Did my 8800GT just die?

[daraf]

OS:Windows 8
Proccy: q6600 2.4ghz non overclocked
Ram 4GB corsair XMS2 RAMS
SMPS: Corsair VX450W
HD: Seagate Baracudda 160 GB
OS: Windows MC 8

Man this is so depressing, Right after i bought some awesome games from the sales

Yesterday after playing L.A Noire, I booted up Mark of the ninja when doing so my Computer Hung and i had to hard reset it, again after reset i try running the game alas windows 8 froze, so after the next reset i didn't start any games but again my windows 8 froze.

I thought something was wrong with the hard drive and used my other HD to install the OS, after installation, when computer booted for the first time, after a couple of minutes, again the whole computer froze, clearly my old hard drive or the new one wasn't the problem, so i removed my graphics card (8800gt) and i shoved in my back up entry level gcard and booted my system and guess what ? it booted just fine without any issues, so just to be sure i once again booted up windows 8 with 8800gt and windows 8 wouldn't boot past the loading screen, but after swtiching back to my back up card everything became fine.

Prior to this incident there were few issues with my card like drivers crashing and , i never have witnessed artifacts while playing games. once in a while the game froze and that's it but nothing like this. so is my card dead?
My graphics card temps were ok it was around 50 on idle and doesn't go beyond 65 or 70 on load
Also one more thing , my card is an alpha dog edition , so it was factory overclocked, and i was unable to play games as they consistently froze with the overclocked frequency's, only after under clocking the memory and core clocks i was able to play games.

Can some one tell me what caused this problem?

 

[Pinhedd]

OS:Windows 8
Proccy: q6600 2.4ghz non overclocked
Ram 4GB corsair XMS2 RAMS
SMPS: Corsair VX450W
HD: Seagate Baracudda 160 GB
OS: Windows MC 8

Man this is so depressing, Right after i bought some awesome games from the sales

Yesterday after playing L.A Noire, I booted up Mark of the ninja when doing so my Computer Hung and i had to hard reset it, again after reset i try running the game alas windows 8 froze, so after the next reset i didn't start any games but again my windows 8 froze.

I thought something was wrong with the hard drive and used my other HD to install the OS, after installation, when computer booted for the first time, after a couple of minutes, again the whole computer froze, clearly my old hard drive or the new one wasn't the problem, so i removed my graphics card (8800gt) and i shoved in my back up entry level gcard and booted my system and guess what ? it booted just fine without any issues, so just to be sure i once again booted up windows 8 with 8800gt and windows 8 wouldn't boot past the loading screen, but after swtiching back to my back up card everything became fine.

Prior to this incident there were few issues with my card like drivers crashing and , i never have witnessed artifacts while playing games. once in a while the game froze and that's it but nothing like this. so is my card dead?
My graphics card temps were ok it was around 50 on idle and doesn't go beyond 65 or 70 on load
Also one more thing , my card is an alpha dog edition , so it was factory overclocked, and i was unable to play games as they consistently froze with the overclocked frequency's, only after under clocking the memory and core clocks i was able to play games.

Can some one tell me what caused this problem?

It's possible, but due to the age of your PC it could also be the power supply or any other number of things.

Power supplies are usually the first thing to go.

 

[daraf]

Will it be safe if i upgrade to 650GTX?

 

[Pinhedd]

Will it be safe if i upgrade to 650GTX?

Any upgrade would be good, but first you need to test your system with a card that has similar power requirements as your 8800GT. If the power supply is at the end of its life (I've seen many systems with the exact same symptoms that you describe) then it may not be providing stable power to your system with a power hungry graphics card such as the 8800GT in there, but is able to provide stable power with a less demanding entry level card. Try swapping the power supply with another one if you can and see if the symptoms persist. Similarly, try seating the 8800GT in another machine. Once you find the common denominator, replace the faulty part.

 

[daraf]

Any upgrade would be good, but first you need to test your system with a card that has similar power requirements as your 8800GT. If the power supply is at the end of its life (I've seen many systems with the exact same symptoms that you describe) then it may not be providing stable power to your system with a power hungry graphics card such as the 8800GT in there, but is able to provide stable power with a less demanding entry level card. Try swapping the power supply with another one if you can and see if the symptoms persist. Similarly, try seating the 8800GT in another machine. Once you find the common denominator, replace the faulty part.

Sound Advice but heres the thing,

Sadly none of my friends have desktops , but My card was kinda faulty to begin with, when i first got the card it was overheating(Idling at 70 temps reaching 90 in games) like crazy and games would constantly freeze(the display gets garbled and freezes) so i got a diffrent heatsink and underclocked my card and then onwards i was able to play games without any hiccups for four long years(got my system in 2007) till the day before this problem occurred, and during the course of four years i noticed that my flash player was consistently crashing but once i have switched to my back up card the issue is gone now, so given that iam unable to test out my SMPS or my Graphics card is it safe to assume that my card is dead? so if i get a gtx650 ill be getting a new card with 5 years warranty(iam getting a zotac gtx650) so even if my card develops problem i can always RMA it and then change my PSU, since anyways i have to get a new graphics card.

