Major grahpics issue

[ReikaKalseki 52]

I recently went back to playing SimCity 4 (Deluxe) after a few months' break; when I started, I was greeted by a deeply unwanted sight - the return of a problem I had never been able to solve and had only escaped from via a complete system reinstall.

Anyways, the problem is that when I load SimCity, everything will appear fine, but as soon as I move, the screen starts to smear and blur, becoming progressively fuzzier, darker, and more discolored. Areas coming onto the screen are unaffected until they actually are on screen, then they too fall to the blurring.

Refreshing the screen - rotating and so on - fixes the image, but then it blurs as soon as I move again.

Switching to software rendering solves this issue, but at the price of major quality cuts - not a sacrifice I want to make.

The UI is not affected by the issue; only the game world.

The last time I had this issue was a couple of years ago; I had never solved it properly, and only when I later reinstalled Windows (formatting my hard drive in the process) did the issue disappear. I was able to run SimCity smoothly until a few months ago when I started a break, but now when I return, the problem is back.

It is not a hardware issue; nothing has changed since the time I was able to run problem-free. And no, reinstalling SC4 does not solve the problem.

Almost certainly, it is due to something I have installed since then, and had installed that "last time", but what? I have too much to check everything, not to mention the damage I would do in the process.

Below are images of my current installed programs - a long list, you can see - a list of running processes at the time of running the game, and an image of the actual problem.

Things grayed/faded out in the install list were either not installed the "last time" I had the problem, or were installed when I had no issues. They are therefore almost certainly not to blame. That said, please read them anyways, just in case.

Red text on the process list is program ID - I know where most come from. Again, faded ones are not likely culprits.

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

This is almost certainly a graphic card driver issue. Please tell us what graphic card is installed on your system, as well as the driver version. Seeing that you have a Nvidia card, you can have a look at this thread. Try the 156.69 or the 191.07 drivers and see if they help.

[ReikaKalseki 52]

I have the same driver now as I did a few months ago when there was no problem...

I have a Nvidia GeForce 6600, with the driver version 6.14.11.7824, dated 07-10-2008.

As for the other thread, my issue is rather different, and also I am not running Windows 7. I am using XP.

[Z77 3]

Well it could be graphic card related. They do wear out you know. Because ive had problems with my SC4 game with having black spots everywhere, and it is the Graphics card going out. (ive fixed by changing how it runs, but that may only last a bit longer)

But like yunxiang said, try updating your drivers. 7-10-2008 is definately too old to continue working properly. If that doesnt work, then always check the thread or other sources for information

[ReikaKalseki 52]

If it were a time-caused issue like card wearout or drivers going out of date, why did it work two months ago, but not a year before that?

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

I looked over your post again and realized that you had included a list of processes that run at the same time as the game. Do you really have all of those on while playing?  Because that looks like a lot of unnecessary load on your computer that will slow down the game. I always run my game with absolutely nothing else: No internet, no virus scanner, no background updaters, nothing. There's always a chance that you're overtaxing your computer and causing the graphics to glitch.

If I were you, I would make sure to turn off these following programs before running the game:

The Zune related stuff

soffice.bin / .exe

pdvdserv.exe

paintdotnet.exe

opwareSE4.exe (it 's a program related to scanners, Scansoft OmniPage)

notepad.exe

mdm.exe (a script debugger for Visual Studio most likely)

Java updater proccesses

jqs.exe (Java quick starter)

firefox

ctoolbar.exe

btdna.exe (Unless you really want something off a torrent; but this will impact performance)

For these security related items, try seeing if there is a taskbar icon (next to the clock) and see if you can disable it from there. If you're worried about a virus getting in, you can disconnect from the internet by unplugging your ethernet cable and disabling the wireless card.

SpywareTerminatorShield

sp_rsser

oahlp.exe

msseces.exe (Microsoft Security Essentials Antivirus)

msmpeng.exe

AVG antivirus

So, it also looks like you may have spyware on your computer. "wo.exe" seems to be spyware from checking around google. You might also want to get a second opinion on what spyware there might be on your computer in addition to the scanner you're currently using. Ad-aware and Spybot S&D are fairly popular antispyware programs, so you can check those out.

Some other scanning type activities you can try is to run your virus scanner and see if there's any viruses on your computer, and also you can try to defragment your hard drive.

It might also be that you're overheating your computer. See if there's some way to keep it cool: A cooling pad for a laptop, or some fans for a desktop (or maybe just clearing some space inside and blowing off any dust you see). Maybe underclocking or undervolting? You can look here for an undervolting guide that I've used before.

I must admit I still think it's a graphics driver issue though. It may not have come up before because you changed something in the interim, and this new combination causes SC4 to glitch. There's a chance that updating the drivers will fix the issue. For reference, your current driver version is 178.24 (last 5 digits).

If you're pressed for time or just want to get into the game, disabling processes is the quickest, followed by running scans and defrags, then updating the graphic drivers, and then undervolting is the most time-consuming.

[ReikaKalseki 52]

Reinstalling the same version of the driver fixed the issue!