Topic 'Re: video card failing?' in forum 'Computer Hardware Help' - dslreports.com

Re: video card failing?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:54:09 EDT

koitsu posted :

I have used vivard on an old t60 laptop and it brought an failed hard drive back to life by remapping sectors. Maybe I should boot the UBCD for DOS and run that program and then maybe let Maxtor PowerMax do a scan on the old P4?

I think you've misunderstood what I've told you. There's nothing any utility can do about the situation -- you have an LBA that has already been remapped. It's not an LBA that's suspect or pending to be remapped -- it's one which the drive already remapped. There's nothing else to do! :-)
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:16:55 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by robman50:

I am starting to notice something new. What does it mean if the system is acting sluggish like there is an load on the CPU but there is actually nothing going on?
CPU is at 0 - 5% and there is about 1GB of RAM free but the system is acting like CPU is at 90 - 100% and the RAM is 1.5GB used.
The motherboard strikes again?

Both CPU and GPU are running cool. So it's not the heat.

Re: video card failing?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:09:42 EDT

robman50 posted : I am starting to notice something new. What does it mean if the system is acting sluggish like there is an load on the CPU but there is actually nothing going on?
CPU is at 0 - 5% and there is about 1GB of RAM free but the system is acting like CPU is at 90 - 100% and the RAM is 1.5GB used.
The motherboard strikes again?

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:44:03 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by robman50:

Or I could pull XP all together and use an O/S with an checksumming file system. Any ideas?

It really sucks for an gaming system but it might be a good *nix box for just browsing the net and doing email.

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:41:48 EDT

robman50 posted : I have used vivard on an old t60 laptop and it brought an failed hard drive back to life by remapping sectors. Maybe I should boot the UBCD for DOS and run that program and then maybe let Maxtor PowerMax do a scan on the old P4?

Or I could pull XP all together and use an O/S with an checksumming file system. Any ideas?

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:44:31 EDT

koitsu posted : CHKDSK isn't going to "detect" a remapped LBA, unless the LBA happened to be within one of the NTFS data structures which if zeroed would cause the program to note an anomaly and fix it.

The LBA has already been remapped, so there's absolutely nothing you can do about it at this point -- again: the only way to find out what file (if any) was impacted was if you were using a checksumming filesystem. NTFS is not a checksumming filesystem. So your options are either 1) hope for the best, or 2) reinstall Windows/all programs/re-copy all data (from backups) to ensure that there are no files which have 512 bytes of zeros in them. Sorry, but that's just how it works.

Also just as an educational/FYI point: the result from CHKDSK that says "0 KB in bad sectors" is only an indicator of what the filesystem determines. Meaning, NTFS has its own way of handling situations where an LBA is unreadable (not applicable to your situation); it can internally say "avoid this LBA" and updates a special/hidden file on the volume called $BadClus. This functionality is completely and entirely separate from the actual drive dealing with bad sectors.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 14:59:52 EDT

robman50 posted : Here's what I did so far to test the drive.
Ran SFC /SCANNOW, (for some reason it wanted my XP Pro SP3 CD),
did CHKDSK C: /F /R /V.
Here is the output for chkdsk.
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 54 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 54 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 54 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

160085873 KB total disk space.
40859228 KB in 52300 files.
17032 KB in 8156 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
274441 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
118935172 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
40021468 total allocation units on disk.
29733793 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
60 16 03 00 33 ec 00 00 60 48 01 00 00 00 00 00 `...3...`H......
fe 01 00 00 07 00 00 00 57 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........W.......
62 f2 27 06 00 00 00 00 2c 03 14 17 00 00 00 00 b.'.....,.......
e6 8b 2b 12 00 00 00 00 82 34 4f d9 02 00 00 00 ..+......4O.....
66 bc 52 57 06 00 00 00 d2 30 41 67 09 00 00 00 f.RW.....0Ag....
70 1f 43 be 00 00 00 00 90 38 07 00 4c cc 00 00 p.C......8..L...
00 00 00 00 00 70 d9 bd 09 00 00 00 dc 1f 00 00 .....p..........

