I get the impression that my graphics card is finally dying, but I wanted to get a second opinion and see if there was anything I could do to troubleshoot, confirm the problem, and/or prolong its life. I'm by no means a PC expert, but I'll do my best to provide useful information.
I bought my PC about 5 years ago. I bought (what was at the time) a run-of-the-mill mid-range PC and swapped in a new power supply and graphics card so I could do some gaming with it.
PC base: Acer Aspire am5700 - came with intel quad core Q8200 & 4 GB RAM
PSU: low-mid range 500W. Replaced recently with Corsair 600W modular PSU (see timeline below)
GPU: BFG GeForce 9800 gtx+
Recently during gaming sessions, it has started flickering weird glitchy chunks of incorrect colours on the screen (this is called artifacting, correct?), and occasionally the graphics card driver crashes and restarts. Minimizing the game when this starts and coming back after a couple minutes often fixes it. If I don't minimize or close the game when the driver crashes, my PC is likely to crash as well.
I took the case off my PC and that has reduced the frequency and severity of the problem a lot. That leads me towards the direction of overheating being the problem, so I downloaded a program to check internal temperatures. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what normal ranges would be.
Here's a timeline of the assorted abuse that I've put my computer & card through:
- 2-3 years ago: I recall breaking & replacing the PSU
- 2 years ago: Diablo 3 would constantly (every couple of minutes) crash my video card driver and restart it. I don't know what the technical underlying problem was, but I do know this was a common problem with for thousands of people with all sorts of GeForce cards, including high-end ones. I played the game regularly for hours at a time like that for maybe 2 months.
-6 months ago: I took my PC overseas. I removed the hard drive and gfx card (the pieces that were valuable to me) wrapped them in anti-static bubble wrap, and took them with me as carry on luggage so that I could avoid them being jostled around too much or lost forever. The PC case with the remaining pieces was put in my suitcase as cargo luggage.
-1 month ago: I reformatted from vista 64 to windows 7 64. Probably should have done it sooner; my friends made fun of me for having vista. After doing this, my computer now always hangs on the "Starting Windows" screen for 10-11 minutes before proceeding after a reboot. Not sure what sort of failure this is indicative of.
-2-3 weeks ago: this is when I started noticing graphics card problems. They were rare and minor at the time, and have since escalated.
-10 days ago: My PSU blew up. I was not there, but someone else witnessed a ball of blue lightning. A fuse in the house broke. I'm not sure if my PSU blowing up was the cause or the result, but supposedly it didn't blow up until slightly after the power went out.
-6 days ago: I took my return trip back from being overseas, using the same method as before to transport my PC. I bought a new PSU and reassembled my computer.
I understand that after all I've put my beloved computer through in 5 years, it's not surprising that things are starting to fail. And I know that it makes it harder to troubleshoot. I also understand that I'm going to have to look at replacing parts soon. My specific questions that I'd like help with are:
Thank you for your help. I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry I made such a long post.
I bought my PC about 5 years ago. I bought (what was at the time) a run-of-the-mill mid-range PC and swapped in a new power supply and graphics card so I could do some gaming with it.
PC base: Acer Aspire am5700 - came with intel quad core Q8200 & 4 GB RAM
PSU: low-mid range 500W. Replaced recently with Corsair 600W modular PSU (see timeline below)
GPU: BFG GeForce 9800 gtx+
Recently during gaming sessions, it has started flickering weird glitchy chunks of incorrect colours on the screen (this is called artifacting, correct?), and occasionally the graphics card driver crashes and restarts. Minimizing the game when this starts and coming back after a couple minutes often fixes it. If I don't minimize or close the game when the driver crashes, my PC is likely to crash as well.
I took the case off my PC and that has reduced the frequency and severity of the problem a lot. That leads me towards the direction of overheating being the problem, so I downloaded a program to check internal temperatures. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what normal ranges would be.
Here's a timeline of the assorted abuse that I've put my computer & card through:
- 2-3 years ago: I recall breaking & replacing the PSU
- 2 years ago: Diablo 3 would constantly (every couple of minutes) crash my video card driver and restart it. I don't know what the technical underlying problem was, but I do know this was a common problem with for thousands of people with all sorts of GeForce cards, including high-end ones. I played the game regularly for hours at a time like that for maybe 2 months.
-6 months ago: I took my PC overseas. I removed the hard drive and gfx card (the pieces that were valuable to me) wrapped them in anti-static bubble wrap, and took them with me as carry on luggage so that I could avoid them being jostled around too much or lost forever. The PC case with the remaining pieces was put in my suitcase as cargo luggage.
-1 month ago: I reformatted from vista 64 to windows 7 64. Probably should have done it sooner; my friends made fun of me for having vista. After doing this, my computer now always hangs on the "Starting Windows" screen for 10-11 minutes before proceeding after a reboot. Not sure what sort of failure this is indicative of.
-2-3 weeks ago: this is when I started noticing graphics card problems. They were rare and minor at the time, and have since escalated.
-10 days ago: My PSU blew up. I was not there, but someone else witnessed a ball of blue lightning. A fuse in the house broke. I'm not sure if my PSU blowing up was the cause or the result, but supposedly it didn't blow up until slightly after the power went out.
-6 days ago: I took my return trip back from being overseas, using the same method as before to transport my PC. I bought a new PSU and reassembled my computer.
I understand that after all I've put my beloved computer through in 5 years, it's not surprising that things are starting to fail. And I know that it makes it harder to troubleshoot. I also understand that I'm going to have to look at replacing parts soon. My specific questions that I'd like help with are:
■ How are my PC temperatures? Would it be normal for my card to fail at this temperature?
■ Is it likely that replacing my graphics card will fix my seemingly graphics-card-related problems, or do I have red flags for other stuff that may be contributing to my problems as well?
■ Is there anything I can do to troubleshoot my problems or prolong my graphics card's life for the time being? I've already made sure that all fans and heatsinks are clean and dust-free.
Thank you for your help. I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry I made such a long post.
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