Graphic drivers issues + Blue Screen of Death (Windows 7)

[safesite]

I (apparently) got issues with my graphics card and/or graphics drivers that have persisted for the last 3-4 weeks.

It all started with a freeze of the screen when in the menu of a BETA-game (Rome - Total War). As I left the pc for two minutes and returned, the game being in its menu at the time (not playing) suddenly had frozen to a halt. Alt-Ctrl-Del didn't help as the pc didn't respond thus the only way of recovery was to force a reboot with the tiny reboot-button on my desktop machine.

After this reboot the screen, logo and graphics of the BIOS already looked awkward with lines of green dots leading vertically through them as well as other 'funny looking squared objects' of purple color etc. at the boot sequence.

Herafter and when entering Windows boot the monitor had a black thick 'frame' around the Windows desktop which initially wouldn't go away. Several reboots and attempts of adjusting settings within Windows wouldn't yield any positive results. Thus a system restore to the last 'good know state' of Windows was performed. Apart from having to reinstall several Windows updates the system seemed to be - initially - working fine again as the black frame and other graphic discrepancies had disappeared.

However after a short while the screen continued to freeze randomly again which led to additional system restores. In the end it seemed obvious that there was a more serious issue with the graphics drivers after the first crash, since it was impossible to play games as they either would shut down after a few seconds or at times be only playable for up to 5 minutes, just to crash and freeze subsequently.

After searching the net and reading about others' experiences I decided to completely uninstall and then reinstall all graphics drivers plus the 'NVIDIA GeForce experience' and the like. This seemed to help for a short while but after the initial success problems started occurring again. Sometimes that meant crashes when using too many tabs in Google Chrome and at the same time using Google Street View extensively (in the latter case the images would freeze and be displayed with grainy rainbow colors after the crashes occurred). Sometimes the screen would just display squared, flickering, random blocks at the edge of a minimized browser and other similar awkward behavior speaking in terms of graphics.

Today the latest worry came when the system crashed with a 'Blue Screen of Death' informing me of a NVIDIA driver issue (I forgot to take a photo of the incident but will do so and post it here if this happens again).

While searching the net for possible reasons for the above I stumbled upon some advice to test the graphics card using a stress test from this site https://www.raymond.cc/blog/having-problems-with-video-card-stress-test-its-memory/. I chose the first tool on the list called 'Video Memory stress Test'. However after running the tool 4-5 times the results show no physical damage to the card at all.


My question is now:

1. What could the real cause for the issue be or what could have caused the present behavior?

2. I am unsure if this issue is related to physical damage/wear and tear of the graphics card throughout time or if this is 'only' a software issue. Some people on the net suggested to others with similar problems, that it could be related to software issues and that - although faulty drivers would be reinstalled freshly - Windows could still have been affected permanently by their failing behavior and therefore act 'weird'. If this were to be the case a fresh reinstall of everything including Windows was recommended. Since I am on a limited data plan and this is an enormous hassle for me in all thinkable ways I would like to make 100% sure first if the problem is related to either the hardware or software.

As a side note..., this machine was bought in 2008 and thus has been running smoothly until this mishap for a number of years - in other words, it isn't entirely new but it has never ever failed me before. I am writing this post on the very same machine I got problems with and the resolution is fine at this moment (or at least while not stressing the graphics card with heavy graphic jobs such as games, videos, 3D etc. What could also be of interest here is that I can use FreeCAD - a free CAD solution - spinning a simple CAD-model in a quick manner around its own axis without the system ever crashing).

I am posting the machine's specifications here as well as other information that might be of importance in order to resolve this mishap...

All input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.


Summary
Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz 27 °C
Wolfdale 45nm Technology

RAM
4,00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)

Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5K (LGA775) 40 °C

Graphics
HP 2310 (1920x1080@60Hz)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+ (ASUStek Computer Inc) 60 °C

Storage
232GB Seagate ST3250310AS ATA Device (SATA) 35 °C

Optical Drives
ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device
HUAWEI Mass Storage USB Device

Audio
Device High Definition Audio

 

[MrWillyP]

ok, ive actually had this issue before with a radeon hd 4850, the odd colors and shapes you were seeing is called artifacting, it tends to happen if an overclock stretches too far or a graphics card is failing, the fact that you could boot it outside of safe mode is actually astonishing. I have a couple of things i need you to try/ some potential fixes.

