VIA PT880 Screen corruption in Vista

[project6]

Hi

I, and many with me, have problems with this chipset and Vista.
I'm pretty sure it's the chipset itself, because all people who has this issue uses it.

When the theme Aero gets disabled in Vista, the screen gets corrupt with horizontal multicolored lines. Also all the application windows gets lots of artifacts and stop refreshing, so you get the "slow-performance-I-can-paint-with-my-windows" effect.

This only happens when Aero is disabled. E.g. during Windows startup, shutdown, opening Windows Taskmanager, using any software that automaticly disables Aero, etc, etc...

I'm providing links to an image and a video of this bug.

There's also a thread going on about this on Nvidias forums, please read up on it to get the details.
Link: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=30678

Here are the links for how it looks like.

Image: http://forums.nvidia.com/index...tach&type=post&id=3971
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2jihwNSU5I

Thanks for your assistance in this matter.

[boyblue]

project6

We need the following;

CPU type and speed
Motherboard make and model
Chipset
Video card or integrated graphics solution
RAM, amount and speed
Operating system and service packs
video card driver version (installed)
VIA 4in1 Hyperion driver version (installed)

[project6]

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6300 1800MHz
Motherboard: Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA
Chipset: VIA PT880 ULTRA
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 6800XT 256MB (AGP)
RAM: 2048MB DDR2 667MHz (2x1024)
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (fully updated)
GPU Drivers: 158.18
VIA 4in1 Hyperion driver: No clue, never updated this

[boyblue]

First of all I would update the bios if you haven't all ready. Also what type of harddrive have you got and what controller is it connected to? When you first installed Vista did the problem show up? Have you run a memory tester to rule that out.

Does the bios screen show an errors or is it just in Vista? Can you post the temps as well.

[project6]

I personally haven't updated the bios because I know of people with the same issue who have tried all availible bios versions from asrock's site, and the corruption is still there.

The bios screen does not show any corruption. This is a graphics bug that occurs whenever the Aero theme gets disabled. So If Aero is enabled (approx 80% of the software supports Aero) everything works great. But as soon as an application disables Aero, or for example when rebooting or entering device manager, the screen gets filled up with artifacts and thin horizontal lines. The "effect" itself is comparable to an overheating videocard. (which it isn't, but it looks about the same) The temps of all my components are very satisfying; I'm using a very well cooled system with one top fan, two front fans, one backfan and one sidefan.

I mention again, this ONLY occurs with Aero disabled. Performance is great with Aero.

The corruption does not occur with the generic Vista drivers (version 97.46), but they are old and outdated. Yet it's the only solution right now, although performances is sacrificed to downgrade to that version. There's hardly any OpenGL support at all with those drivers.

I'm using two older harddrivers with IDE controllers. I do however fail to see how that has anything to do with the issue at hand.

Thanks for your responses

[boyblue]

Have you tried the latest drivers released on the 21/04/2007 for the video card. (Use the USA drivers)

"I'm using two older harddrivers with IDE controllers. I do however fail to see how that has anything to do with the issue at hand. ", I was checking to see if you had a SATA harddrive as there was a problem with the VIA Raid driver but it has been updated now.

If the default Vista drivers work then it may be the video drivers so like alot of Vista problems, its a waiting game for drivers.

[heder]

I have this exact problem too. I have put together a new system vith an Core2Duo E4300 on an Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA based on the PT880 chipset using an ASUS AGP 7600GS GFX card.

The generic vista drivers work great (as described), but as soon as I install the latest Forceware, GFX corruption occurs when Aero is being turned off. Good examples are the UAC screen and the new Vista ctrl-alt-del "task manager" screen.

The reports over at the NVIDIA forums describe people with different brands of motherboards having the issue too.
The common denominator seem to be PT880 and Nvidia AGP cards.

[boyblue]

When Aero is being turned off what is turning it off, a program or are you changing the theme.

[boyblue]

If Java is turning of Aero update to the latest version. (use the Java control panel to update) or get it from here.
Java

[heder]

It is not limited to any specific application. It can be Vista itself or some third-party program.

Examples where the corruption occurs:

1. A program turns Aero off "at the desktop".
2. Pressing ctrl-alt-del (obviously the screen this takes you to isn't "Aero accelerated")
3. The logon screen has the problem.
4. When UAC is active (That is, the screen is dimmed, and only a single msgbox wi "continue" or "cancel" is presented.
5. Shutting down Vista. (The shutdown screen with the spinning circle).

The link in the first post presents the problem at variation "1", where a program has turned off Aero at the desktop, but as I said, it is not specific to any special program.

I think it is worth stressing again that the Vista stock NVidia drivers (96.34, I think) has not got the issue. I did some testing, and the 97.46 driver download also works great.
However, with the 100.54 release, the problems appear, and they are from here on in every release up to the latest.
Question is - what is introduced in 100.54 that makes this happen...

Regards
/Thomas