Global Conflict

Is my card dying? I was playing BF3 on low and suddenly my PC froze and I got artefacts:







It also freezes in 3D mark vantage and BC2. MSi afterburner reports idle temps on 45, not sure about load as it crashes before I can't see it.

I have put additional heatsinks on mosfets to no avail. 2 large fans underneath the card and aftermarket Thermalright cooler, new layer of paste applied 2 weeks ago.

720p movies work fine.

Have tried updating to newest drivers.

That looks like a hardware failure. Could be driver issues, but the first thing I would try is replacing the card with a spare (if you have one).

Ouch, I'd say so .Sup.

As Styphon suggested, the best way to test graphics card failures is to borrow one from someone else and try it in your system.

I have a spare 7600GT that I can try with. Will do so tomorrow. I was also looking at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHUrcYZ01tw
I know Thomy did it it and it worked for him so I might give this a try.

Whoa I can't believe that works

You gotta let me know if that baking trick works. I've done at least 30 Graphic Card swaps on my or customer's machines and would be amazed to find out I could have saved even some of those "bricked" cards

Usually see those graphic issues when the GPU or GPU memory was overclocked too far. Basically overheating. Have also seen it from bad capacitors not supply clean power to the parts on the card. Or even if the fan stops or airflow of the card is blocked and cant cool properly.

Baking can address solder joints that have cracked. Poor man's reflow. I wouldnt do it if it still has a warranty. One slight bump while solder is liquid means the parts move and create shorts all over.

Sometimes the factory uses crappy thermal compound under the heatsinks, other times they dont get enough. Some people clean it and apply their own.

I had similar issues with my 8800GTX, even in windows. Tried everything I could, eventually warrantied it through eVGA and received a GTX260 Core 216 as a relacement. Installed the new card, EXACT same issue. Ended up wiping the OS and reinstalling - problem solved. Apparently the drivers were completely corrupted. I got a free upgrade from it, though.

In my case, the issue were showing up even in windows, as soon as I booted. If your artifacting isn't showing up until it's under heavy load, though, it's probably a card failing.

eVGA is a contender the next time I look at video cards. Thats a good ending.

hmmm. you get any paste on the pins of any of the chips? Any of the heatsinks not making full contact?

Try different vid card and try a different PSU if possible.

Ash2Dust wrote:eVGA is a contender the next time I look at video cards. Thats a good ending.

Just be sure you register the card with them when you buy it. I did not, and couldn't find a receipt, so I got a one-shot replacement only. Unless something had changed, though, they offer lifetime replacement on all of their cards, no matter the age. If they don't have any, you get something comparable from the current line. The 260/216 I got was nowhere near bottom of the barrel at the time, but it also wasn't the fastest thing they had. I wasn't complaining.

Ash2Dust wrote:Baking can address solder joints that have cracked. Poor man's reflow. I wouldnt do it if it still has a warranty. One slight bump while solder is liquid means the parts move and create shorts all over.

i totally agree with ash.

if the temperature is too low nothing could happen. if it's too high parts could disconnect the joints or fall off the card.

Success. I baked it today since I had a day off. I completed a 3D mark vantage Jane Nash GPU test and finished a quick round of BF3. It was deathmatch and I was really hungry (macaroni are probably cold by now) but was too excited not to play right away.

185 degrees Celsius for 9 minutes. I left ram sinks on and GPU was looking upwards.

Nice one sup, Don't think i would have the bottle to put my gfx card in the cooker. (Or any pc component tbh)

Seems we have to switch names, .sup!