Windows 7: Can a bad graphics card cause programs to crash?

Can a bad graphics card cause, say, a video game to crash (with audio glitches) followed by numerous graphical glitches? This happened to me last night when playing StarCraft II. It was followed by video glitches and multiple programs crashing. I am running Prime 95 right now to do a stress test on my system to rule out my CPU, ram, and mobo.



Attached is a screenshot of the glitches I was getting. If a glitch was rendered in a window, it would stay with the window if I dragged it around, etc.

Yes it can. But a driver error can cause it also.

Shut off the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart. Do the problems go away, or persist?

Check and clean video card heat sink , dust is the number 1 cause of computer related issues

I hit the reset button on my computer after this happened, and the problems went away completely. However, for the entire duration the computer was on FOLLOWING the game crash, the glitches persisted.

Your image is showing signs of artifacting which can be caused by the video card being overclocked, overheating, or failing. This is a hardware issues that no driver will help. Please check that the above conditions aren’t present. Also check that the fan on the video card is working.

Check the fan for excess dust, etc. and make sure the fan doesn't wobble on the shaft (worn bearings). If the card is noisy that’s a sign that the fan is probably failing, which could lead to overheating, which could lead to artifacts.

And if you feel comfortable, disassemble the card and check the thermo paste on the GPU.

Good luck.

Yes it seems like the card is the culprit, but keep in mind these errors went away with a simple restart. Does that still mean it could be the card?

Yeah, since the card had a chance to cool off. Keep an eye on it.

I ran Prime95 for 15hrs 30min with 0 errors. Safe to say it's not the mobo/cpu/ram? Also ran memtest86 the night before with 0 errors. I found out I hadn't installed my mobo drivers yet so I took care of that.

I want to check my voltages coming from my PSU, but I can only access info for a couple of them (excluding 12v) so I can't really test the PSU as of now to see what voltages its outputting

BY ANY CHANCE have you followed the advice to clean out the video cards heat sink and or make sure it has a working fan to keep it cool ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

Yeah I blew out the dust, and it happened again to me last night. StarCraft II crashed, followed by Firefox. Anything that had to do with video would play with artifacts/gitches until I restarted my computer.

I had been loading the game from my "Windows.old" folder, as I upgraded to 64bit windows. Could this cause these graphics-related crashes? I deleted it from the Windows.old folder and reinstalled it.