560 Ti Crash/Artifacts - Need advice

[dlock13]

Well, today I've been getting these issues with a few games. I've tried source games (TF2, CSGO, DOTA2) and I also tried Borderlands 2 as well as Crysis 1.

I had some screen stretching going on in DOTA 2. I started playing fine, and then 10-15 minutes into the match I started getting the stretching, and my game would just hide itself completely. I could still hear certain game noises, but the game was hidden and would not allow me to resume play so I'd have to end the task.

In TF2, loading times were exceptionally long. I waited and wait, and then finally when I got in, the game had green tints to every model as well as artifacts. I closed TF2 down then reopened, and the menus were all blue instead of normal colors.

I tried Borderlands 2 several times, and the game would immediately start me off with black dots everywhere on screen. They weren't huge, but they were everywhere. As soon as I got to a Skag, I shot my rockets at him, and wham, my game locks up completely. I get a black scree, and then I was booted back to my desk with the game hidden like before with just some environmental sound from Borderlands 2. I tried several times, and it resulted in the same exact thing.

Crysis, well, it just didn't work. Let's leave it at that. :l

Anyway, I'm running Windows 8 Enterprise Eval. I'm on day 45 of my eval, and I've never once experienced this problem or anything related. I've always been able to play my games just fine until today.

I reinstalled the drivers several times. I updated drivers several times. I ran driver sweeper to get any residual files. I even reverted back to older drivers. The issue still persists... :l

Specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 (I have mine OC'd to 3.8, but I put it back to 3.2 and the issue persisted)
MSI 560 Ti
12 GB RAM
Windows 8 eval (day 45)

My friend and I are thinking it's a memory issue that's causing the game to have a huge usage resulting in these stretches and crashes.

I'm thinking of RMAing the card out come Monday. What say everyone?

 

[zaydq]

Check your vrm temperatures with gpu-z or hwinfo64

 

[dlock13]

Check your vrm temperatures with gpu-z or hwinfo64

My card idles at 33-37 degrees Celsius. I monitored it via the MSI afterburner tool and SpeedFan.

In the 5 seconds of Borderlands 2 I played, the card got up to 59 degrees C and then it crashed...

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Try the card in another computer to be sure. If it behaves the same in another system, then RMA it.

 

[dlock13]

Try the card in another computer to be sure. If it behaves the same in another system, then RMA it.

Don't really have another computer handy. I'll see what I can do in regards to that.

 

[Jaydip]

Have you cheeked the event logs for any critical errors?

 

[dlock13]

Have you cheeked the event logs for any critical errors?

I don't know where to find that at.

 

[palladium]

I don't know where to find that at.

Search for "Event Viewer" (however you do that in Win8, in Vista/7 you just hit start and type those words). The logs are under "Windows logs", usually fatal errors have a red exclamation mark beside them. All events have a time stamp, so you can see if a particular event happens when you're playing a game.

 

[tweakboy]

You never mention your fan speed when you get the artifacts.

What speed is your fan @ when you game ? you should manually set it to 100 percent and see if you see artifacts..... if so.. then reduce your overclock to stock clock and try again,, if still artifacts,,,,,, then RMA time

 

[f1sherman]

I'm thinking of RMAing the card out come Monday. What say everyone?

1. Faulty GPU
2. RAM
3. ???

Allays troubleshoot on stock clocks, with bare minimum hardware
(CPU, RAM, GPU, LCD)

 

[dlock13]

You never mention your fan speed when you get the artifacts.

What speed is your fan @ when you game ? you should manually set it to 100 percent and see if you see artifacts..... if so.. then reduce your overclock to stock clock and try again,, if still artifacts,,,,,, then RMA time

I did set the fan speed all the way up to 100% as well as reduce my CPU overclock to stock, and it still did the same exact thing.

1. Faulty GPU
2. RAM
3. ???

Allays troubleshoot on stock clocks, with bare minimum hardware
(CPU, RAM, GPU, LCD)

I also tried this as well. I tried 4 times with a different stick in a different spot each time to see if it was the stick or a RAM slot, but it wasn't this either.

I haven't noticed anything today yet sadly.. I tried to play Borderlands 2 today, and it played perfectly. I don't know what the hell is going on with that GPU.

 

[f1sherman]

GPU most likely...

try crashing your rig with non-GPU torture tests - OCCT, Prime95, IntelBurnTest...

tried with 1 RAM stick only?

 

[dlock13]

GPU most likely...

try crashing your rig with non-GPU torture tests - OCCT, Prime95, IntelBurnTest...

tried with 1 RAM stick only?

That's what I'm thinking, too.

I tried that as well with the 4 sticks I have. I placed one stick in a different slot each time I booted up.

Also, I JUST noticed this. The second fan on my graphics card won't spin up. There's two in this heat sink, and the second one won't spin up at all. I tried flicking it and turning it myself, and it finally clicked on. Do you think this is what is causing my issues? Like I said, I watched my temps, and I didn't notice any major spikes in heat. That's why this is extremely confusing. I do notice my idle temp is 30-32 degrees now which means that the second fan kicked on.

 

[f1sherman]

Nah, I don't think it's fan per se. It shouldn't crash ASAP - takes time to heat up if you have other fan working.

could be dmg due to a single working fan all this time...

 

[ocre]

1. Faulty GPU
2. RAM
3. ???

Allays troubleshoot on stock clocks, with bare minimum hardware
(CPU, RAM, GPU, LCD)

What about the power supply? PCIe, motherboard?

These things can be tricky because so many components can cause similar issues. If you cant check the GPU in another computer do you have another PCIe slot to try it in?

you could try this:

1. remove- GPU carefully
2 clean- blow out the graphics slot very good, wipe the slot contacts on GPU, etc...
3 install- the gpu firmly and centered. Make sure to secure it tightly into place. Try to avoid it having any wiggle especially at the base by the slot.

Anyway, there are often other causes when so many things can cause similar issues. It very well could be the GPU. The easiest way to confirm this is by another PC. But this test PC must have a capable power supply to boot.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[f1sherman]

What about the power supply? PCIe, motherboard?

well ofc.

But it does smell like dying GPU, and RAM... that's such a common, yet easy to miss issue.

Also I didn't think blaming "something inside your PC" would have been helpful ^_^