Wonderfully weird GFX issue

[Energizer Bunny]

Hi All

Having some incredibly odd graphical quirks going on with my system at the moment which I wondered if anybody might be able to shed any light on.

Basically I was playing a game the other day when suddenly my PC bluescreens on me and restarts. I figure no big deal and try again on restart, with the same result. Unfortunately I didnt catch the bluescreen code but I did notice it saying something about trying to restart my graphics card driver. I rolled back the driver to an earlier version and tried again with a different game and got the same result. However, this time on restart something has gone seriously wrong with the PC.

Basically while visual problems have previously been confined to windows I am now getting all sorts of visual weirdness in my pre windows boot sequence (colors all over the place, characters missing etc). When I actually get into windows, while its just about usable I have blue lines streaking vertically down my screen. I can see through them to type this, but something has clearly given up the ghost.

In addition, windows will now only allow me to select resolutions up to 1280x1024 and no games will boot. Its sort of like its in safe mode, but it isnt. Because I can't get into any games I now can't get the thing to bluescreen any more. All the messed up visuals remain but I can't get the bluscreen back to tell you what the code is.

So anyway, given the above information I'm thinking this is a hardware rather than a software issue sadly. My immediate suspects are the graphics card or PSU, but I suppose the mobo or ram could also be at fault. I've run the Windows memory test on the ram with no issues found. I've also checked the gfx card fans and temps and all appears normal so it doesn't seem like an overheat. Unfortunately I am not in the position of having alternative components I can swap out to test things. I therefore need to establish what the issue is with as high a degree of certainty as possible as I'm going to have to just buy a new part and it would obviously suck to buy a new power supply or gfx card only to switch the damn thing on and find the issue persisting.

Any thoughts or assistance much appreciated.

My rig (all about 3 years old)
Windows 7
Core 2 Quad 6600
Gigabyte GA P35 DSR3 Motherboard
8gb ram
8800 GTX Graphics card
Corsair 620w PSU

 

[nitromullet]

8800 GTX Graphics card

First thing I would check is the card to see if it was covered with dust. If so, hit it with some air duster to see if that fixes the issue.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

I'm going to guess super duper driver corruption or a blown capacitor. You'll have to visually inspect the capacitors to see if the latter is the case. You should see goo leaking out the top if one popped.

 

[Energizer Bunny]

I've tried the dust option with no success.

Regarding the driver corruption option, you could be right but wouldn't that only kick in once windows loaded? I'm getting visual madness from the first screen onward. Even if I jump straight into bios the text is all over the place.

Regarding the blown capacitor, do you mean on the GFX card or the mobo?

 

[NoQuarter]

Must be a bad graphics card.. probably bumpgate or bad VRAM. If you can RMA it still you should do that, otherwise try throwing it in the oven and baking it for a few minutes.

 

[Arkadrel]

Bakeing in oven thingy is only for the GPU, it wont help if a capasitor has blown.

 

[tweakboy]

RMA it and use a temporary VC. I mean if youv'e tried fan on 100 percent and it's doing this then its defective card unfortunetly.. What was the card vendor again,, you should have life time warranty,, send her in RMA... thx gl and gb

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Thanks gents. Looks like a replacement is needed.

I'm thinking GTX 460 or 470. Probably 470 given the price has come down so much. There's one I cant get for £180 including Mafia 2 which seems like a good bet.

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Thanks gents. Looks like a replacement is needed.

I'm thinking GTX 460 or 470. Probably 470 given the price has come down so much. There's one I cant get for £180 including Mafia 2 which seems like a good bet.

EDIT: Er... sorry double post. Not quite sure what happened there.

 

[Ben90]

From the looks of it, its either bumpgate or VRAM. If you don't have a warranty, you might as well try to bake the card. There are failure and success stories on this forum regarding baking. I for one have successfully baked a 8800GT back to life and had a 8800GTS 320 fail.

If you want to do something exciting and nerdy with your hardware and don't mind the smell of burnt video card in the kitchen for an hour:
Remove GPU cooler
Preheat oven to 385*F
Place card on some foil or something to keep the direct radiation heat off of it.
Pull out 10 minutes later and reassemble with your fingers crossed.