Graphics card issue?

[SebC]

So been playing quite a bit of PC games lately... everyone once in a while playing a game my monitor starts shimmering, and continues to do so even after the games kills itself or I kill it with task manager. Restart my computer and it's back to normal.

Is this my GFX card overheating? Does it mean I need to replace it?

Additional info: screenshot captures sparklies... screenshot here:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...seb/test-1.png

Sparkles go away as soon as I get to the "Logging Off" screen in Windows.

Thanks to anyone who can help me diagnose this.

[Roast Beef]

Since the screen capture actually shows the problem it is not your monitor.

There are still a few things you can do.

Unplug your computer and hold the power button down for 30 seconds to a minute to drain any residual charge.
Open up the computer and make sure that dust and hair is not clogging the fans or covering components.

Pull out the gfx card and reseat it firmly just in case there is a connection problem.

Update your drivers to the newest versions.

Have you overclocked your card? If so set it to the defaults.

What are your specs? 32 bit? 64 bit? What gfx card do you have? Try searching for your card model and see if others have problems as well.

Are the games that you have problems with simple games or games that challenge the hardware?
Does this problem happen with any game or just Steam games?

[Hack&Lube]

That does look like graphics card artifacting to me, could be a bad core or memory.

Run Furmark and see if you get the same graphics corruption when you do a heavy stress test.

Try a different videocard to see if the issues go away.

[Roast Beef]

Never heard of Furmark before...great stress tester.

[photon]

+1 on Furmark.

The fact that it goes away as you get to the logging off windows screen kind of suggests a driver to me, though the artifacts you are getting suggest a hardware problem (bad memory chip or heat or something), so updating the drivers might be worth a few minutes of time, but I'd still bet it's a hardware problem.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Have you overclocked your card? If so set it to the defaults.

What are your specs? 32 bit? 64 bit? What gfx card do you have? Try searching for your card model and see if others have problems as well.

Are the games that you have problems with simple games or games that challenge the hardware?

Does this problem happen with any game or just Steam games?

Specs: 9800 GTX Black (factory overclocked), Windows 7 x64.

So far I've only seen it with the Steam versions of Overlord and Trine.

Tried searching but I have no idea what to search for to get results - so I asked the great oracle.

[Thor]

Was happening to me, found out it was my wire, mind you VGA and it couldn't handle the resolution of the LCD at its native 1920x1200.

So thats a possibility, that screen shot looks exactly like mine did after I'd load up a game and even after I shut it down.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Thor

Was happening to me, found out it was my wire, mind you VGA and it couldn't handle the resolution of the LCD at its native 1920x1200.

So thats a possibility, that screen shot looks exactly like mine did after I'd load up a game and even after I shut it down.

So I checked and one of the screws on the DVI connector had come lose. Seems like an odd way for this to manifest itself but this might be the solution. If it comes back, I'll move on to some of the other ideas in the thread.

Thanks everyone!

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by SebC

So I checked and one of the screws on the DVI connector had come lose. Seems like an odd way for this to manifest itself but this might be the solution. If it comes back, I'll move on to some of the other ideas in the thread.

Thanks everyone!

As Roast Beef mention the fact that it appears in a screenshot it is highly unlikely that it a problem with the cable or your monitor. I suggest you try RMA is still have warranty on the card.

[Hack&Lube]

^^

Originally Posted by SebC

So I checked and one of the screws on the DVI connector had come lose. Seems like an odd way for this to manifest itself but this might be the solution. If it comes back, I'll move on to some of the other ideas in the thread.

Thanks everyone!

Because you captured the pixels in a screenshot, that means the issue exists in your frame buffer inside the videocard. It cannot possibly be the monitor or the cable or connector.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by cal_guy

As Roast Beef mention the fact that it appears in a screenshot it is highly unlikely that it a problem with the cable or your monitor. I suggest you try RMA is still have warranty on the card.

I think it has a double lifetime warranty or something like that. Want to make sure it needs to go back though before I send it in as I don't want to be without a graphics card.

You guys are right though... not fixed.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by SebC

I think it has a double lifetime warranty or something like that. Want to make sure it needs to go back though before I send it in as I don't want to be without a graphics card.

You guys are right though... not fixed.

Oh, you have XFX? Did you make sure to register the card within 30 days of purchase?

I had to RMA my XFX 8800GT XXX with them. First they sent me an 8800 GTX which was defective. After I sent that to them, they sent me a 9800 GTX but I had to pay for shipping twice. The 9800 GTX I recieved worked fine.

I now have an XFX 5870 though.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Oh, you have XFX? Did you make sure to register the card within 30 days of purchase?

I had to RMA my XFX 8800GT XXX with them. First they sent me an 8800 GTX which was defective. After I sent that to them, they sent me a 9800 GTX but I had to pay for shipping twice. The 9800 GTX I recieved worked fine.

I now have an XFX 5870 though.

Not sure if I registered, but yeah it's XFX. Still lifetime warranty I think. Might be covered under Memory Express IPR too.

Anyways, I blew it out a bit and it seems okay for now under normal gaming use, haven't stress tested it though.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by SebC

Not sure if I registered, but yeah it's XFX. Still lifetime warranty I think. Might be covered under Memory Express IPR too.

Anyways, I blew it out a bit and it seems okay for now under normal gaming use, haven't stress tested it though.

Unfortunately, if the card wasn't registered within 30 days of purchase, you don't get the double lifetime warranty from XFX, it's only 1 year warranty. If you have the MemEx IPR, then that will be good since you get an instant replacement.

If blowing it out helped with artifacting, it might help to disassemble the shroud and do a good cleaning. With the way the 9800 cooler is designed, some dust can get stuck inside the fins and even compressed air has difficulty getting it out. It might just be heat causing your issues.

[Thor]

Are you running speedfan to monitor your heat on the computer?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Thor

Are you running speedfan to monitor your heat on the computer?

Nope, checked temp with GPU-z though... got up to 86 C.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by SebC

Nope, checked temp with GPU-z though... got up to 86 C.

That's about right for an older Nvidia card in an average case. I would still clean out the heatsink and take it apart and reapply thermal interface material.

[zamler]

If you have product replacement, just take it back to Memory Express. Bring a print out of the screenshot with you. There are no circumstances where you will get the glitching you have that are considered normal (expect maybe a bad overclock). Your card is likely starting to fail.

Even if you apply new thermal paste, the core and/or memory could be damaged and the problem will show up again. Get the unit replaced. (those cards are notorious for failure BTW, the "factory overclocked" 88xx Nvidia GPU's love to fail).