Graphics card dying?

[jo]

Hi,

This is where I use the forums as my personal PC support centre :-).

My PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 ( I also run Vista and Win 7 on a couple of Macs ) running 32 bit XP Pro. I forget when I got it, but 2003 rings a bell. It has a Radeon 9800 Pro which I think may be in its death throes. A few days ago the boot screen started to look funny, an array of small grey rectangles across it. Then cursor and bitmap drawing ( i.e. icons, control, window widgets ) started going iffy. I was able to "fix" that by turning down the hardware acceleration setting. However OpenGL drawing then started to go bung across several different apps I tried, including TG2. The boot screens seem to be getting increasingly more corrupt looking. I've tried messing about with drivers, both the latest legacy ones and some older ones I had hanging about. It doesn't seem to be helping.

It did go bung after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, but I think that is more than likely a coincidence.

Has anyone experienced this sort of carry-on before? Does it signify my graphics card is on the way out? I haven't had one die before.

If that is the case, I'm thinking of replacing it with a Radeon HD 3450. I'm a bit constrained in my choices because I need an AGP card and I believe my power supply is only 300W and replacing it isn't going to be practical. The 3450 sounds fairly awful, but it has to be better than my Radeon 9800. Anyway, I have better cards in other machines. If it wasn't for the power supply I'd go for a Radeon HD 4650. Is there anything about my choice of a Radeon HD 3450 that sound silly?

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,

Jo

[Kadri]

Hi,

I have a 3450 on my Windows 7 now. It was a 4870  but it is on repair now.
This is maybe only a restricted  issue with my hardware or so , but windows is regularly stopping and starting the driver .
Basically what i trying to say is , it is all the time crashing . Sometimes 2 times in a minute and some times ones in 3 hours .
I had no such problem with the 4870 . Search the web if there is such a problem with this card , Jo .
I will replace it with my original card when it comes . So this is only temporary and not so important  for me.

But the things you say about your card seems like it is going to die soon. I had 2 such cards .
They had the same symptoms before they died . Bad rectangles like  a mosaic .
The seller said from a near distance as he saw  the capacitors , that the card was burned. The capacitors were swollen .

But maybe you have another problem of course .

Cheers.

Kadri.

[Henry Blewer]

I had this issue. I would say that it is time for a new graphics card. I was able to repair my Radeon 1300, but I would have preferred a new card. What happens is the card gets very hot around the graphics processors, and the connections fail. The first symptoms are graphical glitches.
I am lucky that I know a lot of tech people in town, One allowed me to use their equipment to fix my card. I found a better card at Dell earlier this week. It's getting hard to find stuff for my old computer.
Dust killed my 750 watt power supply. I had to put the old 305 watt in.

[marginata]

I had the same graphic problem with my Nvidia 9800gtx during the hot conditions we are having - day time temperatures in the high 30C and low 40C - and thought that the card was dying. Installed Rivatuner and increased the fan speed to 100% duty but the problem still occured and then became permanent

My work history has been mainly in the communications area and some times the edge connectors on cards become a bit suspect in intermittent faults. I removed the video card and cable from the screen as well and reinstalled them a few times. Moving the card in a seesaw manner in the socket can get rid of edge connector faults. This seems to have fixed the problem - touch wood

Maybe someone has touched the edge connectors with their fingers and contaminated them

Tighten, loosen and tighten the video cable screws a few times also and if the problem still exists try a known working cable before spending money on a new card

Hope this helps

[TheBlackHole]

I'm using an Nvidia GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS card and it's working fine. Of course, I only got it last year.

[Gforce]

Hi,

This is where I use the forums as my personal PC support centre :-).

My PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 ( I also run Vista and Win 7 on a couple of Macs ) running 32 bit XP Pro. I forget when I got it, but 2003 rings a bell. It has a Radeon 9800 Pro which I think may be in its death throes. A few days ago the boot screen started to look funny, an array of small grey rectangles across it. Then cursor and bitmap drawing ( i.e. icons, control, window widgets ) started going iffy. I was able to "fix" that by turning down the hardware acceleration setting. However OpenGL drawing then started to go bung across several different apps I tried, including TG2. The boot screens seem to be getting increasingly more corrupt looking. I've tried messing about with drivers, both the latest legacy ones and some older ones I had hanging about. It doesn't seem to be helping.

