GTS 450 on its last legs?

[n0x1ous]

Alright so here is the issue. GTS 450 in the HTPC system in my sig below. Its been running fine since Sep 2010 when I bought the 450. This computer is typically on about 10 hrs a day for the kids to watch videos on and for me to browse on and watch stuff on in the evenings.

I get home from work yesterday and it was already on, but the TV was on a different input so I switched it over to HDMI for the PC and it was at the Windows login screen. Upon logging in there were artifacts and flashing all over the screen. Uninstalled Nvidia driver and then the display is fine when using the standard MS VGA driver. Downloaded newest WHQL driver and did a clean install of it. Same result. Everything looks fine through posting and at the Windows login screen. As soon as the Windows desktop loads it artifacts everywhere.

I have tried the newest 290.xx beta drivers that just came out and an old 275.xx driver and the same result. If I boot in safe mode there is no problem again, because its using the MS driver.

So does this mean it has to be a driver issue because it displays fine with the MS driver? Its not overheating as use AIDA 64 and its idling at 36 Celsius in the windows desktop. The card has never been overclocked or abused in anyway.

Yet I've tried so many drivers that it seems like it has to be the card.

Any thoughts or suggestions or anyone else have a similar issue?

 

[Belegost]

Generally when I have had artifacts like that it has been a vram problem. Try underclocking the video ram. Also, check the cooling anyways, GPU cooling is generally good, but I find that ram cooling is often sloppy or completely neglected, especially on the low performance parts, a buildup of dust on the heatsink might not be enough to hurt the you temps, but could be enough to overheat the ram. I say this from experience with both an 8800gt and 3850 that had artifact issues.