Bad Video Card??

[RWebb]

I am getting vertical bars on my screen -- not over, but instead of the normal display. Goes away after a reboot.

After the last reboot (today) I still don't seem to have all the colors showing on my screen...

Win 7 with a Radeon Card

(XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card -- Single Slot Fansink w/ HDMI & DisplayPort )

[RWebb]

bars:




Pelican w/o much color (or maybe it is screen blocks or something left out):

[Scott R]

Yes, it's dying. Wiggle the cable to eliminate that, but that is a classic dying video card screen.

[slodave]

Geez, Randy! Enough with the problems already.

Scott, I believe that is a fairly new card. - Not that it can't fail anyway...

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by slodave

Geez, Randy! Enough with the problems already.

Scott, I believe that is a fairly new card. - Not that it can't fail anyway...

He seems cursed doesn't he?

[RWebb]

I should have just bought a Dell or something - this system does seem to be cursed, and the $500 I saved has not been worth the hassle. Tho many problems have been the effed OS they call Win 7, the HDD went bad and this video card seems bad.

I already wiggled the cables BTW - the ends are tightly screwed in.

The Radeon card was bought new in late Dec. so is only 4-5 months old

[Scott R]

It's normally heat/time related. When they get really bad you get about 2 mins after a boot before they go to bars. Just long enough for the card to heat up and the flawed circuit to go to open.

I will say this for ATI though, their RMA process isn't too bad. However you're without a card during the shipping of course.

[RWebb]

this must be a flawed one - it has been used indoors in the PNW in the winter and I keep the office pretty cool

in fact, so cool that I just use a heater to warm my feet and not the entire room

the BIOS usually tells me on bootups that the CPU is at 38 oC or less, so...

I am concerned enuff to have the thing do a System Image type backup onto an external HDD today, so I'll let that run before I try yet another reboot to try and get my screen color back..

BTW - the bars on the screen thing has happened a few times over the last month or two or three; it has not happened after a few minutes post-reboot.

I guess there is no chance that this is a problem in my new hp monitor (?)

[azasadny]

I've had three video cars go bad just recently but they didn't produce strange output on the screen, they just failed. I've had better luck with Nvidia-based cards than the Radeon cards...

[willtel]

Originally Posted by RWebb

I guess there is no chance that this is a problem in my new hp monitor (?)

Try banging your head into it for good measure.

[azasadny]

Randy,
All of the issues and problems you've been having are the reasons that I buy Dells now. Not that Dells (or any other PC) are perfect, but the chance of issues with a "home-brewed" PC are greater and there is more finger-pointing between vendors when components don't play well together. I built PC's and servers for 15 years before deciding to go with the pre-built systems. I still build Windows Home Servers with PC's that I have laying around and put in some new components (power supply, RAM and hard drives). One thing I never skimp on is the power supply. I ONLY buy PC Power and Cooling power supplies and they have very rarely failed me.

[John Rogers]

You could try this: shut it off, unplug it, open up the case, pull the video card, vacuum/blow all the dust out of the cooling fan for the video card CPU, clean the contacts lightly with an eraser, clean out the slot, reinstall and then try it.

[RWebb]

Art - I gave up a fairly solid Dell system (XP) for this thing. It has been a nightmare from day 1 ...

I almost went to BB today and bought an hp or something real quick as I could not get the thing to boot up -- took me 2 hours to get it booted.

I could not even get the USB est. HDD System Image to load onto the internal HDD.

I thought of dust, but how could it be a problem after 4 months?
I wonder if a wierd crack in the MB could cause all these problems...
I may just ash can this POS. Life is too short to eff with it.

Anyway, I don't trust the Win 7 backups, don't trust the System Image... I am copying file folders onto DVDs right now so I can at least save my docs if this thing blows up again.

[azasadny]

Randy,
Send me the PC and I'll do my best to fix it for you. Shipping costs are high but I have lots of spare parts and could possibly build something reliable for you out of it...

[RWebb]

Thanks, Art! I will take you up on that if I do replace it.