Horizontal line on screen? «12...Next Go

dorcsyful

Yesterday I got my new laptop (a Dell G5) and installed the Sims 3 on it. However, when I'm playing there's a horizontal line about 2/3 down the screen (maybe that's what you call screen tearing, I'm not sure). I turned vsync on, deleted all my mods, started a fresh save with only the base game and I think I also got it to recognise my card, but I'm not sure if I should add the "with Max-Q design" part (I didn't).

dxdiag, if necessary:
https://pastebin.com/d8GyYHQw

Thanks in advance.

phoebebebe13

Can you please post a pic of what you are seeing? Does this line only happen with the game or is it there all the time?

dorcsyful

It's only in the game. I couldn't screenshot it since it only appears if the camera is moving (I don't mean dragging around like crazy, just barely moving the mouse.

phoebebebe13

Go to the dell web, search your make and model laptop and make sure all your drivers are updated. Usually when you buy a new computer all your drivers will need updating

I believe Nvidia web direct started listing laptop driver updates so you could go there too. Make sure you choose laptop driver

dorcsyful

Version numbers are the exact same on the Dell website as in the dxdiag. According to the nvidia website (and geforce experience) there's a new 'game ready' driver so I'm installing that now.

dorcsyful

Soo looks like the problem is with vsync. After updating the driver I mentioned above everything was fine, but the fps was somewhere around 350. Since the control panel didn't do the job earlier, I used nvidia inspector to force vsync. Now for some reason I couldn't even locate the control panel, so I used the inspector again and the line is back.

Edit: vsync is on in the control panel as well, I found it.

phoebebebe13

Igazor does not play on Nvidia, I don't have windows 10 and don't need inspector for FPS. Maybe @SimplyJen knows and can help you further as to why you might have this line since it's only in this game

dorcsyful

Okay, thank you

SimplyJen

Nvidia Inspector: Under Sync and Refresh along with vsync, try these settings:

• Frame Rate Limiter 60.7
• Triple Buffering on
• Vertical Sync Tear Control Adaptive

dorcsyful

I couldn't find anything like 60.7, so I left it on 60 like I did before, but still no luck

SimplyJen

Since the tearing continues then instead of Inspector, @chesterbigbird recommended RTSS Rivetuner to someone else with tearing issues. It seemed to do the trick for them. Download HERE

It helps with not only FPS, but smoother gameplay too according to her. You will need to keep this tool open in the background when you play the game in order for it to work. You can also set this to start up with Windows. Set frame rate to your refresh rate (60) application level medium. I've never used it before but you should be able to look up how to use it via Google search.

dorcsyful

Thank you Unfortunately I won't be able to test it out until tomorrow but I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

chesterbigbird

RTSS is a good program for keeping the fps locked and also minimizing screen tearing which is what i think you have.

dorcsyful

Tried RTSS. The only difference is that the line is now always in different places of the screen. Most of the time it's still 2/3 down, but it often jumps the middle or even higher than that.

chesterbigbird

dorcsyful wrote: »

Tried RTSS. The only difference is that the line is now always in different places of the screen. Most of the time it's still 2/3 down, but it often jumps the middle or even higher than that.

Hmm very odd. have you checked the fps in game?

dorcsyful

Yes, I always have FPS on in game, even when I know it's completely unnecessary I also noticed that it's only there in fullscreen mode, not in windowed mode. I'd be willing to compromise at this point and play like that, but I can only play in 1080p, which makes everything way too small on a 15 inch screen.

Nichaedemus

Hi,

Have you tried redirecting the laptop's video signal to an external monitor display, just to see if it makes any difference? Your laptop model should have an HDMI port available.

dorcsyful

I'm on holiday for the next two days so I won't be able to check that. (Though I'm really thinking of returning the laptop because I'm not sure if the 8th gen processor is worth the fan noise)

dorcsyful

@Nichaedemus just tried it on a TV and a monitor (which was used to play TS3 before I got the laptop). The line is gone, however the FPS doesn't go above 30 and I get terrible camera stutter. (tried it with TS4 too, to see if it's the same with other games too, but that works fine)

EDIT: set the resolution to 1080p and now it works perfectly. Problem is, I'm moving abroad next week so I won't have a monitor anymore and the game is unplayable at 1080p on a 15 inch screen.

phoebebebe13

@dorcsyful Your laptop hardware is meant to run at 1080p resolution. If your trying to play under that resolution , you may have screen issues. This may not be something you can fix should you choose to play in lower resolution. . We only recommend playing at lower resolution if your hardware is low end and can not handle playing at a higher resolution which is not the case with your new laptop.

dorcsyful

@phoebebebe13 That's the weird thing. When it's connected to a monitor at 1080p, it's fine. But when it's not, but still at 1080p, the line is there.

phoebebebe13

@dorcsyful If the line is not there on the TV but the line is there on your laptop screen , your screen may have dead pixels or you need to adjust something. If you see the line on every game on your laptop, good chance you have dead pixels and may need to take your laptop in for repair. If this is the only game you have the line on, you may need to play with settings in Nvidia control panel or your laptop screen.

dorcsyful

I already checked with TS4 and it works perfectly (the resolution is also 1600x900, not 1920x1080), so luckily it's not dead pixels.

phoebebebe13

@dorcsyful It sounds like your going to have to play with your screen settings or Nvidia control panel to figure out why you have the line in this game only which does not appear on your TV screen. It could also just be the game doing this at lower resolutions since you stated 1080p does not have the line

dorcsyful

I feel like I should just give up. Maybe it's my laptop telling me that I should not install it to stop me from playing with it once I start university
I will keep trying though, thanks anyway

SimplyJen

Dead pixels and screen tearing aren't the same thing nor do they look the same. Chester is free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think dead pixels cause screen tearing.

This is not exactly a fix but if you don't experience screen tearing in windowed mode, you can try Windowed Borderless Gaming. It's a tool to run in the background with windowed mode to make it appear as fullscreen. Instructions can be found on the site under the Manual tab.