Graphic artifacting and lock up in any and all games

[Guest]

I'm working on a computer for a friend and I've run into an issue that I'm just not sure about. He had an old graphics card that was dying so he got a new one and the problem appeared to be over. The new card works perfectly fine when surfing the web, watching videos, etc. But, when he tries to play a game he either gets severe artifacting and glitches, or just a complete lock up. I've tried new drivers, uninstalling/reinstalling them. I checked rivatuner to see if temp was the issue and didn't see anything unusual. Now I'm guessing it might have something to do with the power supply but I'm not sure and I don't want to tell him he needs to buy a new one if that's not the issue. The new graphics card says it only requires a 300w supply, which he has. The card is a 8400 GS. Is there anything else I should try to solve this issue or is it most likely the power supply is the problem?

 

[Maziar]

Does your friend have the latest VGA drivers installed ? did he uninstalled the old VGA driver and then installed the new one for 8400GS?

 

[Guest]

Yes, we first installed the drivers that came with the card. We then tried the latest drivers from Nvidia. When that didn't work we uninstalled the drivers, deleted the folders, then reinstalled. Didn't seem to affect the problem.

 

[coozie7]

The 8400 draws very little power, which card did it replace?
How old is the system?
Is it a prebuilt?
What are the temperatures, both GPU and CPU?
Check this out, it may help the diagnosis:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

 

[Guest]

It replaced I believe a 7300. The computer is a 3 year old HP system. When I checked the temps on the GPU with rivatuner I only got about 52C while running games and idol around 45C. I ran it with the case open to make sure the fan was working and it was. I do not have a temp reading on the CPU handy right now.

 

[Guest]

Tried leaving the side open and pointing a fan at the video card, same results of immediate lockup when trying to play TF2. I'm running out of things to test and was wondering if anyone know of anything else that can allow a video card to perform perfectly fine except when gaming. Heat and drivers are not the issue and the card is brand new. The only things I can think of are the PCI express slot and the power supply. Are there ways to test these two parts?

 

[coozie7]

Sounds very much like the powersupply is the culprit, strange, because the cards draw so little power, but the symptoms are correct.
Try running with as many components as possible removed or disconnected, to take as much load off the PSU as possible.

 

[Cinc]

Tried a new power supply and got the same results. Was able to try Oblivion for 10-15 minutes then artifacts and lock up. I don't know what else to try. Does anyone know what else can cause a game to lock up but have no effect on normal computer use?