Solved BSOD; possible GPU failure; screen artifacts

[vor12]

My desktop has been giving me troubles regarding the display recently. A garbled BSOD would appear and cause a crash. Trying to restart in normal mode sometimes causes a boot loop as other artifacts appear on the BIOS screen (green vertical bars). I can get into safe mode and the computer appears stable, but the artifacts are still present. On some occasions I can get into normal boot with no artifacts, but it doesn't last more than a few hours before crashing again.

I think this is a hardware rather than software failure, i.e. my GPU is dead or dying. Can anyone confirm before I start messing around with drivers?

My specs and .zip of dump files are below - I appreciate any help.

HP Pavilion HPE h8-1210t CTO Desktop PC
Windows 7 64bit
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1 GB GDDR5
Intel Core i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10 GHz
BIOS version AMI 7.13
SMBIOS version 2.6
Pegatron motherboard IPISB-CH2
460W PSU

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[wither 2]

Hi vor12- Thanks for moving your thread.

There are actually two driver problems but let's look at the graphics one.

Go to Device Manager, Display Adapters. Select your graphics card and, in the Drivers tab, disable the driver. Reboot. Do you still get the problem? If not, enable the driver and reboot to see if it clears.

 

[vor12]

Hi vor12- Thanks for moving your thread.

There are actually two driver problems but let's look at the graphics one.

Go to Device Manager, Display Adapters. Select your graphics card and, in the Drivers tab, disable the driver. Reboot. Do you still get the problem? If not, enable the driver and reboot to see if it clears.

Thank you for the reply, wither 2. I can try this, but I have a few questions:

1. After I disable the driver, do I reboot in safe mode or normal?

2. I was under the assumption that booting in safe mode already disables the default drivers for my AMD card; is that not true? I still see the artifacts in safe mode sometimes.

3. Assuming safe mode actually keeps them enabled, will I be able to boot at all if I disable the AMD drivers, since I don't have integrated graphics?

Thanks again!

 

[wither 2]

I don't want you to boot to safe mode.

You should have the same graphics you have in safe mode when you boot into Windows. Probably VGA.

If you still have problems after all that, I suggest that you install the Crimson driver from here-

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-non-gcn-16-2-1-beta

Follow the instructions in the links there for uninstalling/reinstalling.

Your graphics card is a legacy product and the driver in the link is the last one they will issue for it.

 

[wither 2]

Any luck with this?

 

[TechnoMage2016]

[Just for whatever it's worth]


In the past, even on my own PC, I've had video problems that I traced right back to the video ram.
Dirt getting in between the legs on ram chips can cause short circuits, resulting in what looks like RAM Failure.


Just recently, I was experiencing BSOD's randomly. I suspected the GPU/Video Ram as being the culprit.
I pulled the video card and cleaned the edge connector as well as the ram, as best I could. (with Denatured Alcohol)

I've not had another BSOD since performing that little bit of maintenance.

That may not be a FIX ALL to end all, but, sometimes it works for this old tech.



Along the same theme, I've saved countless sticks of RAM, that tested BAD, by just washing them with soap and water.



Good Luck!
TM

 

[wither 2]

I wonder if this got resolved and, if it did, what was the solution.

 

[vor12]

[Just for whatever it's worth]


In the past, even on my own PC, I've had video problems that I traced right back to the video ram.
Dirt getting in between the legs on ram chips can cause short circuits, resulting in what looks like RAM Failure.


Just recently, I was experiencing BSOD's randomly. I suspected the GPU/Video Ram as being the culprit.
I pulled the video card and cleaned the edge connector as well as the ram, as best I could. (with Denatured Alcohol)

I've not had another BSOD since performing that little bit of maintenance.

That may not be a FIX ALL to end all, but, sometimes it works for this old tech.



Along the same theme, I've saved countless sticks of RAM, that tested BAD, by just washing them with soap and water.



Good Luck!
TM

I wonder if this got resolved and, if it did, what was the solution.

Hello all - sorry for the delay. I actually ended up buying a used Gigabyte GPU with the same AMD Radeon version as my original, and was successful in installing it on my computer. I haven't had discernible issues since, though I've been using the computer a lot more sparingly than before. I still have my old GPU but I hadn't tested disabling drivers/cleaning while it was installed, so I still have a nagging feeling about what the root cause was. Bad for troubleshooting, I know. Maybe in the future I will swap them back and try again.

Out of curiosity, wither 2, are you able to tell what two driver problems appeared in my BSOD dump files? I wonder if either may still be present.

Thanks again!

 

[wither 2]

atikmpag.sys

HDAudBus.sys

 

[vor12]

atikmpag.sys

HDAudBus.sys

Thank you wither 2 & TechnoMage2016 - I'm marking this thread closed for now since I won't be tinkering further at the moment, but I'll keep this information in mind for the future.