Zotac GTX 970 white pixel issue

[TheRedPencil]

I'm writing this on behalf of a friend who has been having some issues recently with his computer. His screen is showing a white pixels across the screen (Image bellow) recently apparently it just happened out the blue.

So the stuff I know is that he his PC is relevantly new and was built early February 2016(System spec bellow) and he uses it for mainly playing games and watching Youtube. When he fist go the issue he restarted his computer and after 15 mins of just watching some Youtube it happened again. I spoke to him over the phone he said an Nvidia message came up but was unable to read it due to the amount of white pixels. We tried using a different monitor which just resulted in the same issue so I was led the believe that It was not the monitor I looked for some solutions and tried uninstalling the latest Nvidia drivers in windows safe mode via the uninstall programs feature in the control panel. That all the information I have so far apologies if this rather lacking but my friend is not very tech savy so it would best that I post on his behalf.

Specs:

Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive(Windows is installed on this drive)
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card
Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Samsung SH-224FB/RSMS DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 64-bit Operating System OEM DVD

I do not know monitor except its an Acer I will ask him when I next speak to him.

Picture:

 

[COLGeek]

Is he overclocking anything (CPU, GPU, memory)? Does this problem show up while in Safe Mode?

 

[TheRedPencil]

No he hasn't overclocked anything and when he was in safe mode the pixels were still present but they was not as many as in normal mode. The only thing I could up was that he has been playing the newest Farcry maybe that has to do with it , but no idea how it would affect it.

 

[COLGeek]

At this point, it really sounds like a defective GPU. If he removes the 970 and uses the on-board integrated GPU, does the problem go away?

 

[TheRedPencil]

Thank you for the response , unfortunately my friend does not know how to remove the graphics card as I built the pc for him and does not feel comfortable doing so even if I instructed him how to do it. In which I will be removing it this Wednesday and seeing if the on board graphics still produces the same issue . I will update this thread one I know the results.

 

[COLGeek]

Understood. Good luck.

 

[trotzilla]

@RedPencil
Have you found a solution or cause meanwhile? I've got the same problem with my nvidia gtx 970 since january, but it happens only once in a month or so. I was not even playing but also just watching youtube and surfing for about half an hour after boot. Happened in Windows 7 and 10, and it wasnt a hot summer day, didn't overclock either.

I'd be glad if someone found a solution for that. I just updated the driver, but since I can't reproduce it deliberately, it isn't easy to say if that was the problem.

 

[TheRedPencil]

@trotzilla

We did not find a in house solution and in the end my friend had to return it to the retailer for a replacement card. If your card plays up rarely I would advise you contacting the retailer that you bought it of and see about getting it repaired/replaced as it sounds like a defective card. Sorry but I was not able to find any other solution.