Think my GTX 295 is DYING or DEAD!!! :(

[UnhappySoul]

I've been having non stop reboots in the BIOS for the last few days. After like a million rebbots the boot takes hold and windows loads up an desktop runs fine. But thats without the Nvidia drivers, just the default windows drivers. If I load the Nvidia drivers the system blue screens before the desktop.

My system is as follows.
E6750
4Gb hyperX DDR2 1066
Asus P5KE
Zotac GTX 295
Asus 750W PSU
Vista 64 SP1 Ultimate

All this while I've been thinking its the mobo dying, but today i asked a friend to bring over his 8500GT card to check for sure. And voila no reboots with it. And Nvidia drivers loads up without blue screen.

So it has to be the GTX 295 dying?

Heres a log of my trouble so far that I posted on another forum which details exactly what I did an didnt do to diagnose the problems.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/603079-serious-problem-my-comp-need-expert.html

Any assistance appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[UnhappySoul]

So any help.
Iam waiting with baited breath to see what kinda advice an assistance i can get form the Internet's largest PC Forum an so far iam extremely disappointed.

 

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Try a different power supply. That can cause it to bsod like that when they are dying. That would be my first guess.

 

[Dkcode]

The PSU should cope with the 295 but do not rule it out. You could try the card in your friends machine?

A faulty card will cause the system to BSOD if it malfunctions.

You have already singled the card out as being the problem. Simply RMA the card and get a replacement.

 

[UnhappySoul]

MY FIRNEDS MACHINE DONT HAVE A psU THAT CAN COPE WITH A 295.

Hmmm So nows its the PSU or the GPU? What about a CPU? It used to be heavily OCed till it got unstable an gave BSODs an now running at default. Or maybe it could've been the GPU all along?

 

[ZimZum]

You have already singled the card out as being the problem. Simply RMA the card and get a replacement.

This

 

[UnhappySoul]

yeah true.
Thanks for the amazing help. I will let the whole universe know of this helpful an utterly incredible site just overflowing with help.

 

[thilanliyan]

Tech support over a forum is not easy. And you posted early on a Saturday morning and expect everyone to get up early and and log in so they can help you?? Be patient.

Try the card in your friend's computer. Even though it may not be able to handle the 295 at load...it should at least boot. If it doesn't even boot then it's probably the card.

 

[yh125d]

If your friends PC even has a decent 400w thats more than plenty just to boot. Try it out

 

[Dkcode]

MY FIRNEDS MACHINE DONT HAVE A psU THAT CAN COPE WITH A 295.

Well if your friend is willing enough: you have enough parts to run through 'process of elimination' which unfortunately is the only efficient way of sorting these kind of problems out. It's just a ball ache for your friend having his machine disassembled.

Secondly this is a hardware enthusiast forum, not tech-support and therefore no one is obligated to help you. Throwing around sarcastic comments to the people that have taken the time to offer you advice is not really the best way to get things out of life. If you want tech-support; email your video card or PSU manufacturer.

 

[Denithor]

Thirdly you should have posted this in either the computer help or general hardware section of our forum, you will get much more attention focused on system troubleshooting over there than here in the graphics section.

EDIT: Another thing to try - if your friend is up for it - pop your GTX 295 and PSU into his case and fire it up. That should rule out your motherboard/ram/cpu/hdd/etc in one go. If you see the same problems on his system - it's one of those two components.

 

[GaiaHunter]

yeah true.
Thanks for the amazing help. I will let the whole universe know of this helpful an utterly incredible site just overflowing with help.

I think it is a bit hard for anyone to fix a card over the internet.

Stuff for you to do:

-try a different graphics card (u did this already);

-try the graphics card in a different PC;

-try a different power supply;

-remove all overclocks;

-reinstall drivers;

-reinstall windows;

-go to some place that sell PC components and ask them to slot your card in their machine;

-RMA the card.

 

[faxon]

Thirdly you should have posted this in either the computer help or general hardware section of our forum, you will get much more attention focused on system troubleshooting over there than here in the graphics section.

