Is my graphics card dead? (Video inside showing what happens)

Mike020389 · 05-12-2010, 12:58 AM

Sorry in advance if these kind of errors have been posted before, I honestly have no idea whats going with my card thus I have no idea what to search for with the search funtion.

Where do I begin... my graphics card is a Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 640mb video ram (On the card it says - 8800 GTS PCI-E 6WMB DDR3 TV OUT 2DV), one day while playing a game I noticed the graphics card (I believe it was that) was acting up and I turned the game off, when I did I noticed horizontal lines of blue pixels... then the screen started randomly blinking black until it finally stayed on, the pixels started showing up again and then the computer froze, 30 seconds later it auto-rebooted without any error message or blue screen.

I thought it was a virus so I reformatted all my hard drives, when I tried to play a game to test it I got an error along the lines of "nv4_disp display driver has stopped working" or something and the game shut down, then the colour and resolution went haywire, I restarted the computer and now the blue pixels are back without even loading a game, I cannot even browse, here's a video of what happens.

So... is the graphics card dead, dying, corrupt? Or might it not be the card at all and something else? Thanks in advance. Again I'm sorry if this has been posted before or if I'm in the wrong section or I missed some obvious important information, I'm just a bit distressed at the moment, not thinking too well at the moment.

**manic** · 05-12-2010, 03:20 AM

What power supply are you using, brand and wattage. I would say the
video card has gave its all.

Must be sure to run a proper power
supply as you probably know in order to avoid hardware issues. But it
seems you got good life out of the video card..R.I.P.

Mike020389 · 05-12-2010, 03:41 AM

I just really need someone to double check for me that it's the graphics card that's broken, I don't really want to go out and buy a new graphics card and find out it's the hard drive, ram or cpu that's on the blink. :V

The PSU is a Antec Neo HE 430, 430W, I've had that card for maybe 3 years? I've never had any issues with the card ever so I'm certain it can't be the PSU.

However as I said could someone double confirm the card is broken based on the video? I mean even if you take good care of a card eventually they fail, 3 years, it just happened suddenly but it would have eventually, right? Cause I honestly can't risk going out buying a new one until I'm certain it is the card that's gone. :V

Ps. Thanks for responding.

**gcavan** · 05-12-2010, 05:52 AM

Quote:

I just really need someone to double check for me that it's the graphics card that's broken

Despite all the advances in modern technology, we are not able to do that over a bulletin board. You will need to test the card (or have it tested) in a known good computer. ie a friend/relative or even a local computer shop.

Quote:

The PSU is a Antec Neo HE 430, 430W, I've had that card for maybe 3 years? I've never had any issues with the card ever so I'm certain it can't be the PSU.

That was a decent (not great) supply, but it would have been close to underpowered when your system was new. As power supplies age, they 'derate', ie they become less able to supply the rated currents. And yes, an underpowered power supply can, and will, damage other components.

Tyree · 05-12-2010, 06:42 AM

You are underpowered.
Corsiar 650W $90: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Better bang for buck is the 750W Corsair for $110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

dai · 05-12-2010, 09:48 AM

if the cards gone it's the psu that has cooked it

Mike020389 · 05-12-2010, 12:05 PM

Well I did as you asked, I plugged the 8800 into my back up computer, installed the drivers and restarted the computer, this is what happened.

**emosun** · 05-12-2010, 01:50 PM

It would show that the power supply fried the gpu over time , and in turn the gpu probably wore out the power supply. There honestly probably both bad.

Also , that wasn't enough enough wattage for an 8800 to begin with. The old 320/640/768mb 8800's were known for not only overheating , but using too much power. It should have had a decent quality 600w powering it. The two 400w units your using won't have enough power even if the card wasn't fried already.

MonsterMiata · 05-12-2010, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emosun

It would show that the power supply fried the gpu over time , and in turn the gpu probably wore out the power supply. There honestly probably both bad.

Also , that wasn't enough enough wattage for an 8800 to begin with. The old 320/640/768mb 8800's were known for not only overheating , but using too much power. It should have had a decent quality 600w powering it. The two 400w units your using won't have enough power even if the card wasn't fried already.

Agreed

Mike020389 · 05-12-2010, 02:19 PM

Ok, so the graphics card and the PSU (The Antec Neo) are finished, thanks for confirming it.

This leads to the near end, but there are a few pieces of final advice I could use, if it doens't bother you. :V

1) I'll replace the Antec Neo HE 430w with the Corsair 650W TX Series PSU
2) I was thinking of replacing the 8800 GTS with the PALIT 9800GT 1GB or the Zotac GeForce 9800GT Synergy Edition 1 GB, are they better/worse/same as the 8800 GTS I had? Or maybe you have any suggestions? However I would prefer not to go over £100 for the card if possible. :V
3) Also just a quick question, it's not possible my processor was damaged due to the PSU is it? Just curious, because I can't afford to replace the PSU, card AND processor if it has been damage somehow. My processor is the most expensive thing in it. T_T

Thanks again to everyone for the support so far, it's a massive load off my mind.

