New monitor&new pc. Screen flickers with horizontal lines. Vsync? Help needed!

R

ragser

Newcomer
Hello, I bought a computer a few days ago with the following specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83Ghz
4GB 4x1GB (4 modules)
Radeon HD4850

I'm playing this on a 21.5" HD screen called BenQ E2200HDA (ab which I bought about 5 weeks ago.

Now here's the problem. Since I bought my new computer I noticed that when playing games, the screen flickers with horizontal lines. (Before I bought a new computer I barely ever played games since my old pc was so crappy which might be the cause of me not noticing this issue earlier) The first game I tried was Team Fortress 2 and the screen flickers a lot, same with Silkroad. A friend of mine told me to avtivate the v-sync option in Team Fortress 2 and see if it helped, and it did! It got either reduced or completely gone, it's kind of hard to tell since TF2 really has no dark areas where this issue is most noticable.

Now here's the thing.

All games don't have a vsync option and I figured that to solve this problem, I could just activate the vsync option in Atis Catalyst Control Center which I did. And it doesn't work at all. Games like Silkroad, Crysis (tried the crysis Demo) still flickers. And so does Warrock, but only in darker areas.

I have the latest drivers and the Hd4850s' temperature is around 40-50 degress celsius so it's not a heating problem.

I tried switching back to my old 17" CRT monitor and the problem was gone.
Could there be something wrong with my 21.5" HDA monitor?(The monitor has resolution of 1920x1080 and no DVI, only VGA). Or could I fix this somehow? Since the problem disappears in team fortress 2 when I activate v-sync it confuses me.

Is there anyone out there who can help me with this? :cry:
 
Not really sure how to help you on this but you got the latest ATI Catalyst drivers I am assuming? And when you mean flickers...you mean it turning on and off...or do you mean you see tears in the image?
 
I think he meant tearing. I also have alot of tearing problem with my 4850. Sometimes v-sync fixed it sometime it doesn't.

The most annoying thing is video playback, like DVD. I get tearing in the middle of the screen pretty damn annoying. If anyone got a fix, I am all ears as well.

I tried putting refresh to match the video frame rate but I still get tearing. Is the v-sync in Catalyst 8.9 Broken or something ?
 
V3 said:
I think he meant tearing. I also have alot of tearing problem with my 4850. Sometimes v-sync fixed it sometime it doesn't.

The most annoying thing is video playback, like DVD. I get tearing in the middle of the screen pretty damn annoying. If anyone got a fix, I am all ears as well.

I tried putting refresh to match the video frame rate but I still get tearing. Is the v-sync in Catalyst 8.9 Broken or something ?
Click to expand...
Yes, I meant tearing.

Since vsync solves the problem in all games that support it as an ingame option. I do believe the v-sync in catalyst control center is broken. It doesn't matter whether I turn it on or off, it doesn't work.

I haven't tried watching a DVD on my monitor yet, but I hope i won't have any problems with it. Gonna try it tonight.

I did try a better VGA cable which I borrowed from my neighbor last night and the tearing wasn't completely removed but heavily decreased. I'm gonna buy a better VGA cable today and see how it goes.
 
ragser said:
All games don't have a vsync option and I figured that to solve this problem, I could just activate the vsync option in Atis Catalyst Control Center which I did. And it doesn't work at all. Games like Silkroad, Crysis (tried the crysis Demo) still flickers. And so does Warrock, but only in darker areas.
Click to expand...
I don't know about ATI but NVIDIA only allow you to force vsync in OpenGL applications under Vista. Use D3DOverrider that comes packaged with RivaTuner to force vsync and triple buffering in all D3D applications. Also, the Crysis demo lacks a vsync option under D3D10; this was added to the full version with a patch.
ragser said:
I tried switching back to my old 17" CRT monitor and the problem was gone. Could there be something wrong with my 21.5" HDA monitor?(The monitor has resolution of 1920x1080 and no DVI, only VGA). Or could I fix this somehow? Since the problem disappears in team fortress 2 when I activate v-sync it confuses me.
Click to expand...
I assume the CRT has a higher refresh rate which would make the tearing less pronounced. LCDs are more prone to tearing since the are usually limited to 60Hz.
 
V3 said:
I think he meant tearing. I also have alot of tearing problem with my 4850. Sometimes v-sync fixed it sometime it doesn't.

