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    Graphical problem, please help, i'm out of ideas

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by abdullah_mag, Mar 13, 2016.

  1. abdullah_mag

    abdullah_mag Notebook Evangelist

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    Hello everyone, please read this carefully as i have included a great deal of troubleshooting steps i've done to try solve my issue.

    I had an alienware M17 R4 which i had received as a gift in late 2012, and around late 2015 had problems that Dell couldn't fix so they offered me a replacement 17 R3 2016 model, which has the following specs (no OC's whatsoever): i7 6700HQ 2.6ghz (up to 3.5 on single core, 3.1 on all 4 cores), Nvidia GTX 965m (2gb model), 16gb DDR4 2133MHZ SODIMM RAM, Windows 10 64-bit home, HGST 7200rpm HDD, FHD IPS Anti Glare LCD @60hz.

    For over a month now i've been plagued by a strange ailment that basically ADDS more aliasing to everything, my games are now a blur of creeping white dots/lines and escalator effects.

    To elaborate, if there's a highly detailed texture on complex geometry, it'll look like a christmas tree with many creeping white dots/lines, this is particularly noticeable on metallic surfaces, and objects like fences, railing, pipes, and wires appear as disconnected lines of the same color and also have that escalator effect, the terrain also has this "magnetic field" effect to it if you know what i mean, like a wave effect on them.

    I have prepared some samples to show what i mean (at least where it's most easy to demonstrate), the following samples have been captured using an external camera as to not let other pc's video/graphics settings change what i want to demonstrate (games shown: Planetside 2, World of Warships):







    The following ones are captured using fraps (planetside 2, guild wars 2):
    PS2:



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhjqBBQ5-TM

    GW2:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbml-Rrhy2M

    All settings, installed software and hardware are the same as before the problem emerged, including the games' and graphics cards settings.

    I have tried almost every possible software (and most hardware) solutions i can think of (including the basic software measures like trying different driver versions, reinstalling windows, reinstalling the games), more specifically here's where i tried:
    -Reinstalled windows using the recovery usb i made right when i had received the laptop
    -Reinstalled windows from scratch
    -Installed the recommended drivers from Dell's website
    -Reinstalled all games i have
    -Replaced the motherboard (which also includes the soldered CPU and GPU) and applied high grade thermal paste on the cpu and gpu (Prolimatech PK3)
    -Tried various tweaks through Nvidia control panel and Nvidia inspector.
    -Reseated all cables in the laptop
    -Tried 2 different 1080p external monitors
    -Updated to the latest BIOS version and made sure no settings were misconfigured.
    -Error checked and defragged the hard drive, as well as registry cleanups, malware and virus scans. -Checked each of the two RAM sticks individually and tried each one in the two RAM slots
    -Tried running the laptop on battery only for some time
    -Tried disconnecting the battery and running on direct power for some time
    -Ran Dell's Pre-boot Assessment software (all hardware passed)
    -Tried Dell's support assist (does all sorts of hardware tests, including stress tests, developed by PC Doctor for dell), tested all hardware (and did a RAM test and stress test), and all hardware passed.
    -Did SFC /scannow and a chkdsk, no corruption.
    -Made sure that i am running at the proper internal resolution
    -Made sure i am running at my native resolution and at 100% render quality in all my games/3d applications
    -Tried DSR where i can, problem still shows

    The problem is not resitricted to 3d applications only too, it shows up in videos (albeit to a lesser extent), and i made sure that they were videos i had seen before to ensure that i am not imagining this, many images show aliasing and "smudging" around where each color meets another (e.g a black font on a white/red background shows black/red smudging around the text), and i've also noticed this affecting the alienware logo during POST and all icons in windows (to varying degrees).

    This problem does not go away even when i apply 8x sparse grid super sampling or pretty much any other type of anti aliasing.

    This problem also seems to show on my brothers' laptops and on our phones, and it had also happened to my previous alienware (but it was much less worse than now) which points me to a power related problem, however i measured the current coming through and it looks fine, so i'm just....my head has gone blank.

    I am at a loss here, please halp me o glorious overlords

    note: I would like to point out (again) that the games i'm showing here did NOT look like this, and i have confirmed with their respective communities that this is indeed not the norm, both of these games were set to the absolute maximum quality their ingame graphics settings would allow me, including all sorts of Anisotropic filtering and anti aliasing which have done nothing.
     
  2. CaerCadarn

    CaerCadarn Notebook Deity

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    what Drivers are you using atm? Did you try an earlier Version from which you could say it worked in the past? Do you use stock vBios? If you use let's say 3DMark how does it look like? Last but not least: how are the Settings in energy Options and nvidia control Panel? Is it set to "high Performance or high Quality mode"?

    If you say that your other electronic devices are "affected" too then it seems that an external source may be the culprit (power pole, NSA Radar Station, cell Tower, etc.). o_O
     
  3. abdullah_mag

    abdullah_mag Notebook Evangelist

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    i did not try 3d mark, and yea i made absolutely sure it's not a driver issue, and nvidia settings are set to high quality where applicable.
    as for this being an external source, i have no idea what could possibly affect graphics in such a way, i made sure that the power from the socket that i plug he lappy in is putting out clean AC power, that's as far as external factors that i can measure go.