Black squares around buttons/icons.

dj_ivocha on 26/9/2008 at 10:42

[EDIT] Issue resolved. It turned out there is a problem with the Forceware 175.16 drivers and Windows XP x64. Upgrading the drivers fixed it.

(http://imageshack.us)

Inline Image:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/1796/ffughok4.png
(http://g.imageshack.us/img264/ffughok4.png/1/)

Inline Image:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/ffughok4.png/1/w503.png

The above problem appears in some (but not all) of my programs, usually after several days of windows uptime. A reboot fixes it for a few days and then it happens again. Programs affected are FF2/3 (though in FF2 only the favicon in the tabs turned black, not the whole tabs), Thunderbird, IE7, Windows Explorer. It doesn't happen in mIRC or Altap Salamander, for example. Any idea what the problem is?

Windows XP x64 (fairly new install - several months old, first time I'm using x64, never had this happen on 32bit XP)
Core2Duo
4GB RAM
GeForce 8800GT
SB X-Fi

Bjossi on 26/9/2008 at 19:08

This sounds awfully much like overheating, but normally artifacts caused by overheating don't show up on screenshots. Other possibilities are a dying GPU or faulty driver.

Sulphur on 26/9/2008 at 20:27

Hmm. It does sound like a GPU overheating problem, especially given it only happens after long periods of time. Artifacts are usually random though, and this seems strikingly regular.

But first - Google is your friend (unless you're one of the people in this thread already. :D): (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=67608) http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=67608

Four people (more, actually) with the same problem, and the same combination of 175.16 forceware and Vista 64. If your forceware is 175.16, I'd say try uninstalling the drivers completely, run (http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/) Driver Sweeper to remove any stubborn display driver remnants, then rollback to a slightly earlier driver and see if the problem goes away.

EDIT: Reading through more of that thread, looks like some folks fixed it by lowering the hardware acceleration, and some got it fixed by moving to a 177.xx-version driver. You're free to choose, really. :)

dj_ivocha on 26/9/2008 at 21:29

I doubt it's an overheating issue - I thought it had something to do with an eventual icon cache that windows might have, since only icons and various buttons are affected. But after reading that thread (couldn't find it in google when I searched a few weeks ago :o), it really does seem like there are some transparency issues causing this.

In any case, I did have 175.16 drivers installed (those were the first I had since I had an ATI before I bought the 8800) and I just installed 178.13 right before posting this thread. Didn't bother with the driver sweeper though. Now I'll have to wait for a few days to see if it will happen again.

Sulphur on 26/9/2008 at 22:04

Yep, give it some time. If it returns, you can follow those uninstall/reinstall steps. And let us know how it turns out. :)

dj_ivocha on 30/9/2008 at 21:33

Well, no black squares so far, so I guess it was the drivers that were causing this. :cool:

Sulphur on 1/10/2008 at 06:33

Glad to hear it! And thanks for updating us on the results. That's one more weird OS problem that bites the dust. :D