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at »go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 12:08:22 EDT

robman50 posted : The Pentium 4 is mostly to test old hardware and run legacy programs that are not compatible with windows 7 x64. Also I use it from time to time to check out what is on all of the floppy disks I have since all my newer systems do not have an floppy controller. If I where to scrap this system it would be no loss for me. :)

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 12:03:11 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by koitsu:

Let me ask you something very bluntly: are you willing to replace the parts in this system with something more recent, assuming you can do so on a budget with some help (from me)? I have hardware right now which I could send you (mostly free of charge -- some you would need to pay for however) that could build you a reliable replacement system (Socket 775, PCI Express, etc.). Specifically: motherboard, CPU, and video card. The board uses DDR3 RAM (one of the few Socket 775s which do) and I don't have any of that for you, but it's *super* cheap right now. I have the details typed out and ready to so just say yes/no.

No thanks, that is okay. If it would to just die and not work any more I would just scrap this old P4 and replace it with my Core i5 2500k system that I just got to replace this old spare system.

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:57:20 EDT

koitsu posted : This hard disk is not "failing". 1 remapped LBA in a total of 3231 power-on hours is really not that surprising given how old the drive is (manufacturing date). The drive has no other anomalies (I'm not sure how to read SMART attribute 3 on a Maxtor drive of that age; if the drive is truly taking almost 15 seconds to spin up, that might explain some strangeness during pre-POST, but I could be interpreting the attribute wrong -- that drive is VERY OLD!!!)

Any data at the remapped LBA, at the time of the remap, was lost. That would be 512 bytes of data. The LBA is usable but is now remapped to a different physical sector. Any writes to that LBA will function/work just fine.

The only way to ensure that no file/software on the filesystem is using the remapped LBA (meaning "to ensure the file whose data was stored in that LBA no longer has 512 bytes of zeros when it should have legitimate data") is to replace the file -- and doing that is easy if you know what file it is (there's no way to determine this without a checksumming filesystem), or -- the more common way -- to reinstall Windows entirely.

The hard disk also has nothing to do with your system randomly locking up hard / crashing, or your GPU temperatures being skyhigh. The hard disk having a reallocated LBA would not explain the system crashing after POST.

If the reallocated LBA was LBA 0, your system would never ever boot into Windows. So, the hard disk LBA reallocation is not the source of your problems, nor is it much of a concern at this point in time.

Finally, and for a third time: please see the last paragraph of my post and please answer me.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:50:10 EDT

robman50 posted : So the drive is failing. I'm not surprised since it is really old. Is there any utilities to fix it and will remapping the sectors work, or chkdsk?
Or should I just reach in my box of spare IDE drives and pull out another?

Re: video card failing?

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:15:06 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by robman50:

Going to run memtest86+ now, I tossed the image on to a floppy disk.

I ran it and I did 2 passes without errors. So the system RAM is good.

Re: video card failing?

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:00:16 EDT

robman50 posted : Going to run memtest86+ now, I tossed the image on to a floppy disk.

Re: video card failing?

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 10:41:53 EDT

robman50 posted : Its one of the joys of an hybrid board. It comes with AGP 8x and PCI express x4. Also DDR and DDR2 slots.

Here is the link for the full specs.
»www.asrock.com/mb/VIA/775Dual-880Pro/

Re: video card failing?

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 02:41:43 EDT

koitsu posted : We don't know what the root cause of the problem is, so it's hard to say whether or not the issue can come and go. But yes, generally speaking with circuits and ICs and things like VRMs, an issue can indeed "come and go" depending on what the real (scientific) root cause is.

How would you insert a PCI Express card into an AGP slot? I was under the impression your motherboard only has an AGP slot, and I'm not aware of any motherboards that offer both PCI Express and AGP slots (I wouldn't be surprised if one existed, but still).

Let me know about my last paragraph too, please.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 21:30:37 EDT

robman50 posted : Well I have all ways thought that the motherboard was the problem. Would this type of problem come and go? Like well one day it would act up and then be good for a month or so?
About the video card, I can always put my old X800 (crossfire edition, still have no idea why I got that model) PCI Express card back in to the PCI Express slot (like how it was a few years ago).
I used memtest86+ tons of times in the past so yeah I boot it and just let it run for 2 passes.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:56:17 EDT

koitsu posted : I would say the CPU is probably not what's bad. You're able to boot into Windows and run GPU-Z and run VMT without crashes. Your pre-POST crashes could indicate a bad CPU, but I don't think so. A bad CPU causes massive havoc at almost all times, and the behaviour is usually noticed pre-POST, immediately after POST, or *definitely* as Windows boots/loads drivers.

