Crashes, now combined with artifacting

[X3no]

A few weeks ago I began to notice a decline in performance from my PC. It started with CoD:MW2 freezing randomly forcing me to hard reset several times. This Issue also started happening in Left 4 Dead 2. I tried some older games and noticed a significant increase in the amount of stuttering and some substantial framerate drops. Left 4 Dead 2 became unplayable because the frequent freezing and crashing. I tried several different driver versions including the 191 drivers, the 195 beta drivers and the 195 release drivers.

I was running the windows 7 RC but after these problems started I decided to do a clean install of Vista. Unfortunately this made things worse, WAY WORSE. Now not only was it freezing up in games it also started happening on the desktop. One program would stop responding then another then windows would become totally non-responsive eventually crashing to a black screen. A few times it managed to recover from this the others it blue screened or required a hard reset to get rid of. This occurred on the first boot with no driver installed and continued to occur after installing the 195.62 drivers.

I was starting to think that this may have been a CPU issue until today when I loaded up Unreal tournament 3 and the screen flooded with artifacts after about 30 minutes and then froze until I hard reset again. After I rebooted everything seemed fine so I tried UT3 again and the same thing happened after about 3 minutes. I reboot again and leave because by this point I am really frustrated. I come back 45 minutes later to find that the desktop was covered with artifacting and was totally non-responsive. I rebooted and it happened again after a few minutes.

I don't know what to do I've been searching google and forums and have come up with very few solutions none of which corrected any of the problems. I need to know whether this is a hardware issue or if there is anything I can try to fix it. If it is a hardware issue is it an issue with the graphics card or could it be something else? If the graphics card is bad I guess I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas.

If you need any other information let me know. Thanks in advance for any help.
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System Specs

Geforce 8800GT 512
Biostar TA770A2+
AMD Phenom X4 9850BE
4GB DDR2 800
Windows Vista Home Premium x64

 

[hidetora]

im having a similiar problem here and im not sure what to do about it yet either the only difference is im running Duel XFX HD 4890's. i dont think i could have gotten 2 bad cards at the sametime if i did talk about crappy. Mine runs fine until i start playing games sometimes i can play for hours and sometimes i cant and definatly cant play crysis that long but i can run it on full settings no problem then boom blackscreen,restart do not understand it.

 

[lazerblaster]

hey, I'm not sure if this will work for you but i noticed the same thing w/ my duel gtx 260s so i cranked my fans up and that seemed to work out well ...how hot are your cards getting? maybe turning your fan to like 60% might help.

 

[davyjonesy]

the bboom! part is also very familar to me
black screen sometime with purple stripes and stuttering sound
an force to restart

it happen to me with Call of juarez 2 bionic commando and riddick aodt


my card is ati 4890...

 

[brett1042002]

You could possibly have some hardware overheating. What are your temps like on your CPU and GPU?

 

[X3no]

My temps seemed pretty constant my CPU runs around 52C under full load and the gfx card stays around 75-80C under full load but those temps have been around that since I built the PC.

 

[apache_lives]

i know! test your hardware.... you should already know that.

ATItool/Furmark
Prime95/Linpack

 

[X3no]

I managed to run Furmark for all of 5 seconds before artifacts appeared and it froze. Temp was at 63C.

 

[redwolfexr]

The last time I had this issue it was a fan issue, it could be that one component is not getting enough air.

Another possibility is that you have a bad memory module that is intermittent. If you have 2 memory kits try playing with one of them removed, then switch if the problem stays with you.

Make sure ALL of your fans are working, including the one in the PSU and on the GPU.

---
When my fan went it ended up damaging my GPU, I had artifacts but no more crashes after it was replaced. (I always use twin 120mm fan designs now) Fortunately EVGA replaced the GX2 that was having issues under warranty. (EVGA is my favorite vendor now, if only they made Radeons)

 

[X3no]

All the fans appear to be running and the temperatures seemed normal. I'll try removing one of the memory kits and see if it helps. I'm also going to test my 8800 in a friends computer tomorrow to see if it causes problems in his system as well.

My 8800 is also under warranty with EVGA so if that is all that's wrong I can get that replaced.

 

[X3no]

i know! test your hardware.... you should already know that.

ATItool/Furmark
Prime95/Linpack

I ran furmark and it artifacted and crashed my pc after about 5 seconds.

Then i ran Prime 95 and it crashed instantly.

EDIT: My computer got artifacts and crashed on the BSOD I didn't even think that's possible

EDIT 2: I tested my 8800 in another system and it caused the same issue so it's definitely a GPU issue right?

 

[apache_lives]

perhaps PSU or a globally damaged system, prime95 only tests cpu, memory and parts of the chipset and psu (and configuration) and ignores video card so if it fails you got issues especially if your video card also fails in other systems etc

 

[X3no]

My system has been stable for about a week with an old geforce 7300GS and I RMA'd my 8800GT. How would I know if i had a power supply issue? Because if the power supply caused the problems, I would like to replace it before installing my new card.

I did test out a friends Geforce 9600GT in my system without any problems however this was only for about an hour so I couldn't really test long term stability. With the 7300 Prime 95 runs fine and I haven't had a single crash since I installed it. The 7300 doesn't have its own power connectors like the 9600 and the 8800 did so I assume it uses substantially less power.