When i play games for a long period of time my monitor will turn to ping and green colums with pink, green, and blue pixel blocks within the colums. The mouse locks, comp locks and the power button wont turn the comp off; i have to use the power supply switch to turn the thing off. upon restarting it seems fine until i try and play the game again and it flips out and goes to the fairy screen again, 3rd try its fine nothing happens plays fine. couple days later it locks with the colums again. this has happened 8 times since 2 weeks ago. I've been told my video card and/or my agp slot is going out. I need help. Plz hurry.
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pink and green colums... random....
- Thread starter Buchwheat
- Start date
Is your video card overclocked?
Have you tried swapping the Video card to a different AGP slot on the mother board?
Have you downloaded and installed the most recent drivers for your card?
What video card and mother board do you have?
Does this happen with every game or just this one in particular?
Have you checked that there are no conflicts with other devices?
When the PC locks up try powering down by holding the power button for a few seconds (5 or so) this won't solve your video problem but it may make it easier to power down your PC when it does hang.
Is this by any chance an HP or Compaq box?
Have you tried swapping the Video card to a different AGP slot on the mother board?
Have you downloaded and installed the most recent drivers for your card?
What video card and mother board do you have?
Does this happen with every game or just this one in particular?
Have you checked that there are no conflicts with other devices?
When the PC locks up try powering down by holding the power button for a few seconds (5 or so) this won't solve your video problem but it may make it easier to power down your PC when it does hang.
Is this by any chance an HP or Compaq box?
- Thread starter
- #3
vid card OC'd?
Not to my knowledge ( i had friend install my OS and tweak winXP for me, i dont beleive he OC'd it)
swapping video cards
not yet
drivers?
i beleive i have the latest nvidea 40.42
Does this happen with 1 game or all?
It happed twice while at desktop, and 5 times in WarCraft 3
Conflicts?
No conflicts with any other devicehold down power button...
I did for 30 secs it didnt turn off, made a loud recursive screech thru the speakers.
hp? compaq?
No this isnt a shtty a$$ compaq , HP, Dell, or Gateway comp
I was told to check my GPU and CPU for burn marks, i was also told that if i cant touch it then its fried and just buy a new one. any other ideas?
Not to my knowledge ( i had friend install my OS and tweak winXP for me, i dont beleive he OC'd it)
swapping video cards
not yet
drivers?
i beleive i have the latest nvidea 40.42
Does this happen with 1 game or all?
It happed twice while at desktop, and 5 times in WarCraft 3
Conflicts?
No conflicts with any other devicehold down power button...
I did for 30 secs it didnt turn off, made a loud recursive screech thru the speakers.
hp? compaq?
No this isnt a shtty a$$ compaq , HP, Dell, or Gateway comp
I was told to check my GPU and CPU for burn marks, i was also told that if i cant touch it then its fried and just buy a new one. any other ideas?
Hey I was only asking if it was a Compaq or HP cause they have know video faults and that would have been a good starting point. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings. As for the power thing well it was a suggestion as some of them require you hold the power switch to prevent "accidentally" bumping the switch and turning it off while you are using the PC. Before you get too far ahead of yourself and just go get a new vid card I would invest some time in this. The reason I asked about overclocking is beacuse I have seen this very same symptom happen when I overclocked my Voodoo card. You may want to check with your friend and see what "tweaks" he did to your PC in regards to the vid card. If it has happened at Desktop then it's not related to ank kind of memory loading on the vid card so that is not the fault. I would suggest that you try a couple things. 1. If you have more than 1 AGP slot then try switching it to another AGP slot. It could be a timing issue or a motherboard fault. If you have only 1 AGP slot I would try removing the card cleaning the contacts and then reseating it and see if that fixes it. Has this card palgued you since it was first put in or just recently?
As for the burn marks well more than likely that would indicate some burnt transistors and that something has overheated. You could probably find some benchmarking software to test them out and determine thier functionality. Touching the processors isn't the best idea unless you are properly grounded cause you could just end up giving them a nice electrostatic shock! Anyhow I would try some slot swapping and see what happens first! Good luck!
