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Issues with my Nvidia Graphics card

Tags:
  • Nvidia
  • Games
  • MSI
  • Graphics
  • Windows 7
  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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October 13, 2014 11:07:56 PM

I have an MSI ge40 laptop running windows7 64bit, with a i5 4210m, 8 gb ram, and a gtx 850m graphics card. Every once in a while my pc games would have a weird graphical dot glitch like this, sometimes causing the game to crash (the dots are smaller and have blue,green,red,yellow dots): (https://register.msi.com/uploads/questions/question_252...)

The person who looked at my computer revealed no hardware issues, but insisted that I try keeping it running on windows 7 (I unknowingly purchased it as a freedos pc, supposed to have windows 8 originally). After he helped me reinstall my graphics drivers, pc games ran better, but the issue still happened a few times (not as much as before though). Now they say in order to fix the issue completely, I need to upgrade it to windows 8. What do you guys think?

More about : issues nvidia graphics card

October 13, 2014 11:28:21 PM

Hello and Welcome to Tom's Hardware

3 things can cause this and its in this order

1) Faulting Vram
2) Overheating
3) Driver issues

And it not usually 3 especially since fault has occurred in Windows 8 and 7

Overheating can be causing the faults in the Vram causing the pixel distorting

Get a Monitoring program to see what temps your Video card is at
October 13, 2014 11:31:47 PM

I've monitored the temperature before, it got to like (65c i think? but the temperature was no where near overheating) and I had a pc repair shop take a look and they said the card was ok. I'm suspecting if it really is a driver issue. Because since it was a freedos pc, i initially installed the drivers through the cd and the problem was quite common and even my desktop image was flickering! But after the shop reinstalled the drivers (integrated and nvidia), my desktop image stopped doing that and games ran smoother (even though it did happen like 2 times since though).

I also use a fan to keep my laptop cool too.
Related resources
October 13, 2014 11:38:38 PM

There is another fault that can happen with laptops
The actual screen controller chip.

I cant remember if it also controls the Video output or just the Actual Screen

Does it to the same if you plug in monitor?
October 13, 2014 11:40:35 PM

I don't have a monitor so I am not sure. I remember reading a few threads on the nvidia forums with people who had a similar issue too (they called "driver crash" or something). And they said the same thing as me, hardware checked out ok but same thing would occur. I'm getting really baffled too. Since I've living abroad I can't readily contact tech support and the repair shop I went to and nvidia support both say different things.

Shop: upgrade to windows 8, gpu is ok
nvidia: gpu is dead
October 13, 2014 11:57:41 PM

Do you have the latest Video Drivers installed?

If so re-install them and Select Clean Install
October 13, 2014 11:58:14 PM

Yes, its the latest, 344.11 I believe
October 14, 2014 12:19:12 AM

Steps to try

1) in Nvidia Control Panel - Turn Vsync on & Triple buffering on

2) Re-install GFX Drivers - Select Clean install option

3) uninstall GFX Drivers and Install an Older Video Drivers

4) Under clocking you card using http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/gui.htm

This will help determine if its a driver of VRam issue

If needed we can stress test the GFX but lets be less evasive to start with
!