What The Hell Is Wrong With My Pc?

[slayerdiabolus]

My PC has started doing this lately. Anyone know what could be wrong?

[Fadingtoblack]

Not sure, a couple of ideas:

-Update or reinstall graphics driver
-Graphics card could be dying or overheating


Couple of ideas to get you started at least!

[Sepu]

-Graphics card could be dying or overheating

That's what I can say too, I had a problem like this on a PC into my office...I changed the graphic card and all was OK

[sorrowman]

I'd say it's the graphics card.

Either the card is overheating or the memory chips on the card are fucked.

- First thing you can do is check wether the card has collected dust. Open the case and check wether there's lots of dust on the cards heatsink. If so, remove that carefully. Losts of dust can cause overheating 'cause the heatsing can't get rid of the heat generated by the cards core and memory chips, and thus causing artifacts (the crazy and distorted image you're seeing right now)

- Also check if the fan on the card (if present) is still spinning. A damaged (not spinning) fan can also lead to overheating and thus artifacts.

- As for defective memory on the card, that's hard to establish but if all else fails that is highly likely to be the case. Perhaps the memory went south due to overheating.

- Also check the airflow in your case. Do you have any intake and outtake fans in the case? A not-so-good-airflow can lead to overheating too, perhaps in combination with dust in the case.

- There might also be a slight possibility your PSU (Power Supply) is dying on ya. This leads to the card no getting enough electricity to function correcty which can also lead to artifacts and ultimately a dead card or even a dead PC. What kind of GrapicsCard are u using....the newer the card the stronger a PSU it requires, and if a strong enough PSU is not present you might end up physically fucking up the whole system in the end

Try to check the voltages of your PSU in the BIOS. There's prolly some kind of system monitor section in there you can read the temparatures and voltages out. If you're able to do so, try hooking up a different PSU to see how things turn out with a different PSU.

[slayerdiabolus]

Its and ATI Radeon 9700. This thing has like 6 fans in it so I dont know about it overheating.. But I have been using it a lot more than usual lately. The thing is, once the PC has been on for around 5 mins, the problem goes away?

Thanks to everyone for replying

[sorrowman]

A bit of a strange case then I suppose

Maybe you could try THIS tool. It's actually a tool used for overclocking and testing the videocard. You can check out the temperatures and do artifact scanning.

Install it and open the 3D view. You'll see a kinda cube rotating. Just leave that running for a bit 20-30 minutes and see what happens. If the 3D image turns fucked after a while you are most likely dealing with heat issues. ATI-Tool also shows the temperature of the cards core in a small graph (if a temperature senor is present on the core) so keep an eye on that as well. Note that the core of a GPU tends to get quite a bit warm really 50-60 for the Radeo 9700 is normal when stressed. Also don't mess with the core and memory clocks (the two sliders in the main window) in ATI-Tool.....you don't want to OC the card or anything, just check how it works at stock speeds.

I know of a particular batch of Radeon 9700 cards that has heat issues because the Heatsink didn't make sufficient contact with the cards core. And while it may work normally when you don't stress it, issues might come to light when you put the card to work a bit more (like you said you've done a bit lately)

[JaymzMac]

If the problem goes away after 5 mins then i would suggest it is a hardware problem e.g. the monitor.

If you have another monitor in your house you can check by plugging that into your comp - wont take long and see if the problem no longer exists you know its the monitor's issue.

[slayerdiabolus]

Ok I left the PC on until the problem had fixed itself. The I installed and ran this programme. Showed up fine, clicked 3D view and for about 5 seconds it showed up a perfect cube and then the same glitches as above started appearing and this showed up in the 3D view.


Thanks for all your help!!

[sorrowman]

Then it might be overheating issues (perhaps due to dust collection) or faulty memory after all. And if the overheating has lasted long enough...you might even have fried your card.