1/3 of screen turns black when playing video

Hi y'all!

When I play video or dvd on my system, 1/3 of the screen turns black after a while. It usually takes between 50-240 minutes before it happens but it never fails! I can still see what I'm playing if I resize the player and move it up. Everything else works fine.


The only way to fix this is to reboot.

It doesn't matter what player I use, it always happens.
I use k-lite codec pack.
I run windows xp sp3 with all updates.

I have the latest nvidia driver and a xfx geforce 7900gtx

My monitor is a 5 year old sony gdm-f520

Recently my motherboard crashed and I got the asus p5n-t deluxe as replacement.

I have never had this or any similar problems before. Any ideas?

 

Hi thesoftparade, Have a look at the bottom of this screen for similar threads. The second thread might have some help for you until someone more knowledgeable answers your query. Neil.

 

Thanks for the tip retiredlearner! However, I didn't get any help from those threads.

I don't have trouble playing videos, not even when a third of the desktop goes black. Everything works normal except for that irritating blackness!

I don't have this problem when playing games or doing any other computer related stuff on my computer.

Any ideas on what's causing this would be very appreciated!

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

I might wonder about a component getting overheated. You might want to test a different monitor if you can.

How did you "migrate" your system across to the new motherboard? Did you run a Repair Reinstall of Windows?

Can you remember when it started? Did it co-inside with the change of motherboard or the installation of SP3?

Can you make it reasonably close to "normal" again? It may be a clash of settings. Try reducing the screen resolution settings before you start running a video. Use the nVidia graphics "Control Panel" to make changes to main display settings (you should find the nVidia display settings by right-clicking on the desktop).

Which version of DirectX are you using?

Update your main drivers, starting with the chipset drivers
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5N-T Deluxe
Do the audio drivers as well, at least. If you cannot find a solution, try updating the chipset drivers from the nVidia website.

Does the XFX software offer a way of getting readouts for the graphics chip (GPU) temperature? If it does, when you see the screen change, check the temperature readout.

Matt

 

Thanks for the welcome mattman and thanks a lot for the advices you gave! I'll try them later this evening.

I actually had memory that was overheating my MB. I first had a pair of corsair xms2 pc6400 and my MB exceeded 75° celsius! I also got random bluescreens and tons of errors in memtest86.

I switched to a pair of corsair dominator pc-8500 and the MB temperature is now between 45°-55° celsius in a pretty warm room. Tried to clock the memory to 1066mhz which is supported by the MB but then I got random bluescreens and other nasty stuff.

I use everest ultimate to check system information.

Motherboard: 55°c

cpu: 43°c

gpu: 50°c
gpu diod: 50°c
gpu memory: 50°c
gpu surroundings: 51°c

I will check the temperatures in everest when the screen turns black!

When I migrated the the system to the new MB I installed a brand new 1TB seagate barracuda 7200.11 sata HD with a clean windows xp pro sp2 install on a 150gb partition.

I haven't had the black screen problem after an sp3 installation on the old motherboard (asus p5n32-sli deluxe). I made all the windows updates (including sp3) before playing any video on the new MB so I don't know if I would have the same problem with sp2.

The black screen problem started pretty early in the windows installation, before any major software and driver installations. Tried to reinstall windows a couple of times to see if that helped to get rid of the problem but with no success.

I can't do anything to get the desktop even close to normal without rebooting windows. Last time 2/3 of the screen turned black, the lower part and the upper part.

I have directx 9c with the directx end-user runtime updates installed.

I will try reducing the screen resolution later to night and play a movie to see what happens. I now have the resolution 1280x1024. I will also check if there's any driver updates to the MB.

There could be something wrong with the monitor because I have had problems with minor flickering and color alteration in the corners lately.
I will try another monitor as well to night.

Thank you so much for all the help and suggestions!

I appreciate it very much!

 

The motherboard or "system" temp is higher than the rest. That might indicate to me that the temperature inside the case is rather(!) high. For testing, you can try running with the case open and even directing a desk fan into it. It may indicate that you need to add extra case cooling fans. Is there plenty of room at the back of the case for heated air to escape?

Another thought is that the chipset drivers are badly installed.

If you go to Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs, you will find an uninstaller for nVidia, just be careful which are the chipset drivers (nForce), there will also be an uninstaller for the graphics.

Matt
PS

Don't use Windows Update to update drivers, find them yourself.

 

I've found out that it's the monitor that's the cause of the screen turning black. I've tried two different monitors and I didn't experience any problem at all when I played video on them. I guess it's about time to upgrade to an lcd monitor anyway.

Any tip on a good 22-24 inch widescreen lcd monitor?

Thanks a lot for all the help mattman!

I always search for drivers myself. I only use windows update to update windows.

 

5 years is quite a good lifetime.

Tips...
I have purchased BenQs and Viewsonics for people and I have an Acer myself all without even one dead pixcell so far. Dell and Asus monitors also have a good reputation.

Specifications may be most dependent on a low Response Time if you want to do serious gaming and a high Contrast Ratio for a distinct picture. You might be interested in the adjustment of the base or the viewing angles. Check whether it has both VGA and DVI connectors.

If you find a few you are interested in, put the model number and the term review into a websearch.

Matt