Is My Graphics Card Knackered?

[hardtarget]

Hi all, been having a bit of trouble with me PC of late. Noticed a while back that when playing CODUO when the maps changed on the server I would get a stuttering sound affect sometimes my sound would go silent and other times it would be fine. IF it went silent I just went into the sound options and reset it and everything was fine till the next map? I put this down to Creative sound drivers

Since then (few months ltr) I have noticed that when I have been playing for a few hours CODUO I exit the game and everything seems fine untill I open "My Computer" then either my PC pauses for a long time or just restarts I have reformatted my PC with a fresh install of WinXP and graphic/sound drivers, also virus checked my system and nothing

I also took out my Graphics card and gave the fan a good clean and then reset it making sure it was firmly in the PCI-E slot, also did the same with the sound card.

Now last night I was playing CODUO again, when I exited the game I wanted to watch a DVD movie. So I placed the disc in my drive and closed it then my PC just restarted

As it got into windows after the restart I got the famous blue screen:

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_disp

The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.

I take it then this means my Graphics card is playing up? although I don't get any problems while playing any games

System:
Windows XP Professional SP2 and latest updates.
Motherboard Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 1103 nForce4 AMD X16 Version: 6.86
Enermax Noisetaker 600W
CPU AMD Opteron 146 (running at 2.7)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Memory Corsair CMX1024-3500LLPRO 2GB
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB ForceWare V93.71
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (SBAX_WBUP2_LB_2_09_0016)
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
Western Digital Caviar 250GB 2500KS
BENQ DVD LS DW1655
Lite On DVD 16P9S

Temps: Idle
Motherboard 31
CPU 42
GPU 38

 

[pieman109]

If possible, try the sound card in another pci slot, it might be a conflict prob with irq, but I haven't seen that one occur for a coupla years at least but you never know.
Secondly, have you installed any new cd copying software at all like "Incd" or suchlike? if so remove it and try again, I've seen that cause no end of agravation, causing lockups in "my computer".
Also try 2 or 3 different vidcard driver versions and see if occurs again.
I would think your vidcard is ok if it plays games ok with no artificing or ingame lockups or freezing.
Hope this helps.

 

[hardtarget]

Hi Pieman, I have tried the soundcard in another slot and it didnt seem to make any diff. I have nero and Alcohol installed in my system. I will try an older driver see if that makes any difference. Do you think its worth trying the onboard sound?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Its worth trying the onboard sound, id uninstall the creative drivers, and take the card out.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Try to see if you can get in to safe mode (hammer the F5 key as your PC is POSTING, and keep a hammering).

If you can get in, then your card is possibly ok. Try uninstall the Nvidia drivers and defaulting to a standard VGA driver, restart and see if windows loads as normal. If it does, try a new/older Nvidia driver, depending on what version you have now.

 

[hardtarget]

Isn't F8 the key for safe mode

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Isn't F8 the key for safe mode

Yes, but you can hammer the F5 key if you like, be to no avail though.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Isn't F8 the key for safe mode

F8 can get you the boot menu for safe mode, (which allows you options, like boot in to safe mode with network, or VGA, or whatever) F5 is just standard everyday safe mode. (the default option).

 

[LoadsaMoney]

F8 can get you the boot menu for safe mode, (which allows you options, like boot in to safe mode with network, or VGA, or whatever) F5 is just standard everyday safe mode. (the default option).

You learn something new everyday.

 

[m3lv1n]

Learning is fun isn't it.

You could try this as well

Add the following to your boot.ini

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Basevideo" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /basevideo

This will create an additional startup option with your video drivers disabled can be handy if they really screw up.

And the machine is a little more useful than in safe mode.