 

[thiemo56]

Maybe try picking a gtx650 ti or a gtx660 otherwise you would not realy have a large upgrade.

 

[daraf]

Sorry price is a big constraint for me btw isnt gtx650 a worth while upgrade from 8800gt

 

[Pinhedd]

Sound Advice but heres the thing,

Sadly none of my friends have desktops , but My card was kinda faulty to begin with, when i first got the card it was overheating(Idling at 70 temps reaching 90 in games) like crazy and games would constantly freeze(the display gets garbled and freezes) so i got a diffrent heatsink and underclocked my card and then onwards i was able to play games without any hiccups for four long years(got my system in 2007) till the day before this problem occurred, and during the course of four years i noticed that my flash player was consistently crashing but once i have switched to my back up card the issue is gone now, so given that iam unable to test out my SMPS or my Graphics card is it safe to assume that my card is dead? so if i get a gtx650 ill be getting a new card with 5 years warranty(iam getting a zotac gtx650) so even if my card develops problem i can always RMA it and then change my PSU, since anyways i have to get a new graphics card.

Since you need a GPU upgrade anyway, I'd say go for it. Worst come to worse you need to get a new PSU as well.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Any upgrade would be good, but first you need to test your system with a card that has similar power requirements as your 8800GT. If the power supply is at the end of its life (I've seen many systems with the exact same symptoms that you describe) then it may not be providing stable power to your system with a power hungry graphics card such as the 8800GT in there, but is able to provide stable power with a less demanding entry level card. Try swapping the power supply with another one if you can and see if the symptoms persist. Similarly, try seating the 8800GT in another machine. Once you find the common denominator, replace the faulty part.

Whilst I agree that the card may have died, how is a power hungry card? 105 -112w is a heck of a lot less than the mid range cards of the current era require.

 

[Pinhedd]

Whilst I agree that the card may have died, how is a power hungry card? 105 -112w is a heck of a lot less than the mid range cards of the current era require.

The OP mentioned that he replaced it with an entry level graphics card, not a mid range graphics card. The 8800 GT may only draw 110 watts but that's in the context of mid range graphics cards in 2006, not 2012. Even in comparison to modern graphics cards which are drawing upwards of 250 watts at the high end, entry level cards still draw between 20 and 50 watts as they have for many years. His PSU is capable of delivering around 400 watts on the 12 volt rail, so even a 110 watt graphics card will deliver some serious pull that may be relieved by a less demanding entry level card.

 

[Mousemonkey]

The OP mentioned that he replaced it with an entry level graphics card, not a mid range graphics card. The 8800 GT may only draw 110 watts but that's in the context of mid range graphics cards in 2006, not 2012. Even in comparison to modern graphics cards which are drawing upwards of 250 watts at the high end, entry level cards still draw between 20 and 50 watts as they have for many years. His PSU is capable of delivering around 400 watts on the 12 volt rail, so even a 110 watt graphics card will deliver some serious pull that may be relieved by a less demanding entry level card.

The OP's PSU is more than capable of running a 110w card.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-VX450W-Power-Supply-Review/540/7

 

[daraf]

Thanks for the reply's guys,

Even if i get a GTX650 , the current generation cards have way more less TDP then 8800gt rite? so in a sense the gtx650 should consume less power but will be giving me twice the performance?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Thanks for the reply's guys,

Even if i get a GTX650 , the current generation cards have way more less TDP then 8800gt rite? so in a sense the gtx650 should consume less power but will be giving me twice the performance?

Yeah pretty much.

 

[Pinhedd]

The OP's PSU is more than capable of running a 110w card.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-VX450W-Power-Supply-Review/540/7

I never said it wasn't. Were it brand new I'd be a little less skeptical. However, PSUs heavily degrade over time.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I never said it wasn't. Were it brand new I'd be a little less skeptical. However, PSUs heavily degrade over time.

Again I question your understanding. I have two Corsair PSU's both of which are older than the OP's and I'm sure have been (and still are) under heavier loads and neither have degraded so much that a single card would trouble them.

@OP, your PSU is a good one as you made a great choice IMHO, my oldest Corsair PSU is over six and a half years old and shows no sign of degradation or failure.

 

[Pinhedd]

Again I question your understanding. I have two Corsair PSU's both of which are older than the OP's and I'm sure have been (and still are) under heavier loads and neither have degraded so much that a single card would trouble them.

@OP, your PSU is a good one as you made a great choice IMHO, my oldest Corsair PSU is over six and a half years old and shows no sign of degradation or failure.

Corsair is a good manufacturer but even a good PSU will still wear down. It will wear down less so than a generic el-cheapo power supply but after 6 years of constant usage I would not rule it out. I've had good Antec and Enermax PSUs exhibit the exact same symptoms described here while a midrange Thermaltake Toughpower PSU has been abused constantly for 6 years and is still running just fine.

Power mosfets and capacitors break down over time which changes the characteristics of the PSU in a negative fashion. These are just analog characteristics of the devices. It is foolish to rule something out as a possibility simply because it has a brand name label on it.

 

[daraf]

Best answer selected by daraf.