Computer lockup - Graphics Card?


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Hello everyone, my pc has been randomly locking up, with weird glyphs or artefacts covering the screen, which appear to have some relation to what was on the screen at the time... for example, the image below seems to be part of the mouse and a webpage...

DSC00480.JPG

I think this could be caused by the graphics card, but could it be caused by the power supply not giving enough power to the graphics card?

Please can somebody advise as to what the problem could be?

EDIT:

Specs:

* Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 2.8GHz

* 768MB Kingston RAM (512MB, 256MB)

* nVIDIA Geforce 6800GS - Point of View

* 2x120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7/9

* MSI MS-6701 Mini-ATX Motherboard

I think :D

Edited by d4v1d05
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  Wannabe said:
Specs?

Updated gfx card drivers?

Tried running a live Linux CD and see if the same error occurs?

Should've pointed out I'm running XP and Fedora Core 6 dual boot... It has happened on both of them, I've put the specs in the post now

When was the last time you cleaned your card? Those 6800xx heatsinks get clogged very fast (8 - 12 months) and when I say clogged I'm talking 2-3mm of dust stuck in every fin around the fan intake. Which means your card gets zero cooling and is running practically like a passive card.

Step one. Take the card out check it for dust visually inspect it. The 6800 coolers usually have a face-plate with 5 screws that you can remove to visually inspect the entire heatsink fins. Helps when cleaning.

^^^ Amen!

I burned up my first video card because of clogged fan. It weirded out the screen a lot as it was dying. My previous video cards (Matrox era) didn't require this sort of active cooling.

  WinMacLin said:
When was the last time you cleaned your card? Those 6800xx heatsinks get clogged very fast (8 - 12 months) and when I say clogged I'm talking 2-3mm of dust stuck in every fin around the fan intake. Which means your card gets zero cooling and is running practically like a passive card.

Step one. Take the card out check it for dust visually inspect it. The 6800 coolers usually have a face-plate with 5 screws that you can remove to visually inspect the entire heatsink fins. Helps when cleaning.

Hmm, now why didn't I think of that... there is a huge amount of dust on the fan, especially in the centre where it creates almost a solid plate, rather than it being separated by fins :p

I'll have to do this later since I'm going to work in a few minutes... :p

  google123 said:
Does this occur as soon as windows starts? Does it start ok, and then it happens suddenly while using windows? Have you tried safe mode to see if you still get corruption like that?

It happens randomly inside XP... I believe it could be due to overheating, and the card just giving up, as WinMacLin said

  Robgig1088 said:
how many case fans do you have? I used to have a 9700pro with 1 case fan trying to play morrowind (shut up it was my first build and the card didnt have a thermistor XD)

I have 3 case fans (1 front, 1 rear, 1 sidepanel) and a PSU with 3 fans in it, including a 120mm fan on the bottom :o

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