It did go bung after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, but I think that is more than likely a coincidence.

Has anyone experienced this sort of carry-on before? Does it signify my graphics card is on the way out? I haven't had one die before.

If that is the case, I'm thinking of replacing it with a Radeon HD 3450. I'm a bit constrained in my choices because I need an AGP card and I believe my power supply is only 300W and replacing it isn't going to be practical. The 3450 sounds fairly awful, but it has to be better than my Radeon 9800. Anyway, I have better cards in other machines. If it wasn't for the power supply I'd go for a Radeon HD 4650. Is there anything about my choice of a Radeon HD 3450 that sound silly?

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,

Jo

I know that the Radeon HD 4670 will run on a 300 watt psu stably if you have a high quality psu. I was considering buying it myself.

[penang]

Sounds like the RAM on the GC starts failing.

Take out the GC, use a brush to gently brush away all the dirt and grimes.

Then look at the RAM modules on the card.

It could be something inside the RAM module, and if it's the case, then you can't see anything from the outside.

But it could also be the connectors. Sometimes those very thin connectors got shorted or rusted or the solder kinda loose.

And if that's the case, try (gently) fix the problem.

Who knows? Maybe that GC will last for another 3 or more years before it finally conked, after your DIY effort.

Hi,

This is where I use the forums as my personal PC support centre :-).

My PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 ( I also run Vista and Win 7 on a couple of Macs ) running 32 bit XP Pro. I forget when I got it, but 2003 rings a bell. It has a Radeon 9800 Pro which I think may be in its death throes. A few days ago the boot screen started to look funny, an array of small grey rectangles across it. Then cursor and bitmap drawing ( i.e. icons, control, window widgets ) started going iffy. I was able to "fix" that by turning down the hardware acceleration setting. However OpenGL drawing then started to go bung across several different apps I tried, including TG2. The boot screens seem to be getting increasingly more corrupt looking. I've tried messing about with drivers, both the latest legacy ones and some older ones I had hanging about. It doesn't seem to be helping.

It did go bung after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, but I think that is more than likely a coincidence.

Has anyone experienced this sort of carry-on before? Does it signify my graphics card is on the way out? I haven't had one die before.

If that is the case, I'm thinking of replacing it with a Radeon HD 3450. I'm a bit constrained in my choices because I need an AGP card and I believe my power supply is only 300W and replacing it isn't going to be practical. The 3450 sounds fairly awful, but it has to be better than my Radeon 9800. Anyway, I have better cards in other machines. If it wasn't for the power supply I'd go for a Radeon HD 4650. Is there anything about my choice of a Radeon HD 3450 that sound silly?

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,

Jo

[penang]

I have a machine with HD 5870. I put a 800 W PSU on it, just to make sure that there are enough juice to run.

Hi,

This is where I use the forums as my personal PC support centre :-).

My PC is a Dell Dimension 8300 ( I also run Vista and Win 7 on a couple of Macs ) running 32 bit XP Pro. I forget when I got it, but 2003 rings a bell. It has a Radeon 9800 Pro which I think may be in its death throes. A few days ago the boot screen started to look funny, an array of small grey rectangles across it. Then cursor and bitmap drawing ( i.e. icons, control, window widgets ) started going iffy. I was able to "fix" that by turning down the hardware acceleration setting. However OpenGL drawing then started to go bung across several different apps I tried, including TG2. The boot screens seem to be getting increasingly more corrupt looking. I've tried messing about with drivers, both the latest legacy ones and some older ones I had hanging about. It doesn't seem to be helping.

It did go bung after installing Microsoft Security Essentials, but I think that is more than likely a coincidence.

Has anyone experienced this sort of carry-on before? Does it signify my graphics card is on the way out? I haven't had one die before.

If that is the case, I'm thinking of replacing it with a Radeon HD 3450. I'm a bit constrained in my choices because I need an AGP card and I believe my power supply is only 300W and replacing it isn't going to be practical. The 3450 sounds fairly awful, but it has to be better than my Radeon 9800. Anyway, I have better cards in other machines. If it wasn't for the power supply I'd go for a Radeon HD 4650. Is there anything about my choice of a Radeon HD 3450 that sound silly?

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,

Jo

I know that the Radeon HD 4670 will run on a 300 watt psu stably if you have a high quality psu. I was considering buying it myself.