I need some help on a problem I am trying to sort for my parents. The computer is one that I built myself about 4 years ago and hasn't had a single problem, until now.. Here's the specs.
CPU: Intel P4 3.2Ghz (with HeatSync and fan)
Mobo: Asus P4S-800MX
GFX: Inno3D GeForce 6800 Ultra (with HeatSync and fan)
RAM: 1GB DDR
Audio: SB Live! 24 Bit
HDD: Maxtor 160GB (with cooler fan fitted)
PSU is 600w.
There are also 3 fans fitted to the case - front, back and side.
The 6800 is idling at about 51 degrees. The temperature for the rest of the system are fine.
A couple of days ago their computer started to crash. What would happen is that all of a sudden the screen would suddenly show a load of different colours, just a mess of colour. When this happens, everything with the computer seems to stop, such as sound. Obviously, the computer has to be restarted, but it just happens again and again. Before getting me to have a look at it my stepdad did a reformat, however this did not help.
Since checking the computer I've tried a number of different things and whilst I haven't managed to stop it happening, I've managed to make it a lot less frequent, so I'm guessing that I'm on the right track.
Firstly I looked into the PC - it was very dusty. I took everything out and carefully cleared most of the dust. The gfx card was particularly dusty around the AGP slot. I put everything back in, made sure it was all securely connected and started up. Within 5 minutes of windows loading it had crashed again. This time I used the motherboards onboard graphics controller rather than the GeForce and no problem, it ran for hours without crashing. Went back to the GeForce and, again, within minutes it had crashed. Next time I booted up in VGA mode (F8 at boot) and it worked fine for ages again, no crash. Now I am pretty sure that this narrows it down to being a problem with the graphics card or the agp chip on the motherboard, also possibly a driver problem as it works fine when using the graphics card but on windows safe vga mode. The newest ForceWare was installed so I tried a few various ones. With newer ones it still crashed quite quick, however when using old ones (6x.xx and 7x.xx) it managed to stay on for quite a long time before crashing.
I have found that it also lasts a lot longer without crashing when using lower resolutions, particularly when in 32bit. I have also noticed that when changing graphics settings it also seems more likely to crash (during the time I am changing them) although this may just be co-incidence. I managed to get Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 running for a few minutes, and then again, crash. It also once crashed when I was turning the games own graphics settings down a bit.
I've checked in RivaTuner and the card hasn't been tuned up in any way at all, so it's definitly not over tuned.
I'm really at a loss now as to what to do. I'm hoping it's not knackered as it's not that old.
Can anybody help? Feel free to ask questions if you need more information!
P.S. Since originally writing this I have removed the fan and heatsync from the geforce and cleaned them and reseated them. On two occasions there have also been crashes during BIOS. However, as said above, the computer runs fine in VGA mode and when using the motherboard's on board gfx.
CPU: Intel P4 3.2Ghz (with HeatSync and fan)
Mobo: Asus P4S-800MX
GFX: Inno3D GeForce 6800 Ultra (with HeatSync and fan)
RAM: 1GB DDR
Audio: SB Live! 24 Bit
HDD: Maxtor 160GB (with cooler fan fitted)
PSU is 600w.
There are also 3 fans fitted to the case - front, back and side.
The 6800 is idling at about 51 degrees. The temperature for the rest of the system are fine.
A couple of days ago their computer started to crash. What would happen is that all of a sudden the screen would suddenly show a load of different colours, just a mess of colour. When this happens, everything with the computer seems to stop, such as sound. Obviously, the computer has to be restarted, but it just happens again and again. Before getting me to have a look at it my stepdad did a reformat, however this did not help.
Since checking the computer I've tried a number of different things and whilst I haven't managed to stop it happening, I've managed to make it a lot less frequent, so I'm guessing that I'm on the right track.
Firstly I looked into the PC - it was very dusty. I took everything out and carefully cleared most of the dust. The gfx card was particularly dusty around the AGP slot. I put everything back in, made sure it was all securely connected and started up. Within 5 minutes of windows loading it had crashed again. This time I used the motherboards onboard graphics controller rather than the GeForce and no problem, it ran for hours without crashing. Went back to the GeForce and, again, within minutes it had crashed. Next time I booted up in VGA mode (F8 at boot) and it worked fine for ages again, no crash. Now I am pretty sure that this narrows it down to being a problem with the graphics card or the agp chip on the motherboard, also possibly a driver problem as it works fine when using the graphics card but on windows safe vga mode. The newest ForceWare was installed so I tried a few various ones. With newer ones it still crashed quite quick, however when using old ones (6x.xx and 7x.xx) it managed to stay on for quite a long time before crashing.
I have found that it also lasts a lot longer without crashing when using lower resolutions, particularly when in 32bit. I have also noticed that when changing graphics settings it also seems more likely to crash (during the time I am changing them) although this may just be co-incidence. I managed to get Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 running for a few minutes, and then again, crash. It also once crashed when I was turning the games own graphics settings down a bit.
I've checked in RivaTuner and the card hasn't been tuned up in any way at all, so it's definitly not over tuned.
I'm really at a loss now as to what to do. I'm hoping it's not knackered as it's not that old.
Can anybody help? Feel free to ask questions if you need more information!
P.S. Since originally writing this I have removed the fan and heatsync from the geforce and cleaned them and reseated them. On two occasions there have also been crashes during BIOS. However, as said above, the computer runs fine in VGA mode and when using the motherboard's on board gfx.
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). I'll also try my GF2 from my spare machine in my parents machine.