Possible Graphcis Card Issues

[Ronyx]

Hi,

I think my graphics card has hit the fan:

While in a game of Warcraft 3, my computer suddenly froze up, and blue vertical lines appeared across the display. Failing to shut down the game or get any response from my computer, I had no choice but to manually restart it. Following this, it appeared to be functioning correctly and I begun browsing the net. This continued for roughly 20 minutes, after which time I left my computer idle, with a Firefox page open. When I returned around 30 minutes later the same issue occurred. This time yellow lines appeared across the entire display, with me able to move my mouse around freely. Once I tried to close Firefox, it immediately froze and once again I had no choice but to restart it manually.

Following this restart, during the initial boot up screen, random characters appeared scattered all over the monitor, with short, yellow, horizontal lines covering the majority of the display. Everything had boot-up normally, except that now I had lost the functionality of my dual-monitor setup, with the system favouring the smaller 19" Samsung display to my main 24" Samsung, which now was not displaying anything.

The vertical lines were still present, which lead me to believe it to be a graphics card issue as all other aspects of the system were functioning correctly. I then proceeded to download and reinstall the latest nVidia drivers for the XFX GeFroce 8800GTX currently installed in my system. Following successful installation and restart, the issue continued to persist.

It may also help to know that attempting to scroll a firefox window is unbearably laggy, with the scrolling being jagged, jerky and very slow.

Here are some screenshots I took of my desktop so that it would be easier to understand what was going on:

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/5148/computerscreentearing.png
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3383/computerscreentearing2.png

Please help!

Thanks,
Ronyx

[Ronyx]

Small update:

In device manager my graphcis card is displayed, but with a yellow exclamation mark.

"This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

I guess the issue is hardware related, not software related after all?

Anything I can do to salvage the card?

[SXRguyinMA]

try installing another card and see if it still happens. my monitor does that itself sometimes. it'll get random yellow lines that start at the top and work their way down, if I turn the monitor off and then back on it goes away. if you put a different card in and its all good, then you know that card was bad

[Luke122]

Also, make sure the fan on your card is running.

[XcOM]

as above, check for dust, re-seat the card and see if the problems percist,

if they do i would say either your card is gone, or the PCI-X slot is knackered.

[nevermind1534]

In my computer, I would have to turn up the fan speed on my 8800GT (I didn't have to when I first got it), then I sold it to a friend when I got my 9800GTX+, and it runs fine for him with the automatic fan speed.

[Ronyx]

Well after doing some fiddling, it seems like the card is gone. Excellent timing too, as the card died ON THE DAY THE WARRANTY RAN OUT.

The fan on the card jerks with life during start up, but the card itself remains powerless after this.

After giving up and replacing it with a Gigabyte GTS 250 everything seems to be fixed. I guess manufacturers really have a gift when it comes to great warranty timing.

Thanks to all who replied :) Your interest and comments are always appreciated.