BSOD, artifacts in Memtest86+

[thewhat]

Not overclocking at all, but I got a BSOD for the first time in two years, since I built this PC. It happened when I got back to the PC and tried to login, I think at the very moment the screen was starting to wake up.

I don't remember exactly, but I think the BSOD mentioned something Nvidia related. I have an Nvidia graphics card and the old Nforce chipset on the MB.

So the main suspect is the graphics card, but since I had the Memtest86+
at hand, I ran it. No errors yet, but check this:

Notice the paptern, the two ! between the ####, the two other characters in the ----- line below..
Would this still be graphics card related or should I perhaps try looking elsewhere?

Is OCCT the most recommended for testing the graphics card's CPU/memory for errors?

 

[Idontcare]

Yeah that doesn't look good at all.

If you suspect it is the video card then use OCCT GPU test (enable error checking) or run Kombustor.

Another way you can check your hardware is to intentionally underclock components while checking to see if the memtest screen artifacts go away. Underclock your cpu and ram and rerun memtest.

 

[thewhat]

I think it was the video card. I eventually got artifacts also outside Memtest, during post, in Windows..
So I ran OCCT and it did show some errors. (Temp wasn't too high, BTW.)

I then replaced it with an older video card (Radeon X1300 Pro) and no artifacts so far. However, after a couple of minutes of OCCT testing I got thousands of errors. But that could be due to overheating I guess, because the cooling is bad (small passive heatsink with very little space/airflow). I wasn't able to see the temperature with any program, but it can't be great.
Anyway, if it's working during normal use I don't mind too much.