8800 GT Problem

[unionplumber]

Hi, i am having a problem with my video card possibly (i think anyways) -

I was playing a game and it suddenly flipped and froze so i had to manually restart, now when i start up my computer it has random dots all over the startup screen and tons of numbers bleeding over everywhere, i am not sure what could cause this.

I tried installing other versions of the nvidia driver yet none work, it will blue screen if i even have any installed and automatically go to 800x600 when it should be 1440x900, i am able to get on in safe mode and uninstall/ try new drivers for the card but how can i possibly be sure that this is in fact a video card problem before i go and buy another?

- Windows XP 32
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @3.00GHz
Nvidia 8800GT
4GB RAM

If there is anything else you need to know please let me know, also if it is something to do with my card and i do need to replace it i would need to know which card would fit it, (here is my MOBO, i think http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2847)


there are 2 cards i looked at so far 9800gtx - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133246


and the 9800gt - http://www.frys.com/product/6030128?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

how much better would these be compared to the 8800gt? enough to justify the cost over an 8800?

Again thank you so much for all the helm and if you need anymore info about specs please let me know

 

[Deleted member 217926]

oh yeah i have that plug in! lol yeah my bad on the linking part, its in the first post though, if it will even fit in the same slot

You are good to go then. All PCI-X is compatable. Any PCI Express ( PCI-X ) card will work for you.
EDIT: Oh yeah you got a good motherboard. It should be a decent overclocker too if you ever want to get brave. The E-8400 turns up to 11 with good cooling lol.

 

[dokk2]

I dunno if this will help ,but, not too long ago I started to get funny things happening with my 8800gt,,so,,I opened tha case and lo and behold it was just a little too hot therein ,,so I extracted the card examined it and came to the conclusion that it was a heat problem,,so,as I had already replaced the generic gunk under the fan I looked at the rear heatsink ,now then it came with a very thick layer of some generic gunk which the heat giving parts had sunk into so far that they were up against the metal,,so,,I cleaned it all off and replaced it with AC5,worked like a charm,could be the same thing happening to you now,,or not...The rule of thumb for solid state electronics is that if they do not fail within the first 3 weeks of use they should go forever,maybe..

 

[unionplumber]

Hi, so as an update form last night - I purcahsed a card off newegg, one of those two linked earlier (one DIDNT have a return at all, so i got the one that was returnable within 30 days) i have tried to get it working again today and uninstaled drivers again in safe mode and reinstalled in normal mode.

Now the computer boots up without the weird dots at the first screen and the second black screen is all fine, but now that i get to login i tried starting Warcraft, worked fine got in game so i exited it, then i tried aion, as soon as i got to the menu my screen went black on the bottom and had part of the picture of the login screen at the top and started flickering all over and just froze (couldnt see my mouse moving at all), any idea if this is in fact the video card? or could it be something else instead?

before i posted this it again while just idle with no games running it froze up and started flickering around again also.


thanks again for all the help you guys have been

 

[smoggy12345]

To me it sounds like a motherboard problem if youre getting artifacts on boot up....either that or your graphics card is overheating or your PSU is failing.

How long had you had your previous card before it went funny???

 

[unionplumber]

Hi - I've had this card for about a year and a half, the mobo maybe 9-10 months, my startup screen just had tons of small pixel like dots everywhere, but now that i uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled they have gone away, its just freezing every now and then and the bottom part of my screen will go black and the top will stay the same, but it will all shake around and freezes up.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

You just tried to reinstall drivers with the old card right ? You dont have the new card yet ?

 

[unionplumber]

yeah this is the old card still new one should be in in about 3-4 days, but now that this si kind of? working i dont know if it for sure is the card, i mean it starts up goes to my normal resolution just cant play any games, i start up Aion, and it goes to the login screen then the screen flips out again and i have to restart, i went ahead and tried with burnout paradise and it played through maybe 3 mins then did the same

 

[Deleted member 217926]

yeah this is the old card still new one should be in in about 3-4 days, but now that this si kind of? working i dont know if it for sure is the card, i mean it starts up goes to my normal resolution just cant play any games, i start up Aion, and it goes to the login screen then the screen flips out again and i have to restart, i went ahead and tried with burnout paradise and it played through maybe 3 mins then did the same

Its either the card or the PSU.....might as well try the new card and rule that out especially if you can return it.
Download SpeedFan http://www.majorgeeks.com/download337.html and see what the GPU temp is. You can at least rule out the 8800 overheating . Temp should be under 100C ......less even at idle but from what I see this card runs kinda hot anyway.
You also may as well try reseating the card and if its really dirty cleaning it with a can of compressed air. DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner.

