Graphics card bluescreen

[Energizer Bunny]

Gents,

Little help!

Logged onto my PC this morning for a bit of gaming and fairly quickly got a lock up which dumped me back to windows. I restarted the game and got the same problem. Tried another game and got the same problem. Windows still seemed fine at this point so I decided to restart the PC and have another crack. Same problem. Except this time Windows itself freezes and the bluescreens me. Now I can't even get into Windows. The PC boots to windows, goes through the loading screen but freezes and then bluescreens/forces restart before I can even do anything in Windows.

Now I can get into safe mode fine (where I'm typing this from) but any attempt to start in normal mode just leads to a freeze and force restart. I'm guessing either graphics card hardware or software issue.

Any ideas?

My rig:
Windows 7
Core 2 Quad 6600
Gigabyte GA P35 DSR3 Motherboard
8gb ram
8800 GTX Graphics card
Corsair 620w PSU

 

[95thrifles]

whats the blue screen code?
or if you get restart disable automatic restart so you can check that error code
need an error code really to diagnose

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Thank you - how do I go about disabling automatic restart? Basically it is the screen that says dumping physical memory that I get

 

[95thrifles]

Here's How:
1.Click on the Start button and then on Control Panel.

Tip: In a hurry? Type system in the search box after clicking Start. Choose System under the Control Panel heading in the list of results and then skip to Step 4.

2.Click on the System and Security link.

Note: If you're viewing the Small icons or Large icons view of Control Panel, you won't see this link. Simply double-click on the System icon and proceed to Step 4.

3.Click on the System link.

4.In the task pane on the left, click the Advanced system settings link.

5.Locate the Startup and Recovery section near the bottom of the window and click on the Settings button.

6.In the Startup and Recovery window, locate and uncheck the check box next to Automatically restart.

7.Click OK in the Startup and Recovery window.

8.Click OK in the System Properties window.

 

[Energizer Bunny]

Apologies for the delay in responding 95th. I've changed the settings as you suggest, but weirdly I cannot get the PC to bluescreen anymore. While that might sounds like the problem has resolved itself, it definitely hasn't:

- What was causing the blue screens was playing games. I could get into windows fine, but the second I tried to play a game (i.e. something that would push the gfx card) it would bluescreen and reboot on me. I never quite managed to get the blue screen code but I did see text about it attempting to restart my graphics drivers and failing. I've had the same drivers for a while without issue but rolled back to some earlier versions to be sure. No success so I'm figuring hardware issue.

- However, the other day I must have pushed the thing one stage too far. I did a few tests, thought things were working normally and booted up Stalker for a test run. Bad idea. Blue screen, forced restart, ho hum. However, oh the hilarity, upon restart I notice that while visual problems have previously been confined to windows I am now getting all sorts of visual weirdness in my pre windows boot sequence (colors all over the place, characters missing etc). When I actually get into windows, while its just about usable I have blue lines streaking vertically down my screen. I can see through them to type this, but something has clearly given up the ghost.

- In addition, windows will now only allow me to select resolutions up to 1280x1024 and no games will boot. Its sort of like its in safe mode, but it isnt. Because I now cannot boot any games I can't get the damn PC to blue screen any more so I can't get the code. I have the crappy lines on my screen but I don't seem to be able to push the system into doing anything that will force a restart.

So there we are. Any further ideas based on the above? I'm way past accepting that this is a hardware issue that is going to cost me some money, but I am unfortunately not in the position of having alternative components I can swap out to test things. I therefore need to establish what the issue is with as high a degree of certainty as possible as I'm going to have to just buy a new part and it would obviously suck to buy a new power supply or gfx card only to switch the damn thing on and find the issue persisting. My gut feeling is that the graphics cards has croaked (the lines on the screen issue seems to signal a card I have pushed too far) but the PSU option seems equally plausible. I guess the ram and motherboard options are there as well. Is there anything in the above text that gives any further clues as to what might be going on here?

 

[prescott28]

Aren't computer annoying?

Have you got the latest drivers for your graphics card? It is hard to suggest possibilities as to the problem but you could update these drivers are they are frequently updated by NVidia. You are best going to their site to download rather than relying on Windows to do it.

Personally, I am more inclined to the view that this is a Windows issue and that some important files have been corrupted but it is hard to prove if it won't 'blue screen' again. dare I suggest a reformat and reinstall if nothing else turns up by way of a diagnosis?

 

[Energizer Bunny]

I've tried the driver side of things (I've had the latest ones but also rolled back to much earlier versions. No luck sadly.

I could do a reinstall but what's stopping me is that the visuals are screwy way before windows loads. I'm getting visual quirks from the first screen onwards. Like if I go into my Bios the text is all over the place.

 

[95thrifles]

could try a new install, certainly wouldnt hurt, but it does sound more hardware
I agree its prob gfx card, maybe psu
Try underclocking the gfx card, see if that alleviates the problem
also download gpuz and check what temps your cards getting
you not got any mates with PC? could borrow one of their cards or psus to test, see if it is one of them

 

[wellaman5000]

worst come to the worst re install os ? if its xp it wont like a hardware change , also give your pc a good dust