Weird screen display of OS

[Alanon]

Hey, guys, my PC jumped and turned into shit all of a sudden. Sorry for any spelling errors, but I can't see properly at the moment.

It all started last night while playing Dragon Age. Any time I was not moving in-game, I would get lines popping up on screen, then random textures, and then my PC would lock up, and I had to restart it via button.

Today I booted up, and started seeing my monitor flashing. The picture was normal, but the monitor fould have two short flashes on the same image, my PC would lock up, and I had to restart.

Now I restarted in safe mode, and it's the worse image to date. Not even the bootup lettering were rendered corrrectly, only bitts and pieces, and the screen I'm writing on now is covered in black and purple pixel dots, under which you can barely see the thing you should be seeing.

I can see improvements sometimes, when all the pixels go away, and I get the normal image.

All of this sounds as if I need a new graphics card, but I need some help seeing if it's truly so :(

I found this image on Google which seems close enough to what I'm seeing.

http://cy6pwa.blu.li...l10%2520aug.JPG

http://www.google.rs...Sj6s2NCA&zoom=1

After this, I'm gonna try to boot back up into normal mode, if that doesn't work, I'm gonna leave it alone for a while, so wish me luck!!! :(

UPDATE: When I boot up normally, I get terrible slowdown before every window opens, not to mention when I'm trying to use my mouse to sweep something to the recycle bin. Eventually, it gets so slow, that it starts to show me little green and red pixels on my background, before it freezes, that I have to reboot. Safe mode seems to work ok, though, on the 800x600 resolution.

I can't torture my machine for too long, so I'll be off the forums until tonight. -.-

[sanjoa]

What are your video card and display model?

[tangkungan]

that's a symptom of a dying video card.. we replaced the video card on one of our office computers last year, exactly when those images you posted where being shown on the screen.. try to check on bloated or leaking capacitors.. on our end, to our surprise not only were they bloated, but literally the card had a lot of "busted-open" capacitors..

example of that busted-open capacitor would be:

[Alanon]

Graphics - An ancient nvidia geforce 8400 gs

Monitor - A new ASUS 19' widescreen with a resolution of 1366X724 (forgot the model number)...

[tangkungan]

Graphics - An ancient nvidia geforce 8400 gs

all the more reason to have an ocular inspection of the card.. if I recall correctly, the card that died was a Geforce 7300GT, a much older card than yours.. also, an overheating card, due to faulty or aged fan, will also lead to video instability.. we also have a 8500GT wherein it's fan has died.. I actually had to mod a 80mm fan and attach it to the card.. now the temps are around 50degs, while it was on 70+ when the fan was out..

[sanjoa]

I agree with tangkungan. You should replace your video card.

[Nemesis]

agreed with those above. its possible that the graphics card overheated and crapped out while you were playing dragon age.

[DKT27]

Sometimes it happens that the fan is not spinning but the OS keeps reporting that it's spinning fine. So worth a look while it's running and then when the PC is powered off.

[tangkungan]

while your at the inspection part, it also pays to clean one's rig, at least one a month, via paint brush or even using an air compressor, or whatever is available at your disposal to get through to those nooks and crevices where dust and gunk have build up.. the decrease in overall temps is definitely good for the system..

that's quite a dirty piece of hardware he's got there.. :lol:

[Alanon]

Hey, guys, an update. Opened it up and I can see nothing physically wrong with the card, gonna try to see about the fan now, but I remember the first thing I did was run AIDA64 sensor parameters, and the diode read 50 degrees Celsius on the card. I'll update as soon as the bootup is graphically manageable.

[beer]

Your temps seems good. Here are more troubleshooting suggestions for you:

*Was the video card overclocked when this happened?

- Does the artifacts appear as soon as you power on PC? (ie during POST)

- Video Card fan feel loose?

- Any burning/strong smell coming off the card?

- Laptop to test the LCD?

I had an old Nvidia Ti4200 with a loose fan that idle at normal temps, but once I load some graphic intensive program the temps would sky rocket into the danger zone. If the artifacts show up as soon as you turn on the PC on a cold-boot, then I think your video card's days are numbered. I too have had had an overclocked video card malfunction during gaming. Good luck man.

