Artifacts Within Windows

[pas7680]

Hi, can anyone help. I'm running an MSI 6800GT at stock speed nothing overclocked, i've had this card about 9 months without any problems then all of a sudden BAM! i've now got artifacts across my desktop screen. Running in 1024x768, if i turn down to 800x600 it's fine within windows but playing games are unplayable. I updated the drivers but if anything it made the problem worse. The artifacts are present from a clean install but are less than before i wiped the machine.

DELL DIMENSION 8300
P4 3.0GHZ
1 GIG RAM

Any ideas would be most appreciated as i don't really want to bin this card as it cost me £200 less than a year ago!

 

[RichPLS]

Caused usually by to high of a clock speed, or other hardware flaws.
Here is a good utility to detect them...
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=201

 

[Heyyou27]

Sounds like your video ram is fried.

 

[Lan]

Whenever I've had artifacts it always has been heat related. That more than likely a game or application you are running is taxing the card more than it has been taxed before, causing more heat. You might want to consider an aftermarket cooling solution before you do something drastic.

 

[pas7680]

like i said before, i've got artifacts from a clean install running nothing else but windows.

 

[chuckshissle]

Sounds like heat related, take out your card get a can of duster and clean away. If you haven't clean it in 9 months chances are it's clogged with dust and stuff. Worst you might have overheated your card and fried some components. So try running the window with the mobo to see if it's running if it does, then it's the card having the problem. Well 9 months means the warranty should be still good so RMA it if you don't want to bother to fix the problem. My suggestion return it while the warranty is still good.

 

[nav_909]

Sounds like your video ram is fried.

most likely, 6800 have horrendous probs with video RAM, (well for me),
do you still get these lines in your BIOS? if so then its the card malfunctioning and there wont be much hope of getting of rectifying the prob, if no then most likely a setting within windows, also see if you can test the card in another system.

good luck, keep me posted

 

[pas7680]

it was cleaned a few weeks ago, so i think it's already fried. Worst still i can fid any of the reciept stuff!

 

[pas7680]

It's not untill the desktop loads that they appear, if i change to 800x600 there gone but i can't play any games so there's not much point keeping it.

 

[perz]

It's not untill the desktop loads that they appear, if i change to 800x600 there gone but i can't play any games so there's not much point keeping it.

Give it to me and I will put on a new heatsink and it will be fine

 

[TabrisDarkPeace]

8) yeah, and maybe raise CL, TRP and TRAS of the Video RAM using decent software after clamping the heatsink / new fan on.

 

[pas7680]

I'll fit an arctic cooler then and see what happens, but i can't see why all of a sudden it would become a problem.

 

[Anoobis]

Before buying anything like that, just try removing the hold heatsink and fan, give it a thorough cleaning (as a previously suggested) including removing the old thermal paste with high quality rubbing alcohol and re-install it with a good quality thermal paste. It might work and you won't spend much. You could probably pick up some Arctic Silver 5 at your local PC shop. Go to AS's website and read up on how to properly apply it.

 

[pas7680]

Thanks for the tip, but i've bought one now - not very expensive over here. I'll give it a real good clean when i apply it. It's not the end of the world if it's fried i'll just buy a 7800.

 

[scoyle]

My X800 GTO2 died on me recently. I also experienced artifacts within Windows, during the initial POST screen, and the inability to use DirectX or OpenGL.

I had it flashed and overclocked to X850XT PE specs, and it was working fine for three months. One day when I booted my machine, the artifacts appeared. I backed down the overclock to stock speeds, and when that didn't work I flashed the BIOS back to the original. Flashing the BIOS, however, didn't work either.

What I'm left with is a card that doesn't work without artifacts in 2D mode with hardware support enabled, and is incapable of DirectX or OpenGL 3D hardware support.

I'm not sure if it was a heat issue. While playing games, the card never rose above 55C, but after I started experiencing difficulties with the card, I ran the artifact test in ATI Tool, and it then reported temperatures of about 65C, under full load. The artifact test didn't show any artifacts for 20 minutes, and then ran for two hours without any artifacts, although they were visibly apparent all over the screen.

All in all, I think my card was pushed over it's limit, and I'll have to be more careful next time. Guess I'll have to stick with X800 pro specs...