As for the burn marks well more than likely that would indicate some burnt transistors and that something has overheated. You could probably find some benchmarking software to test them out and determine thier functionality. Touching the processors isn't the best idea unless you are properly grounded cause you could just end up giving them a nice electrostatic shock! Anyhow I would try some slot swapping and see what happens first! Good luck!
- Thread starter
- #5
well, i ran 3d mark 2k1 and it didnt pass the first test, crashed to hte pink and green cloumns of death. it took the card out and went to a friend hosue
ran 3dmark again, again, again,again, again and it was fine save for 1 tweak during the first test. i looked at my board and there was a section above and to the right of my agp slot that had melted and bubbled up. So naturally i took the mobo backand told the guy what happened that some heating issue was with the new board and might have damaged my vid card due to the heat. he said that oh i got this same board in a couple other systems and they run fine. well i told him my other board i bought 3 months previous hasnt bubbled nor gets half as hot as what mine did. He said well let me look at the board, i left and i came back and he asked me if i used artic silver, i said yes, he pointed to a spot behind those empty transitors and said thats artic silver on the back of the board. i told him impossible cuz i screwed in the board before installing the CPU and heatsink. after that said he swapped me out boards. i get the new board tommarow hes going to put my cpu and HS on it for me. Now for your questions. My friend didnt OC my vid card, I didnt want to put a different card in there and have it get dmged too, contacts were clean on the vid card, and i say again it worked fine in another machine so i beleive that it was the mobo frying my vid card, or at least damaging it. and yes im always nicely grounded before i touch my stuff
ran 3dmark again, again, again,again, again and it was fine save for 1 tweak during the first test. i looked at my board and there was a section above and to the right of my agp slot that had melted and bubbled up. So naturally i took the mobo backand told the guy what happened that some heating issue was with the new board and might have damaged my vid card due to the heat. he said that oh i got this same board in a couple other systems and they run fine. well i told him my other board i bought 3 months previous hasnt bubbled nor gets half as hot as what mine did. He said well let me look at the board, i left and i came back and he asked me if i used artic silver, i said yes, he pointed to a spot behind those empty transitors and said thats artic silver on the back of the board. i told him impossible cuz i screwed in the board before installing the CPU and heatsink. after that said he swapped me out boards. i get the new board tommarow hes going to put my cpu and HS on it for me. Now for your questions. My friend didnt OC my vid card, I didnt want to put a different card in there and have it get dmged too, contacts were clean on the vid card, and i say again it worked fine in another machine so i beleive that it was the mobo frying my vid card, or at least damaging it. and yes im always nicely grounded before i touch my stuff
As i stated in other threads:
This is most likely to be an overheating problem. I got the exact same prob some time ago, at least my computer didn't hang immediately when switching to "LSD mode"
Ensure the following points:
Don't put any card in the first accessible PCI slot under the AGP!
Remove the metal plate on all unused slots.
Try installing a case vent. Usually there is a grate/holes for installing one. A cheap one from your local radio shack will do.
But before buying/installing a vent try running the system with the case open. It that solves your problem, it's definitely the card overheating (this may happen even w/o OC)
Greetz
Christoph
This is most likely to be an overheating problem. I got the exact same prob some time ago, at least my computer didn't hang immediately when switching to "LSD mode"
Ensure the following points:
Don't put any card in the first accessible PCI slot under the AGP!
Remove the metal plate on all unused slots.
Try installing a case vent. Usually there is a grate/holes for installing one. A cheap one from your local radio shack will do.
But before buying/installing a vent try running the system with the case open. It that solves your problem, it's definitely the card overheating (this may happen even w/o OC)
Greetz
Christoph
- Thread starter
- #7
well the card died. I cant play and 32 bit color games (wc3 quake, etc.) However games like Counter-strike last a little longer but still hangs. I contacted Gainwardus and they gave me an rma number, address, and said send it in well send you a new one. i was like holy Shizat! Cool. So im doing it tommarow. Yes it is confirmed heat issue with that card. im getting a PCI slot fan and i have left the side of my case off for 7 mo. Heat sucks. gg thanks for the help.
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