GTS 250 Problems

[channingg]

Ok,

I may have ruined the card myself, but I thought I would come here and ask for some help.

First, I had a Nvidia card that died on me about a week and a half ago. I bought a GTS 250 to replace it and installed. No problems. Then after a few days, I started getting freezes in Unreal Tournament, and then blocky artifacts and the game wouldn't play. Then I started getting freezes in Windows where whatever was on the screen just froze in place, and trying to do anything with keyboard did nothing. So I had to reboot.

I asked somewhere else and figured out that the graphics card was underpowered by my power supply. I replaced that.

However, I still had the same problems, and now there are waves of slightly lighter/darker bands that move continuously down the monitor.

I've tried installing older, newer and the drivers that came with the graphics card. Within a day or two, or after a reboot, the problems return. When I'm in safe mode, the problems are gone.

I've also opened the case a few times to make sure everything is connected and mounted properly ... nothing seems wrong there.

So, I'm concerned that I damaged the card by underpowering it. I haven't called the card manufacturer yet (BFG Tech), but I wanted some opinions here before I did.

Thanks in advance.

This is my system:
Windows XP SP3
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600
2 GB RAM

 

[Helltech]

What PSU did you have prior and what PSU do you have now? If the PSU was too low it shouldn't have ruined your card that badly, I've run into that before and it just wouldn't start....

 

[shubham1401]

I will suggest you to install that card in some other pc (ur friend's or relative's)
See if there are the same problem.
That way you will know whether the card is faulty or something else........

 

[coozie7]

Sounds like a temperature problem.
Download and use Rivatuner to check: The fan speed and graphics card temperatures. Also use Speedfan to check your CPU temperatures.
The card should show about 40-60C at idle (just the Windows desktop no programs running) and the CPU 30-45C, again at idle with a low/moderate fan speed,

 

[channingg]

I spoke to the card manufacturer (BFG Tech) last night, and they had me download CPUID HWMonitor. The tech focused on the PSU and said it was "dirty" power and that I needed to get a replacement for it. He said that the power supply could dip low enough sometimes to cause the graphics card to cause the issues I'm having. He said that because the issues are intermittent and kind of random, that's what it is.

The HWMonitor showed temperatures for the motherboard, graphics card, hard drive and RAM at around 50C for all of them.

The former PSU was 500W with a single 12V rail at 22 amperes.