Nvidia Card Stops and Screen Freezes

[Veronica54]

I have begun to experience an issue with a Nividia GeForce 7300 Video graphics card. It happens when I am playing solitare or writing an email, which is the screen freezes and I have to turn off the computer to regain the monitor function or the computer. The message that I captured in relationship to the issue is WD-20110802-1520.dmp syndata.xml WERInternalMetadata.xml - Video Hardware Error.

I have also seen a pop-up that says the NVIDIA card has stopped and successfully recovered. Does anyone have a solution to this issue? Does the Video card need to be replaced and if so, should it be replaced with the same card?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Maguscreed]

Well before I tell you that your video card needs to be replaced you should completely wipe the current drivers and control panel with this.
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

then reinstall the latest driver for your card
NVIDIA DRIVERS 275.33 WHQL

This will clear up if it's a driver problem at least.
The remaining two possibilities are the card is actually bad, or your power supply is dying and not supplying enough power.

 

[Veronica54]

Thank you so much! I am doing what you have recommended. I opened up the system yesterday and dusted it well, reinstalled the card and put a fan outside of the unit as it seemed to be very warm. The internal fan is working as well. I appreciate your help!

 

[Veronica54]

Hello again,
I am still experiencing the same problem. At random, the system freezes when I am either typing an email, playing solitaire or surfing the web. Sometimes, the screen goes black and sometimes it just stops with two or three vertical colored lines where the pointer is positioned. There is no activity on the hard drive light and the only way I can regain the system is to power it off and then back on. I checked the event viewer and the critical error is kernal-power ID 41 which I believe is related to turning the system off without the shutting down properly due to the freeze. Any suggestions or solutions? Thanks in advance!

 

[Maguscreed]

Well we are down to the two other possiblities here, either the power supply is dying and not supplying the components with enough juice to run properly.
Or the graphics card itself is dying.
Figuring out which it is at this point is kind of difficult through the internet, especially since your crashes seem so random and frequent most testing methods wouldn't hold

 

[fseal]

One other final check maybe, find a utility that can check the temperature of your video card (Unfortunately the default nvidia control panel does not have this ability). Make sure it's not overheating, make sure the fan is actually turning and blowing air out the back.

 

[Veronica54]

Thanks so much for the additional information! I just opened the system back up and reseated the graphics card as well as USB card which sits right next to it. When the system came back up, there was activity in the system tray saying that a USB input device was installed correctly and almost immediately the system froze again. I took the SUB card back and took off the information which is a VIA VT6212L and is a 4 port USB card. I had received a message earlier in the week that a driver could not be found for the card and I am wondering if this is the culprit of the system freezing. There is nothing plugged into the USB card so it doesn't really make any sense, other than the system froze as soon as it found the card. Will it hurt the system to take the USB card out, I don't use it anyway. Also the fan is working and blowing out some air and I can feel some air by the power supply but not much, is it supposed to blow into the power supply or out? Thanks again! BTW - I look the seal picture with the flippers comment!

 

[fseal]

Air should blow out of the power supply and for most video cards out the back next to the connectors. If there are any other fans on the back they should be blowing out as well.

Yeah, if removing that USB card fixes your problem and you don't need it then good riddance!

If you actually needed it, looking up better drivers would be an option...

 

[Veronica54]

Temps at 112

I still haven't resolved the issue, but I do have additional information that I hope will isolate the problem. I downloaded SpeedFan and it is reading the GPU temperature between 65 - 112 degrees within a very short time frame (5 minutes) within system coming on. I have a 305 watt power supply and asus.com says my system needs 400 watts, yet the system has been working off of the 305 supply for almost a year. Graphics cards going out or power supply? I truly appreciate your assistance. I was on hold with Dell tech support this past Friday for 2 HOURS with no assistance. My cordless phone battery went out before they picked up!

 

[Maguscreed]

Well I think you found your problem, 112C is high enough to potentially damage the GPU.
In fact I would be concerned about anything over the 80 range.

 

[Veronica54]

What is your recommendation?

What is your recommendation? Start with replacing the power supply or the graphics card? Thanks again!

 

[Maguscreed]

It might not hurt at this point to make sure the fan on the graphics card is actually spinning and moving air through it.

 

[Veronica54]

There isn't a fan on the graphics card.

 

[Maguscreed]

so it looks something like this?

http://www.ixbt.com/video2/images/g73-2/gigabyte-7300gs-front.jpg

I've never been a big fan of passive cooled graphics cards especially in a dell which have notoriously bad air flow in the cases to begin with.

 

[Veronica54]

That's it. I put a fan outside by the back of the case but it isn't helping much at this point. I am having to use another computer to even be able to respond to you, as the system shuts down almost immediately when it is powered on.

 

[Veronica54]

In case I wasn't clear with my answer, yes that is the graphics card that is in the system. Thanks!

 

[Maguscreed]

In this case to see any benefit from that fan you'd pretty much have to pull the side panel off and aim it right at the card, though it appears the heat may have already done it's damage.

 

[Veronica54]

I can open the case and put a fan on it to see if will help. I am also going to test the card into another system before I buy another card or power supply, just to be sure what I need to replace (hopefully not both), when I opened it up the first time, there was alot of dust in the power supply, I cleaned it out but it may already done its damage as well. If I have to purchase another card, do you have any recommendations for this system? Thank you so much for your time and patience.

 

[Maguscreed]

If you have a pci-e slot on the motherboard, which it appears you do, you can plug most cards into it. the problem will probably be the power supply. Newer graphics cards require a lot of juice to run properly. I don't have any specific suggestions for a replacement card at the moment.
Most newer cards are going to want around 500 watts of power supply to run for you.

 

[Veronica54]

Thank you again. You have been very generous with your time and information. I attempted to test the card in another system, but it would not fit into the slot. I am looking into replacing the power supply first, it makes sense that the mouse and keyboard would stop working if the power supply is going out or not big enough. Thanks again!