VERY annoying screen glitch, computer wizard wanted ;)

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Right, for the last month, since installing the Sims 2 Bon Voyage exapnsion pack, my screen has been going dim, various shades of dim from just noticably dim to very dim. I have noticed it's prevelence more so when a video is playing on my web browser, like one of those advert ones, or I am playing a game.

I have checked all the hardware settings, and it tells me the monitor, graphics card etc is working properly. I have checked the temprature setting of the monitor, and even tried a system restore, to no avail. It seems to be ok until I load up the web browser and a video comes on. I've had a play with the contrast ans brightness settings of the monitor it's self, and set it to a level where the issue is less noticable, but it's still an issue. I don't wan't to uninstall the Sims as there is thousands of hours of gameplay there and it's too much to back up. The issue is 100% worse when playing games, as I have to minimise the game screen and put the comp in standby for a few minutes to get the screen back in sync. Altering the monitor settings, refresh rate, res, colour, all of that does no good. I think it could be a conflict with the Nvidia card (Gforce 6200LE) and a component installed with Sims BV. Also someone told me it could be a Direct X issue and to turn off hardware acceleration, which I did, still did not help.

I tried updating the Nvidia driver, this did not help, so I rolled it back to the previous one. The only thing I can think it might be is the cable from the monitor to the plug, as this is the only thing I have not and cannot test without buying a new one. I did remove all the cables from the back of of the tower and monitor last night to make sure they were all in right, of course did not help though.

It's an LCD screen monitor if this helps.

The easiest way to tell if it's a hardware problem with your monitor or cable, is to borrow a monitor from a friend and hook it to your computer and see if the problem persists. If your friend's monitor does not display the erratic behavior, it's probably a problem with your monitor and you should get a new one.

I know, but I have no friends, the only person with a monitor is my mom, who lives 40 miles away from me and is on holiday in Rome right now. I could take it to the store, but I don't have the cash just to have it tested, I would have to borrow frm my bf, and trust me that would not be great, the only time we would be wanting to pay out is if we have to replace it.

Oh the perils of having AS and no friends

My suggestion if possible is to borrow a spare working monitor and test your system on it. If the problem disappears then it's either a monitor/monitor cable problem replace the monitor or if you can replace the monitor VGA/DVI/HDMI cable which ever connection you use.

If the problem is the same then check the nvidia driver forums to see if there are any issues with sims 2 bon voyage and your graphics card drivers (moderate chance of it been a problem). If its the drivers the only choice is to either try a different driver revision if your using vista that could be a problem as nvidia vista drivers are poorly supported or designed.

Basicly if i were you i would look into upgrading your graphics card as a 6200 is very poor for gaming and you can get some decent deals dont bother about SLI if your using vista or if you dont have a high resolution monitor.

How long has this issue been going since you installed the add on and has removing the add on cured the problem if it does then a compolont of the sims 2 add on is causing the issue if not then its something else it sounds like either your cable is on its way out the graphics card connection port damage or the LCD monitor has developed a fault.

If you need further advice i would be more than happy to help you fix your problem just pm me a message or msn me

cya mate

Thanks I will call mom when she gets back from her holiday and ask her if there is any chance of her bringing her monitor over so I can run a few tests, but I can't see it as my stepfarther hates me and will probably not allow her to do it. I'm using XP if that helps, and thanks for that about the 6200, I may look into getting it updated, but I have asled before and was told it would be more worthwile buying a new computer as the cost was so high, and I can't do that because mine is not even mine yet as I'm still paying for it.

what is your pc specs if you tell me i can advise you on what upgrades to get for your pc

another tip if you have vista i reccomend you downgrade as vista is a resource pig and if you play games your system struggles more due to vista been so greedy with the RAM and processor resources.

if you need any advice i'll happy to help out

cya later mate

I don't think the 6200 series is all that bad anyway, they are kind of slow, but they do support DirectX 9.0c, which is the biggest concern.

Have you considered disabling Flash in your browser, since most of what it gives you is ads, and there seem to be no problems when you don't use it?

the 6200 is decent for video watching as most 6200 models have hardware decoding built in but for gaming there very slow there's no point in direct x9.0c if your card cant run games that use older engines hence why i dont see the point in buying budget cards just cause there dx10 or sm4 supported if you want to play games in there full you mays well spend more money and get a decent graphics card

First things first... before you go trundling monitors hither and yon... make sure of a few things:

1) Upgrade your video drivers from NVidia's site to the latest version
2) Upgrade Direct X to the latest version

Then see if you still have the problem.

When you say you've checked the cables and such, you did so by removing them completely and then reseated them correct? If not, do so.

as ^^^ said, have you checked the cable? is it connected firmly? you know, the screws behind the pc


EDIT:

hmmm...