Yesterday I had several games crash after 5-10 mins of playtime, ran normally up until they crashed then I got a burst of messed up geometry and discolored textures, followed by blue screen and a reboot. Now it won't even completely boot up properly with garbage pixels on the screen starting from the very first boot screen. It makes it as far as the windows loading screen but not the log in prompt. However it'll still boot into safe mode.
The last hardware and driver changes I made were about a month ago which was installing a new hard drive and windows 7. After installing windows 7 I updated all the drivers at that point. However up until now everything has worked fine so I imagine neither of those two things is an issue. just in case it was a loose connection or possibly a heat issue due to any built up dust I opened up my case, removed the video card, blew out any dust, and put it back together making sure everything was fastened and connected nicely. But it didn't help.
While I'm pretty sure it's the card itself that is the problem I don't want to rule out other possibilities before buying a new one. Anyone have any suggestions as far as things to do to diagnose the problem to ensure it is the video card?
And in the annoying event that I need to replace my video card anyone have any recommendations on a new one?
[Edit] Just tried to boot up to Linux off a flash drive drive. Didn't make it but in the background while loading I got the windows 7 loading image distorted and scattered :P!
ID:181745
 Oct 7 2009, 9:11 am (Edited on Oct 7 2009, 9:31 am)
|
|
Sounds like a dying graphics card to me. As for recommendations, that depends on your budget. The NVidia 260 is a great card for about $150(after rebate). I have it and have yet to play a game that stressed it. Granted, I haven't played Crysis on it yet.
| |
Theodis wrote:
However it'll still boot into safe mode. This makes me think the problem isn't with your hardware. Try completely uninstalling your video device and *NOT* installing your drivers again. It will default to windows based handling (really choppy, when you drag windows it'll jump, etc etc etc). Do this and see if you still have the pixels problem. If so, then it is your hardware. Otherwise reinstall your drivers and maybe that will fix it. If not... Come back. :) | |
Have you tried reinstalling the drivers? Or looking for new ones. It sounds like a driver issue if it will boot in safe mode but not normally.
If you do need a card, I recommend a second hand Radeon 4850 or 4870 as you can get these for just £50-£60 and they'll still play all games, even Crysis on High. Or, if money is no object, get a Radeon 5870. Currently the best single GPU card on the market, at £300! =P | |
Ease wrote:
Have you tried reinstalling the drivers? Or looking for new ones. It sounds like a driver issue if it will boot in safe mode but not normally. Wat I sed. :D If you do need a card, I recommend a second hand Radeon 4850 or 4870 as you can get these for just £50-£60 and they'll still play all games, even Crysis on High. Eww. You're a radeon fan. -.-' :p | |
AJX wrote:
Ease wrote: They're just best value at the moment. Things will change when the nVidia GTX300s come out. I'm not a fanboy of either side; I just know what is best per buck.  HD 4850 is streaks ahead. | |
I approve of the use of TechPowerUp! benchmarks. *thumbs up*
In any case... The symptoms that Theodis is reporting do definitely indicate a fried graphics card, though I've never really experienced or heard of stuff that bad without at least some HSF problems or overclocking involved (I've fried two Radeon 9800SEs, HL2 HDR Bloom mod before Lost Coast, and a Radeon X1900GT, playing Crysis... 120 degrees C, like this. Go me) | |
Actually, by working in safemode, that just suggests his card can't handle anything more then sending screen data. In safe mode, the screen is rendered 100% with the CPU. The GPU is simply the connector. I've seen this happen many times. When my 7950GT died, the results were practically the same. If I had all GPU acceleration off, it worked "fine". I hated to see that thing die though, it was fantastic and I didn't have any issues with it(until it died).
| |
I am currently having the exact same issues, have been for the last week in fact. I've got an older geforce 7300 gs I'm going to swap out for to check the video card, I'll let you know if that fixed it.
EDIT: Video card was definitely the culprit. Older(much older) card is working fine, albeit slow and crabby, but working nonetheless. EDIT 2: Just bought a 9500 gt 1gb, looks to be the best card you can get with a stock PSU. its reportedly up to 3 times faster than the 8500 gt 515 mb that just burnt out on me. EDIT 3: To add onto the new card, the only game I can really reference it to right now is COD4. It is running it 1280x800 with everything but AA and AF on max, aa is at 2 and I don't know about AF but its set low. Getting 35-45 FPS solidly. I would say its a good bit faster than the 8500 GT it replaced. | |
Danial.Beta wrote:
Actually, by working in safemode, that just suggests his card can't handle anything more then sending screen data. In safe mode, the screen is rendered 100% with the CPU. The GPU is simply the connector. I've seen this happen many times. When my 7950GT died, the results were practically the same. If I had all GPU acceleration off, it worked "fine". I hated to see that thing die though, it was fantastic and I didn't have any issues with it(until it died). Odd. I stand corrected. | |
Theodis wrote:
Yesterday I had several games crash after 5-10 mins of playtime, ran normally up until they crashed then I got a burst of messed up geometry and discolored textures, followed by blue screen and a reboot. Now it won't even completely boot up properly with garbage pixels on the screen starting from the very first boot screen. It makes it as far as the windows loading screen but not the log in prompt. However it'll still boot into safe mode. BFG for the win! Lifetime warranty. | |
Every freetard's nightmare. ;-)