**emosun** · 05-12-2010, 04:15 PM

The corsair 650 will be very good. You also could get a gts 250 for under 100 which would be a tad better then a 9800gt. And cpu's can generally survive a bad power supply/card ratio problem with computers.

Mike020389 · 05-12-2010, 07:12 PM

Phew good to know the CPU is likely to be okay.

I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to hardware, there are so many brands of the GTS 250 I'm not sure which one is best, some with 512MB VRAM, others with 1GB, but then they say big isn't always best, I selected those two possible cards to use earlier based on basic info about the card and customer reviews of it, are there any particular brand or version of the GTS 250 you would recommend?
:V

I'm just looking for a card that is a bit more powerful than my last one, it really was time to upgrade anyway, if the card is SLI capable that would be a plus too.

Again thanks for the help, it's appreciated more than you can imagine. :)

**emosun** · 05-12-2010, 07:48 PM

Generally the gts 250 will only be in 512mb for under 100. The brands I saw for under 100 were zotac xfx asus ect..

MonsterMiata · 05-13-2010, 10:35 AM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20200%20series

Here are the GTS 250 cards. If im not mistaken ECS is a pretty decent brand.

Mike020389 · 05-19-2010, 11:11 PM

Rather than leave you in the dark I figured I should do an update, sorry if it's considered necro'ing or spamming. :V

Got a Gainward Geforce 250 1GB version and the 650W Corsair, plugged them in and it seems to work, it loaded and stuff, however the card has issues, I've tested two games so far, I can play Far Cry 2 on maximum graphics yet when I play a lowly MMO called AirRivals which barely uses a graphics card it artefacts after 10 seconds, freezes and then crashes... unacceptable as it's my main MMO. :(

It's not the MoBo as the computer loads.
It's probably not the RAM as the computer loads and it gets listed.
It's probably not the CPU as that's partly required for the maxed graphics on FR2.
The hard drive connections seem stable.
I tested the computer with 2 other graphics cards (one uses a PCI-E plug) and AirRivals works, so I presume the powersupply works as well.
I reformatted the computer afterwards so it's not conflicting drivers.

Not sure about you guys but my best guess is the card is faulty but not broken? I have contacted their tech support already for help.

MonsterMiata · 05-19-2010, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike020389

Rather than leave you in the dark I figured I should do an update, sorry if it's considered necro'ing or spamming. :V

Got a Gainward Geforce 250 1GB version and the 650W Corsair, plugged them in and it seems to work, it loaded and stuff, however the card has issues, I've tested two games so far, I can play Far Cry 2 on maximum graphics yet when I play a lowly MMO called AirRivals which barely uses a graphics card it artefacts after 10 seconds, freezes and then crashes... unacceptable as it's my main MMO. :(

It's not the MoBo as the computer loads.
It's probably not the RAM as the computer loads and it gets listed.
It's probably not the CPU as that's partly required for the maxed graphics on FR2.
The hard drive connections seem stable.
I tested the computer with 2 other graphics cards (one uses a PCI-E plug) and AirRivals works, so I presume the powersupply works as well.
I reformatted the computer afterwards so it's not conflicting drivers.

Not sure about you guys but my best guess is the card is faulty but not broken? I have contacted their tech support already for help.

Never heard of this brand. Strange the game would crash when a more powerful one plays fine.

**manic** · 05-20-2010, 03:39 AM

Gainward has always been a very good brand, imho. Just because
the pc boots doesnt mean that the ram is good. I dont think ram is
the issue though, to make sure you can run memtest, there is a free
version of it, do a search for it, run it on one stick at a time. Did you
install chipset drivers/mobo drivers when you formatted and installed
windows? You may try turning the settings down in that particular
game.,see what happens.

Mike020389 · 05-21-2010, 12:19 AM

Yes I did install the chipsets when I reformatted (SM Bus etc), I tested the game (AirRivals which is the one that artifacts) with one RAM stick and it worked so I plugged the second one in again and it didn't artifact, figured it was too good to be true so I went to a fight, when I died it froze for a moment and the artifacts were back, I'll try a RAM test next and report back. :V

Edit: For the graphics card their tech support suggested older drivers, I tried the oldest available, the newest, the one between newest and oldest and the new beta ones, none of those helped. :X

I ended the MemTest test at 104% coverage and it found no errors.

One thing I noticed was when I touched the case I got a nasty little shock from it, that can't be good, unplugged and turned it off for now. :V

**manic** · 05-21-2010, 03:42 AM

You have something grounding out inside that case, you need to find
that asap, you could toast your mobo, and who knows what else.

Mike020389 · 05-21-2010, 05:05 AM

Well there is one sata cable which has a small bend outside the case and a one bunch of excess cables (one that provides power for multiple HD's etc but not used) of the PSU I put... on top of the case to keep them out of the way as not to obstruct the CPU fan, once I find some rubber gloves I'll put them back in, I didn't release it could do that to be honest, I'm terrified of getting shocked. :V

Anyway the RAM I presume is okay as no errors occured?