Damaged 6800GS? :(

Kage

Golden Master
Messages
13,873
I have a slight problem.

Some people might remember I bought a BFG 6800GS AGP not long ago.

Well, since I got it, 3D studio max has been running slow, and once every so often, dots appear on the screen and won't go away, and they move when you move things around, and aren't just related to the program after this happens. (Not a temp issue + haven't overclocked)

Anyhow, last night I worked litterally all night on uni work and so took this big computer downstairs (was very careful with it).

Ever since I brought it back up, its been even more dodgy.

I started my partition up, and straight away, a matrix type of effect occured on the screen with loads upon loads of ASCII characters. The monitor then went black and came up with "No Signal".

Anyway, I reset and it did same thing. Turning off and on the PC fixed it.

Anyhow, I went to University, and after coming back, heard from my dad that it had happened on his, and and then it happened on my sisters right infront of my eyes. It froze on the desktop just after starting up with the characters covering the view of the desktop, and then it reset the computer.

After it started up again, Windows could tell something was up and concluded it was the Nivida Drivers causing the issue.
That can't be true though since we all have seperate partitions...and its happening on all of them at the same time.

It seems carrying it downstairs to upstairs has damaged the card even more? (I've checked the slot, its fully in)

As maybe it was damaged when I got it, since 3d Studio Max has never respsonded well with it?

Thanks for any help :)
 
So is this hardware and software related to eachother? if so, have you thought of just uninstalling it, booting to safemode, and then re-installing? sometimes installing software while your anti-virus is running can interfer with the install.
 
Much of that does sound like a GPU error. I know I had almost like sparkles with my old 6800. I swapped the card out and everything was cool...

Do you have something you could swap that card out with? Some older card, even PCI, to see how it works?

Something else, RAM might be worth checking out. I'm still leaning more towards the video card with you, but it's always a possibility...
 
If it's affecting everyone on your system, and it got worse after moving your machine around, I think it's time to send the card back for tests.

Did you buy it off a big online retailer, like Komplett? They'll test the thing to see if it's properly knackered or not.

I seriously doubt drivers would cause the ASCII-characters and "No signal".
 
Thanks for all the replys :)

Well, I had a Radeon 9800 Pro in before, and that card was GREAT in 3D studio max, with no slow downs at all. As soon as I swapped to this, i noticed major problems.

I was wondering wheather to re-install Max after getting the new card though, which I thought might fix it.
But after whats recently happened after moving it around, I'm definietly starting to think its the card thats at fault, as the no signal bit seems like the card just gives up trying to show anything and shuts itself off :(

I'll try and post a screenshot next time it happens, but I dont know wheather it'd show on a screenshot or not since its probably more internal, than what windows actually seeing.

As for where I got it, I got it from www.overclockers.co.uk
 
it really sounds like its overheating, maybe the heatsink isnt on right? try taking it off and replacing the thermal paste and see if that helps, also try taking the card completely out then putting it back in, ive heard that for some reason that fixes problems like that
 
Thanks, I'll try doing that, and as for the temperature, the card has a sensor, and the driver reads it at 52 degrees C idle, which seems pretty normal to me for a video card.
 
Well if that doesnt work try installing Driver Cleaner 3 which i use and it solves all my problems with my graphic cards.

http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Just download it uninstall all ur nvidia drivers. go into safe mode run it and see if you can delete any old leftover ati drivers that might cause the problem. If not ide say send it back.
 
Back
Top Bottom