Flickering horizontal lines

[Ualaa]

The last few days, I've noticed flickering horizontal lines.
Lines is not really the correct word, but its close.

More like 0.5 to 1.5 inch tall horizontal stretches of the screen.
That flicker slightly; no distortion of whatever is underneath, text is fine to read etc.
Very noticeable on any forum with a white or black background.
Virtually non-existant, but still there if I look closely, for any kind of a dvd or downloaded movie.
In Warcraft they're there too, but somewhere between the two extremes.
Does not seem to be present on my desktop at all, or if it is then it is extremely hard to see.

Can be lower monitor, middle monitor or upper monitor for positioning.
Pretty much anywhere, but usually only one flickering bar at a time.

I would guess either the monitor or video card is going.
I don't think heat is an issue, as this occurs immediately on start up.
And all the fans are running in the case, and I can feel the airflow is cool.

Any ideas?

[Kromtor]

it's almost definitely the video card. if the heatsink on the card isn't getting hot then that probably means that it has lost a good connection with the chip. new video card or new heatsink for it or try taking it apart and cleaning it out, they can get very dusty.

[Sajuuk]

it's almost definitely the video card. if the heatsink on the card isn't getting hot then that probably means that it has lost a good connection with the chip. new video card or new heatsink for it or try taking it apart and cleaning it out, they can get very dusty.

EH...if the heatsink wasn't on the card then it [the card] would overheat, causing a system reboot.

Although it couldn't hurt to give it a good cleaning/reapply thermal interface material.

[d0z3rr]

It happens on startup, definitely not a heat issue.

Try going into the BIOS and see if it happens there.

[Siaea]

I've burnt enough video cards to be able to tell you...it's your video card. Most likely dust/fur/dirt got into the fan, stopped it, and your GPU overheated.

[Kromtor]

if the heatsink is no longer mounted properly the chip will reach critical tempuratures almost immediately under strain. it's definitely the video card, whether or not it's a specific issue with overheating who knows but that'd be the first place to check. you will often get artifacting on the screen as a symptom of overheating before it actually causes the system to lock up/reboot if it comes to that.

[TeamGrizzly]

I also similiar problem.

Computer hangs a short while after I lauch WoW, sometimes with lines appearing all over the screen. When I reboot, these lines will sometimes persist in POST and will only disappear after I CTL-ALT-DEL for a few times. Problem will keep repeating (i.e. system hang when I launch WoW) and I find the only way out is to first load Windows in safe mode and then restart to normal. This usually solves the problem until the next day where the cycle will repeat again.

This due to Video card? I used Rivatuner to keep video constantly below 60 degrees celcius but doesnt seem to help..

I am using 4870X2.

[Ualaa]

I opened the case up, and there was a massive amount of dust build up in there.
Got rid of all the dust.

There was quite a bit in the video card fan and on the CPU heat sink.
So that might be the cause of the issue.
Having cleaned the case thoroughly, the flickering lines take about 5 mins after boot up to appear instead of immediately.

So it probably is the video card that has gone.
Or at least is in the process of going.

[krzr]

It's not the video card per say. It's the link between it and the monitor. Those are signal inconsistencies.
This usually happens from cables staying too long in the same position and the weight of them affects the connection.

Unplug the monitor cable from the monitor and the video card and plug it back in firmly.
You should notice the "scanlines" disappear completely. Try multiple times until you have it right.

Edit: People think it's the graphics card because they have to remove the cables in order to clean it. Once they plug the cables back and the problem is solved they confirm that it was the graphics card, when actually it wasn't.

[Ualaa]

I'll try that too.
Certainly cheaper than a new video card.
Thanks for the suggestion.