You could test system RAM if you wanted using memtest86+ (download the pre-built ISO, burn it, boot it -- nothing else you need to do). Let it run until "Pass xx%" has exceeded 100% or has wrapped back to 0%. This usually takes a few hours. What you're looking for is something like this. If this tool locks up hard then the problem probably isn't RAM-related but rather "something else" (PSU, voltages, motherboard, etc. -- but not the GPU. GPU isn't heavily used in memtest86+, obviously).

PSU testing is only helpful is you can test the PSU while it's in use, i.e. an "inline" or "passive" test. I have one of these which is not an inline tester (this device has said "OK!" many times with PSUs which were absolutely 100% bad when put under even light load). I have a Fluke MM myself but I am completely/entirely afraid of anything pertaining to electricity (really!) so with PSUs I tend to just buy another and re-test.

If I had to take a wild guess at the mess of a system? It'd be that you have two actual problems:

1. Possibly bad motherboard. Northbridge or southbridge, VRMs, or some other anomaly (cracked traces somewhere between layers, etc.). This is really hard to diagnose, and often manifests itself as the system just flat out locking up hard. Since VRMs are involved, and those are what provide voltage to your GPU, its possible that a busted VRM could cause OCCT to report errors (since your video card is powered off the AGP bus, not off the PSU directly)

2. Your GPU is by far running way too hot. Rather than futz with this I would recommend just buying another video card. This is hard to do since you're limited to AGP (good luck finding AGP cards these days -- I'm sure some are still made but ha!).

Let me ask you something very bluntly: are you willing to replace the parts in this system with something more recent, assuming you can do so on a budget with some help (from me)? I have hardware right now which I could send you (mostly free of charge -- some you would need to pay for however) that could build you a reliable replacement system (Socket 775, PCI Express, etc.). Specifically: motherboard, CPU, and video card. The board uses DDR3 RAM (one of the few Socket 775s which do) and I don't have any of that for you, but it's *super* cheap right now. I have the details typed out and ready to so just say yes/no.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:37:06 EDT

robman50 posted : I had to reset the BIOS back to defaults because the system was starting to lockup when the GPU temps where low.
Wow this box is just full of surprises. lol
What is the next item to test? I can test the HDD, RAM and thats about it. Don't own or have access to a multimeter to test the PSU. What are the chances of the CPU going bad? Maybe I just need to format and reinstall Windows XP?

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:33:01 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by koitsu:

I had no idea what the card looked like with the HSF assembled on it, so thank you for the pictures -- yes, it's just a foam pad then, not TIM. Pshew. :-)

I figured taking tons of pictures is better than taking to little. :)

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:27:59 EDT

robman50 posted : Here is what the picture of the card on the cardboard box looks like.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:57:58 EDT

koitsu posted : I had no idea what the card looked like with the HSF assembled on it, so thank you for the pictures -- yes, it's just a foam pad then, not TIM. Pshew. :-)
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:52:47 EDT

robman50 posted : That silver square feels soft. I thought it was to protect the back of the GPU because that cooler has a bracket that clamps on to the card.

»euroalps.eu/technology/Computing···ink.html

»www.gideontech.com/content/articles/303/1

The card came to me with an older computer system that I took in so I do not know much about the parts.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:37:05 EDT

koitsu posted : The first thing I notice is how there's no HSF contact on any of the RAM modules. Some older (and even some present) video cards were designed this way, but vendors eventually realised that it's generally not a good idea. After-market coolers rarely address this (depends on what you get).

The second thing I notice is what appears to be an exposed TIM pad in this picture. I'm talking about "the silver square" on the back. I can't tell if it's TIM or foam or what -- there's no way for me to tell without physically inspecting it.

Did the original HSF that came with this card cover both sides of the card or "wrap around" the card (example)?

I'm also amused that there's no HSF coverage on the RAM (and the jury's still on on the TIM pad or whatever it is on the back), yet there are gold heatsinks on what are probably the VRMs. Heh.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:22:23 EDT

robman50 posted : and one more picture.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:20:14 EDT

robman50 posted : Here are a bunch of pictures of the video card and the cooler.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:04:18 EDT

robman50 posted : I have removed the cooler, cleaned the dust out, wiped the old paste off the GPU, put fresh thermal paste (artic silver) on the GPU and put the cooler back on. I have also notice the HDD IDE cable was blocking the cool air from getting to the GPU cooler. I have also cleared away the dust from the CPU, PSU, HDD, AGP slot, motherboard. I tried to round the floppy cable for better air flow. Lastly I removed the one back plate so the GPU cooler can blow the hot air out of the back of the case.

