Purple/green pixels on shadows(games only) + freeze

LeakingLava

Hi everybody. I am currently experiencing a strange problem. I have experienced it twice so far and it only occurs when I'm playing games. The two games that it occured in are Flight Simulator x and NBA 2k12. I'm assuming that it will happen to all other games because I don't see any similarities in both occurances. Also I think that it has something to do with my graphics card/settings.

What happens is that the game just sort of freezes then blinking purple/green pixels will come up, usually in the black areas of the screen, usually the shadows. Then the whole computer freezes. I can hear the sound of the game gradually playing for about 50 miliseconds every 10 seconds or so, then being stuck again. Then eventually when I try to go for CTRL+ALT+DEL, it just goes black with the mouse in the middle of the screen with me not being able to do anything but restart. Any help would be deeply appreciated. Thanks in advance people

deconduo

Sounds like a dying GPU. If its the 8800 like your sig suggests I'd be almost certain that's the case. You could try baking it to see if you can get a couple more months out of it.

LeakingLava

deconduo wrote: »

Sounds like a dying GPU. If its the 8800 like your sig suggests I'd be almost certain that's the case. You could try baking it to see if you can get a couple more months out of it.

Yeah 8800 GTX. What's baking? (Sorry not quite familiar, was that a joke or was that serious? )

deconduo

LeakingLava wrote: »

Yeah 8800 GTX. What's baking? (Sorry not quite familiar, was that a joke or was that serious? )

The main reason that the 8800 series starts to fail is because its a very hot running card. As such the solder tends to become cracked and disjointed over time leading to instability. By heating the whole card to the right temperature and letting it cool slowly, it melts the solder and allows it to reflow and reform the connections smoothly. Most people have been able to get 6-12 months more use from their cards by baking them. Here's a few samples:

http://forums.ninjalane.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1316&start=15#p10728
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=186129
http://www.overclock.net/t/623774/guide-total-noobs-guide-to-baking-a-gpu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzGnjJNZrM

LeakingLava

deconduo wrote: »

The main reason that the 8800 series starts to fail is because its a very hot running card. As such the solder tends to become cracked and disjointed over time leading to instability. By heating the whole card to the right temperature and letting it cool slowly, it melts the solder and allows it to reflow and reform the connections smoothly. Most people have been able to get 6-12 months more use from their cards by baking them. Here's a few samples:

http://forums.ninjalane.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1316&start=15#p10728
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=186129
http://www.overclock.net/t/623774/guide-total-noobs-guide-to-baking-a-gpu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzGnjJNZrM

Holy mother of all holies that was actually serious? I've never heard of it before. Thanks a lot. When should I do it though? Is there any other possibilities of other problems? Or is it just that?

deconduo

LeakingLava wrote: »

Holy mother of all holies that was actually serious? I've never heard of it before. Thanks a lot. When should I do it though? Is there any other possibilities of other problems? Or is it just that?

You'll notice the problems getting worse and worse, especially playing games or doing anything that will stress the GPU. It will eventually get to the point where it won't even boot for you. I'd be 99% sure that this is your problem, as it happens with nearly every 8800GTX that I know of after 5-6 years, with the exact same symptoms; green/purple/red lines and dots appearing randomly on the screen.

LeakingLava

deconduo wrote: »

You'll notice the problems getting worse and worse, especially playing games or doing anything that will stress the GPU. It will eventually get to the point where it won't even boot for you. I'd be 99% sure that this is your problem, as it happens with nearly every 8800GTX that I know of after 5-6 years, with the exact same symptoms; green/purple/red lines and dots appearing randomly on the screen.

Should I start the process soon? The cooling would take about a day right? What could the 1% problem be?

LeakingLava

Yeahp. There she goes. She's dead now. Doesn't boot anymore. I don't know if I wanna do the baking thing or just force myself to buy it Lol. Thanks for identifying the problem for me by the way

DVD-Lots

You've nothing to lose in baking it now!!!! I did it to my 8800GT last year and it's still going strong, it is a bit scary doing it but hey, it's also a lot of fun!!

LeakingLava

DVD-Lots wrote: »

You've nothing to lose in baking it now!!!! I did it to my 8800GT last year and it's still going strong, it is a bit scary doing it but hey, it's also a lot of fun!!

LOL. How is it fun? :P You stand around pacing up, down, across and upside-down in the room waiting for some sorta miracle to happen on your card. Was it fun? :P LOL. Haha. Nah I'll do it sometime but maybe not now. I haven't got a thermal compound so ya know.. :P (+ I want to force my uh-- financial providers?-- to get me a new one. LOL).

DVD-Lots

It was fun, honestly. When you have noting to lose it makes it easier, I was well chuffed when the PC booted up with the card in it and worked perfect, great sense of achievement.

LeakingLava

DVD-Lots wrote: »

It was fun, honestly. When you have noting to lose it makes it easier, I was well chuffed when the PC booted up with the card in it and worked perfect, great sense of achievement.

Cool! I'll try that when I get my hands on thermal compound. Any recommendations of easy purchase of good compound(preferably no on-line purchase) Thanks

5uspect

You can pick it up in Maplin. Arctic Silver or similar should be fine.

LeakingLava

Hey guys. I still haven't done anything to it due to exams. Is there any chance of the problem being something else or is it definitely the graphics card just basically dying?

5uspect

It's mostly like bad solder joints. Reflowing the board is relatively harmless. It's how it was made in the first place. Just don't forget to remove all the plastic hsf stuff first...

LeakingLava

5uspect wrote: »

It's mostly like bad solder joints. Reflowing the board is relatively harmless. It's how it was made in the first place. Just don't forget to remove all the plastic hsf stuff first...

Yeah I won't forget that. Thanks a lot you guys.