I bought a new rig yesterday and ever since havent been able to play fsx. I think my gfx card to be the problem.Upon starting my computer all seems to be ok on the desktop until tiny scattered black/white blocks start to appear on my lcd. Then after random amount of time the display freezes explorer dont work, the mouse still moves for a few seconds until it freezes too. the cpu keeps functioning for another few seconds (The numlock light responds with a 5-7 seconds lag).by trial I am able to figure out that whenever the card gets the slightest of load, blocks appear on screen (sometimes corrupting image) then it hangs. lowering to 1024x768 allows me to use windows with less freq crashes. As the aircraft loads on the startup screen it becomes garbles followed by immidiate freeze but the music still plays bit itermittent, and mouse works for few more seconds before freezing.I have a coolermaster 600w 12v1-18A, 12v2-18A psu, 190.38 x64 driver for xp, gpu core temp 54c.please help figure out if I have a defective card

I bought a new rig yesterday and ever since havent been able to play fsx. I think my gfx card to be the problem.Upon starting my computer all seems to be ok on the desktop until tiny scattered black/white blocks start to appear on my lcd. Then after random amount of time the display freezes explorer dont work, the mouse still moves for a few seconds until it freezes too. the cpu keeps functioning for another few seconds (The numlock light responds with a 5-7 seconds lag).by trial I am able to figure out that whenever the card gets the slightest of load, blocks appear on screen (sometimes corrupting image) then it hangs. lowering to 1024x768 allows me to use windows with less freq crashes. As the aircraft loads on the startup screen it becomes garbles followed by immidiate freeze but the music still plays bit itermittent, and mouse works for few more seconds before freezing.I have a coolermaster 600w 12v1-18A, 12v2-18A psu, 190.38 x64 driver for xp, gpu core temp 54c.please help figure out if I have a defective card

It could be the video card/drivers but it looks more like a memory issue. Check your memory modules. Also, if you have overclocked any component, revert back to the default and see if that fixes the problem.Best regards,Jim Young

It could be the video card/drivers but it looks more like a memory issue. Check your memory modules. Also, if you have overclocked any component, revert back to the default and see if that fixes the problem.Best regards,Jim Young

I get that with any driver after the 182.50 and my dual 8800GTX's. Usually seems ot happen only on longer flights and reverting back to 182.50 always cures the issue for me...-Paul

Just tried the 182.50 drivers but no difference, only that now mouse pointer freeze and come back. No overclocking done. Currently I am unable to use even windows without disabling all display hardware acceleration or else display freezes after a few blocks start to appear (screenshot). my computer dont show any bsod or restart, the display just freezes and with 190.38 drivers flickers wih exactly 8sec intervals forever.this is really letting me down after spending $700. does 9800gt have any known issues? should I persuade the store to give me another card of comparable value?I am using pv-t98g-ydlh v9.8 on gigabute ga-ep45-ud3r with q9550.

Looks like it could be GPU overheating. Stupid question - Is the fan attached to power? Wouldn't be the first time that's happened :)Maybe bad RAM, but the artefacts are often down to overheating. Can you tell us what temps your GPU is running at under load? Run nforce tools, you should be able to downclock a bit. Try downclocking till you can get into Windows without a crash - that should help you determine if it's RAM or GPU.Leo

the artefacts you see are at idle load at 55c, 2-3min after startup. the fan is working ok.used revatuner and downclocked to core- 150Mhz, shader and memory- 300Mhz but still see the artefacts and freez on fsx menu aircraft display and the nv control panel rotating logo. lowering resolution helps. disabling all display acceleration stops windows crash.

Something's not good then. I'd say that there is a problem with the card:No improvement changing driversNo improvement downclockingSlight improvement lowering res, disabling hardware accelerationInstability at stock levels, artefacts within XP, let alone gaming.Do you have another card you can pop in, if for no other reason than to exclude a harware incompatibility. IMO, I doubt this is the problem, but it'll help your case if you RMA the 9800 nonetheless.So, maybe return the card; it's not right from what you've told us, and I am not certain there's anything you can do to improve that. It could be something as simple as a poor heatsink seating, or fubar'ed GPU/RAM; you may want to check the heatsink for yourself, but some h/w suppliers can get a bit funny once you start taking the kit apart. Mebbe let them figure out the problem..Leo

Thanks for all the help guys, it came out to be a defective card. I took the xfx 9800gt to the store and exchanged it for leadtec 250 gts for another $16, problem solved.