Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 and Story of Distortion and Blue Screen of death

[Devilz_soul]

Ladies and Gentlemen. I need your desperate help.

First the setup I have (it’s some 6-7 year old rig though)
Windows 7
Motherboard: Biostar TP43D2-A7
Display: Nvidia GeForce 9800 Gx2, Driver Version 9.18.13.3523 – (Hooked up to Samsung 65 Incher through Dennon 2809-CI AV Receiver via HDMI output on the Graphics card)
Processor: Intel Quad Core 2.6 GHZ
RAM: 4 Gig
Sound: Razer Barracuda AC-1
Bios : American Megatrend

So the problem is that the display gets distorted as if the display drivers have stopped working. I am attaching the pictures of the symptoms to show how it really looks.

Initially, when I would unhook the AV Receiver HDMI Cable, attach a DVI cabled Monitor and the distortions would go away after a few restarts and I will then hook the HDMI Back up to the Graphic card. However, for last 2 days, the distortions just won’t go away no matter what I do. Its gotten to a point where the Win7 won’t even start in normal mode, it will give me a blue screen of death while starting up (Picture link Attached)

http://imgur.com/pOv40n1
http://imgur.com/JLnI71j
http://imgur.com/fJI16pE
http://imgur.com/5PEBut7
http://imgur.com/oFjHrC9


I have done the following

- Unhooked HDMI and started the rig in safe mode using DVI cable/Dell Monitor
- Used Air compressor can on the whole rig for any dust thinking that may be dust is creating connection issue in PCI Slots
- Uninstalled and installed drivers – Microsoft version. When I download the Nvidia 9000 series driver pack, it won’t recognize the Gx2 card at all :/. However MS one install the Drivers correctly with all the Nvidia tools

I have not reinstalled the Windows 7 yet because the distortion starts as soon as I switch on the computer (See picture of the Bios). Which means that the issue starts before Win7 even kicks in? Am I Wrong?

I am completely stumped and have no idea what to do next to diagnose and fix this issue. What I am thinking to do next is
- Check the power supply – But how ? I don’t have an extra power supply or rig to swap the power supply
- Check the Ram ?
- Wipe off Win7 and reinstall ?
- Burn the whole thing and just cry myself to sleep ?

I am attaching as many pictures as I can for you to see the distortion during bios, bootup, booted up (before the blue screen problem started happening) mode and also the blue screen of death. Here are the links to the pictures

http://imgur.com/pOv40n1
http://imgur.com/JLnI71j
http://imgur.com/fJI16pE
http://imgur.com/5PEBut7
http://imgur.com/oFjHrC9


Any help that you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

 

[dextermat]

you most likely have a defective card. It is old and you should change it. Probably suffered from overheating.

Trying to fix it is just beating a dead horse.

 

[Devilz_soul]

Dextermat,

That is quite possible. How should I confirm if that the card is busted.. ?

Quite honestly, I am thinking of changing the Motherboard as well to bring the rig to 21st Century really

 

[coozie7]

If you see those issues on the BIOS screen it's almost certainly the card dying, and since these issues are getting more serious that pretty well confirms it, especially since you've already swapped video cables/connections (the other main culprit).
Sorry, mate, the card has had a long and productive life, but it's time to take it to the recyclers and replace it.
This'll give you a good idea as to how strong the 9800GX2 is in relation to current hardware: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899-7.html
A full core upgrade will be expensive: Motherboard, CPU and memory will all have to be replaced along with the graphics card.
Depending on the licence you have you MAY need to purchase another OS, either way, it'll definitely be a good idea to reinstall Windows with such a massive upgrade even if you licence will transfer.
Intel are releasing some new stuff fairly soon, so I'd hold off on any massive upgrades just yet, at least see how the new chips perform before taking the big plunge.
If you're going to hold onto the current system the GTX750/GTX750Ti would make a superb replacement, if you're going to do the big upgrade (maybe later) you might want to consider something stronger to carry over.
All depends on what you're doing with the system...And how much of your credit card balance you are willing to spend.

 

[ceounicom]

Hey i don't know if you've found a solution or ditched it yet...but i have a similar old rig that i stuck a cheap refurbed 9800gx2 in, and it was all kinds of jacked up. Would BSOD running games, drivers would crash, etc.

Then i tracked down some older Gigabyte-distributed international drivers... distributed here

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2792&dl=1#dl

under their product ID for their 9800gx2 version =
GV-NX98X1GHI-B

Been running it for a couple of days now and its stable, finally. The performance has taken a hit, however - as they're older and don't utilize the latest gizmos, but i just wanted it to stop crashing. Worth a shot to try for yourself if you're about to pitch the thing. good luck.

 

[Devilz_soul]

For anyone that visit the thread. the issue is resolved. Geforce was faulty and I just changed the rig to a new one