Running the system idle and GPU-Z reports PCB is 42C and GPU is 45.6C.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:51:27 EDT

aurgathor posted :

said by robman50:

What are some signs of overheating damage?

Bunch of errors.... ;)

Now that you know the root cause, you can either reinstall the heatsink and the fan (and perhaps get a higher CFM fan and a bigger heatsink) or just install a different video card.

Not sure if you can do these, but slightly *lowering* the voltage and the clock speed of the GPU should make it run cooler.
--
Wacky Races 2012!

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:06:05 EDT

robman50 posted : After a bunch of tests and changing the settings I have figured out that once the GPU reaches 90C I get tons of errors and if the GPU reaches 91.3C the system completely freezes up.

If the card is failing I would think it would be due to overheating damage.

GPU Fan is running at 100%.

What are some signs of overheating damage?

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:49:40 EDT

robman50 posted : Ran OCCT and with in 2 minutes I got 61306 errors, GPU temp got up to 95C and PCB got up to 60C.
Settings I used where DirectX 9, Shader Complexity 8, error check enabled.

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:54:24 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by robman50:

I am going to run OCCT now. Is there a certain test I should be running?

I would guess GPU:3D for 1 hour and DX9 since it is an older card and any other settings?

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:51:04 EDT

robman50 posted : I am going to run OCCT now. Is there a certain test I should be running?

Re: video card failing?

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:35:57 EDT

robman50 posted : nope, it really makes no difference.

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:07:46 EDT

koitsu posted : Does the problem you're experiencing go away if you stop overclocking?

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:32:28 EDT

robman50 posted : is that the next step? oh i should i have over clocked the cpu from 3200mhz to 3360mhz. should i go back to 3200mhz to run occt?

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:01:05 EDT

koitsu posted : Okay, then that rules out video card memory as the source of problems. :-) Thanks for the screenshots too -- those definitely help give some details about the card/etc.

Not sure what to say at this point other than at least the RAM on the card itself looks OK.

I should note that the memory tester is not the same thing as a stress test. It doesn't really stress the GPU much (you might think it would but it doesn't). For actual stress/load testing things like OCCT / OCCTPT do the job.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:29:11 EDT

robman50 posted : I did the VMT test and it completed with no errors and I did it the way you said.
This is the ALL IN WONDER series of the X800.
The GPU and PCB temp didn't go higher than 51C

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:09:44 EDT

robman50 posted : makes sense. :)

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:21:43 EDT

koitsu posted : I'm talking about the RAM that's on the actual video card.

Re: video card failing?

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:12:47 EDT

robman50 posted : Which RAM are you talking about? Video card or system?
Since this system is just a box of old spare parts I will not be surprised if something goes bad soon.
In the past I have all ways wondered if the motherboard was failing because once and awhile something very strange happens and then the problem is gone and everything is fine again. Could that be possible?

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:37:10 EDT

koitsu posted : That doesn't really mean anything at this point in the troubleshooting process. :-)

I should be clear though: I absolutely have a stick up my ass when it comes to VIA. I've dealt with so many silicon-level and driver-level bugs over the years WRT their crap that I'm beyond biased. Their CPUs are supposedly not half bad (for little embedded CPUs anyway; at least until the Atom came out), but the rest of their stuff should be melted down. I go as far as to avoid any of their chips on motherboards I buy (including their sound chips, USB chips, and Firewire chips). So yes, I am completely opinionated when it comes to VIA, but it's based on experience.

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:04:14 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by koitsu:

I will admit I have seen AGP busses go bad (I'm looking at you VIA, you bastards!), but it's very very rare.

This motherboard has the VIA PT880 Pro chipset. :S

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:48:30 EDT

koitsu posted : You only need to let it run for a single pass, or as many passes as you want. The longer the better of course, but usually in the case of bad cards or bad RAM (I speak from experience) it happens usually within the first pass.

Things that can cause these kinds of failures:

* Bad RAM tends to result in failures at repeatable memory locations (either individual locations or large batches (in the case one module or one section of a module is bad)),
* Power/voltage-related issues, such as things like this,
* A card overheating / not getting proper cooling (troubleshooting this is difficult on older cards since most of them at that time did not provide on-board thermistors nor offer DTSes),
* Actual transistor damage inside of the GPU (caused by overheating or other kinds of issues)

The final thing you need to do is figure out if it's the card that's bad or the AGP port (or some other circuitry/chip on the motherboard). That's easy to do: replace the card with another (same model would be best, but if not pick something that does 3D or has similar specs + power draw + etc).

