Is my graphics card failing?

Antithesis

Hey- I have a GTX 670 that connects to my monitor with HDMI. I'm starting to see green (and sometimes red/yellow) pixels popping up on screen. They stay up very briefly, but appear frequently. Usually it's at random, but sometimes they cluster along the borders of windows. It's like static, but spread really thin.

Sometimes output to the monitor briefly stops (now it's starting to cut out every half-hour to ten minutes), often when I move or there's a physical disturbance. The green pixels go away when I wiggle the HDMI cable. (The screen loses input, goes black, and then comes back again, usually without any errors.) I've think that I've isolated this to the HDMI port on the graphics card (the monitor's end isn't disturbed by wiggling, and I'm pretty sure that HDMI, being digital, doesn't really do static) - can those fail? Is that a thing that happens?

schuss

Antithesis wrote: »

Hey- I have a GTX 670 that connects to my monitor with HDMI. I'm starting to see green (and sometimes red/yellow) pixels popping up on screen. They stay up very briefly, but appear frequently. Usually it's at random, but sometimes they cluster along the borders of windows. It's like static, but spread really thin.

Sometimes output to the monitor briefly stops (now it's starting to cut out every half-hour to ten minutes), often when I move or there's a physical disturbance. The green pixels go away when I wiggle the HDMI cable. (The screen loses input, goes black, and then comes back again, usually without any errors.) I've think that I've isolated this to the HDMI port on the graphics card (the monitor's end isn't disturbed by wiggling, and I'm pretty sure that HDMI, being digital, doesn't really do static) - can those fail? Is that a thing that happens?

Yes, they can fail. Try removing it, cleaning it and reseating it first. It may just be super-dusty or slightly loose.

Hahnsoo1

Both Monitors and HDMI cables can also fail, so keep that in mind when testing your hardware. Replace the HDMI cable (they go for less than a buck, nowadays), and see if you can borrow another HDMI device to check if it is really your graphics card. Cleaning your Graphics Card is still a good idea, too (canned air does wonders), and you should definitely check if your graphics card is failing, but don't overlook the other parts of the chain.

Bendit

First step is to blow all the dust out of the video card's heat sink. "Artifacts" on the screen often happen if the GPU overheats. I blow all my heatsinks with compressed air every 4-6 months (or more). Even in my servers. You should see what comes out of there...

Great Scott

This sounds like either overheating or video card RAM going bad to me. Do you see any artifacts on a non-HDMI connection? I'll second getting another HDMI cable; they are really inexpensive and it's possible there's something there. I doubt it though; it's a digital connection, which usually means all-or-nothing.

Hevach

Really doubt the HDMI, but, yeah, the dollar store cables are just as good as the $85 gas insulated monstrosities, so it's a cheap test.

I'd suggest overheating first. Cleaning it up before things get worse (it can eventually kill the card entirely) is a good idea. Bad video memory will usually manifest as a some repeating pattern of pixels, sometimes only on certain background colors (which would be why you sometimes see it clustering around window borders), so that'd be my bet.

When you wiggle the HDMI cable, can you tell if the port itself is wiggling? Sometimes if the plug gets bumped it can break the port loose from its solder points. The symptoms don't sound like that, but if it goes away by fiddling with the port it's worth mentioning. If there's another output you can use, try that and see if the problem persists.

Doesn't sound like any monitor failure I've heard of, and temporary remedy at the computer end but not the monitor end sounds like this isn't it, but I've seen LED monitors do some weird ass things, so it's always worth plugging it into something else and seeing if it does the same - at the very least if you get into a chain of replacements you can eliminate one step.

Antithesis

Thanks for the advice! I'm borrowing a friend's cable while waiting for a monoprice one to arrive, going through everything else too.

Riboflavin

I'll second the possible heat issue. I had one start with random pixels being oddly colored then moved to long thin lines across the screen. Turns out the fan on my card had died without me noticing.