Graphic or Motherbord fail

[Selz]

Hey guys


I have a problem with either my 8800GTX graphic card or my motherbord. I used to be able to turn on my pc without any issues then it could occour suddently which would lead to a crash and the computer restarted by itself but somestimes it could take weeks before it happend

But today I turned on my PC and it crashed after about 30mins
There was alitle yellow triangle that said, GPU 191.80 (or something like that) has stopped working
Then my pc crashes and it restarted as usual but now its completely fucked up even while its booting theres blue stribes across the screen, plus very weird symbols that ive never seen before.

So I imidiatly formated my pc but it didnt really help, I had the graphic driver on an extern disk so I installed it, but even when it is installed it can´t find the drivers, when I check the divice manager its says n/a to everything it doesnt know how much memery it got and it cant see the drivers.. but yet it can see its a Geforce 8800GTX

The graphic "blue stribes" makes me believe its the graphic card that has played its last wow days
But the weird symbols in the bios/booting also makes me belive its the mothercard, and when it can see its a Geforce 8800GTX there must be some kinda connection to it =)

What do you guys think?
And if it happens you know its the graphiccard then please give me a hint to a new card but a very cheap one like 100$ because I do belive I can get a card equal to the 8800GTX for that money today

Thx for you´re help.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

The last time I saw wierd stripes or wacky artifacts like you describe was due to a memory chip going bad on the video card. Overheating can do that to a point but usually it doesn't do it from a standing boot as it takes a little while for the GPU to heat up to those temps.

Do you have a 2nd PC you can test your video card in? Or a 2nd video card you can try in your PC? That's really the only way to isolate the failure for sure.

[Selz]

Define "crash".

I would guess overheated GPU - but its impossible to say with such vague information.

When the error comes my screens start flimmering and then turn off, loseing the picture, and then a blue screen comes counting up and then it restarts

[Selz]

The last time I saw wierd stripes or wacky artifacts like you describe was due to a memory chip going bad on the video card. Overheating can do that to a point but usually it doesn't do it from a standing boot as it takes a little while for the GPU to heat up to those temps.

Do you have a 2nd PC you can test your video card in? Or a 2nd video card you can try in your PC? That's really the only way to isolate the failure for sure.

Sadly I dont have a 2nd pc that support PCI card so I cant test it, and the pc was born with this card so I dont have a 2nd either.

the "wacky artifacts" comes as soon as i boot up so does the blue stribes

[Selz]

I was wonderring if I could take out the graphic card and then turn on my pc to see if its a motherbord failure ?
in that case the stribes would still be there, and the wired text/symbols
Can I do that?

[Naysayer]

boot it with the onboard video.

[Naysayer]

I was wonderring if I could take out the graphic card and then turn on my pc to see if its a motherbord failure ?
in that case the stribes would still be there, and the wired text/symbols
Can I do that?

yes, just take out the card.

[Drommon]

I was wonderring if I could take out the graphic card and then turn on my pc to see if its a motherbord failure ?
in that case the stribes would still be there, and the wired text/symbols
Can I do that?

If your mobo has a vga/dvi port built onto it (meaning native graphics on mobo) then yes. Since you reformatted you could try to clear the cmos and drain the caps. Unplug the computer, unplug the power supply from mobo and remove the cmos battery on the mobo. Press and hold the cmos reset button until the caps drain. This takes about 2 min. Only do this if you have a cmos reset button. This procedure will reset the mobo. Put the battery back in, connect power supply and start it up with the GPU card in. Sometimes high heat can cause strange artifacts to show up on screen. I have found that a "system reset" generally clears things up. If you machine does come back to life, I strongly suggest you monitor temps of critical components and stop OCing if you are. If your machine doesn't come back to life, IMO, it is likely to be overheated (in order) gpu memory, GPU, mobo.

Or go to Fry's get a cheapo returnable gpu card, put it in, start it up. If all is fine, then its the gpu card. If not... then most likely mobo. Find the root cause, then return the gpu card (the one you bought for testing).

Drommon

[Powerwar]

Happened to me with the same video card model. Changed video card and now everything is back to normal.
I guess that the 8800 model just burns after working hardcore mode for long periods. Same thing happened to a friend of mine too.

Btw, my stribes were vertical green bars. After the card burned completely even the BIOS POST was getting the green bars. The only way to fix it was changing graphics card.

[Bovidae]

I have heard these stories since the 8800's came out, many of them due to chip failure caused by overheating. If this is your case, then it's probably too late, but for anyone else listening, I'll pass on some advice I have heeded.

You will notice that the card's stock cooling fan is set to a low speed (~30%) to keep the noise down. Well if fan noise is not an issue, you can crank that up to 80-90-100%, keeping your GPU much cooler, and (theoretically) alive, a lot longer.

Aside from the noise issue, there is a probability that your GPU fan will die sooner when run at 100% (when compared to 30%). That said, my 8800gtx in nearly three years old, the fan sounds like a vacuum cleaner encased in a foam box, but it still works...