Can I definitively determine if my video card is faulty?

[Nocontact]

I don't have another pc to try it in, just to get that out of the way.

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate, and a Radeon HD 6600, Intel i5 2500 and dual monitors which are at different resolutions.

The issue I have is that sometimes when I'm streaming video on the main monitor both screens either go black, or they go to solid random colors, and then switch off and back on. Sometimes it says the display driver has failed and recovered, sometimes nothing happens and everything works fine, and sometimes (though not since a clean install of Windows) I would get a BSOD which mentioned ATIsys or something like that (sorry don't remember exactly).

Trying to game on Steam didn't work because it would crash too, even on older games.

It's almost impossible to replicate the crash, like I said if I'm streaming video from any number of sites sometimes it works fine, other times the monitors freak out.

If I need a new GPU I'm good with that, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to make a conclusion.

 

[richaron]

There's no easy way to be 100% sure, especially without spare parts to swap around. You could play around with a single monitor and/or pull the hd6600 out and see how things behave. And reinstalling drivers or even windows could help the process of elimination if you want to go that far. Same goes for running Memtest or something similar. If it's an old computer stuff could be starting to fail and/or overheat.

But to hazard a guess in order of likelihood I'll say:
1) PSU
2) Software
3) GPU
4) Motherboard
5) RAM

 

[Nocontact]

I guess I can rule out software because it's a clean install. Any way to test a PSU?

 

[richaron]

Not easily, usually people just swap out for a known good one and see if things keep breaking. If the PSU is in really bad shape sometimes you can open it up and see leaking or bulging capacitors (same goes for some old motherboards in the capacitors up near the CPU)

What PSU do you have and how old?

 

[Despoiler]

I guess I can rule out software because it's a clean install. Any way to test a PSU?

Not easily, usually people just swap out for a known good one and see if things keep breaking. If the PSU is in really bad shape sometimes you can open it up and see leaking or bulging capacitors (same goes for some old motherboards in the capacitors up near the CPU)

What PSU do you have and how old?

They make PSU testers FYI. $10-$50 bucks depending on how fancy you want the read-outs. I highly recommend adding one to your computer tool chest.

 

[chrx144]

Hi. By definition, the things you mentioned definitely determined that your graphics card is faulty.Those are probably signs that your drivers are corrupted or the graphics card is dying. Other signs that would determine a faulty graphics card are strange fan noises, weird screen glitches, and stuttering.

If this is the case, I would recommend that you should look for a technician to fix the problem or just replace it all together.