Screen Tearing on new Acer laptop

theridon

New Member
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I just got a "certified new" laptop after dealing with a dud from Acer, I've had it for about 3 weeks now. It's an Acer Aspire with a GeForce GTX 850m. The past week or so, I started to notice something wasn't right, the computer overall seemed a bit laggy. I had an issue with the right click taking a second to load instead of working instantly like it should, this was fixed by using Shellexview, disabling TheDesktopContextMenu Class and some Nvidia context menu things fixed the right click mouse lag problem. A few of my games started crashing when opening them, but changing compatibility modes seemed to solve it.

Now, I saw what I believe to be screen tearing on some of my video games. In the game Spore when I move around/pan the screen I got this "rippling" of horizontal lines that move up/down the screen. It's strange because the game was running perfectly smoothly a couple weeks ago. I was also getting performance issues in a few games which my computer should have no problem running (including Doom, yes the original doom) that seemed to be fixed by adjusting vsync settings.

Now I think it's just one game, Spore, that has problems. I reinstalled it a few times, reinstalled graphics drivers, not sure what exactly it was that helped but now the screen tearing is gone-however, now there is intermittent choppiness. According to Fraps there is not any drop in FPS, it's just a strange type of choppiness . I have meddled with all sorts of graphics settings for the game including vsync but nothing fixes it, I've also tried lowering the games visual settings completely, but the issue persists: It seems to "run" fine but I get the intermittent choppiness. When Idle it seems to be fine but when I move the camera around/fly around the planet it happens.


Interestingly if I run the game regularly, I think I get the screen tearing whereas if I run in compatibility mode for something like XP sp3, the tearing stops but instead is replaced with the choppiness. Also if I use fraps to record the screen tearing, it doesn't record the tearing, the tearing doesn't show up in the recorded video. The game runs at my native resolution and refresh rate, 1920x1080 60hz
Update: Another game, Primal Carnage is also experiencing screen tearing, most notably when I rapidly look up and down (it's an FPS)

Aside from these problems, Windows appears to be functioning normally in the Desktop. If anything I notice a tiny bit if performance decrease, or it's not completely smooth when scrolling in a PDF file, but I don't know if it's always been like that, or if it's me being paranoid.

The thing that is most bothersome is that things were running just fine about a week or two ago. I don't recall any major software installations. Thanks for your help, I appreciate your time!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
if recorded video is perfectly fine then my guess that it is some power issue. try launching the game with and without ac adopter.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 64 bits Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron N4050
    CPU
    2.1 Ghz Intel mobile 950
    Motherboard
    Dell 02JCHC
    Memory
    4gb (2x2gb) DDR3 1333
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Internet Speed
    4mbps
Any other suggestions? I might try a Refresh but my computer has no optical drive, don't know if I'll need a CD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Would help to know the exact model of Acer. I am able to use the newest Intel graphics drivers with the newest Nvidia drivers, see My System Specs.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
I have an acer aspire V5 573 PG. I'm pretty sure my intel graphics drivers are up to date too.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Could roll back to the drivers on the Acer site to see if any difference.

Capture.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
I have tried that too, but it makes no difference. It seems like vsync isn't working like it should be for some reason.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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