Dead Video Card? - Graphics Errors..

[spaceghost21]

My computer: http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=30273

Today I was playing Counter Strike Source and was seeing some graphic errors, like artifacting etc. The game locked up and I restarted.

When the computer POSTs green lines of uneven dots run vertically across the screen and there are also numerous other errors such as the wrong characters being displayed and characters repeating more times than they should.

Windows XP boots normally at first, however, it never gets to the blue log in screen. After a few seconds, at about the point it would ordinarily go to the log in screen the monitor goes blank , the power light on the monitor blinking, like it is not getting any signal. The computer is still on and the hard drive access light goes on and off for few more seconds and then it is silent.

Windows does boot in safe mode, which is how I am able to post this , however, that is about it. After uninstalling and reinstalling the graphics driver, there is no difference.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Dahak]

Usually any graphical errors show up it ususally means that the ram or gpu is dead/dying.
You can aslo try to boot windows with "Enable VGA Mode" from the boot menu.
also what you can try is the card in another system if possible and the same thing happens then probably have to replace the card.

 

[spaceghost21]

Well, I ran Memtest , no problems there, which leaves the video card. Is it normal for a card to just die like that?

I think it must be the video card, because of all the graphical funkyness at boot. I was able to install the drivers off the manufacturers CD, however, as soon as I attempted to adjust the settings (ie: go from 8bit color to 32 bit, or adjust the refresh rate, the monitor goes blank)

It just seems strange that the card would die like that... however, I have had the computer lock up on me several times while playing games in the last week just like I noted in my first post, was playing one second, and the next the screen was just frozen and machine unresponsive. Each time however, I just rebooted and the problem went away.


Tried using the latest drivers from the web (nVidia's and also the manufacturers - WinFast), both times the monitor went blank before the driverse finished installing and I had to reboot.

Also, sometimes after getting the blank monitor, Windows would display a BSOD explaining the computer had been shutdown to prevent damage with some more text and the that nv4_disp had caused the error, after it entered an infinite loop. In the Device Manager , I get error code 19:

Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. To fix this problem you can first try running a Troubleshooting Wizard. If that does not work, you should uninstall and then reinstall the hardware device. (Code 19)

I don't have another computer to test it in, so I don't know if I wanna pony up the cash for a new card just yet, but at this point I don't know what I can do.

 

[Carnage4]

Sounds like a hardware issue. The garbled lines of random color and screwed-up text is usually a sign of hardware damage to either the GPU or the card's memory. These problems are usually due to heat, although specific series of cards have been known to have a bad manufacturing run.

Try the card in a friend's machine (if possible). What's your power supply rated at? I can't imagine a 6600 series card drawing much power....

 

[spaceghost21]

Power supply is an Antec 350Watt, Model: SL350. It is just the one that came with the case.

Thanks for the help, I was afraid it was damaged. Looks like I'll be in the market for a new video card. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends near by to test the card out.