Crap

[SteakPhish]

Well....my computer just hung up, so I restarted it. Artifacts ALL OVER the damn place. Windows will run for a while, then freeze (amidst a blizzard of random colorful pixels). I can only assume it's a video card problem. I dusted it out, reattached it, checked if the fan was working (it is) and I get the same nonsense.

 

Would my computer even be remotely running if it's a PSU problem, which I pray it is (cheaper to replace than a 7800gtx).

 

Specs:

 

sh*tty 450 power supply (PowerMax or something...a no-name brand)

 

Athlon 64 3700+ venice core, socket 939

 

1 gb of OCZ gold whatever memory

 

7800gtx

 

Abit KN8 SLI

 

XFI Xtrememusic

 

60GB WD Caviar

 

160GB Maxtor...something

 

 

Considering the sh*ttiness of my psu, and considering these specs *may* be pushy for a 450w psu, I would love to believe it's a power problem.

 

Any ideas?

[Saggy]

Well, the obvious answer would be to try to find some spare Power Supplies and Video cards to swap them out and see. I don't think it would be the power supply, though; whenever they have died on me, the computer will not power on at all afterward. I suppose it's possible it shorted or malfunctioned in some remarkable way that the system is able to boot into Windows, but I don't think so.

 

If your board has on-board video you could try to see how it works with, too, but I definitely don't think it's the PSU.

[Otter]

It sounds close to what happened me, a long time ago. Turns out my card was running way too hot because I had a whacked power supply. Once I sorted the power supply, the issue went away and my card ran as good as ever.

 

If you let it sit for like, a day, will it boot without a problem?

[SteakPhish]

Update:

 

I had a friend come over with his computer and we swapped cards (he too having a 7800gtx) and....they both worked. his card worked fine in my machine, and vice versa.

 

furthermore, when I put my card back in, it worked fine.....

 

I'm still nervous. I ran 3DMark 06 and a multitude of stress tests to see if I could notice any artifacting, and on top of playing BF2 for a while i still noticed nothing.

 

This could be a sign....but since everything seems fine now I might as well just wait it out. If something breaks...well....i need to upgrade anyway :-/

[riccbhard]

It's quite possible that your card could have simply came slightly loose, or, expansion and contraction from the card heating and cooling can cause the connections to become slightly loose over time.

 

Whenever I go to play a game I open the nVidia control panel and let the temperature chart thing run while I play my game, and come back and look and see how hot it got. Usually it dosen't change much.

 

But I have one of those biscuit fans in the PCI slot (not actually powered by the slot, it just screws into the case where a card normally would) right under the video card. When the video card is installed, the GPU and "face" of the card face downward (upside-down), therefore the fan on the card itself takes care of getting the heat off the GPU, and then the slot fan takes that air and blows it right out of the case. Only downside is I lose the use of a PCI slot, but it dosen't matter since I have just the right amount

 

EDIT: The fan is like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16835106104

 

Except not clear and not with LEDs. You have to be wary of the bearings in them though. I don't have a Thermaltake one, but some cheaper no-name brand, and it rattles very loudly for about 45-60 seconds after I either power the computer on or bring it out of Standby. Hopefully the Thermaltake ones don't have that problem.

Edited August 9, 2007 by riccbhard