Wierd Random Artifact only on Aero Backgrounds

[transpro61181]

System specs= Processor-I7 930 2.8 OC to 4.2 (prime95 stable for over 2 hours) Mobo-Asus Rampage III extreme- Ram- Corsair dominator GT 1866mhz 9-9-9-24 set to 1603 mhz with 7-8-7-22 timings. PSU-Corsair TX850W VID- HD 5970 Sapphire x1

My problem is that I get this wierd black horizontal artifact bar ONLY on AERO backgrounds. (See the first two images on my photobook link- http://s864.photobucket.com/albums/ab208/gixxerjrock/). I have had my computer for 6 months and this problem started 2 months ago. If i revert back to a normal non aero background, the artifact will go away, then I can go right back to an Aero background and all will be fine for some random period of time. Also, one time when it occured I let it do its thing and kept aero on just to mess around with it to see what would ultimately happen. I went to control panel and changed the aero slide shows to change every one minute just for the heck of it to see if the issue would eventually go away, it didnt. Each time aero would change the screen, the black bar would stay exactly the same, but move down the screen about one inch, and this process would repeat each time the aero screen changed, then once the black bar got to the very bottom by the taskbar, it started back up at the top of the screen and progressed its way down..this cycle kept repeating until I switched to a non aero background..then it went away...very wierd. The issue is completely random. Sometimes it takes a day or two to occur and other times it takes about 3-5 days to occur, although I have had it occur 3 times within 2 hours once. I have no video issues whatsoever in 3D enviroments. I can play crysis warhead and Call of duty MW2 hours on end flawelessly without any issues. The video card is also Furmark stable for over 2 hours at 1900x1080 at 8X MSAA with the highest gpu temp not exceeding 50C and the hottest VRM did not exceed78C. (VRM's get close to 110C and gpu's get close to the 80C with the stock ATI aircooling block on a furmark burn test)I use GPU-Z as my monitoring tool. CPU is overclocked to 4.2ghz and Idles at 38C and max is 75c after 2 hours of prime95 torchure (perfectly stable). I have a complete top of the line watercooling system in this pc with a complete coverage video card block and cpu block. Heat is definately not an issue here.

What I have done so far to troubleshoot this issue:
1. Removed the overclock from my video card and put it completely to default settings. Same issue.

2. I was told that my video card idles too low in 2D mode (157mhz gpu and 300mhz memory), and that Aero was too graphically intense for that low of a frequency. (The card runs at 725mhz gpu and 1000mhz memory when running games/3D apps). So okay..that made sense, so I edited my .inf files on my catalyst profiles and got the card to idle at 400/900. Was told that this fixed tons of 2d crash issues with this card. In my case it did not. Artifact showed up a day later.

3. Reformatted my hard drive 3 times and did a complete fresh OS reinstall, still same issue.

4. I lost count of how many times I removed and reinstalled video card drivers. I have tried Catalyst 10.10, 10.11 and now im running 10.12. My method of removing the drivers was as follows, reboot into safe mode/uninstall programs/ let windows uninstall the drivers/ Ran driver sweeper/ removed all other traces of Ati folders in the registry/ rebooted in normal mode/Install driver/Reboot. Same issue.

5. Replaced the motherboard (due to a defective onboard firewire controller). Same issue. (Was pretty sure that wasn't the issue to this problem anyways)

6. Ran memtest86 from a bootable CD, no ram errors after 4 passes with ram settings at 1603 mhz with timings at 7-8-7-22 (stock for my ram is 1866 and 9-9-9-24). Ram is at 1603 due to bclk limitations and the fact that I dont wanna deviate too far above stock volts for the IMC.

7.Updated the motherboard bios from 0802 to 1102. Same Issue

8. PCIE freq is set at 101 (stock is 100) was told not to mess with this one too much. Really dont think this is the issue though, but I could be wrong...

9. Updated the Master and Slave video card bios from sapphires official site last night. It has been running great, but definately need more time to pass to verify this will fix the issue.

Initially my suspicions were the video card hardware and I have had numerous people tell me I need to RMA the card. Then I realized how could this be if it is flawless in 3d intense games/furmark with heat well under control? I really don’t wanna RMA the video card for such a small issue. Then I started wondering if my cpu overclock/mem timings were in need of some tweaking, but then again, how could that be if its prime 95 stable for over 2 hours? If it happens again after that then im going to believe there is an imcompatibility with the code in windows aero and my video card drivers, but I am definately not by any means a software engineer, so hopefully someone much smarter comes along this thread and has a solution, because I really love Aero backgrounds and I have spend way too much money on this system for it not to be able to run everything to the max. Other than this one issue, this os is very stable and I enjoy it very much. PLEASE HELP!! Jerrod

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

That's a scrunched down second desktop....Right click on desktop....screen resolution....look for a phantom display.....then hit detect.....then hit identify....look carefully at the screen....1 for the main display, see if the artifact distorts or tries to show a number....

 

[transpro61181]

So could phantom drivers be responsible for this issue? I will perform this procedure: http://www.petri.co.il/removing-old-drivers-from-vista-and-windows7.htm and see if the issue comes back

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

worth a shot....have a restore point ready....

 

[transpro61181]

I created a restore point, then did the registry procedure. Found TONS of ghost drivers to include one ghost for the video card driver and three for the monitor drivers, deleted all of them, rebooted, and everything was fine. Rebooted for the second time and everything was in 800X600 and windows popped up and said that my video drivers were not digitally signed?..wierd.. so i did the display driver uninstall procedure and reinstalled cat 10.12 and rebooted about 5 times. Everything is good so far, I will post back if I have any more issues.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Glad to hear it all worked out!

 

[transpro61181]

Ill know if it all worked out here in about 5 days or so. I really hope this was the issue. Have you seen any other cases with this issue?

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

No...but I have the background the artifact was trying to display....

 

[transpro61181]

That's a scrunched down second desktop....Right click on desktop....screen resolution....look for a phantom display.....then hit detect.....then hit identify....look carefully at the screen....1 for the main display, see if the artifact distorts or tries to show a number....

Update on my system specs- Last night I found that the 4.2 was not stable for an hour occt linpack burn, so I downclocked to 4.0 and it was occt linpack stable for one hour. Also changed the memory timings to 8-8-8-24. My WEI score on my cpu actually when up to 7.7 from 7.6 when I did this! And everything seems much snappier. But then this morning..... it finally did the aero artifact again. Did what u said here and hit identify, just showed the big number "1" right over it, didnt change it in any way. Did not see any phantom display. The only difference this time is that it recovered without switching off/on aero backgrounds. I right clicked on the desktop and hit "next background" about three times then it went away and all was good. I have no idea what to do at this point im totally lost.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Try down clocking the video card a bit.....

 

[transpro61181]

The last two times the artifacts happened, all settings on the graphics card were set to default. Also, I purchased 3dmark11 advanced today and ran numerous tests on default settings in extreme mode. If it had bad vram im pretty sure it would have showed up there. Tests went smooth with no errors. I overclocked the card temporarily for the test to 900mhz/1.187v on the gpu and 1100 on the memory to see what this bad boy would do and got a score of X3026 with no errors or issues, but other than that one time for the test, I have been keeping the card at default settings. Im thinking my next step is to force the memory to stay at 1000mhz at all times instead of letting ccc automatically ramp the memory down to 300 at idle.