Did my video card just die?

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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
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I fired up my computer last night and started having issues almost immediately. I opened up Firefox, and everything seemed to freeze up for a few seconds. After that the screen went blank and started up again, and I got a message that the nVidia drivers had crashed and restarted. My computer behaved normally again for a few seconds then bam, same thing happens. I've got two hard drives with two different OSs on my system, so I booted up into XP and I was getting similar issues as well.

Now when I turn on my computer there are funny lines going up and down the screen, and as soon as Windows starts loading it'll give me a blue screen of death and crash. My gut instinct is that this is a video card issue, but I'm trying to think if anything else weird could be going on.
 
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darckhart

Senior member
Jul 6, 2004
517
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did u check the temps? might be your card just needs some cleaning and remounting of hsf.

also, if it's definitely a video prob, you should have gotten some distinctive series of beeps from your mobo and you could verify the beep code with your manufacturer's list if it is video.
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
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The temperatures are fine. I checked the fan to make sure it's running, and I felt the card's heat sink with my finger.
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
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I don't really have access to a computer which I could plug my card into.
 
Jayczar

Jayczar

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2001
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darckhart said:
also, if it's definitely a video prob, you should have gotten some distinctive series of beeps from your mobo and you could verify the beep code with your manufacturer's list if it is video.
Click to expand...

not necessarily, if the card is showing artifacts but still posting the mb is not going to give a beep code.

OP do you have another card you can try?
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
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Nope, no other video card.

As I said, the card is posting but there are artifacts and Windows crashes when it tries to load. I feel like I should run Memtest before I get a new card, but I've never heard of bad RAM causing graphical artifacts.
 
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Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
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Do basic troubleshooting steps.

1. Make sure cable is tight at both monitor and card ends, remove and reseat it, i have seen a piece of dust in the connector screw up the image.

2. Try card in another computer

3. Try known good card in your computer.

4. If all of the above doesnt solve issue try memtest, bad ram can effect video cards, more so for AMD cards for some reason but still worth a shot.

EDIT:

booting to safemode running driver sweeper and reinstalling drivers is also a good idea.
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
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Rifterut:

I've already done #1. I don't have a good card or a computer with a PCI-E slot for #2 and #3. I'll try #4.

Booting to safemode won't help because I get graphical glitches before Windows even loads. As I mentioned I alos have 2 hard drives and 2 Windows installs, the card started screwing up badly on both OSs at the same time.
 
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Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
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ichy said:
Rifterut:

I've already done #1. I don't have a good card or a computer with a PCI-E slot for #2 and #3. I'll try #4.

Booting to safemode won't help because I get graphical glitches before Windows even loads. As I mentioned I alos have 2 hard drives and 2 Windows installs, the card started screwing up badly on both OSs at the same time.
Click to expand...

Have you tried removing the card itself and reseating it, or trying it in a different slot? and make sure the PCIe power cable is tight.
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
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I've only got one PCI-E slot. I've reseated it and unplugged and replugged the power cable.
 
O

ocre

Golden Member
Dec 26, 2008
1,594
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Artifacts before windows loads. Remove the card from your system, clean everyting and reseat it carefully. Without being able to check it in another system, its not always so cut and dry. You have memory, motherboard, and even a CPU which could all effect one another. Although it may very well be the GPU, i have learned to be very very thorough when troubleshooting scenarios like yours. It sure wouldnt make you happy to have the same issue pop up after you replace the card. Without eliminating the other variables it really could be something else.

What kinda of GPU do you have, besides?
 
T

tviceman

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2008
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ichy said:
Rifterut:

I've already done #1. I don't have a good card or a computer with a PCI-E slot for #2 and #3. I'll try #4.

Booting to safemode won't help because I get graphical glitches before Windows even loads. As I mentioned I alos have 2 hard drives and 2 Windows installs, the card started screwing up badly on both OSs at the same time.
Click to expand...

Then it's either a bad monitor cable or a bad video card. Most likely bad card.
 
R

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
well then since you have done about all you can i would run memtest on your ram 1 stick at a time and if it passes i would RMA the card.
 
tweakboy

tweakboy

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2010
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www.hammiestudios.com
Thanks everyone good responses.

Try this. Boot up computer and keep pressing F8 ... go into safe mode and install the latest nvidia from www.nvidia.com install those then get a small app and change your fan speed to 100 percent. I wanna see if those artifacts will show with 100 percent fan speed. Possibly your video cards fan is busted,, but try the safe mode thing first.. gl
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
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Tweakboy: The fan works fine. Like I said, I even touched the heatsink and it's not overheating.

Ocre: It's an 8800 GTS 320mb, about four years old at this point. I'm going to check the memory, but there's really no practical way to check the MoBo or CPU. I also doubt it's RAM, I've had RAM go bad in the past and the symptoms were nothing like this.
 
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tweakboy

tweakboy

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Jan 3, 2010
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For the sake of it. Try downclocking the video card core and memory both,, like take it down by at least 100 mhz each,, I wanna see if you get this again.. if so ,,, send the card to RMA ,, its defective ....
 
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ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
8
81
tweakboy said:
For the sake of it. Try downclocking the video card core and memory both,, like take it down by at least 100 mhz each,, I wanna see if you get this again.. if so ,,, send the card to RMA ,, its defective ....
Click to expand...

I can't boot into Windows in order to alter card settings.
 
BD231

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
My ass its not the drivers. Just had a black screen nVidia driver crash today on the new 285.79 simply browsing the internet. Playing video in IE is still borked, tried downclocking and still the same weird issue's.
 
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