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Vortaku

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Location
texas
so my computer was acting funny so i decided to restart, when i did it ebooted and was all blocky. very pixelated! i was wondering is this a sign of my video card going out? I expect it to go out any moment ive had the same one for three years! thanks!
 
Actually, the next sentence elaborates on acting funny...

Check temperatures, make sure the fan is spinning, clear all dust out of the card. Also try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers.
 
thanks, earthdog i will do that. my main concern is when i restarted the comp it was all pixelated and blocky on the monitor but it wasnt on the tv, so i figured the dvi out was shot but i restarted it again right after it was blockuy and its working fine, i wasnt sure if this is a warning sign about the vid card or moniotr going out.
 
Now that you say that, my 9800 GT actually did that a few times about a year ago...but the newer drivers fixed it.
 
The visual anomolies you saw are referred to as 'artifacts' and they can be a sign of a card dying. They definitely were with my older 7800 GS in my socket A system. It's in a very bad state. Still works for 2d apps, but when you boot, POST is garbled (strange characters and misspelled words), and 3d apps artifact and sometimes BSOD the computer.

As earthdog suggested, check for temp related problems. Also, shady power supplies can be at fault as well. An improperly seated cable or video card can cause minor and major problems, might check that as well.

When I replaced the broken card with a (broken) replacement the problems all went away, and the monitor was fine. Unfortunately the card I bought does indeed start showing artifacts, but only under high temps and heavy load.

So from experience: Yeah, it can be a sign of your card dying, but it doesn't mean that's what it has to be.
 
thanks kowalski i will check it all out. Have not had any issued since so i suppose i am not too worried right now.
 
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