Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: -error on January 01, 2014, 02:18:14 AM
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Hello guys. Happy new year everyone.
I would like to have an advice on video card issue. Couple of times I encoutered issues while playing AH when screen became checkered, like chessboard, then it went completely blank and after couple of seconds AH screen went back textures loading like I switched to desktop and back.
It was day or two before failure.
After that windows crashed to BSOD when I started AH. I restarted the PC and saw that even in text mode when video card's bios starts image is garbled. In graphics mode I have short white lines all over the screen. In device manager I see a message "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" in a dialog window on doubleclicking videocard.
All and all now I see dashed image on my screen, no 3D, no full resolution.
Did the video card bite the dust? It was Inno3D gtx 580 reference design card.
(http://i.imgur.com/emTA8en.jpg)
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The picture clearly indicates a video card hardware problem. For what I have learned the symptoms indicate a problem in the videocard memory. You can try a couple of tricks before dumping the card though.
- Take the card out, clean any dust and reseat carefully. Test.
- If you can, test with another power supply. Memory problems can be an indication of power issues.
- An inverse way to test the above: Test with another video card. Unfortunately you'd have to install new drivers for testing in Windows, but not for the screen you posted.
- Test your card in another computer. Again, drivers won't be needed in the start options but will in Windows.
I suppose the memory blocks of the video card are of the modern type without visible "legs" soldered to the circuit board. Instead there's a gazillion of tiny solder joints beneath each of the square stone-like blocks. So when you're sure the card has bite the dust, you might want to try this Gyro Gearloose hack: Strip every plastic component off, then put the card in the oven @ 300 centigrade for about fifteen minutes. You can also use a heat gun for trying to resolder the memory blocks. A laser point thermometer would help in that procedure. The official tool would be an infrared soldering station, so if you can access one, use it rather than those household methods.
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Thanks. But I do not have another PC in my vicinity to test the card.
So shiny new gtx 780 made by MSI is on the way. Made myself a little New Year present. :-)
As for 580 - after hollydays I'll take it for GPU reballing for $50. We'll see if it is repairable at all. I think that it is GPU soldering problem because neither MSI Afterburner nor GPU-Z are able to read GPU freqs/voltages.