Dead Gfx Card?

TJcan

The computer specs are in the sig, it's about 2 years old and just a few months ago I started running everything on stock settings as I didn't need the small performance boost and louder fans.

The problem started 2 days ago, when I tried to run UT2004 and Half Life 2. Basically 5 minutes into any 3D application the graphics on the screen would go all random colours and I would have to force shut down the computer and reboot.

However running any 2-D application was fine, so I decided to leave it for the weekend to figure out what the problem was. And today, when I turned on my comp, the following things happened:






Basically I would get random dots and lines running across my screen when comp starts up, and when windows loads all actions are reduced to a snail's pace, such as clicking on a menu takes 5 secs to load.

The memory, CPU, and mobo all seem fine when I ran PC probe, however when I looked under dxdiag this is what it gave me on my graphic card:



So is this definitely a graphic card problem? I cleaned out all dust in my comp today and hopefully I didn't short circuit my mobo or anything? If it is a graphic card failure is it still worth anything or can I somehow fix it?

Thanks in advance.

mirage

This is most probably due to failure of graphics memory. You can try to underclock your memory to see if it goes away. Other than this, I don't think there is anything you can do other than buying a new card or contacting the manufacturer if it is still under warranty.

You could check the graphics cooler. But I don't think it is the problem because I saw this problem before.

TJcan

Bump, please reply as I need the computer to do work over the weekend and I'll buy another gfx card if the x800gto is dead. I'm on a friend's laptop right now.

TJcan

mirage wrote:

This is most probably due to failure of graphics memory. You can try to underclock your memory to see if it goes away. Other than this, I don't think there is anything you can do other than buying a new card or contacting the manufacturer if it is still under warranty.

Okay thanks, is there anyway to isolate the corrupted gfx memory? (as underclocking it didn't fix the problem.

mirage

TJcan wrote:

Okay thanks, is there anyway to isolate the corrupted gfx memory? (as underclocking it didn't fix the problem.

I don't know any way to isolate the bad memory. This looks like hardware failure, there is not much you can do, I am afraid. But hang in there for a little while someone might come up with a new idea.

TJcan

Thanks, I was thinking of upgrading to the bang-for-your-buck 7900GS anyway.

Now it's just a question of what were the possible causes for this problem and how do I prevent it for my next card? (Shouldn't be an overheating problem, as the GPU fan was working and the temperatures were around 50C)

Thrax

Possible causes: It was its time to go. (Seriously)

mirage

TJcan wrote:

Thanks, I was thinking of upgrading to the bang-for-your-buck 7900GS anyway.

Now it's just a question of what were the possible causes for this problem and how do I prevent it for my next card? (Shouldn't be an overheating problem, as the GPU fan was working and the temperatures were around 50C)

Many things can go wrong out of your control, such as electromigration, thermal fatigue, dopant segregation, etc. These chips are not fault tolerant devices, even one faulty transistor among millions in the chip can make the complete device useless, or even one interconnect out of millions. Just make sure there is adequate cooling and keep an eye on the voltage if you are overclocking.

TJcan

Thrax wrote:

Possible causes: It was its time to go. (Seriously)

Oh Cmon, it's still quite a decent card for your casual gamer. Outperforms 6800 and 7300GT and the x1600 when overclocked, it handles HL2 fine at high settings and most new games at medium settings.:)

nonstop301

The only time I have seen such artifacts is when the BIOS of the graphics card has become corrupted.

See if you can find the latest edition of the BIOS for your graphics card from the manufacturer's website and follow the instructions to flash it correctly

Sledgehammer70

I have had 7900 cards just up and die on me a few times or 6800 Ultras die, it happens all the time. No matter what chip set you have the issue is always something else. The image above tells me something on the GPU went south, memory issues usually cause other sorts of issues it could be a BIOS issue but I doubt it. Now if the PC still is showing data it might come back to normal but most often it will just get worse every time you restart the PC.

You can hang on to it as long as you want, but the card needs to be replaced.

TJcan

Thanks for replies, I've already ordered an Evga 7900GS KO Edition, I think I'll be very happy with it, as I'll probably use the trade-in option on evga cards soon and get a Conroe system going.

TJcan

Last question:

I was wondering since the 7900 series are longer cards than the x800gto, if I would be able to fit it into my case? (See first picture) I couldn't find the dimensions specs for the 7900GS.

mirage

7900GS is not a particularly long card ( I have one). It is shorter than my X800XL and 6800LE. It should fit in your case without a problem. And, it is a very good overclocker, I highly recommend a good cooler (Zalman or Arctic Cooling) to achieve the best performance. Good luck!

TJcan

I just received my evga 7900GS KO Edition 256mb, installed it and installed drivers.

However, duing boot up I noticed all white text had a pinkish colour, and even after installing all drivers and upgrading to the newest Forceware drivers I'm still getting a pink hint to EVERYTHING that's being displayed by my new gfx card.

What could be the cause of this?

I will post some pics soon, but I don't have my camera right now. Basically the card is completely functional except everything is seen with a layer of pink?

mirage

I would reinsert the monitor cable in the sockets on the card and monitor

TJcan

I did, and testing multiple trials 1 VGA port produces the pink colours and the other does not. ??? Is this a defective card?

mirage

I think it is an isolated problem with one of the ports. You can issue an RMA with the retailer. You can also try another cable, if you have one. Are you using a DVI-VGA adapter?

Sledgehammer70

I would send it back for a replacement, unless you can live with one working port.