The most annoying thing is video playback, like DVD. I get tearing in the middle of the screen pretty damn annoying. If anyone got a fix, I am all ears as well.

I tried putting refresh to match the video frame rate but I still get tearing. Is the v-sync in Catalyst 8.9 Broken or something ?
Click to expand...
D3DOverrider will allow you to force vsync in DirectDraw. I don't know if that would help but maybe it's worth a shot.
 
homerdog said:
I don't know about ATI but NVIDIA only allow you to force vsync in OpenGL applications under Vista. Use D3DOverrider that comes packaged with RivaTuner to force vsync and triple buffering in all D3D applications. Also, the Crysis demo lacks a vsync option under D3D10; this was added to the full version with a patch.

I assume the CRT has a higher refresh rate which would make the tearing less pronounced. LCDs are more prone to tearing since the are usually limited to 60Hz.
Click to expand...
The refresh rate of the CRT monitor was 60Hz as well so that's not the problem. But I want to give D3D overrider a shot though. But I thought that was only possibe with Nvidia cards because of Riva Tuner (which I assume is nvidia related?) A link where I could download this would be greatly appreciated :)
 
It's not in RivaTuner, it's in D3DOverrider which should have been installed along with RivaTuner. Look in the Start Menu...
 
Didn't work :( No difference. I tried playing a DVD in media center as well and the horizontal lines were there as well.

It was well worth a shot though.

Maybe there's something wrong with my monitor?

Since my monitor is only 1.5month old, the warranty is still valid. On spot warranty as well so I don't have to pay for the shipping cost back to them.

But if the monitor turns out to be fully functionable though, I suppose I can expect a fat bill for the shipping cost for the return, and for the technicians. Which is why I want to be sure there is something wrong with it before I send it back.

Maybe if I try another 60Hz TFT monitor to see if the problem disappears? If so, I think I could be pretty sure it's my monitor.
 
Would it be possible for you to post a screenshot of these horizontal lines? Of course if the problem is your monitor they wouldn't show up in screenies.

The fact that it's happening when you play DVDs is alarming. I've never encountered that issue.
 
I'll give that RivaTuner and D3DOverrider a try.

Also I don't think its your monitor. PS3 hooked to the same monitor (Bravia TV) with the same HDMI cable, played the same DVDs fine ie no tearing. Better too, DVD playback was alot smoother on PS3. There is judder with AVIVO playback, very annoying. And I don't know how to fix that either. But tearing is a priority to fix, judder would be next on my list.

On the NV side I get vertical tearing on rare occasion when I have 3 videos going. Not as often as the horizontal tearing with AVIVO though. I heard its something to do with VMR, I was also told to use EVR. I haven't got around to installing EVR on XP yet.

Are you on XP or Vista BTW ?
 
Okay guys, I found a solution and I thought I would share it with you. The thing is, there were 2 problems. First it was the v-sync problems which only occured in some games (that all had a v-sync option which fixed it). Then there was another problem:

I noticed that there was a constant flicker on the screen whenever there was something dark on it (as in games, movies and such). Even when I had a dark wallpaper on my dekstop. I couldn't understand what on earth could be causing it and the answer was this:
Voltage.

I tried switching the monitors power cable to another wall socket, and HELL YES! The problem was fixed. No flickering now what so ever.

I'm pretty damn happy right now since I just figured this out 5 minutes ago. And I'm glad the solution was this simple. I'm a little embarressed, since there was nothing wrong with the monitor, nor my graphics card. But I'm posting this just in case there's someone else out there with the same problem as me.

Peace :smile:
 
Hmm I live in the US and I've never had any such problems. Besides, one outlet works fine and the other doesn't, indicating a problem with the house wiring. Are you suggesting US electricians suck :?:

Glad to see you figured it out ragser.
 
little test
buy 2 computer magazines 1 from the u.s. 1 from the u.k
count the number of adverts for uninteruptable power suplpy's in each
u.k magazine = 0
 
Davros said:
little test
buy 2 computer magazines 1 from the u.s. 1 from the u.k
count the number of adverts for uninteruptable power suplpy's in each
u.k magazine = 0
Click to expand...

Interesting, although I don't see how that hypothetical test proves anything. Are wiring regulations more strict in the UK? Or are the electricians really more skilled/well trained?
 
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