1. try pulling the card and cleaning the contacts with isopropyl alcohol, let it dry and see if that fixes it. if it does good, if you see damage on the contacts then its dead.

2. make sure the card is seated properly, this could be an issue where its just not connected fully

3. try the card in a different desktop if possible, If it works after installing the drivers and using it under some sort of load. (games, rendering, etc.)

4. pull the card and try to use the onboard graphics to boot the pc, if the problem ceases to exist then the gpu is dead.

5. if the card still doesn't work then it is more than likely dead, something happened inside of it and it failed.

6. the last thing i have to say for it is you have 1 chance to fix it. DO NOT do this if you have a warranty, and don't do this if you ever plan to use the oven you do this in again. You basically cook the gpu, pull off all of the plastic you can, back ports and pcie power wont come off, don't try. then put the card in an oven you never plan to use again (gasses will be expelled you don't want in your food). heat it to the temperature it takes to melt the solder on the gpu, you can find this online, just search it up. then pull if out of the oven after a couple minutes put on all of the plastic, re apply thermal paste, put on the heat sink and try it out. if it doesn't work well, at least you tried, but if it does, congrats you revived the dead.

I should mention that this isnt practical, and honestly just dont do it, the card isn't worth the time this will take. I would just stick with the onboard graphics until you can afford to upgrade your pc to something you really want to use. your pc is on the older side and just buying another one of this card, or adding another one just wont help it in the long run.
sorry this happened to you =(

Best of luck,
Will

 

[safesite]

Hi Will and thanks for getting back so fast and for your input.

I can try out topic 1 (need to buy some isopropyl alcohol first though in one of the days to come), 2, 4 and 5 with ease. 3 is out of my reach since I do not know anyone who would have a stationary compatible pc and 6 is - as you pointed out - maybe a bit extreme apart from the fact that I lack an old oven as well (I should have kept the last one when I moved flats 😉).

There is one thing though, that confuses me here...

Let's say we could declare the card dead or failing after running through the above mentioned topics. Why would the tool for testing the graphics card that I ran return no physical errors at all? Shouldn't it detect something..., anything? And if the card would be flawed shouldn't the stress test alone from that program make the artifacting appear or freeze and crash the OS again? Does this - in other words mean - that these type of programs cannot be relied on 100%? And what is your personal opinion about those tests? Do you know of a better alternative program that could - without a doubt - detect those physical errors should they exist on the graphics card?

But again..., let's say all of the above is true and the card is damaged or starting to fail and we can establish this as a genuine fact. In this case I would be forced to decide between two possible solutions to the issue.

1. Buy a brand new pc while only keeping the rest of the hardware such as mouse, keyboard, screen etc. and get rid of the present one plus installing everything again from scratch like Windows, drivers and so on.

2. I would have to see if I could replace the graphics card with an alternative one. In that case I'd most likely have to google this extensively though based upon the motherboard and even then it seems that I would have to be lucky in order to find a compatible card. As you pointed out the machine is quite old and I guess it's hard to get compatible hardware for a motherboard that is more than eight years old. So would your final recommendation be to forget about it and just choose the first solution instead?

Looking forward to your reply.

 

[MrWillyP]

I'm assuming that you were testing it with some sort of benchmarking system. As far as I know there is no software that will detect what is exactly wrong with the hardware, Hardware is pretty picky with that kind of thing. when it comes to gpus the stress test should be enough, but if the card didn't get hot enough the resistance to electricity is still pretty low, excessive heat would definitely show it again.

