geforce 4 ti4400 problems... or maybe it's my mobo?

i am having problems with my geforce 4 ti 4400. i have the what happens is that my screen will just freeze up and i will have to restart the computer. before it freezes up, it will display these weird spots on the screen. when it restarts, it often has funky characters in vertical lines on the screen. i have already sent 1 identical geforce4 back for a rma thinking the card was bad but this one does it too... it worked fine for a while but now it just started up. any suggestions on any of that? the people at nvidia are telling me to talk to pny and pny is telling me to talk to nvidia. i have posted 3 pictures of what it looks like:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mbentley/1.jpg
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mbentley/2.jpg
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mbentley/3.jpg

the pictures of when my system is showing the POST messages makes me really sure that it isn't a driver problem at all. people have told me that is what it is but drivers don't exactly load when you first start the computer. i am just trying to figure out if it is the video card or the mobo. i don't really have any other computer to test my video card in otherwise i would have done that a long time ago. thanks for any help you can give me.

Hmmmm BIOS settings?

Have you double checked your BIOS settings for the AGP interface? Could be you've got it set wrong in there for you card. Otherwise I'd say it's the graphics card.

How long does it run before it locks up? Could be heat. If your cooling has been fine before, then it's probably time to crack that case and use a can of compressed air and a vacuum on it.

Been there, done that. Had "unexplained" lockups for weeks, then one day I got in there and cleaned the dust out of the heatsinks (esp the vid card HSF assembly), and boom, lockups went away.

this has happened twice, really. i had a pny geforce4 ti4400 that i rma'd because of that problem but then i got the new one. it worked for a while and is doing the same thing. that is what i wasn't sure if it was the mobo or the card. i have checked all my bios settings and i went to nvidia's website and configured my bios as to how they said i should and it still does it. it mostly happens after i play games with high levels of graphics. i ran fixit utilities and it's video card test told me that the video card could be bad or failing... i bought a copper geforce4 cooler that has ramsinks as well and i just installed that... i am wondering if i was heat... it's not as if i am oc'ing my card or anything. it's still running the stock settings. i am trying anything really cause it's always nice to have a computer that is at least close to 99% reliable. thanks for all the tips. i'll try anything and everything (as long as i can afford it)

That's the card dude, it's caused by bad video ram. But, I'd also check to see that it's not your MB that's frying the cards.

I Have to disagree...

CrystalMethod said:

That's the card dude, it's caused by bad video ram. But, I'd also check to see that it's not your MB that's frying the cards.

Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you here because it's happened to two cards. I have the same problem, high system stress programs cause it to lock up. I checked the temps and load temps for the CPU are 58c!!!!! Bad Bad Bad! Don't get a Thermaltake Volcano 7 HSF they suck!
I'm getting a new HSF (Thermalright AX7 and Thermaltake Smart Fan 2) in a few days and I'll let you know if it helps. I'm thinking the heat is causing system instability and that's why my high powered games lock up.

regards

rdytorave

Looks very much like the card is bad, could just be bad luck to get two with similar symtoms. It could also be that PNY sent back your original card without testing it well enough to run into the problem.

It could also be that your power supply is weak, you say 400W but don't specify. All 400W supplies are NOT created equal.

Re: I Have to disagree...

rdytorave said:

I have to disagree with you here because it's happened to two cards. I have the same problem, high system stress programs cause it to lock up. I checked the temps and load temps for the CPU are 58c!!!!! Bad Bad Bad! Don't get a Thermaltake Volcano 7 HSF they suck!
rdytorave

Click to expand...

that temp is due to a bad install not the h/s, otherwise i wouldnt be getting what i get with it.

anyway, you couyld well be right that its your high cpu temps causing the problem

in my case, when i am running a high graphics game, my processor runs at 40 C at most. so i am pretty sure that isn't why it is happening. i am trying a new mobo to see if it that is frying my cards or whatever. hopefully i can get it figured out...

Re: Re: I Have to disagree...

james.miller said:

that temp is due to a bad install not the h/s, otherwise i wouldnt be getting what i get with it.

anyway, you couyld well be right that its your high cpu temps causing the problem

Click to expand...

Can you give me some advice then? Everything looks ok. The heatsink is not placed unevenly and feels hot to the touch when the system is under load. I used AS2 in a thin layer per instructions. I can barely make out the lettering on the CPU. The fan is blowing onto the heatsink. I bent the HSF sensor so it's between two heatsink fins. What do you think my problem is? Load temps are 60c per my mb cpu sensor!
The fan is spinning at about 4800 rpm per the mb sensors.

Thanks
r2r