Corruption/odd pixels on bios & Windows startup. Games all stutter & freeze intermittently.

[Coquito]

c2d 6300 w/ stock fan & as5
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3(f3 bios I believe)
Corsair vs 667 ddr2 1gbx2
Nvidia 7900GS latest drivers
FSP Noise Killer ax500a
bios temps between 45-55c


The problems started a few months ago & slowly got worse. The exact same games on the same settings ran fine before then.

I was playing Jagged Alliance 2 when three of four second freeze ups started occurring every ten minutes or so. A few weeks later I could barely get past the load screen before going into a complete lockup. Other(more modern) games flicker a tiny bit, then experience the same thing. Videos & overall desktop interaction seem fine. On start up, there are now graphical errors in the bios(wrong characters/colors), & quite a few odd pixels (both there & on the Widows splash screen).

I reinstalled the Nvidia driver, then dusted out the case, even reinstalled Windows from scratch, but the computer still does it. All connections are secure, & none of the fans are blocked or failing.

No budging caps, no settings ever changed, just frustration. I just want to play some games again.

 

[myocardia]

99% of the time, the problems you describe only have four causes: overheating card, underpowered PSU, using the wrong driver, or card that's in need of an RMA. Since you're having the problem even when you aren't gaming, that pretty much rules out temps. You should start with trying a few different drivers (or even the Windows "default" driver), and if that doesn't help, look into trying it out on a system with a more powerful PSU.

 

[Coquito]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm almost positive that the video driver can't be the issue, since it ran perfectly fine for over a year without me touching anything. An install of the latest update as well as a rollback hasn't changed things. The default driver limits my resolution, but it still has the same problems. The corruption is only on startup, & the gaming problems are only during gaming. Other desktop applications look & work fine @ 1600x1200. The rails are stable.

Any programs I can run to specifically test the card & not just performance? It shouldn't be being pushed around by older games. Games from 1998 or 2006, problems are the same.