More video card problems...

[Indybird]

I sure am in this subforum a lot. I wish I didn't have to be, but I have so many problems and you guys are usually so helpful. Thanks for bearing with me... :)
Neeways...to the problems at hand.

1) My friend got a Palit 9600GT Sonic 1GB about 2 weeks ago. It's been running perfectly fine, playing all kinds of games no problem. All of sudden, when he went to play a game it started lagging to hell (<5 fps) when it had been running fine just before. No settings had been changed anywhere, it just started happening. And the card only struggles in 3D applications, windows is fine. Any ideas? Bad card? Bad drivers?

2)He also noticed that recently his monitor has been displaying small artifacts (for lack of a better word) around everything displayed on his screen (BIOS and Windows). It comes and goes, but when its there its very noticeable and annoying. Would could be causing this?

Once again, thanks for (reading all that, and for) the help in advance.

-Indybird

[crenn]

Things that come to mind is check the heat of the GPU and also see if reseating the graphics card (unlikely) will help.

[doug91]

Check to see that the GPU isn't shutting down due to heat or lack of power.
That may be causing you problems as the computer switches to onboard graphics.

Otherwise check to see your drivers are compatible with your OS and are properly installed

[Indybird]

Thanks for the replies, but I forgot to mention something.

The graphics card had been running perfectly fine for almost two weeks, and then those two problems started happening around the same time (not exact same).

He seems pretty sure that the flickering/artifacts are a problem on the monitor itself.

Thanks again,
Indybird

[Eclecticos]

Sounds like its overheating. . I would RMA it quick!

[Indybird]

I just MSNed him, and he said that Rivatuner reports 65C when he goes into a game then lags, so I don't think its heat.

Thanks for the responses,
Indybird

[HackSore]

It definately sounds like a problem with the actual card, i had the same issue a while back with a HIS 512mb radeon card, pretty much the same problem, i installed it, it seemed ok for a while, tried to play some counter strike source and it was just lagging horribly, but it was ok when navigating windows.
I sent it back and the second, and if i remember correctly, third replacement cards gave exactly the same problems. thats the day i switched to Nvidia and never looked back!

But my advice would definately be to send it back if he can and get a replacement.

If at all possible, check the card in another machine to verify the problems are with the card, though i find it unlikely that it would be caused by anything else.


Check to see that the GPU isn't shutting down due to heat or lack of power.
That may be causing you problems as the computer switches to onboard graphics.


If the GPU was shutting down, without changing the monitor cable to the onboard graphics output, he would be left with no display, rather then the lagging and artifacting he is experiencing.

[Luke122]

I think what doug91 meant to say was that it might be throttling the GPU due to heat. I'd switch the monitor first, and see if the artifacting continues on another monitor. If so, try a diff GPU, and see what happens. Same trouble = something else. No trouble = RMA the card.

[xRyokenx]

Checking this may void the warranty but I've seen and been told about a various stuff from laptops to video cards where the thermal paste isn't applied properly. In every case, the person putting the heatsink on the card didn't remove the paper that's over the thermal paste and the paste was usually dry, like chalk.

I had an 8500GT with that problem and another friend of mine did some work on a laptop and the CPU didn't have the paste applied properly.

[Indybird]

Like I said in my post above, I think we can rule heat out as a problem because it only got to 65C before and during the lag, but thanks for the replies and troubleshooting.

Im going to try checking the card in my machine to see if the same thing happens. Luckily this cards only about 2 weeks old so if it is bad then we can RMA it.

-Indybird

[Luke122]

Wrong slot on the motherboard? I'm just throwing out ideas now..