 

[unionplumber]

Hi- downloaded it and idling, ~64 Celsius have yet to try it in a game, but i am able to get on warcraft but it seems if i try to do anything straining on the computer it just gives out and freezes, i still cant get on aion only to the login screen then the graphics just flips and my screen gets blocky textures everywhere and freezes

EDIT: forgot to add, i have taken out the card and blew out my whole computer with compressed air

EDIT2: just restarted and ran the speedfan thing again, it seems if my computer is under any amount of strain it just freezes, i started it up and it froze again, wouldnt that signal something more towards my psu? just curious because i wasnt doing anything graphic wise, just starting the speedfan... and warcraft isnt very graphic intensive i wouldnt think, but maybe aion is too much (but even just the login screen) weird... im just not too sure, i hope i didnt make the mistake of getting a video card and it ended up being my power supply ugh, i really am clueless

 

[unionplumber]

Now im basically unable to even get in on normal mode at all, so im in safe mode right now posting this, because it will freeze ~2 mins after login, and sometimes even before

here is a pic of the speedfan and my process/cpu usage (keep in mind im in safe mode) if it makes any diff -

 

[unionplumber]

So now im looking for a power supply on newegg, can anyone recommend any under $50?

somethins just doesnt seem right if it is crashing without doing anything graphic-wise and just starting up seems to give out...and freeze, i dont really know how the psu is really meant to work or if it would just go out completely or what.

anyway like i said i have around $50 to spend on a power supply and dont know which one has all the connectors i need, etc, id also like to have one that would be able to power a gtx 260 or other higher end nvidia card in the future...again thanks

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Sorry for the late reply. A power supply is not something you want to go cheap on. I would recommend something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003 although thats not really enough for a 260. Its going to be hard to get a good quality unit for that price that will. Newegg does have the 550 on sale for 69.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 that should be enough for a GTX 260.

Corsair is about the best bang for your buck right now.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I just looked at that picture and the CPU is mighty hot........mine is idling at 25/26c right now with cool air ( like 65f ) blowing in the window and is overclocked a little...although I have a huge aftermarket cooler. Maybe the cpu is overheating......try reseating the heatsink and reapplying thermal compound. One of the reasons the E-8400 was so popular is it runs so cool. I wouldnt think it should idle hotter than 35c even with a stock intel cooler if its not overclocked.

Download CoreTemp http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/ its a better program for checking Core2Duo temps.

 

[unionplumber]

Hey, thanks for the reply, I downloaded the program but it says something about driver failed to load.

I went ahead and bought a PSU to go with the video card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

I asked in the psu forum which i should get, really didnt have the money for it but went ahead and got it.

It seems now that there are tons of more dots at the green mobo startup page that are yellow, and this is about 2x more than there were before, and at the black loading screen after it there is tons of more gibberish such as if i try to go into safe mode - tons of letters replaced like drivers would be tryvers in some lines and wind_ws, I dont know what it could be but i do hope it is the power supply or video card as now i have no money to replace my MOBO or chip if it is one of those.

I also have an aftermarket cooler on my processor (i think) its freaking huge, it sticks out so far that the fan on the removable case had to be taken off.

Dont have any thermal compound and am kinda clueless when it comes to messing with that big thing and the processor chip so cant do that yet.

I wish i had a camera so i could show you a picture of what i mean at the startup screens etc, its kinda hard to explain, but i also forgot to mention now i have 5 segments of 7 or so vertical lines that are very faint in the background... they are about 1-2px big and there are 7 small lines in the groups of 5.

Yeah it all sounds weird im sure, but thanks for all the help , i probably shouldnt be getting on here, but was checking the order on the psu...still processing.

 

[unionplumber]

Hey, graphics card just came in, i ended up going with this one, as the other one someone else suggested didnt have a return at all on it (in case my gfx card wasnt the problem) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150323

So i started up went into safe mode uninstalled old nvidia drivers then used driversweeper, turned off plugged new card in and no weird pixelated dots all over at the mobo startup page, then the bios screen, no annoying 0's everywhere, and finally i was able to make it back into normal mode without it freaking out and blue screening.

Downloaded new drivers and installed, then tested out Aion, works perfectly so far, very very smooth my other card was very choppy at times when playing Aion, but thats all gone.

I went out and god some thermal heat sink stuff at Radioshack last night because i thought i might try and put some on before the card came in but wow, i was unable to get the cooler thing off of the chip - i checked the temps in bios though for the cpu, and it was running at 21 celsius, running at 38 celsius now idling at windows as i type this message. (here is the big cooler thing i was talking about - http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?category_id=1623&product_id=2731)

Temps -


Anyways i thought i would come back and say thank you to everyone who helped, i really appreciate it, hopefully this will work now and stay working for a while, lol.

Oh, also another thing that i thought was strange, the new card i got didnt have a 6 or any number pin power plug in at all on it, it just ran straight off of pci-e, not too sure if thats a good or bad thing, and i still have the power supply coming too, im not sure if i should wait in case it could be the psu that did mess up my vid card or what and just taking a chance on this one getting messed up, lol.