I will admit I have seen AGP busses go bad (I'm looking at you VIA, you bastards!), but it's very very rare.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:37:58 EDT

robman50 posted : How long will vmt run for? 30 min? an hour?

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:41:00 EDT

aurgathor posted : Can't hurt. Make sure you have good focus.

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:44:59 EDT

robman50 posted : Should I pull the video card and post some pictures of it?

Re: video card failing?

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:30:47 EDT

robman50 posted : The GPU fan failed a long time ago and now it is running with an Vantec Iceberg addon GPU fan.

Re: video card failing?

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 22:27:42 EDT

aurgathor posted :

said by robman50:

On my old socket 478 celeron it ran more stable with a slightly raised DDR voltage.

Raising voltage for a memory module is very different from raising the voltage of a whole subsystem.

If your card is failing the 2 most likely component types are either the caps (yes, it could have bad caps), or some chip that runs hot.

A close visual inspection may be enough to spot bad caps, if that's the case.

If you haven't done it yet, you may want to make sure that the heatsink(s) are not clogged with dust bunnies, and there is sufficient airflow.

But as others already mentioned, some of the issues may be display related.
--
Wacky Races 2012!

Re: video card failing?

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:43:17 EDT

koitsu posted :

said by robman50:

Sure it wouldn't hurt.

»mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?pag···S/vmt_en

Run this (specifically vmt.exe -- you don't need to use the .bat files), and make the following adjustments and do not change anything else please:

* Uncheck: "File log"
* Uncheck: "Ignore colors bit mask"
* Check: "Use onscreen buffer"
* Make sure test type is "DirectX"
* After clicking "Start", you will be prompted to change your video mode to 640x480x16. Answer ***NO*** to this question.
* While the test is running, DO NOT DO ANYTHING WITH THE PC. Do not move any windows around, do not foreground/background any applications, etc..
* You are welcome to use something like GPU-Z at the same time (make sure the two application windows do not overlap however) if you wish to check GPU temps, etc. (if available on your card) -- there will be no conflict. Make sure to run GPU-Z first, then afterward, launch Video Memory Tester.
* If using GPU-Z at the same time, under the Sensors tab, make sure to CHECK "Continue refreshing this screen while GPU-Z is in the background"

Finally: let all the tests run. Even if the tests get 30% through and there are no errors, DO NOT interrupt it. There are many tests which can pass with flying colours (pun intended) yet latter tests which fail (such as walking-ones tests). You need to let at least 1 pass complete.

Error counts and anomalies are shown somewhat near the top of the window under the "Satistics" section (yes, "Satistics" -- author needs to fix that typo).
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:33:57 EDT

koitsu posted :

said by robman50:

said by koitsu:

This is probably explainable because some older (circa past 10-15 years) BIOS screens tend to use a unique video mode that some LCDs might not like (I believe the resolution is something strange like 720x400 -- you're asking me to go back to 1992 and remember custom H/V VGA frequency register details :-) ).

Well this motherboard is not that old. I think it might be around 2006. Could it be something to do with having the LCD screen on the DVI port instead of the VGA port?

Unlikely. In fact, I would think the behaviour you describe would be significantly *more* likely when using the VGA port.

The root cause of the message you see from the LCD screen, however, is what I described in my previous paragraph. Some monitors (LCD or CRT; doesn't matter which) have different sensitivities to frequency changes, so some will show that message (or similar messages like "out of sync" or "no sync") for 3-4 full seconds, others will only take 1 second, etc... It just varies.
--
Making life hard for others since 1977.
I speak for myself and not my employer/affiliates of my employer.

Re: video card failing?

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:05:43 EDT

robman50 posted :

said by koitsu:

If you want to test your video card for bad on-board memory, I can direct you to a very specific Windows application that can test this, and it needs to be configured in a very specific way (different than out-of-the-box) for it to work correctly (otherwise it'll spew tens of thousands of errors). I believe the program should only be used in Windows 2K or XP, but it may work under Vista or 7 (though possibly oddly since the program uses DirectX surfaces for testing, and Vista/7's entire UI is one big DirectX surface).

Sure it wouldn't hurt. I have tried to run Vista and 7 on this machine but wow that was painful. LOL