Question Random Artefacts and Stops Responding

[SignalOne]

One of my PCs has recently started displaying random artefacts (appearing as blocks on the screen - see photo) and the entire system stops responding between a few seconds to a few minutes after booting up.

The graphics card is an Nvidia GTX 780 and its running on Windows 10. If I boot in Safe Mode, this issue doesn't occur.

I tried re-installing the graphics drivers, but the problem persists. I tried reseating the graphics card and replacing the HDMI cable, but also no change. This computer has been working perfectly for the last 12 months, during which time there have been no changes to the hardware; this issue only started occurring in the last week.

I'm trying to work out before I spend money on a new graphics card whether the graphics card definitely needs replacing or if there could be some other issue. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare graphics card to test with.

Any advice on things to test would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Full system specs including make and model of power supply?

Have you tried completely uninstalling display drivers using ddu in safe mode and then reinstalling the latest driver?

Do you have any warranty left? Unlikely but possible.

A vbios reflash may fix this.

 

[SignalOne]

Hi remixislandmusic,
Thanks for your quick reply.

Full system specs including make and model of power supply?

CPU: Intel i7 4770K 3.5GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 666MHz
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (Leadtek)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H-CF
PSU: Antec 900W

Have you tried completely uninstalling display drivers using ddu in safe mode and then reinstalling the latest driver?

Yes, with no success.

Do you have any warranty left? Unlikely but possible.

Unfortunately, no.

A vbios reflash may fix this.

I reflashed both the BIOS and Video BIOS and while I'm still getting the artefacts, the system has been running now for 20 minutes without everything stopping (which is the longest it has run since this started occurring - usually I only get up to 3 minutes maximum before it dies). I'm using this opportunity to install Windows updates in case that makes a difference.

Update:
While installing Windows updates a notification appeared stating that Windows had been blocked from accessing the graphics hardware. I clicked the notification hoping for more information, but the notification simply disappeared. I will investigate further once the updates have finished installing, unless anyone has any ideas in the meantime to try.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

In device manager does you gpu show an error. Likely code 43.

I had the same error and a vbios flash fixed that. Could be a hardware fault with the gpu itself.

 

[SignalOne]

Hi remixislandmusic,

In device manager does you gpu show an error. Likely code 43.

There is no error code showing in device manager - it says the device is working properly.

I had the same error and a vbios flash fixed that. Could be a hardware fault with the gpu itself.

I've now flashed the VBIOS twice, but there has been no improvement. The BIOS version (according to GPU-Z) is 80.10.3A.00.2F.

Thanks.