8800 GTS Freezes instantly in graphics intensive situations.

[Cogman]

Hey, my friend has a computer that whenever we enter into graphics intensive situations, it freezes instantly. We traced it down to the graphics card by running furmark in stress test mode. The moment he starts the test, the system crashes.

His system is

Windows 7
Asus m3n78
Athlon II
EVga 8800 GTS 512
Coolmax 750 W power supply.

He is using the latest Nvidia drivers.

My hunch is that the power supply is bad. However, it is entirely possible that the vid card is instead.

If there is a simple fix, that would be great

 

[shangshang]

if it doesn't freeze in games, then i wouldn't worry about it. Furmark causes some other video cards to fall on their knees too. But did Furmark cause this freezing before? If not, then maybe something is wrong with the vid card

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: shangshang
if it doesn't freeze in games, then i wouldn't worry about it. Furmark causes some other video cards to fall on their knees too. But did Furmark cause this freezing before? If not, then maybe something is wrong with the vid card

games = graphics intensive situations. That is when the problem appeared. I used fir mark to confirm that it was an issue with the graphics card and not something else.

It turns out that one of the power cables was a bit loose to his card. He plugged it in more, and now the system is stable again (Even with furmark).

 

[betasub]

If you suspect the PSU, you can monitor the different voltage deliveries using SpeedFan.

You can also stress the rest of the system (apart from graphics) using something like Prime95, Orthos etc. If this also causes the freeze/crash, then you can rule out the graphics sub-system as the culprit.

 

[yh125d]

Remember, always check cables first


My brother used to call me up whenever the computer I built for him wouldnt boot, and every time it was a loose SATA cable