Radeon HD 2400 Pro (AGP), and all works fine now, and it can even play Blu-ray/HD DVD movies with GPU acceleration and around 60% CPU usage (on a P4 3.2 GHz with 1 GB of RAM).

[doctorhardware]

That is a nice a video card, glad you finally got it fixed.

[admin]

I was taking this opportunity not only to fix the computer, but also to upgrade it to play Blu-ray, so I had to get an ATI Radeon HD card with UVD accelerated decoding, but one that would also work with my PSU (and also one that haven't been discontinued already, or cost too much). The card was a Sapphire one, btw.

The problem now is that the PC is too noisy for home theater usage (always has been), so I might have to look into some quieter fans. It's a shame I wasn't able to find a passively cooled Radeon HD, these are as rare as hen's teeth in AGP flavours it appears.

[doctorhardware]

Yes they are very hard to find. I have Geforce Nvidia 7300 that is passively cooled. One thing I did was to the use silver cool heat sink compound. It has reduced the GPU temperature by like some 20 degrees. It was worth the effort to take the heat sink apart. Which was a real PIA.

[atifsh]

whats ur gpu temp now?
i have 7600 gs myself that runs pretty hot ..idles at 60

[admin]

42 C idle, don't know how much at load, probably low 50's.

The 2400 Pro is a bit slow for gaming though, not as good as the 2600 Pro/XT or your 7600 GS. But I'm very unlikely to use that machine for games anymore.

I connected the PC to my TV through HDMI today, output at 1920x1080 and played some HD DVD movies (don't have a Blu-ray drive for it yet, only an external HD DVD one that I can connect to it) in PowerDVD 8 (with HD DVD patch). CPU usage (in XP) was around 40%, and almost never above 50, for both VC-1 and AVC encoded movies. This was with SPDIF output to my receiver, so CPU usage most likely a bit higher with internal decoding. Without GPU acceleration, the P4 3.2 CPU struggled along at 100% and only managed about 10 FPS in playback.

This guide shows that you can get away with Blu-ray playback on an old AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with the right GPU:

http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2959&Itemid=1