does this mean my vid card is dying?

[rh71]

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3175/img4279yv0.jpg

Radeon 9800pro. on XP.

This has happened 3 times today over a few hours. The room has no heat issues. The video card fan is still spinning. I'd be browsing and posting on forums such as this and without warning the whole screen turns into that. Reboot fixes it but it just happened again. The block you see is my mouse and I can still move it around. I've grabbed the latest Radeon drivers but the problem persists.

Can I be 99% sure the video card is dying?

 

[rh71]

no ideas? it happened again while idle overnight.

 

[Kromis]

Oh damn...

Kind of nasty.

Although I don't know for sure, I think your card is dying. I know its not that reassuring for me to "think" but at least you know what I think.

 

[tigersty1e]

Yeah... I think it's dying. What were temps all these years?

 

[rh71]

Would this be a good replacement for my 9800pro ? How many generations up is this? All I can really tell is that I'm going from 256mb to 512mb.

 

[*kjm]

One thing you could do would be to reapply new thermal compound to the video chip and see if that helps.

 

[tigersty1e]

Originally posted by: rh71
Would this be a good replacement for my 9800pro ? How many generations up is this? All I can really tell is that I'm going from 256mb to 512mb.

It is a step up, but just get a 3850 for ~160, which is a better card.

EDIT: I think there's an AGP version of it... I'm not sure.

 

[rh71]

Did more testing and it's definitely not the monitor (did the same thing on a CRT) and it's definitely both the VGA and DVI connections that has caused this so it's not a bad vid cable. I did order a new video card and it's on its way. Another thing it causes when the screen scrambles is a high-pitch noise coming out of the speakers for 1-2 seconds, then it reboots itself (sometimes it doesn't reboot).

But could it possibly be a power supply problem? Or a heat issue? It gets sufficient cooling now with the case open and it always being 70F in the room. Surprised nobody has actually seen this before.

 

[NinjaJedi]

Originally posted by: *kjm
One thing you could do would be to reapply new thermal compound to the video chip and see if that helps.

I agree. It sounds like a definite over heating problem.

 

[rh71]

I just applied some new arctic silver 3 to it and plugged it back in. On bootup, the PC restarted itself a few times and during consistency diskcheck just before getting into windows it restarted once more. All the while my drives are stopping and spinning back up sounding like power is being cut (but it may be the effect of the restart). Did a hard reset, and once again it restarted on diskcheck. Haven't gotten into Windows.

Thinking it may be power-related, I unplugged most components leaving just primary HDD & the video card... it loaded into windows but shortly the video flaked out and I got rebooted again.

There's no way this could be a bad PSU? Or just more continued signs of bad video signal/card problems?

 

[NinjaJedi]

Sounds weird to me. Can you give us some temps on the GPU? that might help determine if it is an over heating issue. Where do you live. do you have a best buy near you. I know some might scoff at the idea but take the PSU into geek squad and let them test it for you. They are usually pretty good about doing something like that for free. The only other thing I can suggest if it is not the GPU is to buy a PSU tester.

 

[themisfit610]

Definitely your PC... It might not be the video card though.

Most likely...

Let us know how the new card does.

~MiSfit

 

[coinz]

Have a 9800 pro AIW in another computer and it started doing that with random restarts, all I did was reapply some compound and tighten back the fan on the top it was entirely loose..started working again perfectly..was a heat problem

 

[secretanchitman]

try it the 9800 in another computer!

 

[zorrt]

I've seen that happening before! On my boss's brand new Dell laptop. When he first got it he placed it flat on the desk blocking all the vents and he used to ask me what was wrong all the time. I had no idea. But one day the problem just disappeared altogether and I've noticed hes been placing it on a slant to bring the screen up higher for him which also allows for more air. So culprit? Like the above posts, possibly heat issues.

 

[PepperBreath]

My vote is that it's a PSU issue. Do you by any chance have a Creative sound card installed? I've seen similar video artifacts due to a soundcard/video card conflict as well.

 

[Killrose]

Originally posted by: *kjm
One thing you could do would be to reapply new thermal compound to the video chip and see if that helps.

Also make sure your fan is spinning fast enough and is clean.

OOPS did'nt read your other post. You might need a new PSU with all the rebooting goin on.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: PepperBreath
My vote is that it's a PSU issue. Do you by any chance have a Creative sound card installed? I've seen similar video artifacts due to a soundcard/video card conflict as well.

Yeah it's a Creative Sound Blaster MP3+ from years ago. I haven't changed a thing - why the conflict now though? I did mention there's a high pitch tone right before reboots.

Tonight I bought a new (temporary) 7600gt and it was fine for hours. I go out, come back, and I hear the loud tone and the monitor doesn't display anything after I turn it on. So that time, no reboot, but the high pitch noise. I rebooted and it's running fine again now.

If it happens once more with this new vid card, I'll try using the onboard sound for a while and see if that fixes the problem. I did buy a cheap 500w PSU to test with as well if all else fails.

 

[Keysplayr]

Do you have any other old AGP card you can throw in there to test?

 

[wldfire]

If this is a card you've been using for awhile, I'd suspect it might be starting to give up the ghost.. It does, though, look similar to a problem I recently encountered with a brand new 3850 graphics card. The solution to my problem was to "loosen" the main system memory timings a little bit and to uninstall then reinstall the latest AMD drivers. I'm not sure which of these steps addressed the root problem, but I do know that the fuzzy locked-up screens haven't come back since.. Good luck!

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Do you have any other old AGP card you can throw in there to test?

Heh I only have an old Voodoo3 3000 AGP but the connectors aren't cut the same. My AGP slot has a bar that blocks it from being inserted. I also have another PC to test... at my parent's house.. so it may not be soon. I was due for a new vid card anyway. Hopefully that's the real problem here. More testing today.

 

[MegaWorks]

I had the same problem a while ago, it's definitely the power supply. Same screen with many reboots. Do yourself a favor by getting a new PSU.

 

[*kjm]

rh71
You have posted a lot of good information since my last post. I would take out your soundcard and put in the new power supply. If that fixes it try putting your sound card back in. I wouldn?t worry about sound while troubleshooting? don?t use on board sound. From your last posts I would think it may be the power supply and this is how I would troubleshoot it.

 

[SorryImLate]

Originally posted by: rh71
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3175/img4279yv0.jpg

Radeon 9800pro. on XP.

This has happened 3 times today over a few hours. The room has no heat issues. The video card fan is still spinning. I'd be browsing and posting on forums such as this and without warning the whole screen turns into that. Reboot fixes it but it just happened again. The block you see is my mouse and I can still move it around. I've grabbed the latest Radeon drivers but the problem persists.

Can I be 99% sure the video card is dying?

Overclock it just a little bit more...

 

[SorryImLate]

Same thing happened to my fx5500 today. Turned it on in the morning and got the same thing pictured