Display problem

[green]

Hi

I recently built a system with the following components:


Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW

Antec Sonata III (500W PSU)

Windows xp with avast antivirus



The system worked great for a few days, until the display on the screen suddenly got “scrambled”, that during a game .. sometimes lots of rectangles of different colours, sometimes thin lines of coulours on a white screen. After restarting the machine it went fine again for a few days, but one morning it started all again.. now I can’t get anything else from these rectangles

What kind of problem is it? Is this the graphic card ??

Actually when the power button is pushed, the motherboard makes the usual bip and the succession between black screens and those with something (e.g. the windows loading page) follow the usual timing.. So it seems the mb is fine..


Would anyone around be able to help or running a similar system ?

Thanks

 

[Abarbarian]

Have you got all the latest updates for your mobo and graphics card . Have you tried re-installing the graphics software and drivers . Does this happen when the graphics card is under load ? If your mobo has on-board graphics try running with those to see if the problem occours . Try a different card if you can .
Best I can offer I'm afraid .

 

[V_R]

Well your system is similar to mine and the first thing i'd say is maybe a dodgy VRAM module on the graphics card. I take its the system is stock and not overclocked?

But saying that, i had something similar to that myself a few weeks ago, amongst other issues (Crashing, BSOD's etc) and it was down to a faulty stick of RAM. (That GeIL stuff, it failed memtest after three minutes.) Can you run Memtest please, let it run for at least an hour preferably more.

If that passes try your 8800 in another pc or another card in yours.

Welcome to PCR mate.

P.S You can find Memtest in my Sticky here.

 

[green]

Thanks for your quick replies
Yep I had the latest drivers and bios, but would not be able to reinstall any of them as I cannot see what's going on on the screen.. same thing for the memtest
the system is not overclocked
So do I take it that the most likely issue is a graphic card failure? (I'm not going to sue anyone if that's not right in the end, only from your experience)
there was also some issue about the PSU not being able to provide enough power... V_R do you have more power than i do??

 

[V_R]

Whats your PSU mate, i see 500w but is it a decent one or generic rubbish? Mines the Corsair HX620w.

From what you have said i'd say its BFG RMA time. But BFG's RMA service is good.

 

[green]

It's an antec earthwatts 500w

 

[V_R]

Ah yes, one of the energy efficient ones. Tbh that should be fine for the 320mb. My money is on a bad GFX card, how old is it?

 

[Alf]

Eh? it sounds like overheating to me, especially if it happens during a game

 

[Alf]

you can try what they say.... or buy a new aftermarket heatsink

 

[green]

Well the card is about two weeks old now!
Re overheating, indeed the first time it happened was during a game.. but I just rebooted and after that it went fine again for a while
it happened again one morning as I started the pc and now it is everytime I boot it. So if it overheated, seems it has killed the card?
grr seems I'm going toward an RMA.. painfull prospect
thanks for the help anyway

 

[V_R]

If it was overheating it would throttle the speeds back and just slow down rather than die like that.

 

[Alf]

just cause it overheated once, dont mean its dead just yet.
i had problems with overheating with numerous cards, some times it was terrifiying. Playing a game - then out of no where spikes of multicolored hues would shoot out of peoples faces or textures would strech to the heavens... scary...

all you got to do is add a few more case fans (or bigger) and/or get a decent quality aftermarket heatsink. I have had great success with the Artic Cooling S1 on my 7900GT, and its cheap too at $20. make sure your fan hasnt fail, and clean it out with a can of compressed air

 

[green]

got my rma back from bfg, pc is now working fine (superbe I have to say). thanks for the help guys .. and bfg service is excellent: it took 3 days between sending my card and recieving the new one (which seems to be a used one .. but got the 640mb model instead of the 320, so me happy)

you're by far the most helpful forum outthere, thanks V_R

 

[V_R]

Glad you've got it sorted Green, and thanks for the feedback, its good to hear.

Good to see BFG's RMA service lives up to it s good name too.

 

[Anon_F]

Who did you buy from?