However here's something that you should do, load the computer into safe mode, fully uninstall the drivers for your gpu, (Windows is fine there shouldn't be any damage to it, if you have to you can restore windows, you do not need to buy another copy of it. just back up your files as they should end up being erased.) then reboot the computer with regular version of windows and re install the appropriate drivers off of their website (the gpu should be in the pc right now btw) then if it works, you shouldn't have an issue, if you still do then the card is for sure broken. look 8 years of use on a gpu is allot and frankly its to the point where you should be on a newer card anyway, the makers of the cards usually account for them being used around the 5 to 7 year mark at most.

also when upgrading gpus the pcie x16 slot you have is just fine for any newer card pcie is backwards compatable. the only question is if you have a powerful enough power supply for the next card. I would like to mention that if you decide to build a new pc then you can still use your old hdd with its windows, you just will need the drivers for the new parts (get them from the website, they are better than the discs) this is what im doing for my current build. also if you just want the same performance the geforce 9800 is really cheap right now, but i would get something a bit more powerful as you will just get more from a newer card.

In conclusion, if the card doesnt respond to the fresh install of the drivers from the website (after you uninstall the old ones from your pc in safe mode) and youve done all of the steps to make sure everything else is correct then the card is dead. and i could point you to some good options for you, in terms of gpus. I also need to know what the wattage of your psu is.

Hope this helps,
Will

 

[safesite]

I used the link in my first post and the first tool from the list of that website to do the benchmarking of the graphics card (you can have a look up there if of interest). The name of the tool is 'Video Memory stress Test'.

I also got the isopropyl alcohol yesterday and just tried out the cleaning instructions for the contacts of the card (only the card not the pci port in which the graphics card enters on the motherboard) from this link...

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/what-to-do-if-your-computer-doesnt-turn-on/5/

...first with an eraser, then brushing away all the eraser rubber from the card with a toothbrush and after that cleaning the contacts with yet another toothbrush dipped in the isopropyl alcohol (boy do I have a headache from those fumes ) after which I used soft toiletpaper to dry the contacts. I even let the contacts air-dry for about half -an-hour before inserting the card and booting up the pc making sure it was solidly inserted and well-attached to the motherboard before doing the reboot.

The result..., the BIOS and animated Windows logo all showed up nice and neat, I even managed to get a quick peek at the Windows Start bar in the bottom (with clock etc.) just on a black desktop background before the whole screen went black with random green dots (artifacting). I tried to reboot a second time and ended up with the blue screen of death reporting a 'stop error' for some nvidia related dll-file. I then rebooted a third time - BIOS working neat but no Windows logo - instead of artifacting a bit and then going into recovery menu. After a few seconds system automatically continues and goes to Windows logo animation and actually ends up at the login screen. Continuing with logon from there a popup reporting about the crash comes up as well as the actual desktop but with a lot of artifacting on the desktop (blinking random squares all over).

I think it's pretty certain now that the card is faulty and might stop working completely soon.

It wasn't possible for me to try out topic 4 from your first post (pulling the card and using on-board graphics) simply because there isn't any on-board graphics option or alternative way to connect the monitor. The only video port is provided by the NVIDIA card to which the DVI-plug connects. Thus unfortunately a no-go...

I doubt that uninstalling and reinstalling the NVIDIA drivers in Safe Mode would help considering all of the above. It's 99,9% official. The card has reached its end-of-life period and is going dead I think.

What do you say...?

If you agree with my judgement I am honestly not interested in wasting money on a system so old by buying a slow graphics card just to patch the machine in question. In fact I'd rather spend money on a completely new machine, keeping the monitor, mouse, keyboard etc. and selling or getting rid of the old one. It just seems to be a smarter move after eight years.

Until then I can manage with my laptop from which I am writing right now and since I do have the cash needed I reckon it won't take a long time until I got a new machine to replace the old one. I don't really care about the Windows system or the harddrive etc. I got an external drive to which I usually can or already have been backing up all important data, so no problem there. I can even get an original Windows 10 for free so also that wouldn't be a problem at all.

You were mentioning something about some advice in regards to buying a new system and good graphics cards. I haven't recently informed myself about the present situation regarding graphics cards and in terms of what is hot and what not. So maybe, you could give me the heads-up on what is out there and what would be a good choice?

 

[MrWillyP]

The graphocs card is dead, the artifacting shows that especially after cleaning, sorry.
I can definately help you with a build, i need to know your budget, willing or not to buy used parts, wether or not you want to use your old case, (use the old hard drive if it is sata.) And then buy a second one, it will save cost on new windows if you have the 25 digit key for windows

 

[safesite]

Hi again Will,

and thanks for your reply.