EDIT: Another thing to try - if your friend is up for it - pop your GTX 295 and PSU into his case and fire it up. That should rule out your motherboard/ram/cpu/hdd/etc in one go. If you see the same problems on his system - it's one of those two components.

lol i was gonna suggest that but then i scrolled down. probably the best advice out of everything recommend thus far. and what's your friend's PSU btw? dont just give simple wattage, i want a model number i can check specs on. it's quite possible the PSU will cope with it and you dont even know it

 

[shangshang]

put the GTX295 back in and if the PC reboots in BIOS again, RMA it.

 

[UnhappySoul]

yeah i gonna RMA it. Maybe Zotac will be good enough to send me a single PCB version.
This runs kinda hot anyways.

 

[shangshang]

let us know how Zotac RMA went. I always like to know people's RMA experiences with manufacturers so I know whether to embrace or avoid them in the future

 

[UnhappySoul]

Could it be the PSU tho? Theres no way I can check it. Cos the card my friend brought was a lowly 8500GT an coulnt possibly stress out a PSU as much as a 295

 

[CurseTheSky]

You can take a digital multimeter and manually read the voltages from all of the rails. You'll need to short two pins on the 24-pin main connector in order to turn the PSU on while it's not connected to the motherboard. You should be able to find directions on how to do so, and where to probe with the DMM with a quick Google search or by posting in the PSU forum.

The fact that your friend's 8500GT allowed the system to boot without any problems definitely points to graphics card or PSU issues. Since it's a 750w Antec unit, which are generally good, my first suspicion is definitely the graphics card. Good PSUs can still go bad, though, so I would still test it like mentioned above.

Finally, any time I get BSODs I generally assume it's either a software or memory problem. Even though all signs point to graphics card / PSU, it still wouldn't hurt to run memtest86 to verify everything's ok. Since I generally don't keep anything important on my OS drive, I usually do a full format as well just to verify there isn't some kind of driver conflict or other similar problem as well.

Good luck. It's frustrating, but it could be much much worse.

 

[Zap]

So any help.
Iam waiting with baited breath to see what kinda advice an assistance i can get form the Internet's largest PC Forum an so far iam extremely disappointed.

UnhappySoul, welcome to Anandtech Forums.

You may get a bit more help if you posted all the info here instead of making people click a link to another forum. I think you were being a bit unrealistic in hoping for an answer within 1½ hours. Heck, for 3/4 of the USA (where I live) it was still before 9am on a Saturday. I, for one, was still asleep! Your veiled insults also don't quite endear yourself to the helpful members who call this place home.

Regarding your actual issues, based on your descriptions and trying out your friend's graphics card, my suspicion would be the power supply or the graphics card. Unfortunately the best way to test for those would be to either try a different (and capable) power supply with your rig, or to try your card in a different (and capable) system. If you don't have a friend local to you that can help you out, then you may have to pay a computer shop to test your parts. The only other thing I can think of would be to use a digital multimeter on your power supply to see how voltages are doing when you power on your system. You would have to make sure you are on the same rails as your graphics card (maybe tapping into the PCIe plugs).

I would actually test it while powering the machine because sometimes a power supply can have perfect voltages with no load, but then crumble under load. I actually was troubleshooting a system that had such a problem once. It would work fine until a game was started, then system would crash or reboot within seconds. Most people would instantly suspect the graphics card, but a digital multimeter showed that while the +12v was pretty darn near 12v, once a 3d game was started it dropped well under 11v (the low limit is 11.4v). Yeah, seeing a +12v rail putting out around 10.3v right before it crashed was pretty enlightening.

 

[UnhappySoul]

Zap? u the dude from BFG?

 

[xboxist]

Zap? u the dude from BFG?

That's a lovely response after Zap thoughtfully typed everything out for you that he did in his post. You're a real pleasure to help.

 

[jvroig]

Yeah, this just gets funnier and funnier. I mean, a simple "thanks" wouldn't have killed him, and perhaps at least trying to type correctly (proper capitalization and spelling out those few words properly)

 

[Schmide]

I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!

 

[UnhappySoul]

what are u nuts on about? I just asked if he was the dude who works at BFG?

 

[nemesismk2]

So any help.
Iam waiting with baited breath to see what kinda advice an assistance i can get form the Internet's largest PC Forum an so far iam extremely disappointed.

There has been some good advice from the fellow Anandtech members about your problem. When I have had a problem or need advice the Anandtech forum is the first place I visit for reliable information and help.