Flickering Green Pixel Issue = Monitor Or GPU

Hello and welcome Deviancy now my first thought was the monitor may be going south but in view of the changes around you swapping cables and drivers and the fact that the card is five years old now makes me wonder if the card is going south.

Have you access to another monitor to see if the same thing happens?

Second it may as well to test that card with this FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net now this can put a fair bit of stress on the card so best run when you are nearby to check things like temps etc.

Edit: Now here is a site that has many tests for monitors just be aware that I have not tried any of them bar the second in line (Checkmon) and the one that I liked actually ran lines across the screen and check the pixels out but I cannot pin it down as yet.
BenchmarkHQ

Ok mate well it is pointing the finger at the monitor in my mind. As you say it would be hard to pick those pixels using a game - which leaves us with the pixels in the exact spot each time now suspect.

Now there are some programs that will test the monitor such as PassMark MonitorTest - Test monitors and LCD flat panel screens and some that will attempt to correct the problem but I shall ahve to go digging around for them as I have used some but quite a while ago and they were of soem help and did not really fix the issue.

Now I mentioned do you have another monitor to try because if the pixel issue is not there then it will mean the monitor you have is maybe going south.

ICIT2LOL said:

Now I mentioned do you have another monitor to try because if the pixel issue is not there then it will mean the monitor you have is maybe going south.

Sadly, I only have an ancient 4:3 CRT monitor which of course doesn't go to 1920x1080, and I'm only noticing the issue at 1920x1080, doesn't seem to appear at lower resolutions, especially 4:3 resolutions. And yeah, the pixels, when they show up, they're always in the exact same area of the screen. One other thing I noticed, not sure if its my mind playing tricks on me, the refresh rate seems to be off a bit, like it'll flicker at times when loading a new page.

I did a little more testing and booted into safe mode and in safe mode, I waited 10-15 minutes and the flickering green pixels did not show up. So at this point I'm back to wondering if it is the GPU since under safe mode the Nvidia drivers aren't loaded, or so I assume since the Nvidia processes don't show up under Task Manager.

Not sure what to do next at this point. I've already removed the latest drivers with DDU and rolled back to the ones before the issue happened which just resulted in the black dots that trail the mouse pointer, and then I DDU'd those and went back to the latest Nvidia drivers. Then like I said, I replaced the DVI cable already with another one and I tried the secondary DVI port on the GPU to make sure it wasn't a port issue. I haven't re-installed Windows 7 since the 1st of 2014 but I don't think re-installing Windows 7 would do anything since I've only installed the latest version of Adobe Flash and Air since this started happening and neither of those two programs should be causing this. I considered inteferrence from the wireless router since its just a few inches from the monitor but the router has been in the exact same spot for nearly two years.

Hypothetically, if it is the GPU, and I'm an EVGA guy, what is the most affordable EVGA GPU on the market that is about the same as the GTS 450? I wouldn't need a 150-200 dollar GPU, I'd just need one that runs as well as the GTS 450 since I have no intention of buying any modern games. And if it is the monitor, who makes the best monitors these days? It used to be Samsung but I looked those over, they all seem to just have VGA and HDMI ports these days, I'd need a monitor with a DVI port.

Sadly, I only have an ancient 4:3 CRT monitor

Ok mate you have it right there a CRT monitor does not have pixels it runs on a different system (a cathode ray tube - CRT - as per the old TV systems had) to LCD / LED monitors which do have pixels.

Now this puts a slightly different angle on what the issue is and comes back to the machine and the card.

Now there are two things you can do and although it may ramp up the budget it may well cure the problem. Plus a LCD screen will cost less to run by a fair bit.
Now I know you like EVGA but I prefer Asus and this would be my choice - $169 out here Access Denied and I don't knoq quite where you are but if in the US you can get it for $104 from Newegg ASUS GeForce GTX 750 Ti STRIX-GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card - Newegg.com

Now as Megahertz has asked mate can you update the system specs too if you are having difficulties in finding details just follow this and use PART B: yo see what is inside the system.

Using HW Info
PART A:
You can test the volts on the PSU with HW Info HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download < download the right bit version and close the right hand window select Sensors and scroll down to the power section where you will see what the volts are doing see my pic. In my pic the section (Nuvoton) with VBATT as a dead give away you are in the section for the rail voltages. There are other section titles and one that pops up often is ITE (sometimes the usual one for Gigabyte boards)
Now the voltage on the different rails have to be within 5% =+/- of what is required or the machine will not work properly if at all.
Limits +/- (minimum - correct - maximum)
12v1 = 11.4 - 12 - 12.6v
12v2 = 11.4 - 12- 12.6v
5v = 4.75 – 5 - 5.25v
3.3v = 3.135 – 3 – 3.465v
-12v = -10.80 - -12 - -13.20v
+5VSB = 4.75 – 5 - 5.25v
The Power good signal voltage at pin 8 on the 24 pin plug (grey cable) should be the same as the 5v rail reading/s
See this for the rail voltage info
PSUs 101: A Detailed Look Into Power Supplies (Section 2.)
The original right hand window shows the machine running and is handy for that but for looking at the components in some detail close it and use the main left hand side panel
FOR OTHER COMPONENTS
PART B:
Open each small square with + in it on the section the components are in and then click on the individual component/s (it will highlight in blue) - in the right hand side will appear all sorts of details including brands speeds and other essential info that particular device. See pic for example.

Ok Deviancy I have been thinking about the problem and having said what I did about the card I think it would be really good for you to try another monitor on that system first. If the problem goes away it then means just getting anew monitor - which in nay case you are going to have to mate because of the age of that device.

The fact is that CRT types devices (same principles of vacuum tubes) do wear out over time because of the physical nature of their operation. Cathode ray tube - Wikipedia

One word of warning do not tamper with the back of the tube ie taking the cover off - as there are some extremely high voltages generated at the rear of the tube for its operation.

Yep the PSU is fine mate but what I meant by using PART B: was to to go to the individual components - you don't need the Sensor button and when you open each of those components it shows in sometimes very great detail the device and speeds, volts. timings etc etc If you see my pic I'll try and show you how it will look. I hope it makes sense.

Now monitors always best go with a brand name one and the size and type I guess is down again to your budget. Personally for general use a TN panel is fine but if you want something fancier an IPS screen is also good but overkill in my mind. For size again your choice but a 24" is a good size.