Is my video card dying?

[ArmchairAthlete]

A few weeks ago my video card started acting weird. Occasionally when starting up my PC from when it was off I would get a very abnormal display, different colored bars arranged in lines and other artifacts. They remain even when Windows has loaded. It's been happening a bit more lately.

I can restart the PC a few times, turn it off/on and it'll boot correctly within a few tries usually.

Could this be overclocking (even happening out of Windows where rage3d tweak is...)? I suppose I'll try to turn it down... this may have been happening before I started OCing again for CSS.

Specs:
Powercolor Radeon 9700 Pro

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton

SLK-900A Heatsink

Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard (nForce2 Chipset)

512MB Corsair XMS DDR400/pc3200 (2x 256mb sticks) CL2

Windows XP Professional SP2

 

[NuNuNYC]

Sounds like your CRT tube in your monitor is going.... I think it's time for a new monitor

 

[Jeff7]

I'd vote for the videocard. Of course, the best way to test is a part swap with another system.
I too had a 9700 Pro die on me recently - horrible artifacting. The screen divided itself up into rectangles, each maybe 40 pixels wide and 10 high, and randomly arragned them. My lightly overclocked 9700 Pro had bitten the dust; there's now a 9800 Pro in its place. The monitor was absolutely fine.

 

[NuNuNYC]

ack.. such a nice video card biting the dust? i would hope ATI would make better manufactured cards but there's always a chance for a bad egg.. yea... I would probably check the video card too.... But I remember getting several bars near the top and bottom, as the CRT tube was shrinking or whatever you call it... then finally it popped and fizzed... =T but let's hope it's ur video card 🙂

 

[IvanAndreevich]

Jeff7
Sup!

Jeff7
ArmchairAthlete
I can try fixing your cards for you. PM if interested 😛

Definetely NOT the monitor. Maybe a micro-SMD capacitor been ripped off the PCB, or something along those lines 😉

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

I doubt it's the monitor. It's not a cheapo, but a good NEC/Mitsubishi CRT. High refresh rates at high res, 19". The monitor is even newer than the 3d card, the card being close to two years old. It has undergone some transportation to/from school and a few LANs. It was never dropped or anything though.

I only ever mildly overclocked the card. I have two case fans.

EDIT: About trying another card... I do have a crappy PCI card handy but I can't play anything but 2d games with it. This problem doesn't happen all the time either. How would you fix it Ivan? Hmm

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Gah, all the sudden for no reason I've got 5 verticle bars and artifacting with the right click context menus... reboot time :sigh:

 

[IvanAndreevich]

It's probably a chip that isn't soldered on all the way. Hence, I'd try to figure out which one it is and re-solder it. When the comp is on, try poking different chips to see if you can get those artifacts. Obviously, use something non-conductive, like a wooden pencil.

 

[imported_Harbinger]

check out the the molex on card... just in case 🙂

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: Harbinger
check out the the molex on card... just in case 🙂

Yea I did several things. Hooked up a different molex, reseated the card after blowing some dust off, moved the cable to my monitor... so far so good. Still fishy though, I'm not sure if this will happen again.

I turned down the clock/memory speeds too.

 

[Marsumane]

post this in the video forum