GTX 560 Ti Artifacts All of a Sudden

[wampamagi]

Hey guys, I've encountered an interesting problem that I hope doesn't warrant the trashing of my 560 Ti. Here are my rig specs:

My Purchase date: 9/26/2011
Place of purchase: Newegg.com
Product: 560 TI OC2 1024 MB
System information: Motherboard: MSI 750-G55
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 Black Edition Zosma
Memory: 2x2 GB PC 1600 G.Skill
PSU: Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply

I haven't had any major problems with the 560 Ti (over a year of ownership) until now. I packed up my desktop when my University classes got out, transported it to my parents house for christmas. I had no problems with the 560 until I set up my tower at home, where I experienced this strange artifacting upon booting, startup, and windows. I didn't change any drivers or anything really, so it could be the transportation, but I do that every month or two, with no problems until now.

Does anyone have any experience with these sorts of artifacts? Or perhaps if anyone has any words of wisdom for PNY's warranty policy, I am not yet sure whether it is under warranty still or not.

Here are some images I took with my phone to illustrate the artifacts.

http://imgur.com/bPbWD

http://i.imgur.com/MXezy.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0Yjjv.jpg

I welcome any questions or advice, I am really stuck here and hoping against the worst. Thanks in advance,
Nick

 

[wampamagi]

Update: I have been doing some testing to rule out possibilities, and I have a new hypothesis. I have another card, a 7800GT, and another x16 pci slot, so I have been testing the slots using another partition that has windows xp on it, which I know is stable and updated. The 7800GT has no artifacts on the bootscreen, only once it loads into windows it looks like this:

http://imgur.com/wLoha

So, in conclusion: 560 Ti artifacts in both slots, and with both partitions. the 7800 GT does the same thing. Onboard video works fine. Is it possible that my PCI x16 slots failed in some way? Is it possible for them to fail simultaneously? It seems strange that both slots produce the same results. I am thinking the culprit is the motherboard at this point, and I welcome any suggestions or observations.

Thanks for your time,
Nick

 

[quilciri]

Do you have a spare working video card to swap out to make sure it *is* the video card?

Assuming it is, there's a couple of possibilities I can think of.

1. the card may have come unseated durnig transportation. simply take it out, stick it back in.

2. the contact plate on the card's heatsink mave have come loose from the GPU. You'll need to take the heatsink assembly off the card, clean off the old thermal compound, add new paste, and stick it back on.

good luck!

 

[landerx74]

Last time I experienced artifacts like that I found out that my video card's memory went bad.

 

[quilciri]

The PCI-e slots share a single bus, so that one point of failure could potentially cause a fault in both PCI-e slots.

If you have another machine, try the 560 in it to verify that the card works; if so it is most likely a physical failure in the motherboard.

 

[wampamagi]

I may have responded to myself before you were able to see it; I tested with my other video card, a 7800GT and it produced similar results, on two different partitions, which should rule out any driver errors I believe.

I have tried my 560 ti in the other x16 pci express slot, so I don't think it's the seating. I hope it's not the heatsink, but I will keep that in mind as a last possible solution. Thanks for your time and consideration! Appreciate it!

 

[wampamagi]

The PCI-e slots share a single bus, so that one point of failure could potentially cause a fault in both PCI-e slots.

If you have another machine, try the 560 in it to verify that the card works; if so it is most likely a physical failure in the motherboard.

This is what I suspected Interesting, this has never happened to me, I will test the cards in my friends machine. Ultimately, I am happy because the motherboard was cheaper than the 560 TI. If anyone has any other suggestions or things for me to try, I am all ears.

Thanks quilciri!

 

[wampamagi]

UPDATE: I have installed a new motherboard, and sadly the same artifacts were appearing on boot. I didn't even make it into windows without artifacts.

Could this be a failing PSU? Both graphics cards require a +12v rail, so maybe thats the culprit? I am quickly reaching the end of my patience, I want this over with! If anyone has any insight or questions, or anything, I would really love to hear it.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[wampamagi]

It's not the PSU, I just installed a new one and tested it out.

What else could it be? Both graphics cards faulty? Should I oven trick the 560?

 

[quilciri]

As unlikely as it is for two seperate cards to fail in the same way, we've eliminated the other possibilities afaik. the only remaining things I can think of to to are

1. BIOS update

2. stick the cards in another machine.