[HATE9X]

Most likely the card is simply busted. Especially if those artifacts appear as soon as you boot. If they don't appear immediately, then you can try taking a look at the fan.. But that card is really is old, so it just might want to r.i.p.

If the fan is fine and the card is clean, you can try it in another PC to make sure.. But it's arguable whether it's worth it.

I've seen that exact same thing happen with a few cards (all of them dying), one of them also being 8400 GS, but the laptop model, which was faulty from factory and there was a recall.. Don't know if the same applied to the normal version, but probably not since mobile cards are an entirely different thing, numberings being misleading, with 280M based on desktop 9800 GTX for example.

[bearoninternet]

Videocard, no doubt. May keep functioning at random times but all of the sudden it will die.

Replace soon, mine got toasted and fried the wiring on the motherboard. :unsure:

[HATE9X]

Videocard, no doubt. May keep functioning at random times but all of the sudden it will die.

Replace soon, mine got toasted and fried the wiring on the motherboard. :unsure:

Yah, that's why I was saying it probably won't be worth the risk of trying in another system. It's pretty obvious it's dying.

[Win7nerd]

my brother had issues his card but his simply suddenly shut the computer down randomly... as for my vote like everyone else replace said card or even upgrade :P

[Alanon]

Yup. Definitively the card. Gonna replace it as soon as I can. Thinking of upgrading my rig while I'm at it. I added a new monitor and 2 gigs of ram to it fairly recently, so I only really need a better processor and - a better graphics card, and I already must get one of the two things, so... you get the picture.

My question would be should I perhaps upgrade my motherboard (and why, as I never understood the "perks" of what is defined as a top-of-the-line board), and also what are "widely available" (I'm in Serbia, and tech stuff is pretty sparse) mid-range (I suppose) cards and CPU's that would feed my need for games for the next couple of years? My machine really is too old, but somehow it managed to push the recent games. XD (I also have an ancient Intel Dual core at 1.3 Ghz XDDD)

[tangkungan]

when upgrading, it's always a good starting point to have an estimated budget for the project.. so how much are you willing to spend?

those uber-motherboards your saying would mostly be something you don't really need, like 3 to 4 PCI-E lanes for triple to quad SLI or crossfire, more hard drive headers, etc..

When I upgraded my rig around September of 2010, I was also faced with that "temptation" of getting a high-end mobo, but I realistically considered that I wouldn't be doing those SLI or Crossfire, thus for the same amount I could spend on an uber-rig, I can divert the extra cash in adding more useful things, like much needed ram, adding more fans, or even getting a back-lit keyboard..

You coming from an 8400GS, getting any card that has 256-bit memory interface is upgrade enough and that it can and will keep up with games for quite a few years.. I got my GTS 250 for roughly $100 when I built my rig and it might not compare with the recent high-end releases from both AMD/ATI or Nvidia, but it sure does whoop-@ss the 128-bit kinds and below..

[dcs18]

Before thinking about spending bucks, I'd just check whether the cable connecting the cabinet to the monitor is fastened tightly at both ends. ;)

[circaal]

Motherboard's allow for the future upgrade of parts. If you are using DDR2 RAM, you might want to look at getting a new board. Everything now is either and i3, i5, or i7 core processors. Also RAM is at DDR3 and SATA hace jumped from 3 gb/s to 6 gb/s. So there are many good things that a top of the line board would add. Are you looking to do any gaming? Or just basic computer user work. Also as tangkugan said a budget would really help. :)

-BTY

[myidisbb]

Motherboard's allow for the future upgrade of parts. If you are using DDR2 RAM, you might want to look at getting a new board. Everything now is either and i3, i5, or i7 core processors. Also RAM is at DDR3 and SATA hace jumped from 3 gb/s to 6 gb/s. So there are many good things that a top of the line board would add. Are you looking to do any gaming? Or just basic computer user work. Also as tangkugan said a budget would really help. :)

-BTY

no.... you get a new or make a new computer. the old ddr2 ram one is proxy, server, testing sotware or giving it to someting else like your kid sister or brother.

btw a easier and is safe way to clean a cpu is use a can of air and a vacuum hose to suck the dust up. prefective fine and safe.