Well..., I will not recycle anything from the old machine (except for the other hardware like monitor etc.) and I will go for new parts only when getting a new machine. I am unsure as to whether it is possible to reuse the old case (I am thinking of possible issues with fitting new parts like PSU, USB etc. here) but I will check with the computer store where I bought the desktop pc. They should be able to tell me.

In regards to Windows and the HDD I will just wipe the drive clean and then sell the old machine in pieces or as a whole. The Windows OS - as mentioned previously - won't be a problem since I can get an original Windows 10 for free.

Also I like to have only one physical harddrive in my machine at any given time. Speaking of budget I cannot tell you precisely how much I'd like to spend but I will use the same strategy I used when I bought the present machine 8 years ago. If we distinct between low budget, medium and high-end budget I tend to buy good but not the absolute top - in other words I buy parts that are financially placed somewhere between medium and high-end budgets. The idea is to still get good parts that might cost a bit - although not high end - but that last for as long as..., well maybe 7-8 years making the pc great quality at an initially high price but making it very "cheap" in the long run due to the long life-time (no hassle of a slow machine for some time as well as quality parts lasting much longer and performing well for a long time).

The investment I am looking at would be somewhere between 530-630 GBP. One thing I am already certain about now is that the new machine either should have a 256 GB or a 512 GB SSD which will be a must. The latter one I have seen as low as 115 GBP a couple of days ago.

However the question of which graphics card to pick and which are out there right now worth looking at, how much memory they hold etc. etc. etc. I would be really happy hearing from you.

Just shoot from the hip...

 

[MrWillyP]

ok so sorry it took me so long to reply, work has been a little rough, I will give you a build that should work, and would look nice as well, if properly cable managed.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7TPs6h
heres the build i came up with its about 970 USD, but you can bring it down dramatically by dropping the disk drive and using your old hard drive with your copy of windows (you will need your windows product key though) Hope this helps!

If you want a lower end build i can make one for you

 

[safesite]

ok so sorry it took me so long to reply, work has been a little rough, I will give you a build that should work, and would look nice as well, if properly cable managed.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7TPs6h
heres the build i came up with its about 970 USD, but you can bring it down dramatically by dropping the disk drive and using your old hard drive with your copy of windows (you will need your windows product key though) Hope this helps!

If you want a lower end build i can make one for you

Hi MrWillyP!

I know, that it's been a while since I created this thread but your help was invaluable and I would hereby like to thank you so much for the time and effort you took to aid me with my problem.

After my graphics card on my desktop pc gave up, I decided to just get a good laptop (Acer Aspire V Nitro) which I currently need for my studies. However, I might get another desktop machine at some point in the future and thus, will keep your advice and suggestion for the new machine in mind.

Thanks again for your help and Merry Christmas to you.

 

[MrWillyP]

ok so sorry it took me so long to reply, work has been a little rough, I will give you a build that should work, and would look nice as well, if properly cable managed.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7TPs6h
heres the build i came up with its about 970 USD, but you can bring it down dramatically by dropping the disk drive and using your old hard drive with your copy of windows (you will need your windows product key though) Hope this helps!

If you want a lower end build i can make one for you

Hi MrWillyP!

I know, that it's been a while since I created this thread but your help was invaluable and I would hereby like to thank you so much for the time and effort you took to aid me with my problem.

After my graphics card on my desktop pc gave up, I decided to just get a good laptop (Acer Aspire V Nitro) which I currently need for my studies. However, I might get another desktop machine at some point in the future and thus, will keep your advice and suggestion for the new machine in mind.

Thanks again for your help and Merry Christmas to you.

No problem! but when It comes to the pc partpicker build I set up for you, It's pretty out dated now, so I'll go ahead and give you a new one real quick.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hZsjRG

something to keep in mind, the full price can be a little different, you don't need the hyper 212 and you don't need the extra set of hyper x fury ram, or the sandisk ssd. Also the motherboard is splurging just a little, so you can do a little bit lower. I also over sized the power supply so if you want to lower that to a 500 watt then you can, but keep it at 80+ silver or higher. I recommend EVGA power supplys. but if you want a more powerful graphics card then the GTX 1070 and 1080 are great choices!
also Merry Christmas to you too!