Z13 strange nVidia problem

All is well with my Z13 except that all of the sudden today I found that when I click on a YouTube link and play the video without expanding it to full screen a lime green line, abut 1/8" thick appears across the top of the video frame and the colors in the video are distorted. This only happens when the Z is in "Speed" mode and it only happens on YouTube small screen videos.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, which are the latest community drivers for un-hacked BIOS and I've been using them for months. Any thoughts? Is there a good dGPU diagnostic program I shou

 

Tough call, PM me the video and I'll try to see if the same results happen.

 

This is an incompatibility bug between Flash 11.2 and older Nvidia drivers. I reported it for Forceware 280.26 I was using for a long time, the status was finally determined as 'won't fix' - external bug. The only way to fix this is to update the Nvidia drivers or to downgrade Flash.

 

It does it with all of them for me, but here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1rkFOyhAM&feature=g-all-u

Thanks. Since it only effects Youtube videos at thumbnail size and I can always use the Safari browser to see it in HTML5 I don't see the need to fix it. Surprised I haven't seen more about this in the forum. I have the latest non-BIOS hack community drivers.

 

Any idea if this issue does or should happen with the stock ForceWare 188.80 drivers? I recall seeing it before when I was running ForceWare 263.08, but I'm not seeing it at the moment with the above linked video.

 

I'm using 263.14 but have been for months and only noticed this occurring the other day. That said, I'm rarely on Speed mode, so it's not unlikely it would have occurred months ago, especially given TeeRex's explanation. Why did you downgrade? Was it because of the Flash conflict?

 

A few weeks ago, I accidentally upgraded to Windows 8 via the web installer. Windows 8 wasn't too bad. The only difference to me was basically a "full screen" Start Menu, occasionally laggy video, super high DPC latency average of 1000us (music would drop out all the time) and every other boot up into Windows I would end up with a crash (BSOD) or a black screen...

Last week, I installed the latest beta Intel RST drivers (checking for TRIM option in Win8's disk maintenance utility) and then when I went to install the previous stable version, I couldn't boot into Windows any more. (the first time this happened, I went into safe mode and did a system restore but this time it seems that all of my restore points had disappeared)

Anyway, I booted in to command prompt, backed up all my files and used my Sony recovery DVDs so now I'm back to Windows 7 with everything as it originally was. Haven't changed a thing and hopefully I'll be able to resist doing anything unnecessary so I can have a fully working and stable laptop to use again.

Anyway, yeah, I do recall experiencing this issue sometime in the past, but it's too blurry to remember which drivers I was using. Though, I'm pretty much always in Speed mode since I just leave the switch at Auto and I'm often plugged into the wall.

 

Wow, sounds like the kind of ordeal I live in fear of! As long as you have no need for improved d-GPU performance there's no reason to change drivers. Personally, I don't even game and just upgraded them, well, because I could! I will say that streamed video from certain sources - eg, Amazon Online Video - looks better and sharper in Speed mode, but it might look just as good using the stock drivers.

 

Bumping this because I'm now starting to see this crop up more often - versus never until the date of my OP. Do you all think this is an incompatibility between latest Flash and nVidia drivers or could I be having a hardware problem? Also, I can't figure out how to go backwards in Flash versions, which I much prefer to going back to the crapola Sony nVidia drivers.

Thoughts?

 

lovelaptops, what made you decide to update the graphics drivers?

Also, any idea what your next notebook might be? Think you might get that Asus ultrabook with rumoured 1080p screen? Hopefully they will use a good quality screen.

 

An excellent question! I decided to update them: Because I Could!!! Actually, there was a reason: the newer nVidia drivers provide a hue adjustment for desktop color control panel and that comes in handy. No good reason, like playing games!

As to the next, I am definitely salivating for that new Asus Zenbook with the 1080p IPS screen (not rumored, announced and seen and it is a barn-burner; may not have the color gamut of the Z's, but awesome brightness, contrast, viewing angles and color accuracy), 500Mb/s SATA III SSDs, superb audio, backlit keyboard and a metallic exterior more beautiful than anything Sony - or perhaps anyone - has ever made. I know the ULV IB cpu will be fine as it is about identical in performance to the 1st Gen Core i7 SV in my Z13. My wife gets this Z and I am in that Asus as soon as it's been out long enough to be clear of it's "teething pains!"

I still love this Z1 more than any computer I have ever owned and I will miss some ports, the EC slot and, yes, the ODD, but not as much as I am totally bought into the UB concept and Asus appears to be the "Apple" of the UP (and Android tablet, as it were). I would actually keep this Z13 and get my wife the Zenbook but she has enough trouble reading the 900p 13" screen - lucky me!


Thanks for asking; it was great fun to respond!

Cheers!

 

Ahhh, I didn't forget about this thread. Just been busy.

You could try installing a Flash version from here:
Flash Player Help | Archived Flash Player versions

Also, I guess you could try disable hardware acceleration for video in Flash options.

I'm am quite loooking forward to seeing the new Asus Zenbook. I probably won't get one though as I'm lazy at organizing my files and would prefer to have a bit of leeway in terms of internal disk space. I'm guessing that they will be offered with the usual "small"-ish SSD sized 128GB/256GB, and if lucky with a (I'm sure, pricy) 512GB drive configuration.

I must say though that my Z1 has really only let me down in one aspect and that is battery life. Early this year, I went overseas with it and found myself fiddling with power options to squeeze out as much battery life as possible, on the plane, bus. In the end, I found myself using someone else's netbook for most of the time on the plane (If I recall, I was only reading and playing mini games). I thought I might eventually decide to pick up an extended battery, but for the moment I rarely have any need to take my computer out of the house.