Graphics Card Dying?

FrostyAlphaWolf

Lately my graphics have been crapping out pretty bad. It used to just freeze my screen with the computer still running normally (i.e., I was still able to talk on Skype), but now it will randomly start creating artifacts all over the screen. Here's an example of it happening while I'm playing League of Legends:

It's basically this moving all around the screen. I turned down the settings to the lowest they can go and had the same problem. I don't think it's a heat problem since I have several fans going inside the case, and they're all working just the same as they were back when the card wasn't acting crazy, but I could be wrong. And it's happened while I was playing other games, once even while just playing a flash game, so it's not just LoL. The drivers are up to date as of today, and I'm using a brand new 950w power supply. Outside of that, I can't think of anything else that's going wrong with it other than it's just dying. The card I have is an NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT, and I can list my other specs if I need to. So, any ideas would be lovely.

Rikushix

So these artifacts only show up when using certain programs? Like playing games for example, or anything else that requires active GPU usage? How long have you had it, anyway?

FrostyAlphaWolf

I bought it a little over a year and a half ago when I was building this computer. I had to replace the power supply a couple months ago, so it's possible that I'm getting to the end of its life.

So far it seems to only do this when I have several programs running at once. Typically that's Firefox, iTunes and a game, although it has done it once when I just had iTunes and Firefox going with a flash game in the browser.

Bliss 101

For what it's worth, my flatmate's computer showed this exact same type of screen artifact, and a couple of days later his graphics card was dead.

Apparently the same or similar artifacts can be caused by heat (make sure you vacuum out any dust from the GPU heat sink, and check that the GPU fan is actually working), a problem with the PSU output (is everything plugged in correctly and all wires intact?), or an improperly seated graphics card. I suggest you take the card out, vacuum the fan/heat sink, vacuum the pci-e slot so there's no dust etc between the contacts, and see if the situation improves.

spool32

Stick a fork in that graphics card, because it's done!

Err, don't take that advice too literally...

a5ehren

Yeah your card is toast. What's your budget for a replacement?

Also, a 950W PSU is way overkill unless you're running SLI or Crossfire. Just a note to anyone who might find this thread later :P

FrostyAlphaWolf

That's the news I was afraid of. My budget for a new card right now is all of $0, but when I get home later I'll clean it out really well and pray that it can last to the next paycheck.

And the 950w is really more for the numerous drives I have hooked up, plus giving a little room for expansion in the future :P. Thanks everyone for the responses.

Skeezicks

Bliss 101 wrote: »

For what it's worth, my flatmate's computer showed this exact same type of screen artifact, and a couple of days later his graphics card was dead.

Apparently the same or similar artifacts can be caused by heat (make sure you vacuum out any dust from the GPU heat sink, and check that the GPU fan is actually working), a problem with the PSU output (is everything plugged in correctly and all wires intact?), or an improperly seated graphics card. I suggest you take the card out, vacuum the fan/heat sink, vacuum the pci-e slot so there's no dust etc between the contacts, and see if the situation improves.

Using a vacuum inside your computer or on computer parts is a terrible idea as it generates a lot of static electricity that can damage components. Blow out the dust with compressed air instead.

Rikushix

Skeezicks wrote: »

Bliss 101 wrote: »

For what it's worth, my flatmate's computer showed this exact same type of screen artifact, and a couple of days later his graphics card was dead.

Apparently the same or similar artifacts can be caused by heat (make sure you vacuum out any dust from the GPU heat sink, and check that the GPU fan is actually working), a problem with the PSU output (is everything plugged in correctly and all wires intact?), or an improperly seated graphics card. I suggest you take the card out, vacuum the fan/heat sink, vacuum the pci-e slot so there's no dust etc between the contacts, and see if the situation improves.

Using a vacuum inside your computer or on computer parts is a terrible idea as it generates a lot of static electricity that can damage components. Blow out the dust with compressed air instead.

I didn't know about vacuums generating static, but it's definitely better to use compressed air for another reason: if something comes off your machine that's not supposed to, it's gonna get sucked up.

Trust me. I learned the hard way. A couple of years ago I took every key off my laptop keyboard and used a household vacuum to suck up all the dust and stuff. The little silicone button that connected the space bar and its contact point wasn't attached very well, and...you get the picture.

I ended up sorting through a pound of hair, crumbs and other assorted vacuum debris to find a button the size of half a Tic Tac.

The moral of this story is that it's better to blow than suck.

Scosglen

At this point, with artifacting that severe and the symtoms you're describing, the card is definitely on its death bed. It's only going to get worse until it just stops working at all.

Have you ever cleaned the heat sinks on this thing? You can have great airflow in your case, but if you don't do basic maintenance, with certain designs, the heatsinks can get totally clogged up not do their job properly. It's also a good idea to regularly test what your GPU's temperatures are running under load (in a game or similar application) to make sure they're within tolerances.

FrostyAlphaWolf

I gave my whole computer a thorough cleaning a couple months ago when I had to document how to assemble a PC for a class project, but it had built up a decent layer of dust when I checked it last night before making the op. I cleaned that out (fans and filters, heatsink, even the expansion slot) today and it seemed to work better. I only ran it for about an hour though, so I don't know if that's fixed the problem yet. Still, for that one hour it ran without a hitch.

fightinfilipino

FrostyAlphaWolf wrote: »

I gave my whole computer a thorough cleaning a couple months ago when I had to document how to assemble a PC for a class project, but it had built up a decent layer of dust when I checked it last night before making the op. I cleaned that out (fans and filters, heatsink, even the expansion slot) today and it seemed to work better. I only ran it for about an hour though, so I don't know if that's fixed the problem yet. Still, for that one hour it ran without a hitch.

you may want to consider reseating the video card (and other expansion cards/ram sticks) as well. occasionally a loosely-seated vid card can cause artifacting.

(it's more likely your card is on the way out tho )

m3nace

If your card is defo on the way out and you see no other option then my 2 geforce8800gtx have also had similar artifacts and I was able to fix it using this method but DO NOT try this unless you're absolutely sure there's no other way out of this crap. If your case is the same as mine it's because of some tiny fractures in solder joints. When the gcard goes into the oven the heat will cause the solder joints to melt back together.

But I AM NOT SURE whether these problems can also occur on 9600gt cards, so far I've only heard about using this solution on 8800gtx's!

if you do decide to go this way then follow the guy's 'recipe' precisely - EXCEPT for the part where he takes it out of the oven right away instead wait a few minutes to make sure the solder has dried