Is my graphics card dead?

immortalgamer

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Oct 16, 2011
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So this morning my PC was working normally until I started a game. As the game was loading, the display on the screen started scrambling and after a couple of seconds, the PC restarted.
After restarting, there were black horizontal lines on the login screen. After logging in, the screen turned blue and it restarted again. It kept on restarting like that every time.

I booted into safe mode, uninstalled the graphic drivers using "Display Driver Uninstaller." Then, I booted the PC up normally and it booted without any problems and the display was normal. I installed the latest drivers again, restarted the PC, but the horizontal black lines reappeared again on the login screen. Now after I log in, the screen turns blue for a second and the PC restarts itself.

I've tried removing the card and putting it back in the slot again, but that didn't help. The motherboard's onboard graphics work fine. The card is over 3 years old.

So is the card dead or is there something I can do to fix it?

Specs:
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2PT
Phenom II X4 965 BE
Sapphire HD 6850
Power supply - Cooler Master Extreme power plus 500W

Thanks.
 
Solution
Well you can try taking the GPU cooler off and re-applying thermal compound, might just be rapidly overheating.

If that wasn't it, it is probably a dying/dead card.

Gallarian

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Hate to be the bringer of bad news, but yes, chances are thats a dead GPU.

The reason the screen returned to normal after you uninstallled your GPU drivers and rebooted, is that even with the graphics card still plugged in, without the drivers installed the display would be running off of your on-board GPU instead.

If the card is still in warranty, RMA it. If not.. then its time for a replacement.

Things Id suggest if you want to look into it further:

1) Try the card in another system (if your friend has a gaming PC or theres a local PC repair shop you can go to).

2) Take the card apart and examine it (only if your warranty is expired). If you cant see any signs of physical damage, try cleaning off the thermal compound on the GPU with a suitable alcohol based clean and reapply some new compound.

3) Again, only if your warranty has expired, you could try the oven method (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xanr4jkmEc)
 

immortalgamer

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Thanks for replying. The card is out of warranty so I guess I'll just have to look for a new one. Btw, can a faulty PSU cause a card to malfunction like this?
 

immortalgamer

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That could be the case. I guess it won't hurt to try that before throwing the card away. Thanks.
 

Gallarian

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A faulty PSU can definitely cause a graphics card to not function properly, but it would usually show very different symptoms to what you have described (usually 'no signal' errors, no fan spinning, randomly shutting off without warning etc, not artifacting and blue-screening).

If you have a spare PSU to hand, its always worth checking but its unlikely to be the cause given the information you supplied.

On the bright side, Nvidia's Pascal GPUs are just about to launch, which will increase the chances of getting a nice 900-series card for a great deal.
 

immortalgamer

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Yeah, it would be nice to have one of those. I was thinking of building a new gaming PC for quiet some time.
 

immortalgamer

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Turns out it was just overheating. I cleaned the dust from the card, reapplied the thermal compound and installed it back. It's working normally now and the temps. have decreased as well.

Thanks a lot.