Strange vertical tearing in context menu's while using Aero theme.

Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but this issue is occurring with me and this is one of the only threads I've found online talking about it.

As with the topic creator, the tearing occurs during mouseover on Chrome, some OS context menus, and Steam. (It may occur elsewhere but I haven't noticed it.) I get no tearing during more graphic-intensive things like gaming or movies.

To describe the tearing: when mousing over a menu, you know how the area behind the text changes color? On my system, this background color tears vertically, with the right side loading just before the left side. This occurs in context menus, bookmarks menus, discussion boards on Steam, etc.

I have tried many many different vsync / buffering settings as well as aero on and off. Nothing fixes it. It occurs on both of my monitors (60hz both). I have tried older video drivers (for my GTX 570). I have tried reinstalling programs like Chrome and Steam. No fix. Again, I get no tearing in games.

I have tested my RAM as well and it came back clean. I tested my HDD for bad sectors and came back clean.

Some things I've discovered:

- Tearing lessens greatly when I don't have any videos playing in Chrome. If I do have a video playing it Chrome (eg YouTube or Twitch), tearing in context menus increases exponentially. However, tearing still occurs in programs like Steam regardless of videos being off.

- On my second monitor, the tearing occurs in a different spot than my first monitor. This is likely due to difference in resolution (1600x900 vs 1080p) however.

- Changing global or program vsync/buffering/etc. settings via nVidia control panel have no effect on the issue.

- It seems to be a recent development, similar to the timeline of this topic (late 2015 through now). I've tried to determine which system/program changes have occurred in that time that may have caused it to no avail.

i5 3550
GTX 570
8gb RAM
Windows 7 Home 64bit

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've exhausted pretty much everything I can think of outside of buying a new graphics card.

Hi ThrashZone.

I ran the program you linked. The problem still persists.

Some more information I discovered:

- Ran a checkdisk with repair and sector checking today. Came back clean.

- The issue does occur in IE and Firefox as well.

- The issue stops if I use one of the Basic themes for W7. I was previously manually turning off Aero (by turning off transparency) which didn't help. However, the Basic themes DO stop the issue entirely.

Is it possible that something within Aero got messed up?

I'm honestly getting some anxiety from this because I'm afraid it's a sign of some impending hardware failure and I don't have the money right now to replace components. I was hoping something could help me diagnose the issue but it seems very elusive.

Temperatures are good. I monitor with HWMonitor and PrecisionX. Graphics card rarely goes above 50C even when gaming. CPU is also low temp, especially now during winter.

I do no overclocking for GPU or CPU or anything else.

Hi Anak,

Here's a more complete list of my system specs (it is custom built):

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (SP1, Build 7601)
CPU: Intel i5 3550
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 570 1280MB
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H
RAM: 8gb DDR3
PSU: Antec NeoEco 620w

The topic you linked to is regarding screen tearing in video games, which I don't get. I only see it in "2D" tasks within the the OS, like browsers, folders, context menus, etc. In gaming, I don't get any. :/

I have tested a wide variety of settings in the nVidia Control Panel for both Global settings and Program-specific. Nothing so far has seemed to help. I can try fiddling around with them again though.

Anak said:

• Have you tried running the How to Open and Use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool in Vista and Windows 7 to see if there are any problems with directx?

Just checked it. It lists no problems for any of the categories.

• Have you seen this? https://Noticeable cut lines or "tearing" of the screen image on one of the monitors of a duplicated set | support.microsoft.com | kb/972194

I use "Extend" only. I've never used the "Duplicate" setting, so it shouldn't be affecting me.

• You can try re-installing your present driver: NVIDIA Drivers - Avoid Problems

I've reinstalled it, and have done a clean install. Neither attempt fixed the issue.

• You can test your card with OCCT: How to Test NVIDIA/AMD Performance with OCCT. Scroll up a bit and there's 7 more tutorials for nvidia.

Haven't done this yet. Will use it tonight or tomorrow and report back.

• Do you have a spare video card to swap out and test?

Unfortunately I don't. I do have an integrated gpu though that I could try to use in the coming day or two.


Question: Does this forum offer a way to PM/email other members? I was wondering if there's any way to ask the original topic creator if he found a solution, since his problem was nearly identical to mine.