Graphics Problem

I am having a bit of a problem with my pc's graphics. For some reason it is stretching 3d images at weird angles. This is making it a tad difficult to play Guild Wars as well as other games.

My PC's specs are:
Celeron 2400
512mb RAM
GeForce FX5200 Video Card

Not sure why it is doing this. Also the desktop is getting some strange bands of pixels that are a pinkish colour even when not running any other software.

I have checked the video card isnt dusty, and have reinstalled it along with the original drivers.

Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

So this affects all the games, and even normal desktop without running any games?

Did you check the temperature of the vidcard, ie. having the case open and touching the sink, but assume you did as you checked the card for dust, and even plugged it off/on (guessing you read the few threads about graphics problems of past few days) Also make sure the case fans are working, and if there aren't any, one or two will do only good

Try another vidcard, if you can borrow one from anywhere, also reinstalling windows /might/ fix it, but I doubt it. Vidcard memory possibly damaged, or overheating which causes artefacts, or motherboard North Bridge<->Vidcard connection somehow funny, but I'd be placing bets on vidcard

1. Nvidia 5xxx series was horrible.
2. Either the card is over heating or its about to dye.

Suggestion: Open the case and clean it up. Make sure you don't have a big bundle of cables inside the case. Organize them all nice and neat. You should have one fan in the front of the case blowing in and another in the back blowing out. This will maximize air flow and cool you PC fairly well. Also make sure all connections inside the case are good. Over time they can become loose.

Good luck.

Thanks for your help. I'm going to try your suggestions and maybe get a friend who's a bit more IT savvy than me take a look at.

celerons are trash for gaming

His processor should run the game without problems like this. You're not helping.

Since I have read a few of your posts...what do YOU have to offer? Simply stating your opinion on someone's proccessor by calling it TRASH serves no purpose what's so ever. Back up your claim...because that is all it is, you claiming they are trash...nothing else.

Either add to the conversation by actually helping or simply STFU! For your information a Celron will run Guild Wars just fine.

I've got a strange problem now that the new chapter has downloaded.

The screen is dark..i.e. the contrast/brighness level. Once I adjust it in-game, looks great.. until I go into another area. The adjustments aren't 'sticking'.

What's stranger is if I close the GW window and re-open it the adjusted contrast kicks in. So every time I go to another area I have to close/open the window. This wasn't an issue before todays downloads.. helps?

Dell 4550
pent 4
ATI - VisionTek XTASY 9200 V5.6
512 memory

If someone knows what settings I should be doing please let me know..thanks!

I also think it's a over heating issue, if your video card is equiped with a tempature sensor, you may want to use this program http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1194 and see how hot it's getting.

If your mother board has temp sensor's may want to check out this program - http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

Well the game in general is a bit darker after the update, parts of the GUI are of much darker color (backgrounds and target HP bar surroundings)

Do you have the Quality set to max or few notches down? Tried bouncing the slider back and forth myself earlier today, and with max setting the game area is much more brighter than with few notches down.

When you go into other area, has the game's contrast/brightness slider back to the default position? If so, I'd think it's a bug, the slider just got implemented after all. Tho the gamma slider seems to work okay for me.