Freezing and Pixel issue

[mats effect]

So a few days back when I was running a game (l4d2) my pc froze up the sound went a bit weird and I started to get this strange Pixel like effect across both my screens. I had to kill the book and reboot but even in the boot sequence it was still doing it a bit and happened again after a few mins. It kept doing this until I went into safe mode and every thing was ok. I then installed the latest driver and everything has been fine since.

Anyway I was playing Starcraft 2 today and it happened again. How ever after going back into safe mode and then just shutting down its been fine again so far.

This image is the best i could find to show what it looks like, but its not quite like that:

image

I should add that not long after it happens both my screens go into standby mode. I am also unable to move the mouse, ctrl alt delete etc. My GPU is an 8800GT

Anyone know what it could be. Hope its not hardware

Thanks

 

[Lordbob75]

Hello Mats effect (nice pun)

You are running this on a laptop, correct?
I would guess that this is a heat issue.

~Lordbob

 

[mats effect]

lol

Hey.

Nope a desktop (dell dimension 9200). I keep an eye on temperature and it never gets above 78 degrees celcius. I think they are suppose to be able to run hotter than that. All that said it's yet to happen with normal use, wile it does keep going some times so far its always started when a game is running.

 

[Lordbob75]

Well, I would definitely go with a GPU issue, and that looks like artefacting, which would indicate a heat issue.

Is your card overclocked at all?

~Lordbob

 

[archie123]

fill in yer system specs

Lordbob is correct

Its either bad ram or your ram is getting too hot (Onboard GPU ram) (all this assuming its not a simple driver issue)

your monitoring the temp of your GPU core not your memory , if all else fails (troubleshooting wise) then you may need to remove repaste and reseat your gpu heatsink / fan making sure all the ram chips are contacting your heatsink properly , if its a newish GPU / system then RMA it cos its faulty

 

[mats effect]

Ok its just after doing it when i was just on the web and stuff when i turned it on and off after a few seconds all i got was a black screen with a few pixels and it would flash different colours every few seconds.

photo

Managed to get a photo though if that helps you knows know any better?

Thanks guys

EDIT: Does look like artefacting i think.

Also it is OC out of the box.

 

[archie123]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh OC out of the box eh , try clocking the memory back a little maybe 5-10 mhz see what happens

incidently your new pic is pretty much the same as the old one , its a screen with artifacts all over it

and if does seem to be the oc at fault then send it back , its not doing what it should

 

[mats effect]

Will try that, had the card since 2008 though

 

[archie123]

Will try that, had the card since 2008 though

ahh , well hopefully its just a bad oc , if not you can always reseat the cooler with some AS5

 

[Lordbob75]

I would agree, a bad overclock or something.

~Lordbob

 

[smarteyeball]

Anyone know what it could be. Hope its not hardware

Thanks

It is.

Also the 8800 series were known for thermal paste degradation over time. Maybe yours has reached that limit.

 

[mats effect]

Thanks guys. I knocked it back a bit and its run fine since then, but too early to say if that was the issue or not.

Hopefully it is, because I would not have a clue about trying to fix it up.

 

[mats effect]

Looks like its done for after the changes its still doing it today.

Can anyone tell me what to look out for when getting a new one, I see a nice XFX 9800GT but its Core Clock is lower and Memory Clock higher. What spec's matter the most as I know there is a bit of debate about this and its been a wile.


here is the one i was looking at XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card [] Graphics and Video NVIDIA 9000 Series

 

[Lordbob75]

The clock is how fast the GPU can process data, and the memory is how much it can hold (for the buffer).
A faster memory clock means it can transfer the data faster.

~Lordbob

 

[mats effect]

Thanks. Should get a new one ordered tonight then.

 

[archie123]

gpu's are a bit like cpus , eg a 2.4gig i7 will be much faster than a 2.4gig q6600 , dufferant technology (to put it simply) so a lower core clok doesnt mean lower performance.

However the 9 series was a bit of a sideways step fopr Nvidia i advised everyone against upgrading from the 8 series and waiting , it was a bit of a dog tbh , if your looking for an upgrade you wont notice much differance if any from your 8800gt ( a fantastic chip) but if its cheap enough go for it if your looking for better performance leave it alone

some (not all) 9 series owners are still running the old 180 series NVidia drivers as the newer ones just wont work properly , all sorts of issues , it was as if NVidia kinda gave up on it hopefully yours will be ok