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Question New graphics card is having issues. (Windows 8.1)

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bford2660

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Jul 15, 2018
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Recently I bought a new graphics card because my old one was having overheating issues. However, I have had nothing but issues with it since. The card itself is a PhysX NVIDIA GT 720 2GB GDDR3. I use a pretty old computer. It's a Dell Studio XPS 8100 from 2007 or 2009 and I use Windows 8.1. I have run tests and checked the temperature of the graphics card so I know it's not another overheating issue. It has several issues, one being that it occasionally blocks applications. Another is that sometimes the graphics glitch out and do weird stuff. There is a third and final issue and that it frequently crashes and recovers. I have several screenshots. This is it blocking my Windows OS? It also does this with chrome and several games. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics drivers several times and uninstalled and reinstalled the card itself. In device manager, all of my processors have yellow "!'s on them. I have looked for solutions to these problems but most of if not all are for Windows 10. Please help!



This is it blocking my Windows OS.
Error.PNG


Below is the kind of visual glitches that frequently happen.
graphics_failingt.PNG
 
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Are you using a FRESH installed copy of Windows 8.1 OS ? Assuming the GT 720 is a new card, let's first try troubleshooting the OS files. Can you restore back your OS to some other point ? Also, I assume all your system files, device drivers, firmware and BIOS are fully updated ??

You might be getting this error, ""Application has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware"", which could happen if the OS files are either corrupt, missing, and/or damaged. But there are few other causes as well. For the time being, try running the "System File Checker" and the 'DISM' Windows commands

Type cmd in the search box. Then right-click on Command Prompt to select Run as administrator. Click YES if prompted by a User Account Control/UAC Window. Then Type sfc /scannow and press Enter. Wait for the scanning to be 100% completed.

After that, type the following commands and press the Enter key.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth (This command scans for component store corruption, but does not correct any issues).

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (The /RestoreHealth parameter runs a scan for corruption and attempts to repair any issues that it finds automatically).

Restart your OS after doing all this. I would also recommend scanning the REGISTRY for any corrupt/missing entries. If the issue persists, then we need to check the Hardware, or look for some other solution. Is that a brand NEW card ? There are few more tips to help resolve this issue which you are facing. But from the distorted image which you have posted above, it looks your GPU might be having some fault as well.

Doing a CLEAN and a fresh OS install won't hurt either. But keep this as a last resort.
 
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Sorry, I forgot to include this in the post. Last night I actually ran the scannow. Once it was done I tried to do the other two commands but they didn't work. However, I did get this from the scan.
unknown.png
The card was brand new from Amazon.
 
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bford2660 said:
Once it was done I tried to do the other two commands but they didn't work. However, I did get this from the scan.
unknown.png
The card was brand new from Amazon.
Click to expand...

Then there is something surely wrong with your OS. Check the CBS.Log file for details. Some corrupt system files might be causing this issue. You need to either repair, and/or do a fresh/clean re-install of the OS. You can find the log file, under this location, %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log.

Or better yet, type the following command, and hit Enter:

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

The sfcdetails.txt file includes the entries that are logged each time that the SFC.exe program runs on any computer. Or, open the sfclogs.txt located on the desktop with Notepad. The file will contain all the details of the scanned system files and information for files that couldn't be repaired.
 
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If you have personal data and files that you want to save, back them up to an external hard drive, USB thumb drive, SD card, or cloud location (such as OneDrive) before you begin to reinstall Windows. Do you have the original Win 8.1 CD and the key with you ?

I suggest you format your HDD/SSD, and then do a clean install of the OS, instead of repairing the OS. Try using the AOMEI Partition Assistant tool, if need be. These steps might help.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-clean-install-windows-8-or-8-1-2626254
 
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I was facing a similar issue before with my GTX 960. Found out the OS was corrupt. Follow the steps and advice which "metal messiah" has suggested. Also, use either Windows 7 or 10 OS. 8.1 pretty much sucks imo.
 
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Sorry for my absence, I've been gathering resources to do the system reset. First I had to get a flash drive to put the installer on as I did not have anything large enough. I got that today. I tried to do a system reset but my Product Key is invalid (the one on my computer shell). I have since tried looking for my product key on the computer itself and all I got back was "BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB." So now I'm stuck again.
 
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I've had instances where corruption happened due to a bad SATA cable. It's possible that when you added the new video card the SATA cable became loose, or even damaged (even though it make look perfectly fine). Most SATA cables are cheep garbage that fail if you breath on them wrong.

If you decide to re-install your OS, I would play it safe and replace the SATA cable on your main windows drive.
 
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Windows will let you download an installation to delete and reinstall your OS, as I tried to. However, it needs your computer's product ID and for some reason, mine doesn't work. The reinstallation would be fine but my product key is invalid.
 
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bford2660 said:
Windows will let you download an installation to delete and reinstall your OS, as I tried to. However, it needs your computer's product ID and for some reason, mine doesn't work. The reinstallation would be fine but my product key is invalid.
Click to expand...

Your key is invalid because the system came with an OEM copy of Windows, the Microsoft site is only for retail copies that you get at a store. The computer vendor supports your computer operating system not Microsoft. You will either need to contact the computer vendor for a set of disks, use the restore partition on the system to wipe it and get a clean setup, build your own install media from Windows if that is even working at all (you should have some recovery disk creator option) or find someone that has an OEM Windows disk you can use.
 
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bford2660 said:
Sorry for my absence, I've been gathering resources to do the system reset. First I had to get a flash drive to put the installer on as I did not have anything large enough. I got that today. I tried to do a system reset but my Product Key is invalid (the one on my computer shell). I have since tried looking for my product key on the computer itself and all I got back was "BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB." So now I'm stuck again
Click to expand...

Oh that sucks. Try to grab the OEM key as suggested above. I don't think any retail version key will work
 
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As it turns out, I have a volume license for Windows. This means that I don't really have a product key, hence why when I ran the tests, it came back as "BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB-BBBBB." So I need an actual product key at this point.
 
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Update: I was able to finally get a product ID and use it to reset my windows. After the reinstall, my processors do not have the errors on them anymore. However, I'm still having graphics issues that are the same as before, even after the clean reinstall. Are there any other fixes or reasons this is happening?
 
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