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trainguy77

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 13, 2003
3,567
1
I am getting some odd graphics problems with my x1900. I don't know if its the 10.5 driver issues or my card failing. I am getting lines across just one window that go away. I get the minimize effect for just about an inch of one window until i move the window. When i play 3d games when it warms up lines start going straight off items. Its hard to describe but it will just continue a line right off the screen. Here is a screenshot of the line on the windows problem. Would this be drivers or my card?
 

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I am also having issues getting my second monitor to be recognized. I plugged in my brothers 24" to compare to my 24" and ever since it will not work with my 20". I connected the 20" to my brothers system it works fine. I connected his 24" to the same port the 20" connect to and it works fine. But my 20" keeps saying no signal. I had this once before and with some playing it worked fine. I don't get it. Would this also be related?
 
This is normal for the X1900, since it is a crappy card running too hot. :)

Its common, but not normal. It didn't do this for the past year and a half i have owned it. :p

Any thoughts on the second monitor?

EDIT: wouldn't the thing i have as screenshot of be a drivers issue? otherwise it wouldn't show up on a screenshot.
 
These are the symptoms of an overheating card, most likely caused by dust buildup. All it needs is a good cleaning.

Blow the dust out of the air intake vent and clean out the fan assembly. For extra credit, apply some Arctic Silver thermal compound to the GPU-Heatsink interface.
 
These are the symptoms of an overheating card, most likely caused by dust buildup. All it needs is a good cleaning.

Blow the dust out of the air intake vent and clean out the fan assembly. For extra credit, apply some Arctic Silver thermal compound to the GPU-Heatsink interface.

I will give that a shot. I cleaned it out a couple months back. Does the arctic silver help alot? I might get some as its not to hard to apply.
 
I will give that a shot. I cleaned it out a couple months back. Does the arctic silver help alot? I might get some as its not to hard to apply.

The Arctic Silver seemed to help mine immensely. I experienced quite a few system and graphics freeze ups with my X1900 after upgrading to Leopard, always when the card was being stressed, like DVD playback or iTunes visualizer. All that went away once I cleaned out the card and applied some Arctic Silver to the GPU.
 
I sprayed off the card. It seems to be running better lines wise. However, i still have the second monitor problem.

I looked at that thread and i considered doing that actually, i just wasn't sure if it was worth it. How much of the noise was the x1900. I am guessing alot of it as the new macs pros are alot quieter.
 
I had the exact problems that the top poster had, but worse. I'd get flickering, speckled green stripes across video playback. It's worst when I'm playing HD recordings, but eventually it messes up DVD playback too.

you could always do what i did.

zero problems runs cool and silent

I just installed one yesterday. So far, it's doing the job. The boot-up noise is a lot less objectionable too. I don't need total silence, but the start-up was annoying. Even though it is short, it's undesirable. I like the fin spacings, the stock heat sink has such tight fin spacings that I worry there's dust getting stuck somewhere down the gaps that I won't be able to see.

Did you reinstall The GPU X-brace on the back side of the card or not? The instructions don't seem to mention it, but I put it back on.

I left the "tail fin" on, and didn't put in the plastic clips.

These are the symptoms of an overheating card, most likely caused by dust buildup. All it needs is a good cleaning.

Blow the dust out of the air intake vent and clean out the fan assembly. For extra credit, apply some Arctic Silver thermal compound to the GPU-Heatsink interface.

If you're going to that extent, might as well swap the heat sink to something else. Another part that worries me about the stock cooler is that the memory chips have a 1mm-2mm thick piece of foam connecting them to the heat sink. That seems awfully thick, and it didn't seem to be all that special of a material either, like it might not be special thermal conductive material, but possibly a heat trapper. Maybe the memory chips don't need any cooling at all, I don't know. But the Accelero S1 so far is solving the problem, whatever that problem is. I bought the add-on cooling fans ("Turbo Module") just in case too. I won't install those unless I get the problems again.
 
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