What are the symptoms of a faulty/failing/dying/bad video card?

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spongeguar

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May 26, 2010
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I've done extensive amounts of googling on this, and I've never really come up with a definitive result.
So, I turn to the experts here at tomshardware!

Note that I'm just asking out of curiosity, and that I'm not actually experiencing hardware failure.

And is there any difference between buying a card that is faulty new, and having a gpu die over time?
 
Solution

Yeah exactly, it varies from card to card. I've seen all the same symptoms (artifacts, instability, totally dead) from brand new cards as ones that die out over time.

Of course, it's best (if possible) to try the card in multiple systems before declaring it's bad. A large number of returns are user error, system incompatibility, or system related, and the card can operate just fine in another rig. Occasionally a new card may not seat properly in one rig, but works fine in another. It may work when the mobo is out of a case, but not when mounted in a case (seating, pressure, twisting, grounding)..... Many people are too quick to judge a component is dead. If it's a bad card, the problems(s) should...

Cameron Keith

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Jul 21, 2015
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Hi. I'm also having a problem where my screen turns black, the sound is still working in the background but I can not get back into the game or back onto my desktop from the black screen unless I type alt-tab-delete and close the game down. I don't know if this is a GPU related problem, or just a driver problem. This problem only happens for me on graphic intense games, and the game that is causing the black screen problem is a game on Steam calleds Rust.

Any help is appreciated and it is not an overheating issue.
 

Msi_Junu

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Sep 22, 2014
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Hello, I had recently have games just randomly minimize (windows loses focus, Alt Tab itself). Don't know how well it relates to BSOD or freezing issues but there is a tool that tracks down the culprit. I have found this on the steam community after searching for a solution. Its called focus.exe. http://www.happydroid.com/focus

It might help find the culprit with BSOD as well...

My issue was an app for my Epson Printer that i had to go to c:/files and delete it.

The app basically tells you the last app or something that started to run when the game loses focus.
 

Szabolcs2313

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Apr 7, 2016
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Szabolcs2313

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Apr 7, 2016
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I had some issues watching youtube videos as well... At the beginning of the video, it makes a static sound and skips a bit, but towards the end I had no problems. This sound shows up altough very rarely when I play a game (Assassin's Creed Syndicate) also at the beginning at the welcome screen, but never in the game. Sometimes (again only a few times) when playing this game it froze for maybe 2-3 seconds but then everything returns to normal.

Here is what I have

Star Wars laptop
12GB RAM, 4 GB VRAM
2.3 GHZ Intel i5 cpu
Nvidia and Intel graphics cards
Windows 10 x64

Can anybody give me a possible solution??
 

rbroelle

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Sep 13, 2010
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I have something to say which may be value to some more people.
Ihave a gpu which is 5 years old, hence evrything in my pc is top notch quality but 5 years old. cpu mobo ram gpu everything.
Until now i had no issues whatsoever. Even got into overclocking a significant amount aswell.
recently my pc was crashing in a not so intensive game. The game csgo (counter strike global offensive)

The problem: My gpu looks like it tuned off so monitor went on standy, but game and sound keeps on going.

I personaly thought GPU was dying, (and maybe is) but after a long month i finaly added two more fans in my case.
One on the uoope side op the CPU and one in case blowing fresh wind in.

After that im currently even overclocked even higher, and game settings highewr as well no more crashes after the extra fans.

So i want to say think about trying to add fans, cause i think the mobo went too hot.

So my GPU is (maybe) perfectly in ok state
 

Robert_164

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Mar 5, 2016
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I've seen another possibility while working on a friend's computer. He had a problem where, every time he started the computer, it would run for a few minutes, then give a black screen until it was unplugged. The problem turned out to be that the fan attached to the graphics board was no longer turning, so the GPU didn't take long to overheat. No suitable replacement fan was available, so he had to replace the graphics board, even though the GPU had survived overheating again and again.
 

undouble

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Feb 23, 2012
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Well, age of any card is immaterial, but should be considered. Cards are electronic/electrical devices, built to "exacting" specifications (hold your thumb up to determine the wind direction)---so they CAN fail at any time. I've had cards out-of-the-box not display--just light up the logo. And I've had cards that still run after YEARS of use. Sputter-coating (which is the method used to create the circuit) is not perfect----any gap will expand with heat and possibly break the continuity of THAT portion of the card's circuitry----------which may not be noticed for days/weeks/months/years.---or it may NEVER fail!!! But----it IS electronic-------------and failure "is always an option".
 

mikef845

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Nov 18, 2013
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In my experience, this is usually caused by a loose monitor cable. Maybe the cable needs to be unplugged and plugged in again. Screw in the plug if it has screws. If it still does it, try replacing the cable if possible.
If it's not the cable, the monitor could be dodgy.
Is the video card power cable plugged in?
It's theoretically possible it could be corrupt video drivers. Re-installing might help.
If the above steps don't fix it, it might be time to RMA the card or do a warranty claim.