Screen freeze & blurred/distorted graphics

[House]

Hello,

 

I'm not exactly sure if this is the correct forum for this but it sounded the most relevant so apologies if it should be somewhere else.

 

 

 

Whilst playing a game yesterday my screen froze, the graphics blurred/distorted and the only thing I could do was to hit the restart button.

 

After rebooting I browsed the internet with no problems and then tried to open the same game again. I got into the game but after a few minutes the same thing happened (screen freeze/image distorted).

 

Again, I had to hit the restart button but this time I could not get into the game at all as the screen freeze would happen on the login screen. I then tried another game and the same thing happened.

 

This only occured when opening games except one time when it happened on the Windows loading screen following a reboot.

 

After an hour or two of my computer being switched off I decided to try and update my graphics card drivers. I installed them and tried to load the game. It played absolutely fine from around 6pm to 11pm and the PC remained on until around 1am with no problems.

 

Today, I switched the PC on and it was all fine until I logged into the game. The same freeze/distort happened after 10 minutes or so of playing. I restarted the machine and it happened whilst browsing the internet which had not happened before.

 

I opened in safe-mode and system restored to a few days ago. Whilst doing this the screen did the distorted graphics but not the freeze. Following a non-forced restart I am yet to have any problems.

 

Any suggestions what could be causing this or is there anything I can do to help troublehsoot some more?

 

Thanks for your time.

[House]

A little info on my system:

 

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT OC2

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

RAM: 2x 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

[snow]

Hi House,

 

The first thing I'd check is how hot your graphics card is getting during gameplay. Becuase it seems to only fail during games, and after a similar ammount of time, I'd guess that heat is the issue.

 

Download a trial version of Everest ultimate from here:

Lavalys - Comprehensive IT Security and Management

 

Install it, and then run it. You will see a list of temperatures appear down in the system tray. One of them should be called 'GPU' although you may have more than one called that.

 

Post back with the temperatures it gives you.

[House]

Hi Snow, thanks for your reply.

 

I have installed Everest Ultimate and here are the current readings:

 

Cooling Fan GPU: 2.8

GPU Memory: 51

GPU Ambient: 44

 

 

I'd like to add that my PC has been running fine since I made my first post (about 1 hour 20 mins ago) but I have not opened any games in that time.

 

I'll try to open a game now and post back, although I could very likely get the freeze/blurred screen as soon as I get to the login screen.

 

Thanks again.

[House]

Ok, I just ran around in a game for 5-10 minutes with no freezes or distorted graphics and here are the new recordings from Everest:

 

Cooling Fan GPU: 2.8

GPU Memory: 54

GPU Ambient: 46

[snow]

Ok, those temperatures look fine to me.

 

Has this happend at all since your system-restore? If it seems to be running ok now then I'd give it a while to make sure the problem has gone for good.

 

Another thing to make sure of is that you have the latest direct X version installed. You can download the redistributable from here:

Download DirectX Redistributable August 2009 9.27.1734 - A very useful application for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements - Softpedia

 

Run the installer, unzip to a new folder on your desktop, then look for and run the setup exe file.

[House]

No, since the restore I have had no problems at all other than the point between doing the restore and the reboot where I had the distorted graphics but no screen freeze (which I haven't seen before or since).

 

I'll check out the Direct X version, see how it goes and report back if anything happens again.

 

Thanks.

[House]

Well the problem got much worse yesterday and now I can't switch on the PC without the screen distorting and sometimes freezing on every attempt. I used Everest to monitor the temperatures and they remained the same as posted earlier in this thread.

 

Someone suggested that I try to remove my graphics card and run the PC with the on-board graphics to see if the problem occured again. I am currently doing this now with no problems as of yet.

 

Does this mean that the graphics card is the problem? If so does anyone have any experience with Nvidia and their warranty? I bought the card just under a year ago.

 

Thanks for your time.

[House]

Well I contacted BFG Tech via their email support and explained the problem. I got a reply within a couple of hours which I was very pleased with.

 

The reply said "It sounds like the video RAM on the graphics card has gone bad and will require an

RMA."

 

I've sent them all the details they requested and I'm now waiting for the next step.

 

I'd just like to say thanks very much snow, it really is a great help and support when something like this happens and you can come here for some friendly advice!

 

I'll keep this thread updated until the problem is resolved as maybe it can help someone else in the future.

[snow]

No problem at all, it sounds to me like you've solved it yourself :)

 

Thanks for coming back to tell us what happened; hopefully others can benefit from this as well.