PC freezes, screen turns into vertical lines

[Forgotmyemail]

MOBO: MSI 970A-G46
CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 BE @ 3.4GHz
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 2x4GB
HDD: WD Blue 1TB
GPU: XFX HD6870
PSU: Corsair TX 850W

PC keeps freezing and the screen turns into a bunch of vertical lines. I cleaned it from dust and ran Unigine Heaven, core temp is around 45C and GPU around 70-78C. I've formated and reinstalled Windows 10. I have the latest AMD drivers. I ran memtest but only a single pass, I ran each stick individually in their slots and I had no errors.

I suppose it's most likely a GPU problem but do not have a spare GPU at the moment so I figured I'd ask if it could be something else.

Image of vertical lines
Image 1
Image 2

Edit
It only happens when gaming, regular desktop usage has never caused this problem.

Edit 2
It just happened again during desktop usage, except the screen went all white and now when I try to start it the monitor just says "Input not supported".

 

[fudgecakes99]

70-78 is a bit high for a gpu if it's in idle. Under load thats normal. Gpus generally run hotter then cpu's. It could also be a psu problem try running occt to stress test the psu. http://www.ocbase.com/ Though i'd bet it on the gpu being bad. Do you have any other graphics cards on you that you can check on your motherboard. Have you tried moving pcie slots with the graphics card? Though radeon cards do tend to run hotter.

 

[fudgecakes99]

It could also be the monitor what kind of monitor is it?

 

[fudgecakes99]

Yeah all of this is pointing to a dead card. Try a different monitor and switching pcie slots. If that doesn't work it's the card hopefully its under warranty so you can rma.

 

[Forgotmyemail]

I'm gonna pick up another card from a friend later today. Can't start the PC atm because of the input not supported error. I'll switch PCIe slot and try a different monitor/cable. Could it be a CPU issue? Because the CPU is actually missing a few pins but it has run perfect for quite some time.

 

[fudgecakes99]

What do you mean the cpu is missing a few pins? Thats not a good thing yes it could most definitely be the cpu if its missing a pins.

 

[Forgotmyemail]

It's missing three or four pins along the side, but it has been running for over a year without those pins. Haven't touched the CPU since then, same cooler, same case and same motherboard.

 

[fudgecakes99]

well i don't know what to say, you must've gotten lucky or something. Maybe it sitll makes contact even without the full pin being their. Generally speaking thats bad. But if you say it's been stable for a long time without messing up then i'll take your word for it. Try moving the gpu over to a friends and see if you get different results.

 

[Forgotmyemail]

I'm getting an i5 4690k in a month or so, so it's getting replaced but it would be nice to have something running until then. I'll borrow a GPU and report back.

 

[Forgotmyemail]

I switched the GPU to another slot but it still gives me "Input not supported". It doesn't even seem to boot up. HDD LED is off and the keyboard/mouse doesn't start. Is this normal for Windows 10?

 

[Forgotmyemail]

I switched monitor, only monitor not cable and this is what happened it starts off kinda grey then it gets more vivid

 

[fudgecakes99]

I'm getting an i5 4690k in a month or so, so it's getting replaced but it would be nice to have something running until then. I'll borrow a GPU and report back.

why a i5 4690k. the 6600k is going to be the same price with an improvement? You want to keep the same 8gigs of ram? I mean you're going to have to replace the motherboard to fit the cpu either way, mine as well get some ddr4 ram?

 

[fudgecakes99]

Yeah it's the gpu then have you tried switching the gpu to a friends computer?

 

[Forgotmyemail]

I already have a 1150 socket motherboard just laying around so at the moment it'll be cheaper to go with the 4690k until I can make a bigger upgrade later this year.

I got a HD6970 from a friend, and on one monitor I still got those coloured lines who became more vivid but this time I noticed that it fully booted into Windows, which it didn't do before. On the monitor, the one who gave me the "Input not supported" it seems to be working. I was able to run a full Unigine Heaven benchmark, normally it would freeze at around scene 11/26. Was also able to game an hour or two with no problems so it seems to be working. Maybe the other monitor is just dead, it is quite old.

 

[fudgecakes99]

No it might have to do with the cpu. I wouldn't risk running a system if somethings wrong with it at least to that extent. I'd look at getting that 4690k first, before anything if the problem still persists after that it's most definitely going to be the card.

 

[Forgotmyemail]

Hmm, well it seems to run fine on the other monitor with the new GPU. The monitor with artifacts is almost 8 years old so it could be broken. But I just ordered the 4690k so I'll take a look at that monitor aswell when I've installed the CPU.

 

[pioneeraaron]

This seems to be related to the display driver. Get updated drivers from the manufacturer's website and check. Do swap ram's too, just to ensure.

 

[fudgecakes99]

Right, the gpu, but it could be host of other issues like missing a few pins on the apu. The problem with amd processors is all the pins are located on the actual cpu die. It makes bending/breaking pins really easy. Nice thing about intel is all the pins are locate directly on the motherboard so it'll be harder to break the pins. Just make sure it's lined up and drop it in. Either way if it isn't the 4690k. You should see a pretty huge fps gain in all your games. I'd say about 10+ fps each, easily. Just because of the updated micro architecture