Can anyone help me with my pc/ Dead graphics card?

[Wakz]

Hi, computer techies that can help me out?
My pc recentlty started looking like this, is my graphics card dead?
Ive tried uninstalling and installing the latest drivers but no luck :/
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[jenic]

Tried another monitor/cable?

Got on board graphics card you can try too? (A vga port near your usb/ethernet ports on the back)

 

[Wakz]

Tried another monitor/cable?

Got on board graphics card you can try too? (A vga port near your usb/ethernet ports on the back)

Thanks for the reply.
No, there isnt a another vga port.
Tried connecting it to my tv through the same cable and still the same picture
Just tried connecting the same cable from my laptop to the monitor and it worked fine, so its not the cable then.

 

[Darren S]

Looks more like a software issue initially - especially on the Shut Down icon on the lower right corner - almost like its running in 8-bit colour?

The fan looks clean - is that a new addition? Does it spin freely to the touch and also spin fine with the PC on?

You've got both a DVI and VGA port on the rear of the card. Have you got a screen/monitor that you can try both connections with?

D.

 

[Wakz]

I think i saw somewhere it said it was running at 16-colour.
The fan is standard, although it did have alot of dust on it before i gave it a clean to try and make it work but it didnt, there was alot of dust around the fan bit, that may have ruined the card?
VGA gives the same result on a different monitor, i dont have anything to connect it to through DVI.

Iv tried the drivers, i think it must be the graphics card is ruined?

 

[jenic]

Run Knoppix from disk to see if it is software, i think that would isolate the problem

 

[Snakey]

I posted the same query last week lol

A friend looked at mine then and confirmed the graphics card was pooped, as it's 4 years old just gonna pick up a cheapie

 

[Wakz]

Thanks for the replies.
Mines about 3-4 years old aswel, i think the dust might of killed it.
Going to pick up a cheap one from pcworld which one would people reccomend out of these two:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/zotac...edition-graphics-card-512mb-04810368-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pny-nvidia-geforce-8400-gs-pci-e-graphics-card-512mb-09933578-pdt.html

 

[Nickson]

Would definitely go for the Zotac over the PNY out of the above 2.

Basically because it's a much newer architecture than the 8400GS.

 

[wozzaa]

Would say the card is dead. Looks like you have some artefacts on screen as well as the 16 colours being forced.

However I would go for an ATI 5450 card personally quicker and similar price, sub £30.

 

[Wakz]

Update:
Well i logged onto my pc earlier as i needed to get a file of it, and then clicked shut down and it started doing windows updates so i left it it finished and turned off, i then thought id turn it on again and everything went back to normal and it started working apart from the mouse was moving really slow and hard to control, at this point i had to go out so i shut it down, now turned it back on and its gone back to its broken and colourless self, i might be wrong but it looks like its something to do with windows but i have no idea what to do?

 

[olliewebbuk]

Sounds like your graphics drivers are massively corrupted.

Try this: http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

If not reinstall Windows. Your graphics card is fine, I'm 99% sure it's software tbh.

 

[Jon.G]

Have you tired uninstalling the drivers and getting new versions from nvidia?

Win 7 64Bit here: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-64bit-280.26-whql-driver-uk.html
Win 7 32Bit (lol) here: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-32bit-280.26-whql-driver-uk.html

 

[Wakz]

Sounds like your graphics drivers are massively corrupted.

Try this: http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

If not reinstall Windows. Your graphics card is fine, I'm 99% sure it's software tbh.

Will try this now thanks

Have you tired uninstalling the drivers and getting new versions from nvidia?

Win 7 64Bit here: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-64bit-280.26-whql-driver-uk.html
Win 7 32Bit (lol) here: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-32bit-280.26-whql-driver-uk.html

Already tried that, didnt make any difference.

 

[Wakz]

The driver sweeper didnt work, going to try a reboot now, should it start working straight away after a reboot?

 

[bmit]

Why not get a live Linux cd to boot from. Ubuntu or something will do. If colours are still knackered then defo hardware.

 

[olliewebbuk]

I had this issue years ago with XP with an ATi Radeon 9600XT (OLD SKOOL Y0). Basically in the end I reinstalled Windows because the graphics driver stack was so badly corrupted.

I agree that burning a copy of Ubuntu is a good idea to see if that behaves the same way.

 

[SharkyUK]

As above, it looks like a knackered driver install (or some issue that's forcing the card to run in 4-bit / 16-colour mode). I would simply try buying a cheap new card (which will perform probably somewhat better than the one it's replacing), install the latest drivers for it, and go from there...

 

[olliewebbuk]

A new different card didn't help when I had this issue. Borrowed my mates GeForce 4800Ti at the time and it still had the same issue. The whole display stack was fucked up.

