Video Card likely dying...anything else I can try?

Salamando3000

Salamando3000

CAGiversary!
Feedback
14 (100%)
As the topic said, it appears as if my Video Card has suffered an injury from overheating. Here's what happened...

This afternoon I loaded some World of Warcraft up. As soon as the intro screen appeared, the computer crashed. Screen went completely black. CTRL+ALT+DEL failed to do anything. Had to force a shutdown of the computer. After giving it about 15 minutes to cool off, I turn it back on.

Starting then, and ever since, the bootscreen has been plagued with yellow dots. Not random yellow dots - there was definitely a method to their madness. Once it gets to actually loading Windows, the screen goes black, and reboots itself. This happens whether I boot into Win7 or WinXP.

I was able to boot into Win7 Safe mode, however the screen was messed up beyond normal safe-mode weirdness. Tried reloading the last restore point, but it helped nothing.

After this I unplugged the machine, opened the side, dusted thoroughly, disconnected the video card from everything, and let the entire machine cool down for three hours. Upon reconnecting everything back up, the problem was the same as it was before.

As I said before, it definitely seems like a problem with the video card. I'd try seeing if the problem exists with a different video card, but I have no other cards to test in my machine. Anyone have any advice?
 
were you over clocking your video card? even though its already toast, it doesnt even cost that much for another video card to run WoW. What video card were you using? Does your motherboard have a VGA connector? did you try connecting the monitor to it if you have it?
 
Video Card was a EVGA GEForce 8800 GT 512MB. No overclocking...used factory settings. It's treated me well for the past three years, and if I needed to replace it, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Motherboard doesn't have onboard video.

Oh, and it wouldn't just be for WoW, but just about every game that comes out. Last night I was running the Dragon's Age 2 demo on it, which if there was real damage done, I imagine it was done then.
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']The -AR parts from EVGA (if that's the card you have, the -TR versions only have a 1 year, IIRC) have a lifetime warranty... you should be able to RMA it to them.[/QUOTE]

According to http://www.evga.com/support/warranty/, the lifetime thing only applies if you registered the video card within 30 days of purchase, which I certainly did not do. Sucks, but now I know.
 
If it was the OS though, would that affect the very initial boot screens as well? I mean, moment I turn on my machine, the initial BIOS startup screens have tons of yellow dots. Also, the machine is currently set to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP. The problem appeared in Win 7, and in Win XP, which I haven't booted into in over a year, the problem existed as well.
 
Bake my Video Card? That's the kind of last-ditch crazy thinking I was looking for. Though it seems likely I'll end up just getting a new one. Not like I couldn't use the upgrade.

At the very least, I learned something today; Register your damn parts.
 
register?! aw poopy, i didnt register my video card when i bought mine in. What if you still have the recipe to prove your purchase of the item?

PS. you should bake your card for experiments since its already dead. I'm sorry about what happened to your video card. you should definatly invest on some cooling after market parts on the next video card you purchase. what was the main cause to your card to over heat?
 
Well If you want a good replacement, get yourself a GeForce GTX 560 Ti and you should be all set for the foreseeable future.

If you really want to cheap out though, a GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be more than sufficient for current games up to 1200p.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='gamerpro4000']register?! aw poopy, i didnt register my video card when i bought mine in. What if you still have the recipe to prove your purchase of the item?

PS. you should bake your card for experiments since its already dead. I'm sorry about what happened to your video card. you should definatly invest on some cooling after market parts on the next video card you purchase. what was the main cause to your card to over heat?[/QUOTE]

I just want to point out the type of "receipts" as "recipe"...someone really has baking on the mind.

Really wish I knew what caused my vid card to go kaputs, all I can make is an educated guess. The card was dusty, no doubt about it. It's possible the dust was able to insulate the GPU and help it retain heat, or block off some of the ventilation, or helped render the fan less efficient, or some combination of the three. It caused the vid card to get hotter than it should which caused the damage.

[quote name='The Omniscient Lemon']Well If you want a good replacement, get yourself a GeForce GTX 560 Ti and you should be all set for the foreseeable future.[/QUOTE]

That's actually the video card I was looking at picking up. Take it you have it and it's been running good for you?
 
[quote name='Salamando3000']That's actually the video card I was looking at picking up. Take it you have it and it's been running good for you?[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah, I love it. It's cool and quiet. Pretty damn powerful too. I tested it in Crysis yesterday, 30 fps with all the settings maxed out.
For $250 that's unheard of. Two of them in SLI beat out a $500 GTX 580, so the upgrade path is pretty clear should I choose to do so.

Although I probably won't need to for a few years, and by then they'll have a single card twice as powerful for that price.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh yeah, I love it. It's cool and quiet. Pretty damn powerful too. I tested it in Crysis yesterday, 30 fps with all the settings maxed out.
For $250 that's unheard of. Two of them in SLI beat out a $500 GTX 580, so the upgrade path is pretty clear should I choose to do so.

Although I probably won't need to for a few years, and by then they'll have a single card twice as powerful for that price.
 
[quote name='Salamando3000']That's actually the video card I was looking at picking up. Take it you have it and it's been running good for you?[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah, I love it. It's cool and quiet. Pretty damn powerful too. I tested it in Crysis yesterday, 30 fps with all the settings maxed out.
For $250 that's unheard of. Two of them in SLI beat out a $500 GTX 580, so the upgrade path is pretty clear should I choose to do so.

Although I probably won't need to for a few years, and by then they'll have a single card twice as powerful for that price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top