- Sep 22, 2010
- 11
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- 18,510
A few months ago I was playing Baldur's Gate II again. Because I was running dual monitors, I would frequently alt-tab to futz with whatever was happening on the second monitor. For quite a while, this was no problem. Then, one day, I alt-tabbed and my main monitor wouldn't show a picture anymore. As it turned out, the port blew, so I connected the main monitor to the other port and had to settle for only having one monitor after that. That was with an 8800 GT.
Two weeks ago I built a brand new system with a GTX 550. Since I got it built the day before Mass Effect 3 dropped, that's basically what I've been playing, and it's worked fine. ME3 also had no issues alt-tabbing. Last night I decided to get in a little Tribes: Ascend action, and alt-tabbed twice during that. Both times the display had a hell of a time recovering to get me back into Windows, although it eventually did; the screen kept going black, then flicking on the display before going black again. Ever since then, any time the system is put under stress (ie. gaming, including ME3 which had been fine), after a few minutes the screen flickers black a couple of times, then goes black permanently until I shut the system down for a few minutes (presumably so the card can cool off or something similar).
I'm inquiring with Newegg about an RMA, but in the meanwhile, what in the world is going on? Is there something controllable about this problem? Do I just need to never alt-tab out of a game so as to not risk breaking more parts? I figured the first occurrence was a fluke because BGII is an old game, but now I can't help but assume this could happen at any time in the future. It would suck to never be able to alt-tab, though, because it's just too damned useful in terms of looking stuff up online while I play. Even keeping my laptop running isn't as efficient as a quick alt-tab, just because it's slower.
FWIW, I've had experiences with parts going bad due to an apparently shoddy electrical outlet. But I've lived in this apartment for three years, and nothing has ever broken except these two cards, with both happening at the moment of alt-tabbing from games. So I'm open to different explanations, but I don't see what else it could be.
Two weeks ago I built a brand new system with a GTX 550. Since I got it built the day before Mass Effect 3 dropped, that's basically what I've been playing, and it's worked fine. ME3 also had no issues alt-tabbing. Last night I decided to get in a little Tribes: Ascend action, and alt-tabbed twice during that. Both times the display had a hell of a time recovering to get me back into Windows, although it eventually did; the screen kept going black, then flicking on the display before going black again. Ever since then, any time the system is put under stress (ie. gaming, including ME3 which had been fine), after a few minutes the screen flickers black a couple of times, then goes black permanently until I shut the system down for a few minutes (presumably so the card can cool off or something similar).
I'm inquiring with Newegg about an RMA, but in the meanwhile, what in the world is going on? Is there something controllable about this problem? Do I just need to never alt-tab out of a game so as to not risk breaking more parts? I figured the first occurrence was a fluke because BGII is an old game, but now I can't help but assume this could happen at any time in the future. It would suck to never be able to alt-tab, though, because it's just too damned useful in terms of looking stuff up online while I play. Even keeping my laptop running isn't as efficient as a quick alt-tab, just because it's slower.
FWIW, I've had experiences with parts going bad due to an apparently shoddy electrical outlet. But I've lived in this apartment for three years, and nothing has ever broken except these two cards, with both happening at the moment of alt-tabbing from games. So I'm open to different explanations, but I don't see what else it could be.
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