 

[Wakz]

Why not get a live Linux cd to boot from. Ubuntu or something will do. If colours are still knackered then defo hardware.

Thanks for the help everyone, downloading ubuntu right now.

 

[Wakz]

Tried booting of usb, computer keeps saying removable device not found!
So tried booting of cd and now its stuck at this:

 

[jenic]

Download knoppix and boot from CD, its the easiest to use ime.

I think i suggested this at the start of the thread

http://www.knoppix.net/

 

[Wakz]

I couldn't get it to download mate, thanks for that though.

managed to get ubuntu working and i'm using it right now, its running perfectly, it was a driver problem then i guess, going to reboot my computer tomorrow after backing everything up, should it work straight away after a reboot/

thanks for the help everyone and as you may of noticed my keyboard is also broken which i will replace after.

 

[olliewebbuk]

Yep. Knew it was a driver error. Shame on the people suggesting it was hardware, you can tell it isn't hardware. Firstly because there wasn't any graphical artefacts on the screen, secondly because the OP suggested the mouse went slowly when the PC was under load. Meaning that Windows wasn't using the 2D acceleration on the card to provide the image, it was trying to do it using the generic way through software.

You're all n00bs.

 

[Wakz]

Well ive just reinstalled Vista and then downloaded the latest driver and installed that and no luck, its still the same?

 

[olliewebbuk]

Are you using the correct drivers? Have you tried using Windows 7? Windows 7 will have the drivers for that card already in it.

Also did you install over the top or did you properly format your disk first?

 

[Wakz]

Unplugged the hard drive and used another hard drive(that shouldnt make a difference should it?), yes formatted it first and then installed vista to it and then downloaded the latest drive from nvidias website, then checked on device manager which also said latest drivers are installed.

Should i still try windows 7?

 

[wozzaa]

Yep. Knew it was a driver error. Shame on the people suggesting it was hardware, you can tell it isn't hardware. Firstly because there wasn't any graphical artefacts on the screen, secondly because the OP suggested the mouse went slowly when the PC was under load. Meaning that Windows wasn't using the 2D acceleration on the card to provide the image, it was trying to do it using the generic way through software.

You're all n00bs.

I thought the lines down the display picture were artefacts, however it is too uniform. Never seen it do lines like that when set to 16 colours. Still though windows should still load a default simple driver that can display true colour at lower resolutions upon initial install.

Unplugged the hard drive and used another hard drive(that shouldnt make a difference should it?), yes formatted it first and then installed vista to it and then downloaded the latest drive from nvidias website, then checked on device manager which also said latest drivers are installed.

Should i still try windows 7?

Have you gone into the Nvidia control panel and tried to force it to use 32bit colour?

 

[bmit]

Latest drivers might just be rubbish.. go back a few version's on NVIDIA s site and see if u get the same

 

[Wakz]

I thought the lines down the display picture were artefacts, however it is too uniform. Never seen it do lines like that when set to 16 colours. Still though windows should still load a default simple driver that can display true colour at lower resolutions upon initial install.



Have you gone into the Nvidia control panel and tried to force it to use 32bit colour?

Just tried this and the message came up:
NVIDIA Display settings are not available.
You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU.

 

[bmit]

I'd uninstall all the drivers you have put on and let windows find one itself. Could also Google for modified inf drivers for NVIDIA and go for one of those instead . Usually better tested than the official ones

 

[olliewebbuk]

Have you tried pulling the card out, blowing down the socket, then properly re-seating it? I'm pretty certain this isn't a hardware issue since you said Ubuntu worked fine.

 

[Wakz]

I'd uninstall all the drivers you have put on and let windows find one itself. Could also Google for modified inf drivers for NVIDIA and go for one of those instead . Usually better tested than the official ones

Tried the first part, will try the second part.

Have you tried pulling the card out, blowing down the socket, then properly re-seating it? I'm pretty certain this isn't a hardware issue since you said Ubuntu worked fine.

Tried this, gave it a vacuum aswel to get rid of the dust.

 

[olliewebbuk]

Do no under and circumstance vacuum the inside of your PC. Vacuums give off static charge from the motor that can and will fry the electronics.

 

[Wakz]

oh i didnt know that, and i only vacumed around the graphics card when it was out of the machine, but that was only after the problem came.
ive tried the latest beta driver as well but it made no difference.

what else is left to try, nothing seems to fix it.

 

[olliewebbuk]

When you're in Linux can you bring up the terminal and run this command:

glxgears

Then let me know how many Frames Per Second you're achieving.

 

[Wakz]

this is what i keep getting.

 

[Wakz]

 

[olliewebbuk]

Looks like drivers aren't working in Ubuntu either then. Hmmmmmm! Maybe the 2D part of your card is dead...

 

[Wakz]

if they are not working in ubuntu then how come everything is displayed properly then?