Hard Crash, Screens Go Black, Video Card Toast?

[Joshua Gilbreath]

Hello all,

My computer has started hard crashing. The LCDs goes black only after a few moments in Windows. During the post screen there is some artifacting on the BIOS screen, not every time put pretty much every time.

After I do a hard restart or shutdown, Windows will boot back up and run, but not with the NVIDIA drivers. Instead it will run in a reduced resolution, and in the device manager the video card error reads as follows "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"

Once restating the computer again, everything will seemingly boot without issue, the displays will run at full res and everything will be copacetic until shortly after, I receive a hard crash and have to do a forced shutdown.

I have also noticed, presently (while the computer is running in a reduced resoltion, and stable) the fan on the video card is running constantly. Is this due to Windows managing the card instead of the NVIDIA drivers?

So, does this mean that my video card is on its last leg or dead, or could it be the motherboard wanting to keel over? I have tried rolling back the device drivers as well and it doesn't seem to make a difference in stability.

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you all,
Josh

 

[AdamCReifsnyder]

Hello Josh,

Seeing as you have already rolled back the drivers on your graphics card,
The issue is most likely a failing graphics card.

This can be tested by

1.) Removing the Graphics card.
2.) connecting the monitor to the onboard VGA / DVI port on your mobo.

If you do not experience any artifacting, and it runs stable for a few hours -
You should call up NVIDIA and ask about an RMA.

Cheers,

Adam Reifsnyder

 

[Joshua Gilbreath]

Thanks for the reply, the card was purchased back in 2010 so I doubt that I am under any type of purchase protection at this point.

I do not have an onboard video output for testing, nor do I have another video card to swap out for testing. Bleh.