Dying graphics card ?

[Kevin Farnell]

Fired up my PC today and on starting Internet Explorer, I see artefacts all over the screen which then went black. A few seconds later it came back on with a message that the NVIDIA driver had re-started and something about a kernel. This happened repeatedly, so I carried out a full uninstall (including registry) of the drivers and installed the latest. I still had the same problem.
I then removed the graphics car (GTX 580 1,5Gb), cleaned out what dust I could and re-installed it. Things were now even worse the PC starting in basic VGA mode.
I've now installed an old NVIDIA 9600 GSO, so I can at least get a decent screen resolution though I won't be able to flight sim (P3D).
I suppose I'll have to fork out for a new one. I hear the GTX 970 4Gb is pretty good.

Kevin

[Airspeed]

Hi Kevin,
Mrs Airspeed and I both had a huge lot of Nvidia errors a few months back.
Tried all sorts of things, driver checks, removing, checking cables, switching screens, cleaning as you did, eventually things went back to normal, and we're running the original cards without recent trouble.
It could be a heat related thing, maybe, and the cooler weather has remedied the problem. Maybe you're getting Summertime Blues?
That business about basic VGA, yes, we had that too, had to go into Control Panel and reset the display.
On the other hand, maybe your card is kaput.

[Kevin Farnell]

Thanks, Mike for your thoughts.

Perhaps it's just one of those things. It worked perfectly one day. Faulty the next.
By way of weather, it was a lot cooler yesterday than it has been for some time, so I think that's ruled out.
I have been running it overclocked for around 5 years and know that this takes its toll on components.
Lately, I had been toying with the idea of an upgrade to my computer - new graphics card, a couple of SSD's and some more RAM to take it up from 6Gb. But then, I'm thinking why spend that amount on a 5 year old PC? It's almost half the cost of a new build.
Time to do some thinking

Cheers

Kevin

[Rick Piper]

Hi guys

I had similar problems but mine was a dodgy power supply causing mine.

Rick

[Dev One]

Ditto with the power supply, probably the smoothing capacitor has dried out, or one of the voltage rails underperforming, heat making it worse.
Had similar problem last year.
HTH
Keith

[Airspeed]

Er-hum....Keith... ..I've just been looking up the various meanings of "HTH," and while some are freindly versions, which I am positive yours is, I also found this:
Urban Dictionary: HTH
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=HTH
An acronym standing for "hope this helps", used sarcastically after answering a dumb question or pointing out an obvious oversight to a person of inferior mental ...
‎HTH - ‎Norwegian - ‎English - ‎Urban Dictionary: HTH

Yes, I know, I should just get on with it, but I don't want you to innocently get into strife, my friend.
[An Aussie comic was doing a supposed humourous interview with Cassius Clay decades back and slipped in: "big boy, isn't he?" as CC was massively towering over him.
Nearly got himself flattened. American Africans / African Americans do NOT appreciate the designation "boy"!]

EDIT: Maybe you're abbreviating Highway To Hell, and I'm way off course??

[Dev One]

Not meant sarcastically.....just trying to be helpful (in the best Kenny Everett tradition...in the best possible taste). I must admit that I had not been aware that it was meant sarcatically either.
Does that help?
Keith

[Kevin Farnell]

Rick and Keith.

Thanks for your replies. I hadn't considered the PSU, I had assumed a problem with the graphics card.
The PSU is a Corsair HX1000 (1KW), which is dual rail. Perhaps it's worth trying the other rail?

I've also been looking ay a new card along with 2 x 500Gb SSD's and increasing the RAM. However, I've found RAM difficult to get hold of for the motherboard and wonder if it's really worth throwing a few hundred quid at a 5 year old PC.
If I need a new PSU as well, that's getting on for half the price of a new PC build.

Spec is -

Intel Core i7 920 (O/C to 3.8GHz)
6.00 GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 534MHz (8-8-8-20)
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6TD DELUXE (LGA1366)
932GB SAMSUNG HD103SJ
932GB Seagate ST31000333AS
1536MB GeForce GTX 580
Creative X-Fi Audio Processor
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

Cheers

Kevin

[Airspeed]

Hi Kevin,
I see that you're overclocked.
That's something I've never done (too scared of the warnings about damaging components).
With fps usually way over 30, I've not been tempted to run the risk.
Mine is i7 960 @3.2Ghz
Nvidia GE Force GTX560
What's the experience for other members?
Are there benefits other than fps?

[Kevin Farnell]

Hi Kevin,
I see that you're overclocked.

Hi Mike

I just followed the guide in Custom PC magazine.
Overclocking is a bit of a dark art. There don't seem to be any hard and fast rules as to how one setting effects another. If it hadn't been for the guide, I'm not sure I'd have attempted it.
I also had to add a monstrous fan to the CPU and the case itself (Antec 1200) has six fans with the one in the lid being the size of a dinner plate.
I've no doubt you could find guides on the interweb on how to overclock your CPU, but unless you have plenty of cooling and are happy going into the BIOS/UEFI it's probably wiser to leave it as is.

Regards

Kevin