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i'm not 100% it's dieing, it's an old 8800GTX that i've had for some time. now the problem just started today, the card isnt overheating, never been overclocked and is kept very cool. so the problem is that first the computer just froze, so i restarted, but then it hung on the windows loading screen/splash (not the loading bar, just befor you sign in) and had a pink area, i just thought it might be the graphics drivers currupted. so i started in safe mode, uninstalled all the graphics drivers and software, redownloaded them and then installed, only problem is that it starts, but hangs. it will occasionally start perfectly fine, and then a few minutes later the whole screen will start to flash and then it crash's. so i've also done a spyware and virus scan, nothing found. so then reinstalled and it was fine, then i installed the 'performance' controls because i usually turn down the clock speed when it's not needed. so restarted and now it doesnt work again. any suggestions? it's only been showing signs of GPU damage when it gets to windows loading. bios and stuff there is no indication. safe mode there is no indication either, works perfectly well in safe mode. So, i'm thinking theres no hope so: it's a toss up between XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB Core Clock: 850MHz OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB Core Clock: 800MHz Asus ATI Radeon HD 6870 OC 1024MB Core Clock: 913MHz there all around the same price, and it's going to be mainly for gaming. decided to avoid the Nvidia cards, they seem to be way too pricey. or anyone know any better choices for around the same price (£250 and below)? Might be able to stretch to a HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 |
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It probably is the video card after all. The symptoms you posted pulls the problem toward the card. When my card overheated and resulting the PC to crash while playing a game it still showed the same picture of the game when rebooting. Even after rebooting several times it was still there and only unplugging the computer, made it go away. If you've got a another card lying around I'd suggest to try if that works. If not, then probably it's not the card itself. The worst scenario would be that your PCI-E slot (hopefully not AGP) is damaged. Good luck! |
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I would check your PSU just to be on the safe side. If it's suddenly not providing enough juice to your video card, that might explain the artifacts you are seeing. I had a similar issue with freezes, and artifacts on my brand new Radeon when I built my system. It didn't start right off the bat, but probably about 3 months into ownership, things got....crashy and glitchy, for lack of a better description. I had reused an old 450 watt PSU, which wasn't quite up to the job any longer. I put in a brand new 600w a week ago, and haven't had a crash or an artifact since. Judging from your description, I'd be eyeing the videocard as the culprit as well, but just sharing my experience - a new PSU could save you a few dollars, compared to a videocard replacement. |
well turned out to be the graphics card, it just completly died yesterday, so i ordered a 6970 and it came today, just tinkering around with it. dans quite loud on full! hopefully it wont have to get that high in speed during usage.