A Death in the Family? (Pink Bars = Bad Sign for the GPUs?)

[jon_the_faun]

Pink artifacts appearing when I wake my computer up. They go away after a couple of minutes of use. 3dmark test came back reporting healthy cards (x2 6970s); my score matched up with everyone else. I have never had a system crash because of this or experienced these little pink squares during games. Should I be concerned?

P.S. I've heard of cards showing these bars when they get too hot - is it possible for them to be witnessed at super cold temperatures? I live in NYC and my room gets really cold. Maybe they've gotta warm up or something and that's why they disappear eventually. They mainly appear in CCC when opened, and occasionally underlining the minimize, maximize, close boxes on the top right hand corner of a window.

 

[thently]

try updating you CCC drivers a new version came out a few days ago. It does sound like hardware issue but try drivers first.

Thent

 

[inzone]

The enemy of computer parts is heat so the colder the better. Unless your room gets down to -50c you don't have super cold temperatures and your video card would love to operate at 10 or 20 F.If the artifacts are only seen when waking from hibernation then there is no cause for alarm , if you started seeing them while playing a game then you could be concerned. It could be the monitor and not just the video card.

 

[jon_the_faun]

The enemy of computer parts is heat so the colder the better. Unless your room gets down to -50c you don't have super cold temperatures and your video card would love to operate at 10 or 20 F.If the artifacts are only seen when waking from hibernation then there is no cause for alarm , if you started seeing them while playing a game then you could be concerned. It could be the monitor and not just the video card.

Yeah, that was my initial thought. Could it be the HDMI cable? I know those things are delicate - I've had a few break on me in the past. Since the problem goes away after about 20 minutes of use, and only appears after a long night of sleep, I haven't thought to check and replace it - those things are 50 bucks!!! But could it be HDMI?

 

[inzone]

That's the kind of thing you won't know untill you try another one and you can get the HDMI cables for a lot less than $50.Do you have a DVI cable handy where you could try it to see , I know it doesn't carry audio but just to try it. Instead of putting the computer to sleep have you tried turning if off at night?

 

[jon_the_faun]

No. I should try that though. I'll try all of the suggestions above and report back with results. It will be difficult to get an answer immediately because the bars aren't showing up anymore, so in order to draw a comparison, I'll have to measure the period of time before or if I experience the bars again. I'll come back tomorrow.

 

[jon_the_faun]

Best answer selected by jon_the_faun.